415
.9
lI>T3V9
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
HISTORY
DOUGLAS MONUMENT
fr
At CHICAGO;
PREFACED WITH A
BRIEF SKETCH OF SENATOR DOUGLAS' LIFE,
3ttu8trotlon* of tfu JHonutnont, ck.
LEONARD W. VOLK,
SCULPTOR, AND DESIGNER OF THE MONUMBN*.
A'a....-/..^:/.^
i^
CHICAGO {
(THE dlllCAGO LIEGAL NEWS COMPANY*
1880.
COrVRIGIIT,
Leonard W. Volk,
A. D. 1880.
BTCREOTVPtO AND PRINTED
THE CHIOAQO kCQAL NEWS OOMPANY.
.DOUGLAS MONUMENT.
STATUE SURMOUNTING THE MONUMENT.
CONTENTS.
Death of Senator Douglas, with a brief Sketch of his Life
The Resting-place of Douglas ......
Letter of Mrs. Adele Douglas to L. W. Volk
Meeting to organize the Monument Association
Articles of Association, with Signatures
Meeting of Monument Association and Election of Trustees
Trustees' Appeal to the People in behalf of Monument
Act to Incorporate the Douglas Monument Association .
Circular addressed to Legislature by Executive Committee
Advertisement for Designs for Monument
Adoption by Trustees of Leonard W. Volk's Design
Bill for Appropriation to Purchase Ground
Report of Legislative Proceedings thereon .
Letter of Gov. Oglesby to Mrs. Douglas .
Report of Doings of the Association .
Mrs. Douglas' Deed to State of Illinois .
Laying of the Corner-stone — Letter of Invitation
Reply of Secretary Seward
Comments of the " Chicago Times "...
Letter from Gov. Oglesby ....
Explanatory Letter of Secretary of Association .
Dispatch from Secretary Seward
Correspondence between Superintendent Swinyard and Sec-
retary Seward .....
Articles deposited under Corner-stone . .
The Presidential Party at Laying of Corner-stone
Chief Marshal's Order of Arrangements .
(1)
to and
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CONTENTS.
*' New York Herald's " Account of the Journey of the Presi
dent to Chicago and Ceremonies at the Grave
Oration of Gen. John A. Dix ....
Speech of President Johnson ....
Speech of Secretary Seward ....
Receipts at Laying of Corner-stnne
Remains deposited in Sarcophagus .
Meeting of Board of Trustees ....
Letter of Mrs. Williams, formerly Mrs. Douglas
Financial Statement submitted to Legislature
Bill for Removal of Monument
Bill to Appropriate $50,000 to Complete Monument, 1875
Bill to Appropriate $50,000 as finally passed, 1877
Passage of the Appropriation ....
Speech of Hon. Joseph E. Smith in House of Representatives
Passage of House Bill in Senate .....
Meeting of the Monument Commission ....
Agreement between Commissioners and Leonard W. Volk
Proposals for Granite Work ......
Agreement for Colossal Statue of Douglas .
Unveilino- of Statue and Remarks of Judije Caton .
Agreement for four symbolical Statues, representing " Illi-
nois," "History," "Justice" and "Eloquence" .
Bill to Appropriate $9,000 Additional to Complete Monu-
ment, passed 1879 .......
Agreement for four Sas-reliefs ......
Description and Dimensions of Monument as Completed,
with Cost of same .......
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HISTOKY OF
THE DOUGLAS MONUMENT.
DEATH OF SENATOR DOUGLAS, AS ANNOTTXCED IX THE CHICAGO
TRIBUNE JUNE 4, 1861.
Stephen" Arnold Douglas, Senator in Congress from Illinois,
died at the Tremoiit House, in this city, on Monday morning, at
ten minutes past nine o'clock, after a painful illness of somewhat
more than a month.
The subject of the deep and universal g-rief which shrouds our
streets, was born at Brandon, Rutland county, Vermont, Ajjril 23d,
1813. From the rooms of the Chicago Historical Society, we ob-
tain the following interesting facts in his genealogy, extending
back to the seventh generation, and beginning with the first rep-
resentative of the family in America:
First Generation. Mr. William Douglas, of Boston, Massachusetts, A. D.
1640. Married Aun, daughter of Thomas Mable, of Kingstead, Northamp-
tonshire, England. The birth of their son William is recorded at Boston, as
the "1 (2) 1645," i. e. March 1, 1645. The family afterwards removed and
settled at New London, Conn., where Mr. AVilliam Douglas was one of the lead-
ing men of the colony, deacon of the church, representative in the colonial
legislature in 1672, and during King Philip's Indian War was appointed com-
missary of the army. The following, from Gov. Bradstreel's journal, gives the
date of his death : " 1682, July 26th, Mr. William Douglas, one of ye deacons
of this church, died in ye 72d year of his age. He was an able Christian, and
this poor church will much miss him."
Second Generation. His son, William Douglas, born as above, married, De-
cembfcr 18th, 1667, Abiah Hough, daughter of Mr. William Hough, of New
London, Conn., (who was a son of Edward Hough, of West Chester, Cheshire,
England,) by whom he had two sons and five daughters.
Third Generation. Of these sons the oldest, William Douglas, was born April
19th, 1672, and removed to Plainfield, Conn., where he was a deacon in the
church. By his wife, Sarah, he had eight sons and three daughters.
Fourth Generation. The youngest of these children was Asa Douglas, born
Dec. 11th, 1715. Asa Douglas, by his wife Rebecca, had seven sons and six
daughters. He died Nov. 12th, 1792.
Fifth Generation. The twelfth child of Asa and Rebecca Douglas was Bena-
jah Douglas, born May 10th, 1762. He married Patty Arnold, daughter of
Stephen Arnold, Esq.
(3)
4 HI8T0KY OF THE
bixtli Generation. The father of our late Senator was Stephen Arnold Doug-
las, son of Benajah and Patty Douglas, as above. He was born in the State of
New York, and was a physician of considerable repute. He died suddenly of
apoplexy, in 1813, when his son (Stephen Arnold) was only two months old.
It appears from this interesting recital that Senator Douglas
came of distinguished Puritan stock. The indomitable energy of
his character, and the iron will which made him always a master
of circumstances, mark him a lineal descendant of the Mayflower.
Brought up on a farm under his mother's care, and receiving a
common school education, he desired, at the age of fifteen, to pre-
pare for college. His family being unable to defray the expense,
he left the farm and apprenticed himself to a cabinet maker at
Middlebury, where he labored a year and a half. He then entered
an academy at Brandon, where he studied another year. His
mother having married Mr. Granger of Ontario Co., N. Y., Stephen
removed with her to Canandaigua where he entered another acad-
emy. He remained at Canandaigua two years and a half, study-
ing law at the same time that he acquired his academical educa-
tion. In the spring of 1833, he came west to find an eligible place
to practice law, going successively to Cleveland, Cincinnati, Louis-
ville, St. Louis and Jacksonville, 111. At Jacksonville he found
himself reduced to his last shilling, and went on foot to Winches-
tor (Scott county) to get employment as a school teacher, taking
with him a few law books v/ith which to perfect himself in his
chosen profession. Obtaining six dollars for three days' work as
clerk to an auctioneer he hired a room and opened a school, teach-
ing by day, studying by night and practicing before justices of the
peace on Saturday afternoons. In March, 1834, he opened an of-
fice for law business, and was so successful that before the expira-
tion of the year, he was chosen Attorney General of the state by
the Legislature. He resigned the office shortly afterwards and was
elected a member of the Legislature from Morgan county. His
rise from that time to the present was brilliant and rapid, and, un-
til betrayed by the Southern leaders for whom he had done so
much, marked by hardly a single defeat.
In 1837 he was appointed by President Van Buren register of
the land office at Spriljgfield. In the same year he received the
Democratic nomination for Congress in a district embracing the
whole northern part of the State. His competitor was John T.
Stuart, Esq., of Springfield. Something over 36,000 votes were
cast, and Mr. Stuart was declared elected by a majority oi five.
Neither Mr. Douglas nor Mr. Stuart nor any one else have ever
been able to say which candidate actually received the majority,
:^^
birthplace; of senator DOUGLAS, at BRANDON, VT.
DOUGLAS MONUMENT. O
but it is certain that Mr. Stuart obtained the seat. In 1840 Mr.
Douglas was appointed Secretary of State. In 1841 he was chosen
by the legislature a judge of the Supreme Court. In 1843 he was
nominated for Congress, and was elected by 400 majority in a
Whig district. He was re-elected in 1844 by 1,900 majority, and
again in 1846 by 3,000 majority. The same year he was chosen by
the legislature to a seat in the United States Senate, which he took
on the 4th of March, 1847, and has occupied without interruption
ever since. His present term would have expired March 4th,
1865.
Mr. Douglas' career in Congress is familiar to almost every citi-
zen of Illinois. Hardly a measure of national moment has been
before that body during the past seventeen years without receiving
the imprint of his strong and comprehensive intellect. The Ore-
gon bill, the Jackson resolutions, the admission, respectively, of
Florida, Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota and California; the maritime
laws of the great lakes and rivers of the vV^est; the war with Mex-
ico; the compromise measures of 1850; the Kansas and Nebraska
Act; the Pacific Railroad bills; the Clayton- Bui wer treaty, and the
Lecompton Constitution, all bear the marks of his energy and abil-
ity in a greater degree than of any other contemporary statesman.
In the Democratic National Convention of 1852, Mr. Douglas re-
ceived 92 votes for the Presidential nomination, and in the Con-
vention of 1856 he received 121. We need hardly recur to the
conventions of Charleston and Baltimore last year, where the del-
egates from the North clung to him with the energy of desperation,
and where the South deliberately broke the party in twain for the
purpose of defeating the only candidate who could have been elec-
ted, and thus affording themselves a pretext for destroying the
Union. It is little enough to say, in concluding this biographical
sketch, that for the past four years at least the Democratic party
has existed in and by Stephen A. Douglas. Neither Jackson nor
Van Buren, in their palmiest days, ever reigned with more perfect
and unquestioned sway than he in the great political division to
which he belonged.
Mr. Douglas* was married April 7, 1847, to Miss Martha D.
Martin, of Rockingham county, N. C, by whom he had three chil-
dren, two of whom are living. She died Jan. 19, 1853. He was
again married Nov. 20, 1856, to Miss Adele Cutts, daughter of
James Madison Cutts, Esq., second comptroller of the Treasury,
by whom he had a daughter, who died about a year and a half ago.
It is well known that the Chicago Tribune has had no sympathy
6 HISTORY OF THE
with the political movements of the late Senator since 1853. He
was content to go his way, and we ours. He had one line of
policy, and we another. In all these years of diflference, we have
shared with others the animosity that our prejudices or his acts
provoked; and he even was not exempt from the infirmity which
afflicts all partisans. We draw a veil over that distracted period,
and leave the historian to decide whether he and his friends, or his
opposers, ourselves among the number, were right. "We have
nothing to apologize for — nothing to extenuate — and he would
have had nothing to unsay had he lived. But in all partisan
strifes there come moments when the enmities and hates eno-en-
dered by conflicting views and personal ambitions, are beaten
down and conquered by danger which all men must share. One
of these moments has been upon us; it brought about a union which
years would have cemented. Only yesterday Judge Douglas^ and
the Trihune stood upon the same platform. The imminent peril
of the present had put all old things out of sight; and side by side
with him we stood for the defense, the honor and the perpetuity
of the great Republic; and now uncovered and reverently look-
ing into his grave, we can say that a Patriot reposes therein.
In revolutions, the events of a day are equal to the work which
years of peace accomplish. The rude shock of arms lately encoun-
tered, awakened him to the true designs of the men with whom he
had acted; and the same potent cause revealed him to us in an
aspect as unwonted as it was glorious. If he had been mistaken
in those for whom he had hazarded so much, we were not less so
in him whom we soearnostly opposed. If he found them treacher-
ous and false, the country saw him noble and true. Under all that
seemed to contemporaries of the opposite school, selfish, ambitious
and unpatriotic, was felt to be that enduring basis out of which
devotion and patriotism grow. To-day, the signs of sorrow and
the habiliments of woe, the subdued voice, the measured tread and
the look of grief every where observable among all parties and
men of all creeds, are proofs that the heart of the country is
wounded, and the people, now all sensible of his value, will pro-
foundly and sincerely mourn their irreparable loss. *
In his last days, he gave those who stood near to minister to his
wants, the most convincing assurances of the depth and earnest-
ness of the lively love of country that filled his heart. In his wak-
ing hours, as well as in those moments when the violence of his
disease unseated his great intellect, he was busy with national
events, and the conflict that is now upon us. It was his last wish
DOUGLAS MONUMENT. 7
that the work which will regenerate the country while rescuing it
from his enemies, should go rapidly on. To one, in a wandering
moment, he said, "I station you at the Relay House. Move on!"
Of another he asked, " Why do we stand still? let us press on!
Let us to Alexandria quick!" To still another he said, "Tele-
graph to the President, and let the column move on!" And so,
throughout the progress of the disease, which struck him down —
he was thinking of his country and her peril. At Washington, in
his imaginings, and in the command for which nature had fitted
him, and which would have been bestowed had he lived, he seemed
to direct events and dictate victory. And when the lucid inter-
vals came, he was, if not so emphatic, not less sincere. The salva-
tion of the Republic was uppermost in his thoughts by day and by
night. His own condition, the imminent peril of death, his com-
plicated affairs, gave him no concern. Almost his last coherent
words were an ardent wish for the honor and prosperity of the Re-
public, by the defeat and dispersion of her enemies. The country,
regardless of party distinctions, wherever the love of the stars and
stripes is not repressed by the terrorism which he knew and hated,
will treasure up his dying prayer and make his hopes and aspira-
tions the rule of patriotic endeavor.
We need say nothing of the personal characteristics of Stephen
A. Douglas. There is no cabin in America to which his name has
not gone. There is no man, however humble or unfit, who from
the praise of his friends, often indiscreet, or the abuse of his ene-
mies, more frequently undeserved, has not made up an estimate
of the man. He was undeniably great. He had a great brain, in
which size did not repress activity. He had a will which was as in-
flexible as iron. He had a courage which bordered at times upon
audacity. He had great affections, and by consequence great pas-
sions— he could hate as well as love. He had great vigor of con-
stitution, and, all men said, a firm hold upon the strings of life.
He had the power of drawing men to him with the grasp and vigor
of a giant. No one since Henry Clay has had such hosts of friends
who would do his will or die in the attempt. He had great ambi-
tion, which he sought to gratify by great events. Hence he was
an orator and politician; and as both he greatly excelled. Nature
fitted him to make a mark in the world; and he could not have
been placed where he would not have graven his name. He has
gone from us at a moment when his loss will most be felt. In the
vigor of early manhood, without having yet attained the full ma-
turity of his powers as an orator or thinker; but of ripened expe-
8 HISTORY OF THE
rience and broad culture, he has fallen. Another decade, when the
voice of war is forgotten, would have witnessed the gratification
of the object of his later strifes. His country at peace in all its
parts and with all the world, the arrogant slave power humiliated
partly by his courageous efforts, would have seen his elevation to
the position that he would have filled with conspicuous ability.
That was among the readable certainties of the future. But he
has gone. The good and evil of his life remain, for the instruction
of those who will do the work from which he is dissevered forever.
Let us who are left, emulous of that fervid love of country which
will make his name glorious, press on in the direction in which,
when living, his face was set. His last public speech is the stand-
ard by which his life is to be measured. We remember him by
that, and lay down therefor this tribute of gratitude and praise.
Senatok Douglas died on the 3d of June, 1861, at the Tre-
mont House, in the city of Cliicago, about four weeks after
his great speech before the State Legislature, and his last pub-
lic address in the old "" Wigwam," on Market street, where
Abraham Lincoln was nominated, one year before, for Presi-
dent.
His death was pronounced by his physicians to be the result
of fever of a typhoid nature, brought on by extreme mental
and physical labor during the few last years of his life, together
with the excitement and anxiety caused by the precarious con-
dition of the country upon the eve of a great civil war. There
was probably not a man in all the land who possessed a keener
sense of the disastrous and doubtful consequences of such a
revolution as was about to burst forth, than Senator Douglas.
His remains were embalmed, and for some time lay " in
state" at Bryan Hall. An immense concourse x)f people, irre-
spective of political or religious differences, viewed the mortal
remains with loving and respectful deference.
The body was then borne to the place whereon he had intend-
ed to build his homestead, and there, buried underneath the
track of a primitive highway, once a stage road leading from
DOUGLAS MONUMENT. 9
the east along the lake shore to Chicago, and within a few feet
of a great railway of which he was the chief promoter and
father, he " sleeps his last sleep" within sound of the beating
waves of Lake Michigan and of the rushing trains.
The funeral procession extended half-way from the City Hall
to the grave, and all parties and creeds vied with each other to
honor the dead Senator. He was buried with Masonic ceremo-
nies, and the Koraan Catholic bishop of the diocese accorded
such honors as he could under the laws of his church.
A space, sixteen feet square, was immediately inclosed by a
rude board fence, and in two weeks this inclosure presented a
level spot of sand, without a shrub or spear of grass to greet
the visitor to this then lonely place.
Steps were soon taken, however, to beautify and protect the
grave.
[From Chicago Tribune, July 24, 1861.]
THE RESTING PLACE OF DOUGLAS.
An unusual degree of interest is manifest among our citizens, in
the direction of suitable improvement and adornment of the last
resting place of Douglas at Cottage Grove. The following we find
in the Post of yesterday, alluding to the same:
" The rough fence boards were inscribed all over with the names
of visitors, representing nearly every section of the Union that is
still loyal to the constitution. Here are a few of them: "
And then our contemporary gives a list of these scribblers, who
would have been quite as likely to have scrawled their autographs
on the memorial marble itself. It is a lamentable American weak-
ness, the cheapest kind of *' Brummagem " vanity, that incites these
scrawling tribes to the scoring of their address on every place of
jHiblic resort, whether cemetery, or public building, no matter how
sacred or how costly. For ourselves we desire to see the last rest-
ing place of the illustrious dead at Cottage Grove marked ap-
propriately, as it will be, by a tribute worthy the fame of the sleeper
that rests beneath. We shall hope to see it adorned with rich and
permanent memorials, and a resort of all visitors to our city. We
10 HISTORY OF THE
are glad to learn that our talented young fellow citizen, Leo. W.
VoLK has already been put in charge of the preparation of some
plan of such adornment. Let it be handsome, liberal, proper. But
then will the scrawlers and scribblers of their own ill- written names,
spare the place their profanation. Visitors who pause to read the
name of "Douglas," cut in marble or enduring bronze, will be lit-
tle edified to learn, from handwriting hard by, that " Peter Smith"
lives in Porkopolis, or " Mary Snooks " in Hedgepole.
The " Invincible Club" interested itself, and the City Coun-
cil of Chicago made its first and only appropriation of fifty
dollars in behalf of a new fence.
Some flowers from Lake Yiew and evergreens from Egan-
dale were donated by friends, and with volunteer work from
neighbors in the vicinity, the inclosure was soon made to look
quite neat and respectable.
While this tribute of love and resj)ect was being performed,
and the green sod laid over and around the grave, there came
like a thunder-clap the announcement of the disastrous battle
of Manassas, or Bull Knn. How dark indeed was this day!
In the following September, the writer was authorized by
Mrs. Douglas to take charge as custodian of the grave and the
estate at Cottage Grove. A short time previous he received
from her the following letter:
Me. Leonard W. Volk:
" My Dear Sir: — I have not words to tell you how thankful
I am; and your young friends have undertaken a task which will I
well know, be to you each one a labor of love. The lonely and desert-
ed appearance of that cherished grave has never left my memory
since I last saw it for one moment. I was anxious to make some
better arrangement before I left Chicago, but my grief made me
too helpless to carry out my intention, and friends advised me to
leave it to them. Any plan your taste may suggest will be agree-
able to me. With renewed thanks,
I am yours,
Adele Douglas.
Washington, July 25th, 1861. "
DOUGLAS MONUMENT. 11
FIRST CALL FOR A MEETING.
Chicago, October 19th, 1861.
Sir: A meeting of gentlemen interested in providing an efficient
organization for the erection of a suitable monument in honor of the
late Hon. Stephen A. Douglas, and as a grateful recognition of
the illustrious services rendered by him to his country, will be held
at the parlor of the Treraont House, on Tuesday, October 22, 1861,
at 8 o'clock, p. M.
You are respectfully requested to be present and participate in
the proposed meeting.
Respectfully,
Your obedient servants,
J. W. Shea HAN,
S. W. Fuller,
S. H. Kekfoot,
W. C. GOUDY,
Thomas Drummond,
David A. Gage,
J. P. Clakkson,
Leonard W. Volk.
[From a Morning Paper.]
A meeting of citizens was held at the Tremont house last even-
ing, for the inauguration of the popular movement towards the
erection of a monument to the memory of Stephen A. Douglas.
There was a full attendance of influential and respectable citizens,
and the matter was discussed at considerable length. The senti-
ment of the meeting was in favor of making the movement a pop-
ular one by appealing to every class of citizens. To effect this, it
was deemed advisable that the subscription should be limited to
one dollar for each person, — a sum which every friend of the great
statesman and his doctrines will give with cheerful readiness.
It is proposed to erect a monument which shall cost one hundred
or one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. This sum will I'urnish a
work of art which will be a worthy token of the regard in which
the great statesman was held by the nation; and will constitute
an enduring ornament among the institutions of the city of Chicago.
No plans have yet been presented, but the best talent in the
country will be employed on the designs, and the monument will
be of magnificent and tasteful proportions.
12 HISTORY OF THE
A committee was apppointed to deliberate on the best method
of carrying out the design of the meeting, who will report at a
future session. This committee consisted of the following gentle-
men, viz: Hon. John M.Wilson, L. W. Volk, W. C. Goudy, H. G.
Miller, S. W. Fuller, J. W. Sheahan, J. M. Rountree.
ORGANIZATION OF THE MONUMENT ASSOCIATION.
[From Chicago Times, Nov. 9, 1861.]
An adjourned meeting of citizens to take into consideration the
erection of a monument to the memory of Stephen A. Douglas,
was held last evening at the Tremont House. The meeting was
organized by the election of Judge Scates as chairman, and W. C.
Goudy as secretary.
H. G. Miller, from a committee appointed at a previous meeting,
to propose a plan for carrying out the object in view, reported in
favor of founding an incorporated company under an act of the
Legislature entitled, " An act for the Incorporation of Benevolent,
Educational, Literary, Musical, Scientific and Missionary Societies,
including Societies Formed for Mutual Improvement, or for the
Promotion of the Arts," approved February 24, 1859, the incoqDO-
rated company to be named "The Douglas Monument Associa-
tion," and its object to be the erection of a monument to the
memory of the late Stephen Arnold Douglas, with a capital stock
of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, divided into one hun-
dred and fifty thousand shares, of one dollar each. The operations
of the association are to be carried on in the city of Chicago.
The committee were in favor of effecting a permanent organiza-
tion by special act of the Legislature.
Professor McChesney, in behalf of a committee of the board of
trustees of the University of Chicago, stated that the board had
resolved that the centre building of the University, including the
tower, shoiild be called Douglas Hall, and that they desired that
the name should be inscribed upon a tablet and embodied therein,
and that the remains of Judge Douglas be placed in the tower.
He thought that the propriety and fitness of this action was appa-
rent from the relation of Judge Douglas to the University, he hav-
ing taken a zealous interest in the establishment of that institution,
and donated to it nearly one hundred thousand dollars. He
DOUGLAS MONUMENT. IZ
thought that such a tower as was proposed would be the most fit
and appropriate monument that could be erected. The board had
already made an appeal for means to carry out this plan.
L. W. Volk presented a plan of organization of an association,
the aflFairs of which should be managed by a board of eighteen
trustees, and memberships to which should be secured by the con-
tribution of one dollar.
The various plans were discussed at some length. Judge Scates
was of the opinion that the monument should be erected indepen-
dently of the University. Many would wish to contribute to the
one who would not be willing to give aid to the other. He thought
the object could be more quickly and surely accomplished by hav-
ing the one distinct object in view, and urged that some definite
organization be effected as soon as practicable.
The report of the committee was laid on the table.
The plan of Mr. Volk was then adopted.
The organization is as follows:
Article First. — This association shall be known as the " Doug-
las Monument Association."
Article Second. — All persons contributing not less than the sum
of one dollar to its object shall be considered members of the As-.
sociation, and be entitled to a diploma or certificate of membership.
Article Third. — For the energetic and successful prosecution of
the object of this Association, namely, the erection of a suitable
monument in honor of the late Hon. Stephen Arnold Douglas, to
be placed over his remains at Cottage Grove, or elsewhere near
Chicago — a Board of Trustees, to consist of eighteen persons, a
majority of whom, at least, shall be residents of Chicago, or with-
in a distance therefrom convenient for attendance at its meetings,
shall be forthwith appointed, this association to select twelve mem-
bers, and the residue to be elected hereafter by said twelve mem-
bers so selected; to which said Board shall be committed:
1. All the active, executive and legal powers of the Association
without reserve, and especially the entire charge of selecting and
deciding upon a plan for said monument.
2. The adoption of such plan or plans for the raising and col-
lection of contributions in aid of its construction and completion
as they shall judge advisable.
3. The contracting with such party or parties for the complete
construction of the proposed monument, at such time, and within
such conditions as they may approve.
14 HISTORY OF THE
Article Fourth. — 1. Said board shall be known as the " Board
of Trustees of the Douglas Monument Association."
2. The whole number of said board shall be divided into three
equal sections, one section to retire alternately every five years;
and all vacancies in the board made by such retirement, by resig-
nation, disability, death, or otherwise, to be filled by the remain-
ing members.
3. Said board shall organize by the election, at such times as
they may direct, of a president, treasurer, and secretary (which
secretary, at their discretion, may be outside of their body, to be
of approved capacity, integrity, and particular abilities for the
office, and receive, at their discretion, a remuneration for hts ser-
vices), as also of an executive committee of the board for the bet-
ter transaction of its business, — together with such other officers
or agents as they may judge needful and proper.
4. Said board shall make and establish such rules and regula-
tions relating to its meetings and organization, the duties of its
officers and agents, and the transaction of its business, as in their
judgment shall be thought best.
5. Said board shall hold, through its treasurer, all property or
moneys now or hereafter to be acquired in the name or for the pur-
poses of this Association; shall have a legal seal, and shall seasona-
bly secure such legal incorporation, under the authority of the
Legislature or of existing laws, as shall give full validity to its
acts.
6. Said board shall hold themselves individually, and exclus-
ively of the Association, responsible for all expenditures of money
made by them beyond such amounts as are or have been actually
collected and paid in to their treasurer.
7. Said board may, at their discretion, elect individuals of this
or any other State to be honorary members thereof, or of the Asso-
ciation in general, under such provisions or conditions as they may
see fit to establish; provided^ that no person, upon the condition
of pecuniary contribution, shall be made an honorary member of
the Association upon the payment of a sum less than twenty dol-
lars; nor an honorary member of the board of trustees upon the
payment of a sum less than one hundred dollars.
8. Said board shall take seasonable steps to secure, as a prelim-
inary to, and on the condition precedent of, the completion of the
proposed monument, the guaranty of the fee of the land or such
part thereof as may be required for the suitable arrangement of
DOULGAS MONUMENT. 15
said monument, or otherwise provide for the perpetual and unais-
turbed security of the same.
9. Upon the full completion of said monument, it shall be the
duty of said board to have set apart and provided a sufficient per-
manent fund, to be put at interest, the annual proceeds of which
shall be applied for the preservation, care, and repair of said monu-
ment and land, or, at their election, to convey t»o the city of Chicago,
or the state of Illinois, said monument or land, or both, upon the
guaranty of the authorities so receiving the same, that said monu-
ment and the land upon which it stands shall be jDerpetually kept
in due preservation and care for all time.
Article Fifth. — It is the intention of this association to intrust
£aid board with as full and complete powers as may be necessary
for the execution of the trust hereby committed to them, whether
the same are herein expressed or not.
Article Sixth. — Said board shall, as often as once in each year,
publish a full account of their proceedings, as also of their receipts
and expenditures, in behalf of said monument, duly certified; for
the information of the members of this association and the public.
The meeting then adjourned, subject to the call of a committee
of three.
The following are the names of the subscribers to the fore-
going Articles of Association, arranged as originally signed,
which were obtained bj Mr. Yolk, all of whom paid one dollar:
WALTER B. SCATES, WM. C. GOUDT,
LEONARD W. VOLK, J. P. CLAHKSON,
SAML. W. FULLER, E. B. McCAGG,
S. H. KERFOOT, J. L. MAHSH,
THOS. B. BRYAN, E. VAN BUREN,
JNO. G. ROGERS, GEO. A. MEECH,
PHILIP CO LEY, M. B. THOMAS,
J. W. FOSTER, EDWIN H. SHELDON,
JAMES ROBB, J. H. ROBERTS,
W. B. OGDEN, M. AV. FULLER,
C. R. STARKWEATHER, HENRY G. MILLER,
WILLIAM BARRY, JOHN V. EUSTACE,
JOHN TYRRELL, JOHN M. ROUNTREE,
W. K. MCALLISTER, J. H. HUBBARD,
OBEDIAH JACKSON, Jr., T. S. FITCH,
D. CAMERON, Jr., JOHN N. JEWETT,
AARON HAVEN, B. S. MORRIS,
J. H. McCHESNEY, WM. H. BRADLEY,
D. A. GAGE, WM; H. KING,
W. F. STOREY, IRA SCOTT,
H. A. TUCKER, J. M. PARKER,
GEO. P. A. HEALY, U. F, LINDER,
THOMAS DRUMMOND, J. C. BURROUGHS,
le
HISTORY OF THE
c. H. Mccormick,
EDWIN BURNHAM,
C. R. BURNHAM,
E. HEMPSTEAD,
SOL. A. SMITH,
S. S. HAYES,
JOS. KNOX,
J. Q. HOYT,
C. WATROUS,
H. D. COLVIN,
GEO. M. GRADY,
A. T. KING,
JAMES LARMON,
P. A. HOYNE,
ANDRE MATTESON,
A. M. HERRINGTON,
WIRT DEXTER,
R. T. MERRICK,
M. PARKER,
JOHN GARRICK,
HORACE A. HURLBUT,
G. S. HUBBARD,
F. A. EASTMAN,
J. M. DOUGLAS,
C. WALSH,
JAS. GRANT WILSON,
R. B. MASON,
W. L. NEWBERRY,
W. G. SHERMAN,
JOHN VAN ARM AN,
GEO. S. KIMBERLY,
B. G. CAULFIELD,
JOHN M. WILSON,
EDW. I. TINKHAM,
R. A. B. MILLS,
H. 0. STONE,
J. H. DUNHAM,
F. A. BRYAN,
JOHN PARMLY,
E. C. ROGERS,
MARTIN RYERSON,
MALCOLM McDonald,
JOHN COMISKEY,
B. McVICKAR,
F. C. SHERMAN,
HENRY FULLER,
GEO. W. FULLER,
J. H. WOODWORTH,
W. W. WAITE,
C. R JONES,
FRANK PARMELEE,
JOHN B. TURNER,
V. C. TURNER.
J. W. CONNETT,
J. B. OLCOTT,
L. D. LANGLY,
JULIAN S. RUMSEY,
R. R BALL,
S. B. GOOKINS,
J. M. WALKER.
MEETING OF THE DOUGLAS MONUMENT
ASSOCIATION.
A MEETING of the members of the Douglas Monument Associa-
tion was held at the Tremont House, December 5, 1861, in pur-
suance of the call of the committee appointed for that purpose, to
select twelve trustees of the Douglas Monument Association, which
was called to order by W. C. Goudy, Esq.
On motion, Hon. S. W. Fuller was elected Chairman and W. C.
Goudy Secretary.
On motion of Aaron Haven, Esq., a committee of five was ap-
pointed, consisting of Aaron Haven, Wm. Barry, H. G. Miller, L.
W. Volk, and B. G. Caulfield, to nominate twelve persons for the
office of trustees.
The committee retired and reported the names of the following
persons for the office of trustees, to- wit: John B. Turner. John D.
Caton, Wra. B. Ogden, Walter B. Scates, Wm. Barry, Sam'l W.
Fuller, John M. Douglas, Wm. C. Goudy, David A. Gage, John
S. Newhouse, Francis C. Sherman, and Thos. B. Bryan.
DOUGLAS MONUMENT. 17
Hon. S. B. Gookins moved that the report be adopted, and the
persons nominated be elected, which motion was carried unani-
mously.
Rev. Wm. Barry moved that John B.Turner, Esq., be requested
to call the first meeting of the Board of Trustees, and that the sec-
retary notify the persons elected trustees, of their selection.
On motion the meeting adjourned.
S. W. Fuller, Chairman.
W. C. GouDY, Secretary.
On the 19th of October, 1861, was issued a call, signed by a
number of well-known citizens, requesting a meeting of the friends
of the late Senator Douglas, for the purpose of devising the most
judicious plan of organization to carry out the wish of his friends
and admirers for the erection of a suitable monument over his
remains.
Pursuant to the call, the meeting was numerously attended, and
a marked interest and enthusiasm were manifested in the proposed
object.
At a subsequent meeting, held on the 8th of November, articles
of association were adopted, to form the proposed constitution, and
a committee was appointed to procure signatures to the same, and
to call a full meeting of the subscribers, who were to select, in ac-
cordance with the constitution, twelve trustees, to whom the in-
terests and business of the association were to be committed.
After more than one hundred names had been obtained by the
committee, the meeting was called, at which twelve gentlemen were
unanimously chosen by the association as its trustees, who, at sub-
sequent meetings of their body, filled up their number to eighteen
by the selection of six others, and elected their officers and execu-
tive committee, in compliance with the constitution. They also
adopted a code of by-laws for their own regulation, together with
an appeal to the public in behalf of their patriotic object.
BOAKD OF TRUSTEES.
Hon. John B. Turner, Chicago; General William A. Richardson,
Quincy; Hon. John D. Caton, Ottawa; Hon. William B. Ogden,
Chicago; Hon. Waiter B. Scates, Chicago; Rt. Rev. James Dug-
gan, D. D., Chicago; Rev. William Barry, Chicago; Hon. James
C. Allen, Palestine; Hon. Samuel H. Treat, Springfield; Hon. Wil-
liam C. Goudy, Chicago; Thomas B, Bryan, Esq., Chicago; David
A. Gage, Esq., Chicago; Hon. Francis C. Sherman, Chicago; Hon.
18 HISTORY OF THE
Samuel W. Fuller, Chicago; Col. John Dement, Dixon; Col. John
A. Logan, Benton; John M. Douglas, Esq., Chicago; John S. New-
house, Esq., Chicago.
OFFICEKS.
Walter B. Scates, President; Thomas B. Bryan, 1st Vice Presi-
dent ; William C. Goudy, 2d Vice President ; David A. Gage,
Treasurer ; Leonard W. Volk, Secretary.
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.
Walter B. Scates, President ; Rt. Rev. Bishop Duggan, John B.
Turner, Francis C. Sherman, David A. Gage, Treasurer ; Leonard
W. Volk, Secretary.
THE DOUGLAS MONUMENT ASSOCIATION.
APPEAL TO THE PEOPI.E.
The Board of Trustees, appointed by the Douglas Monument
Association, being duly organized for the execution of the patriotic
enterprise entrusted to their charge, respectfully submit their
doings and design to the public, confident that no urgent appeal
is needed to the friends of the late Stephen A. Douglas to assisl
in the proposed tribute of honor and gratitude to that illustrious
statesman and patriot. Born among the free hills of New Eng-
land, his early life passed in New York, his maturer years conse-
crated with generous and never-faltering devotion to his country,
he has long been known as the distinguished representative of the
West in the councils of the nation, whose boldness, courage, enthu-
siasm, and brilliant talents elevated hira to an almost unrivalled
power and commanding influence among his countrymen — equal
for every emergency, daunted by no obstacle, and acquiring new
greatness even in disaster and seeming defeat ; giving him an ac
knowledged place in the constellation of eminent statesmen and
patriots whose names will ever illumine the history of our country.
Without recalling the various and eventful occasions of his brill-
iant career as a politician and statesman, in which he won the
renown which was so willingly and warmly conceded to him, it
needs only to recur to his last appeals of a true and magnanimous
DOUGLAS MONUMENT. 19
patriotism in behalf of his imperiled country, rallying all hearts to
a loyal and self-sacrificing maintenance of the Union of these
States, and the Constitution of our hitherto great and united Repub-
lic, to vindicate hjs full claim to an honorary and grateful remem-
brance, now that he has fallen in the meridian of his fame, when,
never more than now, his eloquent voice and inspiring courage
are needed in his country's hour of darkness and trial.
In the tranquil rest of the grave the departed can be reached
indeed by no honors a grateful country can rear over his remains.
But not less to ourselves and to our country, and to the genera-
tions yet unborn who are to enter upon the sacred heritage and
responsibilities of freemen, than to him is it due, that his grave
should not be unmarked by some enduiing tribute of national
honors and gratitude.
In seeking to secure a fitting monument to perpetuate the name
of Douglas, the trustees feel assured that they but represent the
warm and unanimous sentiment which found prompt utterance
throughout our country on his lamented death; and they desire to
be actuated in the accomplishment of the sacred charge committed
to them by an inviolable trust to what is due alike to the honored
dead, and to the sentiments which consecrate his memory in the
hearts of his friends and countrymen.
In submitting the plan of organization and proceedings adopted
for and by this board, it is hoped that the same will commend it-
self to the general confidence and approval.
It is believed that the judicious precautions early adopted will
be a sufficient guarantee that all due care, fidelity and good
judgment will be employed to secure an early and satisfactory
achievement of the work they have undertaken. The trustees pre-
sume to make no demands, nor do they prescribe limits in their
appeal to Mr. Douglas' friends. They forbear at this time even
from presenting any anticipatory design for the j^roposed monu-
ment, either in respect to its form or cost, beyond such suggestions
as propriety may dictate, leaving the matter finally to be determined
hereafter by what shall appear to be the wish of the public, as ex-
pressed in their voluntary benefactions to his memory. It has been
the desire of this board to afford the broadest scope to the liberal-
ity of the public, and to do this in such a manner as to connect
the names of the humblest contributors with the association formed
to honor the departed statesman. The trustees cannot hope, with-
out the concurring vigilance of the public, to guard against all
contingencies of imposture or misplaced confidence in the collec-
20 HISTORY OF THE
tions proposed by them. They beg to have it distinctly under-
stood that all authorized agents of this board will carry with them
authentic credentials under the seal of the association, which, it is
hoped, may guard with due caution against misrepresentation and
fraud.
In prosecuting their proposed collections, it is the intention of
the board to afford opportunity to the friends of the late Mr.
Douglas in all parts of the country to unite in this national trib-
ute to his memory. To this end they would be gladly assisted by
the voluntary organization of local auxiliary associations, to be
under judicious and reliable management, with which this board
may be in communication, and to which diplomas will be for-
warded in return for such moneys as are collected and forwarded.
Should any individuals feel prompted to anticipate a direct ap-
peal by a voluntary transmission of money in aid of the object, the
same can be forwarded by mail, or otherwise, to the treasurer.
The appeal which this board makes to the fellow countrymen and
friends of the late Mr. Douglas cannot be deemed untimely, even
amidst the dark hour of the republic, and the privations and dis-
tress of an unnatural war. None more than that patriotic states-
man sought to avert, by just and constitutional aims, legitimate
complaint; none more than he, when treason menaced the foun-
dations of our national existence, and glory proclaimed in truer
and more inspiring tones, his steadfast loyalty and everlasting
fidelity to the Union and Constitution, bequeathing to his country
in his dying w^ords unquestioned tokens of the allegiance which
had inspired his whole life, and which, breathing from his silent
grave, may yet reanimate and restore the divided glory of our
common country.
Surely it is not untimely to rear now enduring marble over his
honored remains, bearing forever the last words which burst from
his dying lips, "Tell my childrex to obev the lavts, and up-
hold THE Constitution."
A constitution and code of by-laws were duly adopted by
the trustees, for the government of the association, and the
constitution provided that the secretary should receive as com-
pensation for his services the sum of one thousand dollars per
annum. No other officer or trustee was to receive compensa-
tion for any service rendered.
The following was drafted by Mr. Goudy, and presented to
the Legislature and passed:
DOUGLAS MONUMENT. 21
AN ACT TO INCORPORATE THE DOUGLAS MONU-
MENT ASSOCIATION.
Sec. 1. Be it enacted by the people of the State of Illinois,
represented in the general assembly, That William A. Richardson
Francis C. Sherman, William B. Ogden, John B. Turner, James
Duggan, Samuel H. Treat, William C. Goudy, John D. Caton,
Walter B. Scates, Thomas B. Bryan, William Barry, Samuel W.
Fuller, Samuel S. Marshall, James C. x\llon, .lohn Dement, John
M. Douglas, David A. Gage and John S. Newhouse, and their suc-
cessors, be and are hereby created a corporate toJy, under the
name and style of "Trie Douglas Monument Association," and by
that name may sue and be sued, shall have a seal, and exercise
all the powers necessary to carry out and effect the purposes of
the act.
Sec. 2. The said corporators shall constitute the first board of
trustees of the Douglas Monument Association; and their division
into three equal sections (each section to retire alternately every
five years), heretofore made by the preliminary organization of
said association, is hereby ratified and confirmed; and all vacan-
cies in the board made by such retirement, resignation, disability,
death or otherwise, shall be filled by the remaining members of
said board.
Sec. 3. All persons contributing not less than the sum of one
dollar to its objects, shall be considered members of the associa-
tion, and be entitled to a diploma or certificate of membership.
Sec. 4. The said corporation is created for the purpose of erect-
ing a suitable monument in honor of the late Stephen A. Douglas,
to be placed over or near his remains, at Cottage Grove, near the
city of Chicago; and shall have power to select and decide upon a
plan for said monument; to adopt plans for raising and collecting
contributions in aid of its construction and completion; and to con-
tract for the construction of the proposed monument.
Sec. 5. The said board of trustees may organize by the election
of a president, vice-president, secretary (who may be Outside their
body), treasurer, and also an executive committee, together with
such other officers or agents as they may deem proper; and they
may make and establish such rules and regulations relating to its
meetings and organization, the duties of its officers and agents, and
tho transaction of its business, as in their judgment shall be
thought best.
22 IIISTOKY OF THE
Sec. 6. The said corporation shall have power to hold such real
estate, whether acquired by purchase, gift or devise, as may be
necessary for the purpose of effecting the purposes hereinbefore men-
tioned, and also have power to take, receive or hold real estate or
personal effects, that may be granted, devised, bequeathed or do-
nated to said corporation, and to sell and convey the same for the
purpose of aiding the erection and care of said monument or im-
proving the grounds belonging thereto.
Sec. 7. The board of trustees shall publish a full account of
their proceedings, and of their receipts and expenditures in behalf
of said monument, duly certified, as often as once in each year, for
the information of the members of the association and the public.
Sec. 8. The proceedings and organization of the Douglas Mon-
ument Association had under articles of association adopted on the
8th day of November, 1861, are hereby confirmed, and shall be
treated with like effect as if made by the corporation now created
by this act.
Sec. 9. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after
its passage.
Approved February 11, 18G3.
The work of collecting funds to carry forward the object
was now the order. A temporary place of meeting for the
trustees was obtained, and some cheap office furniture and
stationery purchased. Also an engraving on steel for diplo-
mas of membership and printing of pamphlets and circulars
were ordered, special agents were appointed to canvass for sub-
scriptions, and local agencies established in different places.
But the great Rebellion absorbed all interests. " Camp Doug-
las," adjacent to the grave of the namesake, with its first
installment of Confederate prisoners of war from Fort Donelson,
and the thousands of Union soldiers, to the end of the conflict
attracted more attention than the humble grave of Douglas.
The almost universal answer to appeals for money to build the
proposed monument, was, "Wait till the war is over; the
government must have aid, and the sick, wounded and dying
soldiers must first be cared for; and if tlie cause of tlie Union
fails, then no monuments need be erected to Douglas or any
DOUGLAS MONUMENT. 23
other statesman." Who could press for subscriptions alter such
answers ? Yet, in tlie face of all these difficulties, it was
pressed and never lost sight of.
New men — statesmen, patriots and heroes came upon the
stage and went off in rapid succession, completely overshadow-
ing for a time those great men who died before the struggle
began. In a brief time contributions were being solicited not
only for the relief of the sick and wounded soldiers, but for the
dead soldiers' monuments.
The agents of the association soon threw up their commis-
sions, as most of them were not able to collect sufficient to pay
their expenses.
The authorities of the University of Chicago had their agents,
Gen. U. F. Linder and others, in the field canvassing and lec-
turing for funds for the " Douglas monument" (meaning the
tower of that institution) some months before the monument
association got organized and at work.
This action on the part of the University proved a serious
drawback on the outstart, as it was difficult to make people un-
stand amid the turmoil and prevailing excitement, which object
was the proper one to contribute to, and probably some contri-
butions to agents were made and applied contrary to the donors'
intentions. During this " dark age " of the war, the writer sus-
tained great difficulty in keeping the grounds in which the
grave of Douglas was located free from hospital and general
camp purposes. The grave was infested bj-" all manner of tres-
passers and desecrators, such as usually hover about military
camps.
For some time after the association organized, the meetings
of the trustees were regularly attended, but owing to the pub-
lic attention being so completely absorbed in the daily and ex-
citing events of the war, and after its close it was difficult
to obtain quorums for the transaction of business.
In 1863, during the absence of President Walter B. Scates in
24 HISTOKY OF THE
the army, the following circular was addressed to the members
of the State Legislature:
Chicago, May 22, 1863.
iSir: — The undersigned, members of the executive committee
of the trustees of The Douglas Monument Association, desire to
make a brief statement of their labors, and to respectfully ask
your efficient aid and co-operation in the furtherance of their patri-
otic endeavors to rear, in behalf of the people, a befitting monu-
ment over the remains of the late Stephen A. Douglas.
It is now two years since his lamented death, and yet no stone
is erected to mark his grave, notwithstanding the many pledges
made by the people of Illinois, irrespective of party, to his be-
reaved family before his burial, that his remains should be appro-
priately honored were they but allowed to repose within the state
of his adoption.
The Monument Association was formed eighteen months ago,
for the purpose of carrying out the wish of the public by raising
funds adequate for the erection of a suitable monument; but
owing mainly to the extraordinary and melancholy condition of
the country, it has proved impossible thus far to make any mate-
rial collections sufficient to purchase the land and commence the
work, as it would have doubtless been easy to do in times of peace
and prosperity, having only accumulated about twenty-five hun-
dred dollars. But the committee are assured from experience, that
should the State make a donation, the people at large would then
feel a confidence in the speedy success of the object, and would
doubtless respond more liberally in mal-*ng up any deficiency.
The undersigned committee earnestly appeal to the legislators
of the State to vote an appropriation to aid them in the immediate
accomplishment of this noble purpose.
To carry out the plans of the association, the sum of $25,000 for
the purchase of land, and 150,000 for the erection of the monu-
ment, is desired from the State.
It should not be said by the world that Illinois has forgotten her
pledges, made over his dead body, and that the grave of him whose
whole life was spent in her service, must go u reared for, without
a single stone to record those eminent services, and mark the spot
where he reposes.
The rearing of this tribute of respect to his memory should be
done in part by the people, through their representatives, as such
action would be alike honorable to the late Mr, Douglas, and to
DOULGAS MONUMENT. 25
the State he so faithfully served; and this duty ought not to de-
volve upon his bereaved family, whose only inheritance was his
illustrious name, and who have but recently been visited by an-
other sad and irreparable loss in the death of a father and pro-
tector, to whose affectionate care they had been confided.
Very Respectfully,
Your obedient servants,
Thomas B. Bryan, 1st Vice President,
John B. Turner, 3nd Vice President,
David A. Gage, Treasurer,
James Duggan, Bishop of Chicago,
Francis C. Sherman, Mayor of Chicago,
Leonard W. Vot.k, Secretary.
The following advertisement was published in the Chicago
papers :
At a meeting of the trustees of The Douglas Monument Associa-
tion, held on the 23d instant, the executive committee were author-
ized to procure a design for the proposed monument, the cost of
which not to exceed $50,000. The design or designs to be sub-
mitted on or before the 25th of March next, it being the intention
of the trustees to commence the work immediately after adopting
a plan, with as little delay as possible.
A sum not to exceed seventy-five dollars (175) will be paid for
the plan adopted, and the committee will not be responsible for any
design or designs that may get injured or lost.
In this connection it is ordered by the committee that all agents
of the association are hereby earnestly requested to make immedi-
ate returns to the association of all moneys which they may have
collected, and those agents who cannot further act in behalf of the
above object are requested to return their commissions, diplomas,
&c., belonging to the association.
The friends of this cause, in all parts of the country, who will
give information to the association of any collections made by
authorized persons or otherwise, and not forwarded by them, will
render a great service to the society, and which will be duly appre-
ciated by the public.
F. C. Sherman,
D. A. Gage,
^ John B. Turner,
James Duggan,
Executive Committee,
Chicago, January 25. 1864.
20 HISTOKY OF THE
An adjoin lied meeting of the Board of Trustees was held at
the Sherman House July 14, 1864, for the purpose of selecting
a design for the proposed monument. There were present at
the meeting, Messrs, Thos. B. Bryan, Eight Kev. Bishop Dug-
gan, Eev. Wm. Barry, D. A. Gage, S. W. Fuller, John M.
Douglas, W. C. Goudy and F. C. Sherman. Mr. Bryan, First
Vice President, occupied the chair, and Mr. Gage, Treasurer,
acted as Secretary. There were but two competing designs
presented — both models. After discussing the merits and
practicability of the designs submitted, a ballot was taken re-
sulting in the adoption of the design of Leonard W. Yolk, by
seven affirmative votes to one negative. The design will be
described further on.
During the legislative session of 1864-5, the following bill
was drawn by Mr. Goudy, of the association, and introduced b}'
Col. A. F. Stevenson, member of the House of Representa-
tives, and through whose indefatigable efforts passed both
branches of the Legislature.
AN ACT TO APPROPRIATE TWENTY-FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS TO
PURCHASE THE TRACT OF LAND IN WHICH REPOSE
THE REMAINS OF STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS.
Sec. 1. Be it enacted by the people of the State of Illinois,
represented in the General Assembly, that the Governor of the
State of Illinois is hereby authorized to purchase, in the name
of the State of Illinois, the lot of ground in which now re-
pose the remains of Stephen A. Douglas, deceased, to-vvit:
Lot one (1) of the lower tier of Oakenwald subdivision of part of
the south half of the north-east quarter of section 34, township 39
north, range 14 east, in the city of Chicago, Cook county, Illinois,
and now owned by Mrs. A. Douglas; the same to be held as a
burying place for said deceased, and for no other purpose; and the
sum of twenty-five thousand dollars, or svich less sum as ma}' be
required, is hereby appropriated out of any unappropriated money
in the treasury. And, upon the certificate of the Governor as to
the amount required, and that he has received an abstract of title
and a proper deed, conveying the fee of the above described
premises, as herein required, being presented to the Auditor of
DOUGLAS MONUMENT. 27
Public Accounts, he shall draw his warrant for the amount thus
certified to, as a full j^ajment of the consideration money for the
conveyance as aforesaid; and the Governor is hereby requested to
pay such sum of money, appropriated as above, to Mrs. A. Douglas,
and to no other person, whatsoever.
Sec. 3. This act shall be deemed a public act, and shall take
eiFect and be in force from and after its passage.
Approved February 16, 1805.
United States of America, )
State of Illinois, f *
I, Sharon Tyndale, Secretary of State of the State of Illinois,
do hereby certify that the foregoing is a true copy of an enrolled
law now on file in my office.
In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand, and the great
: •" ■■■-"" i seal of State, at the city of Springfield, this 22nd
i of the I day of March, A. D. 1865.
\.^}^t^.E!^±.l SHARON TYNDALE, Sec'y of State.
REPORT OF LEGISLATIVE PROCEEDINGS FEB. 3d, 1865.
purchase of the grave of DOUGLAS.
The finance committee made two reports upon the proposed ap-
propriation of 125,000 for the purchase of the grounds in which
sleep the remains of Stephen A. Douglas. Messrs. Noble, Huntly,
Strevell, Mclntyre and Hill sign the majority report, which is
adverse to the apjDropriation, and Messrs. Piatt, Logan, Morrill and
Patten present the views of the minority in its favor.
The majority report is, in brief, as follows: That, while the gov-
ernment is engaged in subduing the rebellion, it is the duty of all
good citizens to dedicate themselves and every available means
within their control to the support of that government, leaving
minor objects to be adjusted until after the war; and that, until
that time, our patriot dead, both heroes and statesmen, will remain
enshrined in the hearts of the people.
The minority report exi>resses the opinion : " That the state of Il-
linois should own the ground wherein repose the remains of Sena-
tor Douglas. No man ever claimed a home in Illinois who did
more for the state than he who now sleeps his last sleep on the
28 HISTORY OF THE
shores of Lake Michigan. While living, it was his pride to make
Illinois in fact what was conceded to her in prospect — the glory of
the republic. As a statesman, none in his day claimed to be his
superior, while all parties drank of his wisdom and honored him as
a devoted patriot.
"At his death his devoted wife desired to remove his remains to
Washington, there to be interred in the national burying ground,
where all could claim the privilege of bowing at the tomb of Amer-
ica's noble son, and all do honor, regardless of the claims of Illi-
nois, who gave him to the world.
*' But our noble Governor interfered, and besought his afflicted
wife to permit the remains to slumber in his adopted state, that
Illinois might do honor to his memory. She yielded to Illinois,
and the remains were buried in his own beautiful Oakenwald.
*' It is well known that Senator Douglas left but little for the
support of his family. His young and accomplished wife and two
noble boys were rich in the honors of their noble husband and
parent, but poor in the means of worldly support; and, for the pur-
pose of relieving their present necessities, Mrs. Douglas has con-
sented to part with the ground where sleep the remains of her be-
loved husband, and deed it to Illinois, for the sum of $25,000.
The state, in our judgment, ought to own this sacred soil. The
state, in our judgment, ought to relieve their present wants; and
we, therefore, feeling a state pride in this matter, have no hesita-
tation in recommending this general assembly to purchase the
ground so generously offered."
On motion of Mr. Stevenson, of Cook, the subject was made the
special order for Monday afternoon at 2 o 'clock.
By the following letter of Governor Oglesby to Mrs. Doug-
las, it will appear that the action of tlie State of Illinois in
reference to the purchase of the burial place of her lamented
statesman has been consummated. It is an act creditable to
our State :
State of Illinois, Executive Department, )
Springfield, April 5, 1865. )
Mrs. Adele Douglas, Washington City, D. C. :
Dear Madam : Your notice of the 6th ultimo was received
some days ago, with the deed to lot one, in Oakenwald, Chicago,
DOUGLAS MONUMENT. 29
Cook County, Illinois. Herewith I enclose you exchange on
New York for $25,000, as requested.
I take the liberty to inclose you an authenticated copy of the
Act of the Legislature of this State, which refers to the same
subject.
I take pleasure in informing you that all the forms have been
complied with, proper and necessary to vest in the State of Illi-
nois the title to the ground upon which lie buried, in that State
he loved so well and honored so long, the sacred remains of your
devoted husband and Illinois' noble patriot and statesman.
Always jealous of his immortal fame, the people of Illinois would
not be satisfied to suffer the soil of his last home on earth to fall
a heritage to any other than their own descendants.
"With assurances of the highest personal esteem, I am, most
respectfully, your obedient servant,
Richard J. Oglesby,
Governor of Illinois.
STATEMENT OF THE TREASURER AND SECRETARY-
RECEIPTS— EXPENDITURES— MEMBERSHIP.
The following report of the past action and present condition of
the Douglas Monument Association has just been presented by
Messrs. D. A. Gage, treasurer, and L. "W. Volk, secretary:
On behalf of the board of trustees of the Douglas Monument
Association, and for the information of the public, the treasurer
and secretary would respectfully make a brief statement of the
affairs of the society — more particularly of the funds collected and
expended since its organization.
The cash receipts to February 13, 1865, amount to the total sum
of seven thousand five hundred and ten (17,510.94) dollars, includ-
ing two hundred and ten (1210) dollars interest allowed by the
treasurer.
The expenditures to same date, three thousand eight hundred
and ninety-five (13,895.29) dollars, leaving a balance of cash in the
treasury of three thousand six hundred and fifteen (13,615.65) dol-
lars, a gain since the last published statement of one thousand eight
hundred and ninety ($1,890.37) dollars, which latter sum was nearly
all obtained at Douglas' grave, from the sale of pictures.
30 HISTORY OF THE
The expenditures would appear unduly large, without being ex-
plained by the fact that nearly the entire amount received has
been from the sale of engravings of Douglas, diplomas of member-
ship, photographs of the monument, etc., all of which have cost a
large proportion of the amount paid out, together with the com-
missions to agents for selling them. But few hona fide cash sub-
scriptions, comparatively, have ever been made to this object, an
equivalent of some kind having in most cases been given to the
subscribers, who have desired to purchase a picture of some kind
as a memento of Douglas, or of their visit to his grave, and the
profits on such subscriptions or purchases now mainly constitute
the fund in the treasury.
Therefore, the amount chiefly expended has been for the pur-
chase of engravings of Douglas, diplomas of membership, photo-
graphs of the monument, and for printing of pamphlets and circu-
lars, and also office furniture and rent.
Of the amount expended, the secretary has received altogether
during over three years, for services, seven hundred and sixty-nine
(1769.70) dollars. No expenses have been incurred for the past
two years for fuel and lights, the same having been provided by
the secretary without charge to the society, nor has any expen-
ditures been made, as the vouchers filed in the office will show,
except what was necessary to conduct the business of the associa-
tion.
Besides the balance of cash, there are two valuable lots of land,
situated near the grave of Douglas, donated and deeded to the as-
sociation by the mother and sister of the late Mr. Douglas, to aid
in the erection of the monument, and probably worth three thou-
sand ($3,000) dollars.
It is expected that a few hundred dollars more may be in the
hands of parties who have acted as agents in different parts of the
country, and who are hereby requested to report immediately to
the association any sums which they may hold, as every dollar
that has been collected will soon be needed, with considerable be-
sides, to enable the committee to make any material progress in
the erection of the monument.
The society numbers seven honorary members of the board of
trustees, two hundred and fifty honorary members of the associa-
tion, two hundred and thirty-two of which were editors of news-
papers, Avho paid for their membership by advertising the society's
circular for a season in their papers; and two thousand eight hun-
dred and five members of the association, in all three thousand
and sixty-two members.
DOUGLAS MONUMENT. 3]
The Legislature of Illinois having, during its late session, made
an appropriation for the purchase of the Douglas burial lot at Cot-
tage Grove, in the southern limits of Chicago, it is to be hoped
that the trustees of the Monument Association will soon hold a
meeting and take energetic measures for increasing the fund and
commencing work on the monument.
WARRANTY DEED OF THE SAID LOT TO THE STATE OF ILLINOIS.
"This indenture, made this first day of March, in the year of our
Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-five (A. D. 1865),
between Adele Douglas, widow of Stephen A. Douglas, deceased,
late of Cook county. State of Illinois, party of the first part, and
Richard J. Oglesby, Governor of the State of Illinois, and his suc-
cessors in office, for the use and benefit of the people of the State
of Illinois, of the second part: Witnesseth, that the said party of
the first part, for and in consideration of the sum of twenty-five
thousand dollars (125,000), in hand paid by the said party of the
second part, the receipt whereof is hereby acknowledged, and the
said party of the second part forever released and discharged there-
from, has granted, bargained, sold, remised, released, conveyed,
aliened and confirmed, and by these presents does grant, bargain,
sell, remise, release, convey, alien and confirm unto the said party
of the second part, and to his successors and assigns forever, all
the following described lot, piece or parcel of land, situate in the
county of Cook and State of Illinois, and known and described as
follows, to wit: Lot one (1), in the lower tier of Oakenwald, subdi-
vision (fronting on Woodland Park and Douglas Place) of a part
of the south half of the northeast quarter of section thirty-four (34),
township thirty-nine (39), north range fourteen (14), east of the
third (3rd) principal meridian, in the city of Chicago, together with
all and singular the hereditaments and appurtenances thereunto
belonging or in anywise appertaining, and the reversion and rever-
sions, remainder and remainders, rents, issues and profits thereof;
and all the estate, right, title, interest, claim or demand whatso-
ever of the said party of the first part, either in law or equity, of,
in and to the above bargained premises, with the hereditaments
and appurtenances; to have and to hold the said premises above
bargained and described, with the appurtenances, unto the said
party of the second part, his heirs, successors and assigns forever.
And the said Adele Douglas, party of the first part, for herself,
her heirs, executors and administrators, does covenant, grant, bar-
gain and agree to and with the said party of the second part, his
32
HISTORY OF THE
successors and assigns, that at the time of the unfjealing and de-
livering of these presents, she is well seized of the premises above
conveyed, as a good, sure, perfect, absolute and indefeasible es-
tate of inheritance in law, in fee simple; and has good right, full
power and lawful authority to grant, bargain, sell and convey the
same in manner and form aforesaid: and that the same are free and
clear from all former and other grants, bargains, sales, liens, taxes,
assessments and incumbrances of what kind and nature soever;
and the above bargained premises in the quiet and peaceable pos-
session of the said party of the second part, his successors and as-
signs, against all and every other person or persons lawfully claim-
ing or to claim the whole or any part thereof, the said party of the
first part shall and will warrant and forever defend.
This deed being executed in conformity with an Act of the Leg-
islature of the State of Illinois authorizing the Governor of said
State to purchase the premises herein described, and the said Adele
Douglas, party of the first part, hereby expressly waives and re-
leases all right, benefit, privilege, advantage and exemption un-
der or by virtue of any and all statutes of the State of Illinois,
providing for the exemption of homesteads from sale on execution,
or otherwise, and especially under the Act entitled "An Act to
Exempt homesteads from sale on execution," passed by the General
Assembly of the State of Illinois, A. D,, 1857, and approved Feb-
ruary 11, A. D. 1857, and an Act entitled "An Act to amend an
Act entitled 'An Act to Exempt Homesteads from sale on execu-
tion,'" passed by said Assembly A. D. 1857, and approved Feb-
ruary 17, A. D. 1857.
In witness whereof, the said party of the first part has hereuntc
set her hand and seal, the day and year first above written.
[Signed] Adele Douglas,
Signed, sealed and delivered in presence of
1^^^ [Signed] John S. Hollingshead,
'5^^' John S. Holijngshead, Jr.
u. s.
u. s.
U. S.
March,
March.
Mnrch.
Internal Rev-
Internal Rev-
Internal Rev-
enue.
enue.
enue.
1S65,
JSfi.'i.
1S65.
One Dollar.
Five Dollars.
Ten Dollars.
Mortgage.
Probate Will.
Mortgage.
A. D.
A. D.
A. D.
10.
Five.
in.
- ss.
District of Columbia,
Washington County,
I, John S. Hollingshead, a Notary Public in and for said county,
-^dAi^M
DOUGLAS COTTAGE, COTTAGE GROVK, BUILT 1853.
DOULGAS MONUMENT. 33
in the district aforesaid, do hereby certify that Adele Douglas,
who is personally known to me to be the same person whose
name is subscribed to the foregoing warranty deed, appeared be-
fore me this day, in person, and acknowledged that she signed,
sealed and delivered the said instrument of writing as her free
and voluntary act, for the uses and purposes therein set forth.
Given under my hand and notarial seal, this sixth day of March,
A. D. one thousand eight hundred and sixty-five (18G5).
[Signed] John S. Hollingsiiead,
Notary Public, Washington County,
Early in the winter of 1866, the writer was authorized by
the Trustees of the Association to locate the site of the monu-
ment, and in the performance of which duty he fixed it as near-
ly a3 ho could remember on the precise spot which Senator
Douglas pointed out to him in the summer of 1855, as the
place whereon he intended to build his permanent residence.
At the time, the Senator was spending part of the summer
in his little one-story frame cottage, standing among the primi-
tive oaks in what is now known as Woodland Park, and whicli
has, since his death, been moved by the writer, and which is
occupied by him on Douglas Avenue adjoining the monument
grounds. The design of the monument having been adopted
as before stated, proposals were invited by advertisement for
the construction of the foundations and tomb of Illinois
limestone. :,*■
About a half-dozen sealed bids were received and opened
by tlie building committee, consisting of Mayor F. C. Sher-
man, John B. Turner and D. A. Gage, and the contract was
awarded to the lowest bidders at $10,700.
The work was begun immediately, and soon after prelimi-
nary steps taken to lay the corner stone with fitting ceremonies.
The following action was taken by the Board of Trustees, by
inviting the Hon. Wm. II. Seward, Secretary of State, to de-
liver an address upon the occasion.
3
34: HISTORY OF THE
LAYING OF THE CORNER-STONE.
To THE Ho2f. William H. Seward,
Secretary of State, Washington :
Sir : The undersigned, the Board of Trustees of The Douglas
Monument Association, would most respectfully invite you to be
present and deliver the oration on the occasion of laying the
corner-stone of the proposed monument, in honor of the late Sena-
tor Douglas.
Profoundly appreciating your eminent abilities as an orator,
statesman and patriot, and also your personal acquaintance with
Mr. Douo-las, being cotemporaries in the Senate of the United
States for so long a period, it is earnestly hoped that your public
duties and health will permit you to accept the invitation hereby
respectfully tendered.
It is the intention to lay the corner-stone in the city of Chicago,
on the ground recently purchased by the State of Illinois, some
time during the month of May or June next.
The Trustees would be pleased, however, to conform to yoiir own
convenience, as to the precise day, should you consent to confer
upon them and the object the honor of your presence.
James DuGGAN, John B. Turner,
William B. Odgen, Thomas B. Bryan,
Dayid a. Gage, William C. Goudy,
John L. Wilson, Samuel W. Fuller,
Wm. a. Richardson, William Barry,
Samuel H. Treat, John M. Douglas,
James C. Allen, F. C. Sherman,
John D. Caton John Dement,
Walter B, Scates,
Leonard W. Volk, Secretary.
Chicago, March 22, 1866.
ME. SEWARD 's REPLY.
Department of State, )
Washington, April 1, 1866. [
To the Right Reverend James Duggan, D. D.,
AND others, Chicago, Illinois :
Gentleinen: — I have received your kind letter of the 22d iilti-
DOUGLAS MONUMENT. OO
mo. It informs me of the purpose of the Douglas Monument As-
sociation to lay, in the month of May or June next, the corner-stone
of the proposed monument in honor af the late Senator Douglas,
and that the association has been pleased to invite me to deliv^er
the oration on that occasion. Iti reply, I may inform you that I
should consider it an agreeable duty to accept this invitation,
which does not exaggerate the regard in which I hold the memory
of Stephen A. Douglas. The last of his days in Washington were
employed in consultation with President Lincoln and myself in or-
ganizing the resistance to disunion. Unless two events, which are
now mentioned, should concur hereafter, I could not expect to be
able to assume the proposed duty at a time so early as May or June.
First, my returning health must become more distinctly established;
second, official duties must become less exacting. At present, I
am prevented, therefore, from making a promise which depends
so materially upon the future for its realization.
Believe me to be, gentlemen, you very obedient servant,
William H. Seward.
the' CORNER-STONE TO BE LAID ON THE 13th OF
JUNE — GOVERNOR OGLESBY TO DELIVER THE
ORATION.
An adjourned meetiiig of the board of trustees of the Douglas
Monument Association was held at the Sherman House on the 11th
May, 18G6, Hon. John B. Turner, Second Vice President, in the
chair, at which meeting several vacancies existing in the board
were filled by the re-election of Walter B, Scates, S. M. Nick-
erson, and L. W. Volk, were also elected as trustees; the election of
officers resulting as follows:
President — Walter B. Scates.
First Vice President — John B. Turner.
Second Vice President — John M. Douglas.
Treasurer — David A, Gage.
Secretary — Leonard W. Volk.
Executive Committee — W. B. Scates, President; J. B, Turner,
First Vice President; F. C. Sherman; Right Rev. Bishoj) Duggan;
D. A. Gage, Treasurer; L. W. Volk, Secretary.
The contract for the first section of the monument, comprising
the foundations, platform steps and tomb, of Athens stone, having
Sf6' HISTORY OF THE
been let last October to Messrs. John Howlson & Co. for the sum
of $10,700, and the work thereon now progressing, the Treasurer
was authorized to pay Messrs. Howison & Co. |1,000 on account
of the work, in addition to a like sum paid them when the contract
was executed.
The Hon. William H. Seward, who had been first invited to
deliver the oration, but whose health and public duties prevented
his acceptance so early as the present month of May or June next,
the Governor of the State was then invited, and has consented to
deliver the address.
A supplemental meeting of the board Avas held at the same
place on the 13th instant, and Wednesday, the 13th day of June,
was fixed upon for the dedication of the corner-stone of the mon-
ument. A Special Committee of four was selected from the Board
of Trustees, consisting of Judge W. B. Scates, D. A. Gage, J. L.
Wilson and L. W. Volk. Also, a Citizens' Committee of Arrange-
ments was chosen, as follows:
Charles H. Walker, Esq., Geo. L. Dunlap, Esq., James W.
Sheahan, Esq., General C. A. Dana, Wilbur F. Storey, Esq., Geo.
W. Gage, Esq., Dr. B. McVickar, Col. J. L. Hancock, Col. Jas. H.
Bowen, Hugh Maher, Esq., G. P. A. Healy, Esq., C. L. Woodman,
Esq., Philip Wadsworth, Esq., Lieut.-Gov. Wm. Bross, Stephen
Barrett, Esq., C. G. Wicker, Esq., Col. A. C. Hesing, H. D. Col-
vin, Esq., Rev. Dr. Dunne, D. D., J. C. Fargo, Esq., Hon Thomas
Hoyne, Clinton Briggs, Esq., W. F. Coolbaugh, Esq., M. C. Stearns,
Esq., Isaac R. Diller, Esq.
Another vacancy still existing in the Board of Trvistecs, Mr-
Charles R. Starkweather was duly elected to fill the same.
The meeting then adjourned, subject to the call of the special
committee.
The above committees are requested to meet at the Tremont
House, on Tuesday evening. May 23nd, at 8 o'clock, to make the
necessary arrangements for laying the corner-stone of the Douglas
monument.
COMMENTS OF THE CHICAGO TIMES.
" Had Congress, instead of inviting Bancroft to deliver a eulogy
on Mr. Lincoln, invited Fernando Wood, Mr. I^ong, of Ohio, Mr.
Harris, of Maryland, or any other democrat who had shown himself
DOUGLAS MONUMENT. 37
to be an extreme and bitter partisan, the action would have excited
such intense indignation among republicans that the invitation
wouid, very probably, have been rescinded. It vpould have ap-
peared as a studied and intentional insult to the memory of Mr.
Lincoln and to his political friends and the party of which he was a
member and which elected him to the presidency. For this reason,
either of the three last gentlemen named would have declined the
invitation. Their sense of propriety, their deference to usage,
their conciousness that their political prejudices unfitted them to
grasp impartially the considerations which influenced the action of
Mr. Lincoln, and their respect for the feelings of political oppo-
nents, would all have commanded them to decline appearing on such
an occasion to eulogize him they had so often and warmly opposed.
" The Douglas Monument committee has invited Governor
Oglesby to deliver the address at the laying of the corner-stone of
the monument. The invitation can only be excused on the suppo-
sition that the committee is ignorant of usage and of propriety.
The governor has accepted the invitation, which is one of the best
evidences that could be given that he is unfit to perform the hon-
orable task required. He knows that he is a leader in that party
which pursued Douglas with bitterest hatred from the time it came
into being until he died, and that mobbed him in this city and
within sight of the ground where his bones lie and where the mon-
ument is to be built. You, gentlemen of the committee, and you
Richard .T. Oglesby, will do well to reconsider the invitation and
its acceptance. If you have no respect for the party of which
]3ouglas was leader, and to which rightly belongs the controlling
voice in paying him posthumous honors, you may refrain from in-
siilting his memory by the selection of one of his bitterest enemies
during his whole life to officiate on such an occasion."
An adjourned meeting of the committee of citizens appointed
to make arrangements for laying the corner-stone of the Douglas
monument, was held in parlor No. 1, of the Tremont House, last
evening. The attendance was very full, and Judge Walter B.
Scates presided.
The chairman stated, for the benefit of those not present at the
last meeting, the objects for which the committee had convened.
The sub-committee, to whom was referred the arrangements of
the inauguration, the laying down of plans of action, and the cere-
monies to be observed, reported through their chairman. Col. J. H.
Bowen, as follows :
" Your committee, appointed at the meeting on the 22nd inst., to
38 EISTOKY OF THE
devise some plan for the furtherance of the object of the com-
mittee of arrangements, namely, the laying of the corner-stone of
the Douglas Monument with appropriate and as imposing cere-
monies as may be possible, would respectfully submit the follow-
ing recommendations, unanimously adopted by your committee:
1st. The time fixed upon by the Trustees of the Monument Asso-
ciation is, in their judgment, too near at hand to make suitable
preparations for the ceremonies, and they are of opinion that the
4th day of July next would be the most fitting day for those ser-
vices.
2d. That they deem it appropriate that the Masonic fraternity
should lay the corner-stone, according to their usage in such cases.
3d. That the civic and military societies should be invited to
participate.
4th. A committee of five on invitation should be selected to in-
vite leading and distinguished public men and organized bodies on
the occasion.
Also a committee on finance, to provide for such contingent ex-
penses as may be incurred, without encroaching upon the monu-
ment fund.
5th. That the Hon. John B. Rice, Mayor of Chicago, be appoint-
ed President of the day, and David A. Gage, Esq., Marshal of the
day.
Signed by the committee.
The report of the committee was considered seriatim, and was
adojDted, after which the committee was discharged.
A communiation was received from Gov. Oglesby stating his
inability to be present at the ceremonies, if held on the fourth day
of July, having made an engagement elsewhere for that day which
was imperative.
L. W. Volk, secretary, asked to be excused from the duties
as secretary of the citizens' committee, and, upon motion, his resig-
nation was accepted, and H. W. Zimmerman was elected in his
stead.
The Committee upon Invitations were selected as follows:
W. F. Coolbaugh, Col. J. H. Bowen, Hon. Thos. Hoyne, Charles
Walker, and Dr. B. McVickar.
The following gentlemen were appointed a Committee on
Finance:
H. D. Colvin, C. G. Wicker, M. C. Stearns, Clinton Briggs, A.
0. Hesing, I. R. Diller, Philip Wadsworth.
DOUGLAS MONUMENT. 39
C. L. Woodman moved that a committee of three be appointed
to invite the Masonic fraternity to perform the ceremony of laying
the corner-stone.
The motion prevailed, and the following gentlemen were ap-
pointed such committee:
L. W. Volk, I. R. Diller, and Col. J. H. Bowen.
The chairman and secretary were empowered to fill the vacancy
of secretary to the committee in case the new appointee was un-
able to serve.
The chairman, Judge Scates, announced his intention to be
absent a few days, and Charles Walker was appointed to act in his
stead during his absence.
The Committee on Invitation was instructed to procure an
orator for the occasion, selecting such person as they, in their dis-
cretion, might think j^roper.
The Committee on Finance was instructed to meet at the office
of Col. I. R. Diller on Saturday afternoon, at o o'clock.
C. G. Wicker moved that all organizations and societies desiring
to join in the procession be instructed to report to the Chief Mar-
bal. The motion prevailed.
The committee then adjourned until <S o'clock p. m. on Thursday
next.
LETTER FROM GOV. OGLESBY.
Springfield, III., May 28, 18G6.
Colonel James H. Bowen, Chicago, 111. :
Dear Colonel : Your letter of the 23d inst., for some reason,
did not reach me until to-day, too late to reply for any purpose
connected with the special inquiries you make : " If it will suit
me to make the address on the 4th of July instead of on the
13th of June, the time fixed by the Trustees of the Douglas
Monument Association for laying the corner-stone of the monu-
ment to the late Senator Douglas. After having made a written
promise to speak in Marion county on the 4th of next July, it was
not possible for me to reply to Mr. Volk or yourself, on the 23d
inst., that I could positively agree to the change on that day ; but
it seems my telegraphic reply to Mr. Volk to do with it — as the
change was nevertheless made on that day to the 4th of July. It
is thus very clear to my mind that I am disposed of. The
Chicago Times of the 24th made a very severe attack upon me
for accepting the invitation to deliver the address. It is not.
40 HISTORY OF THE
perhaps, known that I was twice urgently invited to do so before
accepting, and I suppose when the attack in the Times appeared
that the trustees would be generous enough to me to make the
explanation which obviously seemed necessary. 1 am thus left
in a disagreeable relation to the whole matter. I declined as
long as I gracefully could, then, after accepting, am virtually re-
jected by a change of time, arbitrarily and very suddenly made.
If the Masons are to lay the corner-stone, why prefer the 4th of
July to the 24th of June — this year the 25th — a Masonic day. The
trustees have not informed me whether they expect me to de-
liver the address or not. I think I am able to comprehend why !
Very respectfully yours,
R. J. Oglesby.
EXPLANATORY LETTER.
To THE Editor of the Chicago Evening Journal:
I desire, on behalf of the Board of Trustees of the Douglas Monu-
ment Association, to state some facts, as they appear on the records,
for the information of the public relating to the invitation of Gov-
ernor Oglesby to deliver the address on the occasion of laying the
corner-stone of the Douglas Monument.
In the first place, the Board thought best to invite Secretary
Seward, the correspondence with Avhom has been already published
in the papers. Failing to secure that gentleman, it was then de-
cided to invite the Governor of the State, His Excellency Richard
J. Oglesby, who, it was known, was a friend of the object of the
Association, and had exerted his influence in securing the appro-
priation from the State for the purchase of the grounds upon which
lie the remains of Mr. Douglas. The Governor declined to deliver
the adress. He said: "I am concious of inability to do justice, up-
on such an occasion, to the life, the character and public services
of this great man." He expressed a purpose, however, to be present
as a spectator.
At a full meeting of the Board, held soon after the receipt of
his letter, it was unanimously decided that a member thereof
should write to the Governor urging him to reconsider his action
in declining, and to fix any day for the occasion prior to the loth
of June. The letter was written, and the Governor replied that
he did not feel longer at liberty to decline, and stated that any
DOUGLAS MONUMENT. 41
day after the 12th of June would be agreeable to him to make the
address.
The Board, at its next meeting, fixed upon the 13th instant for
laying the stone, and the Governor was notified of the fact by tele-
graph.
At this meeting, a citizens' committee of arrangements was ap-
pointed, together with a special committee of five members from
the board to represent it, and co-operate with the citizen's commit-
tee in making all necessary preparations for the dedication cere-
monies.
The committee of arrangements thus appointed deemed a change
of the day to the 4th of July important. As Governor Oglesby
had signified that any day after the 12th of June would suit his
convenience, it was thought that his services could still be secured
but, in this, the committee have been disappointed, because of a
prior engagement of the Governor to deliver an address at Salem
on that day.
At a recent meeting of the Committee on Invitations, consisting
of Messrs. William F. Coolbaugh, Thomas Hoyne, James H. Bow-
en, Charles Walker, and Brock McVickar, the following resolution
was passed:
" Resolved, That this committee, charged with the duty of secixring the sei*-
vices of some gentleman to deliver an appropriate address on the Fourth of
July next, on the occasion of laying the corner-stone of the monument about
to be erected to the memory of the late Stephen A. Douglas , convey to Gover-
nor Oglesby their regret that his engagements will prevent his being present
and performing that service ; and while they feel the necessity, in view of the
Governor's declination, of securing some other gentleman, respectfully request,
if any change of his arrangements will allow of it, his presence on that occa-
sion."
In view of the above facts, the Committee on Invitations are
using every endeavor to secure some gentleman as orator on the
proposed occasion, who will be eminently qualified and satisfactory
to all.
Leonard W. Volk,
Secretary Douglas Monument Association.
At a subsequent meeting of the Citizens' Committee of Ar-
rangements, Messrs. Thos. Hoyne and Jas. H. Bowen were
appointed a committee to proceed to Washington and invite
the President of the United States, his Cabinet, and other
prominent men to be present at the ceremonies. Gen. John
43 HISTORY OF THE
A. Dix was secured by the committee as tlie orator. He came
to Chicago some days in advance of the Presidential party to
prepare his address.
The Special Committee of The Douglas Monument Association
held a meeting last evening at the rooms of the association, No.
15 Garrett Block. Present — General Walter B. Scates, President,
and all the members of the committee.
Mr. David A. Gage, from the Committee on Railroads, reported
that he had seen the presidents of all the railroads running into the
city, except two, and that they had agreed to carry passengers to
the city and back at the reduced rate of one and one-fifth the usual
fare. The two roads which were not yet in the arrangement were
the Chicago and Great Eastern, and the Chicago, Pittsburgh and
Fort Wayne.
Mr. Volk, from the Committee on Medals, reported in favor of a
circular, white metal badge of the diameter of one and three-
eighths inches, and with a hole near the margin to admit of a rib-
bon. On one side of the medal was to be a medalion of Douglas,
suiTOunded on the rim with the words,
"BORN, APRIL 23, 1813 ; DIED, JUNE 3, 1861."
On the reverse, the w^ords,
"DOUGLAS MONUMENT ASSOCIATION,"
Were to be upon the rim, and in the centre the words,
" CORNER-STONE LAID SEPT. 6, 1866."
A suitable medalion has already been provided, taken from the
bust of Douglas. The cost would be from $10 to $15 per hundred,
and if ordered immediately, five thousand could be made ready by
September 1, and one thousand each day thereafter. The report
of the committee was adopted.
Mr. Hilton proposed that, instead of the proposed banquet, there
be held a reception at the Rink on the evening of the President's
arrival.
A further suggestion was also made that a concert be held at
the Opera House on the evening of September 6. Both the above
suggestions were referred to the general committee, with favorable
recommendations, to be reported upon this evening.
Mr. Volk proposed that the seal of the association be put upon
a badge for the exclusive use of the Committee of Arrangements.
It was adopted.
Mr. Coolbaugh propose d that a committee of two be appointed
DOUGLAS MONUMENT. 43
by the chairman, who should appoint a Reception Committee of
fifty, who vshall proceed to Detroit, or some jolace this side, to re-
ceive the President and his suite.
The Chairman appointed Chas. Walker, Esq., and Dr. Brock
McVickar, who reported the following as the Special Reception
Committee:
Richard J. Oglesby, Governor, William Bross, Lieutenant Gover-
nor, Lyman Trumbull, United States Senator, Richard Yates,
United States Senator, John Wentworth, M. C, A. C. Hesing, E.
B. Washburn, M. C, P. H. Smith, Esq., E. C. Ingersoll, M. C,
T. Y. Munn, H. P. H. Bromwell, M. C, Charles Randolph, L. W.
Ross, M. C, Clinton Briggs, S. S. Marshall, M. C, Henry Greene-
baum, A. J. Kuykendall, M. C, General Osborn, J. F. Farnsworth,
M. C, Judge Thos. Drummond, A. C. Harding, M. C, J. H. Wood-
worth, B. C. Cook, M. C, C. N. Holden, S. JM. Cullom, M. C, E. B.
McCagg, Esq., Anthony Thornton, M. C, W. H. Brown, Jehu
Baker, M. C, M. C. Stearns, S. W. Moulton, M. C, M. D. Ogden,
Esq., Hon. Leonard Sweet, E. D. Taylor, Esq., Hon. 1. N. Arnold,
D. Kreigh, L. D. Boone, H. D. Colvin, Hon. J, Y. Scammon, Hon.
J. B. Rice, J. C. Dore, General Mann, Judge E. VanBuren.
TRUSTEES OF THE DOUGLAS MONUMENT ASSOCIATION, AND OF THE
UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO.
Prof. J. C. Borroughs, Hon. F. C. Sherman, Hon. Julian Rumsey,
C. G. Wicker, J. R. Jones, Colonel R. M. Hough.
The Secretary made a statement of the persons and classes, to
whom invitations have been extended. He said the number of
invitations already sent out numbered more than 800, and embraced
the following:
President of the United States and the Cabinet.
Both houses of Congress.
Judges of the Supreme Court of the United States.
Judges of the Supreme Courts of the several States.
Mayors of all the cities in the Northwest.
Editors of the leading papers of the United States.
Many other distinguished statesmen and journalists.
Generals Grant and Sherman.
Messrs. Volk, Zimmerman and Gage were appointed a commit-
tee to request the Board of Trustees of the association to prepare
suitable records and mementos to be placed in the corner-stone.
Mr. Wadsworth moved that suitable arrangements be made with
the proprietors of the Sherman House for the reception and enter-
tainment of the President and suite.
44: HISTORY OF THE
Mr. D. A. Gage announced that the hospitalities of the Sher-
man House had already been freely tendered to the party. A
vote of thanks was tendered to Mr. Gage.
It was stated that the Illinois Central Railroad would run trains
to the grounds every ten minutes on the day of laying the corner-
stone.
Badges are to be provided, one, selling for f3, and admitting
both to the reception and the concert, and another costing $1,
admitting only to the latter.
The meeting of the general committee of arrangements of the
Douglass Monument Association, which was to have taken place
to-night, has been postponed until to-morrow evening, same time
and place, on account of the reception of General John A. Logan
occurrinof to-niorht.
DISPATCH FROM SECRETARY SEWARD.
A TELEGRAM containing the following has just been received by
S. C. Hough, Esq., general passenger agent of the Michigan
Southern Railroad:
Washhstgtois", D. C, August 8.
The President, with his Cabinet, expect to reach Chicago on
Wednesday, September 5th, at 7:45 in the evening, and remain
there two nights and one day.
(Signed) William II, Seward.
THE PREPARATIONS FOR THE EVENT APPROACHING
COMPLETION.
The preparations for the approaching ceremonies attendant upon
laying the corner-stone of the Douglas Monument, are rapidly ap-
proaching completion. All the preliminary arrangements are per-
fected, and little now remains but the preparation of the pro-
gramme of the day. It will be remembered that at the last meet-
ing of the general committee of arrangements, it was decided to
abandon the Rink and request the use of the Hall of the Board of
Trade, for the purposes of the Presidential Reception on the night of
the 5th proximo. The Board of Directors have kindly consented to
DOUGLAS MONUMENT. 45
suspend their rules on this occasion, and to grant the use of their
building to the association. The hall will be thrown open to the
public on that occasion, and will be beautifully decorated in honor
of the event. It was the oi-iginal intention of the President and
suite to have reached Chicago by the Michigan Southern route.
Circumstances have, however, changed that part of the programme,
and he will now travel by way of Detroit and the Michigan Cen-
tral road, visiting Niagara Falls on his journey. Hearing of this
intention, Mr. Swinyard, the superintendent of the Great Western
railroad of Canada, sent an invitation to the President, in which he
was joined By the Governor General, asking him to accept a special
train over that road. The following is a copy of the correspond-
ence.
Hamilton, Aug. 17, 18GG.
"Hon. W. H. Seward, Secretary of State, Washington, D. C:
" It is reported that the President, yourself and party will be at
Niagara Falls at the beginning of September, en route for Chica-
go. If it should be consistent with the programme of the Presi-
dent and agreeable to his wishes, the Great Western Company
will have the greatest possible pleasure in placing a special train
over its road, from Niagara Falls to Detroit, at the service of him-
self and party. I was directed by His Excellency, the Governor, to
say that it would give him the highest gratification to hear that the
President, yourself and party would pass through Canada.
. [Signed,] " Thomas Swinyakd."
"Washington, Aug. 18, 1866.
"Thomas Swintaed, Esq., Hamilton, C. W.:
" J/y Dear Sir: I give you many thanks for your telegram of
yesterday, which informed me of the friendly reception which
awaits the President and myself, if we should find it convenient
to pass through Canada on our way to Chicago.
" I regret to say that definite arrangements for the journey pre-
clude our acceptance of your kind invitation.
" Faithfully yours,
[Signed.] " Wm. H. Seward."
46 HISTORY OF THE
[From the Chicago Tribune.]
ARTICLES TO BE DEPOSITED UNDER THE CORNER-
STONE—THE MEDAL.
Mr. Volk, Secretary of the Doug-las Monument Association, re-
ceived yesterday a set of coins and medals from the mint at Phila-
delphia, which will be deposited, together with other articles in the
corner-stone of the monument, on the sixth proximo^ The coins
embrace the dollar in gold, all the silver coins of the United States,
and the five, three, two and one cents in composition, being- all of
the present year. The medals are the small Jackson and Wash-
ington mint medals, the two AVashington medals known as the
" Commission resigned" and " Time increases his fame," in silver,
and a Washington medal struck to commemorate the taking of the
oath of allegiance by the employes of the mint, in bronze; also the
Lincoln and Johnson Indian medals in bronze. They are mainly
pattern pieces, and are extremely sharp and beautiful. The med-
als struck by Mr. Childs, of this city, of Lincoln and Douglas,
from Air. Volk's busts, duruig the camjDaign, will also be deposited
in the stone. «
The following are the other articles which will be deposited in
the corner-stone: SiDecimens of United States paper money; rec-
ords of the Douglas Monument Association; a copper plate with
the names of Trustees engraved thereon; j^amphlet, by-laws, con-
stitution and appeal; diploma of membership, blank circulars,
agents' credentials, etc., of the association; medallion of Douglas^
with date of the laying of the stone; photograph of the monu-
ment; likeness of Douglas on porcelain, together with a photo-
graph; Sheahan's Life of Douglas, to 1858; last speeches of the
great statesman before the Illinois Legislature and in the Wigwam;
his funeral ceremonies in 1861; obituary addresses in the Senate
and House of Representatives; eulogy before the University; mis-
cellaneous documents relating to Douglas; copy of Douglas' deed
of land to the University of Chicago; copy of each of the daily
city papers; copy of Harpers' Weekly^ Avith the monument illus-
trated; first and last copies of the catalogues of the University;
Douglas' ancestral record; statistics of the Chamber of Commerce
of Chicago, first and last Directories of Chicago; copies of the cata-
logues of the Art Exhibitions in Chicago in 1859, 1863 and 1865;
DOUGLAS MONUMENT. 4:7
charter of the Chicag o Historical Society; and an autograph let-
ter of the deceased.
We saw, yesterday, a proof of the medal struck to commemorate
the occasion, by order of the committee. It is from Mr. Child's
dies. The obverse side has a very accurate bust j^ortrait of Doug-
las from Volk's bust, clear, sharp and very expressive. Of all the
medals which have been struck in commemoration of Douglas and
his services, some ninety in number, this is by far the best. The
inscription on the obverse is, " Born April 23, 1813, died June 3,
1861," with three stars below the bust. The reverse bears the in-
scription, " Douglas Monument Association, Corner Stone laid
Sept 6, 1866," with a single star in the exergne. The medal is in
white metal and is very neat.
The impression has gained groiind in some quarters that the Ma-
sonic fraternity will not take part in the ceremonies. This im-
pression is false. The Grand Master of the State will attend in
person, and many of the different lodges of the State, with nearly
all those of Chicago, have already signified their intention to be
present.
The number of flags procured for draping purposes is very large,
embracing probably the great majority of those owned in the city.
The display will doubtless be a magnificent one.
The city council of St. Paul, Minnesota, has appointed Mayor
Prince, General Sibley, Hon. J. B. Brisbin, Messrs. McCarty and
Howard, and Aklerman Beaumont, delegates to attend the Douglas
monument ceremonies. It is understood that the treasury of that
city is too much impoverished to admit of their expenses being-
paid by tlie corporation.
THE PRESIDENTIAL PARTY.
The following distinguished persons constitute the President's
party, according to the telegrams received by the chief marshal.
There are, however, some eighty persons accompanying, whose
names are not fvirnished, and who are consequently not regarded
as coming within the province of the committee of reception to
specially entertain:
President Johnson and servant; General U. S. Grant and
servant; Maj. Genei-al Geo. G. Meade; Brigadier J. A, Rawlings;
Admiral Farragut, lady and servant; Secretary Seward and ser-
vant; Major Seward; Secretary Welles, lady and two sons; Senor
Romero; General McCullum; Surgeon-General Barnes; Surgeon
Norris, U. S. N^ Rear Admiral Radford, U. S. N.; Lieutenant
48 HISTORY OF THE
Gurley, U. S. N.; Colonel W. G.Moore; Colonel R. Morrow;/.^,
A. Gobright; W. W. Warden; J. R. Doolittle; R. S. Spftfford; o^
General Steadman; General Rousseau; Mr. Palte; Mr. Kuntz;
General Custer; H. A. Chadwick; H. Murphy; D. F, Patterson
and lady; Marshal Gooding; Marshal D. Perrine; J, McGinnis and
lady; Miss Grier; Masters Robert and Stephen A. Douglas, and
Mrs. J. M. Grau and Mrs. J. N. Granger, only sister of Judge
Douglas.
From tliis time on, till the arrival of the distingnislied party,
many committee meetings were held, and all arrangements
made to make the occasion worthy of the departed senator and
honorable to the state.
[From the Chicago Times.]
THE CHIEF marshal's ORDER OF ARRANGEMENTS.
The various societies and civil bodies that have not yet reported
will report to Chief Marshal Gage at the Sherman House, under
whose superintendence the procession will commence forming at 9
o'clock.
First division will form on Lake street, right resting on Wabash
avenue.
Second division will form on Clark street, right resting on Ran-
dolph street.
Third division will form with right resting on the left of second
division.
Fourth division will form on Dearborn street, right resting on
Lake street.
Fifth division will form with right resting on the left of fourth
division.
Sixth division will form on Dearborn street.
The following is the order of the procession as determined ujoon
by the chief marshal and his associaties:
ORDER OF PROCESSION.
Section of Police under Capt, Hickey.
Chief Marshal David A. Gage, Esq; L, P. Bradley,
Philip Wadsworth, J. C. Hilton, Col. John
Mason Loomis, Aids.
DOUGLAS MONUMENT. 49
FIRST DIVISION.
Band.
Masonic Fraternity,
Grand Marshal, Gen. A. C. Ducat and Aids.
SECOND DIVISION.
Band.
Gen. Mann and Aids.
President of the United States, Orator of the Day,
Mayor Rice and Hon. "W. H. Seward, in first
carriage.
The Cabinet and other distinguished guests in
carriages.
United States Army Officers — Gen. Grant, Gen.
Rawlins, Gen. Meade and Stafi", Gen. Steadman,
Gen. Rousseau, Gen. Custer, Gen. Jeff. C.
Davis, Gen. Crook, Gen. G. H. Thomas,
in carriages.
United States Navy Officers — Admiral Farragut,
Admiral Radford, Lieut. McKinley.
Trustees of the Douglas Monument Association in
carriages.
Members of the Grand Lodge of T. & A. M. of Illi-
nois, in carriages.
Citizen's Committee of Arrangements on foot.
Common Council of Chicago.
Mayors and Councils of Sister Cities on foot.
THIRD DIVISION.
Band.
Maj. C. H. Dyer.
Twenty- third and Seventy-second Regiments of Illi-
nois Volunteers.
Division Marshal, David Walsh, Aid. John A.
Moore.
Hibernian Benevolent Society.
French Benevolent Society.
United Sons of Erin.
Union National Society of Italians.
Father Matthew Temperance Society.
FOURTH DIVISION.
Band.
50 HISTOKT OF THE
Edmund Crossfield, Marshal.
Trades Unions of Chicago.
FIFTH DIVISIOlSr.
Band.
Charles Alexander Kadish, Marshal.
Bohemian Sclavonic Society.
Sclovaueka Lipa.
Sclavonian Brotherhood (Protestant).
St. Wenzealaus' Society (Catholic).
Local Turners' Society.
Alahoe Singers' Society.
SIXTH DIVISION.
Band.
Andrew Schall, Marshal.
Sharpshooters.
Union Singing Association.
German Turnv^erein.
Butchers' Association.
Citizens generally.
LINE OF MARCH.
The route to be taken has already been published in The Times,
but for purposes of reference we give it again. The right, forming
on Clark street and resting upon Lake, will proceed down the lat-
ter street to Wabash avenue, thence south on Wabash avenue to
Sixteenth street, thence east to Michigan avenue, th'i-'nce south to
Thirty-first street, thence east to Cottage Grove avenue, and south
to the monument grounds.
THE CONCERT.
The concert at the opera house this evening will, it is expected,
be a splendid affair. All the arrangements have been made under
the superintendence of Mr. Balatka, which will be assurance
enough of the character of the entertainment. Miss Sterling, a
famous Eastern contralto singer, will give some of her choicest
selections. The few Chicagoans who have had the good fortune
to hear her, pronounce her singing most perfect. The Germania
Maennerchoer will also sing their best selections, among them
"Storck's Prayer Before the Battle" and the celebrated "Sailor's
Chorus" from L'Africaine.
DOUGLAS MONUMENT. 51
The orchestra will number 45 performers, and amono- other
selections will give the brilliant overture to Robespierre, in which
the Marseilles hymn is one of the principal themes, some sym-
phonical compositions and Meyerbeer's splendid Schiller march.
THE PUBLIC OFFICES.
The United States custom house and depository will be closed
at 10 o'clock on the 6th inst., in honor of the ceremonies.
The Board of Trade will hold no session, and the city banks will
be closed. The wholesale houses will also, it is understood, be
open but for a short time in the morning', though there is no posi-
tive agreement to that effect.
DISTINGUISHED ARRIVALS.
Maj. Gen. Jeff. C. Davis, commander of the military department
of Kentucky, arrived in the city on Tuesday evening to partici-
pate in the ceremonies of the day. While in the city he is the
guest of E. L. Jansen, and Gen. A. C. McClurg, who was a mem-
ber of his staff on the march through Georgia.
Sir Knight, Capt. Gaskin of Kingston, Canada, has been invited
to join with the Chicago Masonic order in the reception of the
President, and has accepted the invitation.
The following is a portion of the ]!^ew York Herald'' 8 ac-
count of the journey to Chicago and the ceremonies at the
grave:
THE REAL PURPOSE OF THE TRIP,
It was only upon our arrival in Chicago last night that we be-
came really apprised of the nature of the Presidential trip. We
find it actually to be for the purpose of attending the ceremonies
of inaugurating a monument to the memory of a deceased states-
man, and that it is not entirely a political excursion for partisan
purposes. The idea prevailed that some turbulent spirits in Chi-
cago seemed to view it in this light, and no little asperity of feel-
ing was created thereby,
THE BOARD OF TRADE GUARDED.
According to the original programme the reception of the
President of the United States and other distinguished visitors
52 HISTOKY OF THE
here was to take place in the hall of the Board of Trade. The
majority of the members of this association participated in the
ruffianly mob which a few years ago mobbed Douglas in the
streets of Chicago, and when the Board of Directors was applied
to for the use of the hall to receive the President of the United
States and other distinguished persons visiting the city, they
passed a resolution granting the use of the hall, but purposely
omitted to mention the name of the President in the resolu-
tion. His friends felt the insult keenly, but deemed it prudent to
say nothing. When the fact that the use of the hall had been
granted for this purpose became known among certain persons in
the board a regular storm of indignation was aroused and resolu-
tions were drawn requesting the directors to rescind their former
resolutions and refuse the hall, and other resolutions declaring that
if the President made any political utterances in the hall it would
be regarded as an insult.
After canvassing the matter for some time they came to the con-
clusion that such an insult to the President in advance of his com-
ing would recoil upon their own heads, and so neither set of reso-
lutions were offered. There was a general understanding among
them, however, that they would attend the reception and come
early enough to take possession of the hall, and then if the Presi-
dent said anything having a political bearing, they would lay vio-
lent hands on him and eject him from the hall by force. This de-
termination was well understood by friends of the President, and
while many of them were in favor of taking him to the Board of
Trade hall and asking him to make a political speech, protect him
in whatever he might say, at whatever cost and to whatever ex-
treme it might be carried, other counsels prevailed, and the friends
of the President concluded not to take him under the roof of his
enemies. It was deemed to be more becoming to the dignity and
honor of the nation that its Chief Magistrate should be received in
the air, or the rotunda of a hotel, anywhere other than beneath the
roof of the fanatics who mobbed Douglas. It was not known
whether the President would desire to say anything relative to the
politics of the country or not, but if he did not desire to do so his
friends did not wish it said that the omission was due to the fact
that he was afraid to speak upon this subject. Hence the place of
reception was changed from the Board of Trade hall to the
Rotunda of the Sherman House.
DOUGLAS MONUMENT. 53
THE EADICAL INTERRUPTIONS AT CHICAGO.
The interruptions of the President last night, by vociferous
cheers for Grant, originated at the radical Tribune office, oppo-
site the Sherman House, and was re-echoed by the squads scattered
in various parts of the immense crowd until a commanding voice
cried, *' Home." Then the interruptions ceased. This seemed to
be the watchword of the turbulents, who had doubtless organized
to prevent the President from being heard. They found, however,
that he had more friends than they expected, as was the case at
Toledo and Cleveland.
GENERAL STEEDMAN INSULTED AND REVENOED.
Toledo is the home of General Steedman. While he was say-
ing a few words, same one in the crowd used some insulting lan-
guage, when he was immediately silenced and hustled out by the
General's friends.
THE president's PURPOSES IN SPEAKING SO MUCH.
The President desires to make his policy known personally to
the people. He thinks he can convince them that he is I'ight
and Congress wrong. Many of his friends, however, think he is
only furnishing ammunition to his enemies, and while increasing
their bitterness, is also spurring them to redoubled exertions.
GRANT REPORTED DISGUSTED.
It is reported that General Grant has said: "I am disgusted with
this trip. I am disgusted at hearing a man make speeches on the
way to his own funeral." It is reported that this was said in pres-
ence of a clerk in the employ of General Grant's brother, in this
city, and other responsible parties. There are no indications, how-
ever, that the relations between the President and General Grant
are not of an entirely harmonious character, although the General
passes most of his time in other than the presidential car when
traveling.
HOTEL ACCOMMODATIONS EN ROUTE.
The President's Private Secretary, Colonel Moore, has been very
busy all the morning in dispatching official business, which has
largely accumulated within a few days. At the Biddle House, in
54: HISTORY OF THE
Detroit, so poor were the arrangements for the accommodation of
the party that at breakfast the President and his Cabinet officers
were compelled to remain standing for a considerable time without
a place to rattle a knife and fork. Half an hour elapsed before
some of the party were waited upon. It is said that the colored
Avaiters had struck and would not serve the President because he
had vetoed the civil rights' bill. The case was entirely different
at the Sherman House, in this city, where not only were the apart-
ments prepared for the President and suite of the most elegant
•AnA recherche description, but the courteous attentions of the hosts
all that could be desired. For the first time during the trip the
President and the distinguished members of his party were enter-
tained in a manner becoming their stations. The attention be-
stowed upon the President at the International Hotel, at Niagara,
were also highly creditable to the management of the fashionable
summer resort.
THE PROCESSION.
GEAXD CROWDS FROM CITY A^D COUNTRY CHICAGO PACKED W'lTH
STRANGERS — THE PARADE AND MARCH TO THE GROUNDS SITE
OF THE MONUMENT AND SCENE OF THE CEREMONIES.
As day dawned over the great metropolis, the time of prepa-
ration commenced, and long before the rising sun had chased the
mists off the lake and g-ilded the steeples of the city, the streets
were alive with the commotion of thousands of people. The vari-
ous societies and organizations that were to participate in the cere-
monies of the day were moving to their respective positions, with
banners flying and bands of music preceding them. By eight
o'clock every street visible from either balcony of the Sherman
House presented a hurrying throng, which was continually increased
by the arrival of regular and special trains bearing into the city
countless thousands from the interior of all contiguous States. The
different steamboat lines leading to the city were loaded to their
utmost, and in most instances had been chartered for weeks be-
forehand to transport military companies and organizations that
had been invited to attend. Private parties were made up weeks
beforehand from all quarters of the country and had chartered cars,
trains and steamboats for the great occasion. These generally
DOUGLAS MONUMENT. 55
brought with them their own music and some badore, or carried
some banner to denote from whence they came and their com-
mon bond of union.
The number of visitors from abroad was variously estimated at
from fifty thousand to one hundred thousand, with the probabilities
decidedly in favor of the larger number. The mass of people in
the city at ten o'clock was too great and extended to admit of
much beyond conjecture, and by its mobility bafBed all attempts
at computation. The heavens were overcast and threatening, be-
fore the hour for moving the procession, and many were doubtless
deterred by fear of rain and storm from joining its ranks. To
others the change was agreeable, by promising a relief from
the dreaded heat, and dust usually incident to such occasions. At
an early hour in the morning ropes were stretched across Clark
street, at its intersection with Randolph and Lake streets; a strong
detail of police were on the ground, to prevent the multitude from
passing the barricade, and the open space thus secured was kept
comparatively clear from the intrusion of any, but those entitled to
a place within. Notwithstanding these precautions, several hun-
dred managed to elude the police in some way and kept increas-
ing the crowd within until it was almost as densely packed as with-
out. A company of zouaves did excellent service afterwards in
clearing the square and keeping it open; and also attracted much
attention by their splendid uniform and perfect evolutions.
APPEARANCE OF THE PRESIDENT.
Soon after ten o'clock the President was announced in readiness,
and was handed into his carriage by the Grand Marshal of the day.
As he emerged from the private enterance of the hotel, on Clark
street, a shout of welcome and apjjiause went up from the thou-
sands assembled on the street and housetops that woke the echoes
of lake and prairie.
EXCITING SCENES.
The scene at this moment was one of the most exciting ever
witnessed. The music of bands, the cheering of the people, the
waving of flags and handkerchiefs from windows, balconies and
curbstones, made a grand tableau worthy of perpetuation. As
the President's carriage passed on, and General Grant and his
chief of staff, General Rawlins, mounted the steps of the second
one, the applause swelled into a torrent that would have drowned
50 HISTORY OF THE
the roar of Niagara itself. Next followed Admiral Farragut, at
whose presence the inexhaustible enthusiasm of the populace re-
burst into such rounds of applause as can only proceed from the
throats of the stalwart sons of the West. As each member of the
party known to the people by reputation passed through the line,
the same uproar ensued, until the cortege had passed on and was
followed by the various societies.
THE LINE OF MARCH
was crowded from curb-stone to roof, and many of the private
houses and all of the public buildings were decorated with flags
and devices in honor of the occasion.
THE PROCESSION
was imposing, and included the Masonic Fraternity, together with
a force of police and the chief marshals and aids preceding the
President of the United States, and General Dix, the orator of the
day. Then came Mayor Rice and Hon. AVilliam H. Seward, the
Cabinet and other distinguished guests; United States Army of-
ficers, General Grant, General Rawlins, General Meade and Staff,
General Steedman, General Rousseau, General Custer, and other
prominent officers; United States Navy officers — Admiral Farra-
gut, Admiral Radford, Lieutenant McKinley; Trustees of the
Douglas Monument Association, members of the Grand Lodge of
A. F. and A. M. of Illinois, in carriages; citizens, committee of
arrangements, on foot; the Common Council of Chicago, Mayors
and Councils of sister cities on foot; Twenty-third and Sixty sec-
ond regiments Illinois volunteers; Hibernian Benevolent Society,
French Benevolent Society, United Sons of Erin, Union National
Society, of Illinois; Father Matthew Temperance Society, Edmund
Grossfield, marshal; Trades' Unions of Chicago, Charles Alexan-
der Kadish, marshal; Bohemian Sclavonic Society, Scalvonska Lipa
Brotherhood, Protestant St. Wenseeslaus Society, Catholic Local
Turners' Society, Alahoe Singers Society, Andrew Schall, marshal;
Sharpshooters' Union, Singing Society, German Turnverein, Butch-
ers' Association, citizens generally.
AN OFFENSIVE DEMONSTRATION.
But one offensive demonstration was attempted, and that sig-
nally failed from its puerility. A Mrs. Sticknor, supposed to be a
widow, residing at No. 42 Harrison street, had a large placard on
DOUGLAS MONUMENT. 57
the front of her house, " No Welcome to Traitors," and displayed
a string of black petticoats across the front of the house below it.
As Secretary Seward noticed the inscription he placed his hand
grimly on the scars received by the assassins' knife, and looked in-
quisitively at his comrades in the carriage; General Grant and
Admiral Farragut looked about them as though the mysterious
handwriting on the wall was meant as a kindly warning that a
Confederate army with banners was just around the corner ready
to pounce upon and annihilate them. Others smiled complacently
at the weakness of the procedure. The more charitable con-
cluded the woman's husband had probably been hung as a rebel
traitor by some of the patriotic generals in the procession, and
that his weak-minded wife had thus indirectly paraded her private
grief and unmentionable garments.
THE GROUNDS.
The procession reached Fairview, on the Douglas place, at
twelve o'clock. This is the piece of ground which Mr. Douglas, in
his life-time, purchased for the home of himself and family, in the
anticipated years of life and honorable fame that lay before him.
That same ground is now the place of his abode in death, and
there the ceremonies of the day were performed to his memory
under circumstances of peculiar solemnity
THE CEREMONIES.
DESCRIPTION OF THE MONUMENT AND GROUNDS — IMPOSING CERE-
MONIES OF LOWERING THE STONE — NATURE ASSISTS AT THE
CEREMONY — DECORATIONS OF THE GROUNDS.
Arrived on the ground the procession formed in the vicinity of
the base of the monument. The grave was beautifully decorated.
Four columns thirty-five feet in height stood at each corner of the
grave, with arches rising thirty-four feet in the center, spanning
from one to the other. These were festooned with draperies and
flags of black cloth fringed with silver; while the columns were
wound round with ornamental draperies interspersed with roses
and evergreens.
On the top of each column and over the center of the arches
58 HISTORY OF THE
were urns and vases of flowers, etc. The fence around the grave
was completely enshrouded with flags, so as to conceal it from
view. The ground inside was strewn with wild flowers, and a
marble bust of Douglas, with a model of the monument, were
placed on pedestals near the head of the grave. The stands
completely surrounded the tomb, and in the interval beyond
these, far off to the boundaries of the Douglas estate, the
audience was massed in solid ranks. The entire spectacle pre-
sented an amphitheatre, of which the inclined seats formed the
sides and the open lake the background.
SITE OF THE MONUMENT.
The spot which is henceforth to be sacred as the last resting-
place of Stephen A. Douglas, is situated four miles south of the
City Hall of Chicago, and in plain view from that building. The
grounds were recently purchased from the late widow of Mr.
Douglas, by the State of Illinois, at a cost of 125,000. The monu-
ment is surrounded by a beautiful grove of oaks, trees which in
their nature better than any others typify the sturdy character of
him whose grave they shadow. The grove is washed at its east-
ern edge by the waters of the la.ke, which, as they ripple on the
beach, will murmur an eternal requiem for the dead.
THE MONUMENT.
The design of the monumental tomb of Stephen A. Douglas
contemplates a structure worthy the character of the statesman,
and creditable to American art. In describing its character and
what its appearance will be when completed, we will begin at the
foundation and trace its proportions as they have already been, or
soon will be, erected by the builders. On a deep and firm foun-
dation, prepared with the utmost care, there has been placed a cir-
cular platform or base, fifty feet and six inches in diameter, and
four and a half feet in height, the outer circle of which consists of
four steps. Upon this has been placed another platform of less
diameter, but of the same height, with concave sides, and ascended
by flights of three steps. It is on this broad platform, nine feet
from the surrounding level of the land, that the sephulchre con-
taining the sarcophagus is to rest. The sephulchre, when com-
pleted, will be nineteen feet square and eleven feet high, hav-
ing its walls four and a half feet thick. Projecting from the
DOUGLAS MONUMENT. 59
four corners are four pedestals connected by massive archways.
The chamber within will be ten feet square, and have an arched
ceiling. The floor, which is level with the top of the platform, will
be laid in mosaic or tile work. In the center of this chamber, visi-
ble to all, yet protected from vandalism by grated bronze doors, will
stand the white marble sarcophagus in which is to repose the dust of
the good knight who, living, did valiant battle in behalf of the peo-
ple he loved. Close-fitting doors are designed to protect the spot
from the inclemencies of the winter season. On the four pedestals
already alluded to, projecting from the corners of the sepulchre, are
to be symbolical statues in a sitting posture and of life-size. These
are to be cut from light-colored marble or cast in bronze, and will
symbolize the following ideas: — Illinois, holding in her hand a
medallion of her son, illustrious, though dead, while by her side
rests a sheaf of wheat, emblematic of her agricultural wealth, and
the State arms, emblematic of her sovereignty; America, with a
shield; History, with her recording tablet, and Fame, with her trum-
pet and wreath. Above the tomb, and supported by its walls, istho
pedestal of the column. The four sides of the pedestal will be
adorned with bas-reliefs symbolizing the advance of civilization in
the West. First, a representation of the wilderness, with a wigwam
and Indians hunting; next, the pioneer's cabin and men felling
trees and plowing the soil; then a ship, representing commerce,
and a locomotive and telegraph representing science, with a figure
standing by piled-up bales and boxes and holding the caduceus,
emblem of peace and prosperity; last, a schoolmaster with a group
of children, symbolizing education, with a church and the capital
buildings in the distance. The pedestal will also be ornamented
with books, scrolls, flambeau wreaths and festoons of flowers. From
this pedestal will rise the tall and graceful column, forty feet long,
five feet and a half in diameter at the base, and three and a half
feet in diameter at the top. The column is in six sections, and
between the sections stars in bas-relief will indicate the States of
the Union. A cap and sphere — together six feet high — will form
the capital of the column, and also serve as the base for the colossal
bronze statue of Douglas, twelve feet high, which crowns the
whole, at an elevation of one hundred feet from the ground. The
patriot statesman is to be represented in an erect posture, his right
hand resting on the fasces, in illustration of his firm reliance in the
Union of the States, and holding in his left hand a scroll copy of
the Constitution, which was the guide of his public life.
The foundation, the base platforms, and about half the work on
60 HISTOKY OF THE
the sepulchre are completed, and it is expected that the remains
of Douglas will be deposited in the sarcophagus of the monument
ifiometime in October. The estimated cost of the entire structure
is $80,000.
The material used for the base and sepulchre is what is known
In Chicago as Athens marble, a fine light-buff colored limestone,
quarried at Athens, in the vicinity.
THE APPROPRIATENESS OF THE DESIGN
of this monumental tomb to the topography of the surrounding
country is worthy of remark. The exquisite adaptation of art to
nature is one of the charms of what we admire in the ancients, and
an essential feature of every work which we can, with any justice,
term classical. On low, level lands like our Western prairies,
those who have earned the right to be deemed masters of all who
come after them, were accustomed to erect lofty structures, that
could not be easily obscured, but would tower aloft as landmarks,
attracting from afar the traveler's attention to famous and conse-
crated localities. The Egyptian pyramid and obelisk are examples
of this. In Greece, on the other hand, where it was possible to
fix upon a situation in itself commanding, the architect's labor was
not to attain a lofty height of structure, but a solid and enduring
building to mark the spot. Hence the prevalence of low but
broad and spacious temples — built in the most substantial man-
ner. The architect of the Douglas Monument has therefore fol-
lowed in his design the best examples of art in this particular. It
is but just that this sketch of the Douglas Monument should be ac-
companied with a sketch of
LEONARD W. VOLK, THE ARTIST.
Mr. Volk was born in Wellstown, Hamilton county, N. Y., No-
vember 7, 1828, and is descended from some of the earliest set-
tlers of that State. His father was by trade a marble cutter, and
several brothers have followed the same calling with success.
His father finished one oft he ten marble Corintliian capitals support-
ing the dome of the New York City Hall. Until twenty-one years
old, Mr. Volk passed most of his time among the marble quarries
and works in Western Massachusetts and New York. In 1849 or
1850, he first attempted modelling at St. Louis and copied, in mar-
ble, a bust of Henry Clay, supposed to be the first work of the
kind executed west of the Mississippi. But this branch of his art
DOUGLAS MONUMENT. 61
did not meet with much encouragement in that new country, so
that his trade was his chief reliance for support. He married a
cousin of Judge Douglas, and on an occasion of a cousinly visit by
the Judge, when he (Mr. Volk) was living at Galena, Illinois, in
1852, he was strongly urged by Mr. Douglas to remove to Chi-
cago. This advice he did not heed, but returned to St. Louis,
afterward moving to Rock Island, Illinois, where he engaged in the
marble business in company with a brother. Again, in 1855, he
was visited by his distinguished cousin, who, after the first greet-
ing, said to him: — "I have come to repeat an offer which I re-
quested your brother to make for me a year since. That if you
desire to go to Italy, and study the art of sculpture, I shall be
happy to furnish you with the necessary means to do so. I don't
ask you to take it as a gift, but as a loan, to be paid when you are
able; but never give yourself any concern about it."
This kindness occasioned the utmost joy to the struggling
artist, and in the autumn of that same year he arrived in Rome.
After two years of earnest study in that city and in Florence he
returned to his native land, and settled in Chicago. His first
work was the modeling of a bust of his patron, for which Doug-
las gave him many sittings, and in 1858 — during the celebrated
canvass between Douglas and Lincoln — he modeled a full-length
statue of the former. In 1860 he modeled a bust of Lincoln.
All of those works he has since chiselled in marble. The Doug-
las monument has been a labor of love and gratitude. Mr. Volk,
while superintending its erection, resides in the old Douglas cot-
tage, situated hard by.
THE DECORATIONS.
At each corner of the grave was erected a pillar about
thirty feet in height. From these uprights spring four arches,
draped with black and white, and festooned with roses. Round
the base of the pillars were arranged a number of flags, and all
the -yvay up they were drapjied with black and white, and with
wreaths of roses and flags. The grave was covered with natural
flowers. In front of the grave was placed upon a pedestal Volk's
splendid marble bust of Douglas, and a model of the monument.
No other decorations of any kind were on the ground.
The documents to be deposited under the corner-stone for pres-
ervation are: Records of the Douglas Monument Association; cer-
tified charter of the Douglas Monument Association; a copper
62 HISTORY OF THE
plate with the names of trustees engraved thereon; pamphlet, by-
laws, constitution and appeal; diploma of membership, blank cir-
culars, agents' credentials, etc., of the association; medallions of
Douglas, with the date of the laying of the stone; photograph of
the monument; likeness of Douglas on porcelain, together with a
photograph; Sheahan's Life of Douglas to 1858; last speeches of
the great statesman before the Illinois Legislature and in the Wig-
wam; his funeral ceremonies in 1861; obituary addresses in the
Senate and House of Representatives; eulogy before the Univer-
sity; miscellaneous documents relating to Douglas; United States
medals and coins — gold, silver, and copper; specimens of paper
money; copy of Douglas' deed of land to the University of Chica-
go; copy of each of the daily city papers; copy of IlaTpe.r's
WeeJcly^ with tlie monument illustrated; first and last copies of the
catalogue of the University; Douglas' ancestral record; statistics
of the Chamber of Commerce of Chicago; first and last directories
of Chicago; copies of the catalogues of the art exhibitions in Chi-
cago in 1859, 1863 and 1866; charter of the Chicago Historical So-
ciety, and an autograph letter of the deceased.
THE ENTRY OF THE PEOCESSIOjST
was the first impressive point in the proceedings. A band of
music preceded the cortege, a battalion of Knights Templar suc-
ceeded, and the representatives of the Masonic fraternity followed.
The latter ascended the stand and rested immediately around the
base of the monument, where they prepared to perform the ancient
rites.
THE CROWD i::n^ruly.
At this point, just before the appearance of the President, the
vast crowd broke the ropes placed around the reserved grounds
and rushed to nearly all parts of the field. Order was fully restored
by the exertions of the Templars and Ellsworth Zouaves.
THE PRESIDEN"T AND PARTY,
with heads uncovered, now entered the grounds. The order of
their progress on foot was particularly noticeable. Seward had
the President's arm, Welles and Randall walked together, Grant
accompanied Romero.
DOUGLAS MONUMENT. 63
HUZZAS FOR THE PRESIDENT.
At the approach of the procession the audience, as if actuated
by one simultaneous impulse, rose to their feet. From the house-
tops, where the cars stopped on the shores of the ' lake, from the
people in windows, in vehicles and even in the trees, one long and
hearty huzza ascended. The demonstration betokened consider-
able feeling, being at once an indication of enthusiasm at the
presence of the distinguished guests and an ajDpreciation of the
solemnity of the occasion.
A GRAND ASSEMBLAGE.
On the lofty platform, elevated above the rest of the assemblage,
was seated the most important concourse that perhaps ever col-
lected under similar circumstances. Most of the great officials in
every department of the government surrounded the President.
The youthful sons of Mr. Douglas were present and touchingly
reminded every one of the sad object that had assembled the
pilgrims.
CEREMONIES OP LAYING THE STONE.
The first in the course of the proceedings was a brief but appro-
priate address by Mayor Rice. The Masonic Grand Master of Illi-
nois, J. R. Gavin, appeared in front of the stand and delivered a
short, touching and eloquent address, in which he paid a glowing
tribute to the memory of the illustrious deceased, both as a friend
and as a Mason, and referred to the fact that a statue will be
placed on the monument, visible to the voyager of this inland
sea as long as starlight and sunbeams love to dance on its crested
billows. The Grand Chaplain then invoked the Divine blessing
upon the ceremony, when the ceremony of laying the corner stone
took place according to the Masonic rituah After blessing with
corn, wine and oil the stone was lowered in its place, while minute
guns were being fired, and the band played a dirge which seemed
to solemnize all hearts.
NATURE ASSISTING IN THE CEREMONY.
Nature herself gave a character to, and as it were assisted at the
scene. This was at the moment when the feelings of the assem-
bled multitude were most intent upon the rites of which they were
64 niSLOEY OF THE
the spectators. The worshipful Grand Master of Knights Templar
had poured corn and wine and oil upon the corner-stone; the archi-
tect had delivered to the Grand Master the implements of the craft
of Masonary; the stone had been examined to see if the workmen
had done their duty, and it had been pronounced true and square,
and was being lowered into its place; the revenue cutter Andrew
Johnson, lying close in shore; fired her first minute gun; the band
of the Knights Templars in slow and solemn cadences, played
Pleyel's march; the immense crowd stood uncovered, looking up-
ward to the platform, all eyes moist and all hearts touched by the
scene before them, when the heavens which had been for a time
darkening, and sombre clouds had gathered over the grave of
Douglas, dropped gentle tears of rain upon the sod underneath
which lay Illinois' favorite son and statesman. Few were on the
ground that lacked heart and sympathy, to contrast the smiling
morn, when hurrying crowds and marshaling hosts and gay ban-
ners and pennants, and soul stirring music pervaded the streets of
Chicago, and the cheers that greeted the long procession went up
from ten thousand throats, with the solemn change that came over
the face of the heavens and over the minds of the spectators at the
moment when to the dull boom of minute guns and the solemn
music of the band, large drops of rain fell upon their upturned
faces. When the ceremony of the day was consummated and the
corner stone of the Douglas monument was lowered into 'its place,
the air again cleared, the clouds broke and the broad waters of
Lake Michigan once more danced in the sunlight as the Grand
Worshipful Master descended from his position, having declared
that the corner-stone of the monument to the deceased brother
had been laid with all the ceremonies pertaining to the Order of
Free and Accepted Masons.
GENERAL DIX'S ORATION.
A TEAYER was then delivered by Rev. Wm. H. Milburn, of the
Protestant Episcopal church, when the orator of the day, Major-
General Dix, addressed the assemblage as follows:
Fellow Citizens — The scene in which we are actors to-day,
with all its surrounding circumstances and accompanying recollec-
tions, has no parallel in this or any other age. We are assembled
DOUGLAS MONUMENT. 65
■within the confines of a city numbering over 200,000 inhabitants,
distant 1,000 miles from the ocean, where thirty-four years ago noth-
ing was seen but an unbroken expanse of prairie on the one side,
and the outspread waters of Lake Michigan on the other-— both ex-
tending far beyond the compass of the sight; nothing heard but
the voice of the great inland sea from the sands on which its waves
were breaking, or the more unwelcome voices of the savage tribes
who roamed over these majestic plains, where, within half the span
of an ordinary life there was one vast solitude, — all is full of ac-
tivity and progress and the treasures of a polished civilization.
Industry and the arts display their stores with a bounteousness
which might well be mistaken for the accumulated surpluses of
centuries; science is teaching the truths which have been devel-
oped by the researches of the past, and enlarging the boundaries
of human knowledge by new discoveries; education is universally
diffused; and, above all, the temples which religion has reared to
the service of God, from every precinct and almost every street of
the city point their spires to heaven, as it were in acknowledgment
of the merciful protection under which it has triumphed over all
the obstacles to its growth, and become strong and self-reliant and
prosperous. Fellow citizens, in no other country of the present, in
no age of the past, could such a miracle of civilization have been
wrought. And now this great city and the great West, of which
it is by comparison but an inconsiderable part, have poured out the
tens of thousands who stand around me in a mass so extended that
no human voice could reach your outer ranks. You have come
here to render the homage of your respect to the memory of one
who rose among you to the highest eminence for talent and for
successful labor in your service. And the chief magistrate of the
Union, who in the council chambers of the nation stood side by
side with him in the darkest hour of its peril, and espoused with
equal zeal and eloquence the cause of their common covmtry when
other men, with hearts less stout and faith less constant, quailed
before the impending storm, has come to join with you in this act
of posthumous honor to an honest, courageous and patriotic states-
man, cut off in the fullness of his strength, his usefulness and his
fame. Where or when has such a concurrence of circumstances
existed to inspire one with great thoughts, and yet to make him,
by their very greatness, despair of giving them appropriate utter-
ance? No one need look out of his own breast for the impulse
which has gathered so vast a multitude together — a multitude
which no other sun shall ever see re-assembled. It is one of the
5
66 HISTORY OF TJIE
strongest feelings of our nature to desire to perpetuate the mem-
ory of those who, from ties of blood, familiar associations or valu-
able services, have become dear to us, and by the will of God have
been separated from us forever. There are thousands within the
reach of my voice who have been made painfully conscious of this
instinct by the bereavements which the unhappy domestic conflict
just ended has visited upon them. When the burden of grief lies
heavy on the heart, it is the first impulse of our nature to prolong
the remembrance, to grave into the solid stone, which shall endure
when we have perished, some appropriate thought, or, it may be
the simple names of those we have loved and lost. Kindred to
these tributes of aifection is the debt of gratitude which a whole
commvmity, represented here in countless numbers, has assembled
to discharge by the erection of a monument suited in its proportions
to the great qualities of him whom it is to commemorate — to lay
the foundation of the structure, which is to be piled up, stone up-
on stone, from the earth beneath our feet to the sky above us, and
thus to symbolize the eminence to which he rose by his genius and
his transcendent public services above-the plane of elevation where
the ffreat mass of his contemporaries stood and toiled and struo-oled
in the hard battle of life.
Thirty-three years ago, the year after Chicago was founded, a
crowd of people were assembled at Winchester, in Scott county,
in this State, to attend a sale of valuable property. When it was
about to commence a clerk was wanted to keep the accounts, and
no one could be found who was willing to undertake the service.
At this moment a youth, slender in person and feeble in health,
who had come on foot from a neighboring town, joined the assem-
bled crowd. He was at once singled ovit by the salesman as one
competent to the service, and at his urgent solicitation, and
tempted, no doubt, by the oifer of $2 a day, the youthful stranger
accepted it. The sale occupid three days, and before it was ended
he had won all hearts by his intelligence, his promptitude, his
frankness and his urbanity. It was the general judgment that a
young man of so much promise should not be permitted to leave
the neighborhood. A school was provided for him; and thus as a
clerk and a teacher, a stranger, without friends and without means,
not twenty-one years of age, relying on the talents God had given
him, on an industry which never wearied, and a courage which
never wavered, Stephen Arnold Douglas entered upon the great
field of his labor in the West. It cannot be doubted that among
a people battling with the hardships of a new country the favor-
DOUGLAS MONUMENT. 67
able impression which his first appearance had made was con-
firmed by a knowledge of the difficulties he had overcome in pre-
paring himself for active life. There was no romance in his early
years. His youth was the history of hard work and of a perpetual
struggle to cultivate the talents of which he must have become
conscious in his boyhood. He was born in Brandon, Vt., on the
33d of April, 1813. On the first of July ensuing, his father died
suddenly while holding his infant son in his arms. The first fif-
teen years of his life were passed on a farm, with such advantages
of instruction as the district school afforded. Having no other
means of education, he apprenticed himself to a carpenter and
worked two years at his trade, but was compelled to abandon it
for want of physical strength. He returned to his native town,
entered an academy and devoted himself to classical studies for a
year. He then removed to Canandaigua, in New York, and re-
mained there three years, continuing his chissical studies and for a
portion of the time studying law. In all these phases of his youth
he evinced the same intelligence and the same energy which dis-
tinguished his later years. As an apprentice to a carj^enter he
displayed a remarkable genius for mechanics, and had not nature
marked him out for eminence in another sphere of action, he might
have become one of the distinguished architects of the country.
In his classical and legal studies he exhibited the same capacity
for distinction, and while engaged in the study of the law he com-
pleted, to use the language of his biographer, " nearly the entire
collegiate course in most of the various branches required of a
graduate in our best universities. He is next seen as a clerk in a
lawyer's office in Cleveland, Ohio; then traveling in the West in
pursuit of employment, stopping -at Cincinnati, Louisville, St.
Louis and Jacksonville, and at last making his appearance at Win-
chester, and commencing in the manner already described his
great career of usefulness and distinction.
There is nothing more touching than his brief address to the peo-
ple of Winchester, when he visited that place in 1858, after hav-
ing become distinguished in the councils of the nation. "Twen-
ty-five years ago," he said, " I entered this town on foot, with my
coat upon my arm, without an acquaintance within a thousand
miles, and without knowing where I could get money to pay a
week's board. Here I made the first six dollars I ever earned in
my life, and obtained the first regular occupation that I ever pur-
sued. For the first time in my life I felt that the responsibilities
of manhood were upon me, although I was under age, for I had
68 HISTORY OF THE
none to advise with and knew none upon whom I had a right to
call for assistance or friendship." Fellow citizens, the history of
Mr. Douglas would not have been congruous, and it might have
been far less distinguished, but for the hard struggles of his youth
— but for his severe discipline in cviltivating the intellectual pow-
ers with which nature had endowed him. We do not consider,
when we commiserate the trials of the young and unfriended, toil-
ing on their weary way to reputation and fortune, that it is this
very process by which men are made successful and great. Spare,
then, your sympathy for those who in their youth are contending
with difficulties, and bestow it on those who, with all their needs
supplied, and without the stimulant of want, are in danger of sinking
into inaction and mediocrity. It is Providence which in its mercy
throws obstacles in the path of him whom it marks out for emi-
nence, that he may gain strength and courage and resolution in
overcoming them. It is thus that the path to greatness is made
smooth in after life by the hard trials of our early years. At the
end of three months Mr. Douglas gave up his school at Winches-
ter, and commenced the practice of the law in Jacksonville. A
mere youth himself, he had already given evidence of his fitness
to be a teacher of men. From this moment he became conspicu-
ous throughout the State, and he achieved a series of triumphs un-
exampled in the career of any one of his age. At the bar and in
the political field he took from the outset a leading part, meeting
the ablest and most experienced advocates and orators in debate,
and always coming out of the intellectual combats in which he
was engaged with increasing reputation. Offices poured in upon
him in rapid succession.
Early in 1835, fourteen months after his appearance at Win-
chester, he was chosen, by the Legislature of the State, Attorney
for the Judicial District; in 1836 he was elected a member of the
Legislature; in 1837 he was appointed Register of the Land Office
under the Federal Government, and in 1841 he was chosen a Judge
of the Supreme Court of the State. It is not possible within the
limits of an address to say more than this: that in every position
to which he was called he maintained the same high standing for in-
tegrity, talent and courage, and that with every advance in the
importance of the offices he filled, he developed a corresponding
power and capacity for the discharge of their duties. In 1843 he was
elected a Representative in Congress, and from this period his rep-
utation ceased to be local and became identified with the history
of the country. His first elFort as a speaker in the Federal Legis-
DOUGLAS MONUMENT. 69
lature was as effective as his first ap})earance at Winchester. A
bill was before the House of Representatives remitting the fine
imposed on General Jackson by the Judge of the New Orleans dis-
trict after the receipt of the intelligence of peace between the
United States and Great Britian, in February, 1815. During the
siege the General had declared martial law and resisted the exe-
cution of a writ of habeas corpus issued by the judge. As soon
as peace was proclaimed he rescinded the order declaring martial
law, surrendered himself to the court and was fined $1,000. The bill
before Congress px'ovided for refunding the fine. It had been ad-
vocated chiefly on the score of General Jackson's great services
to the country; and it was conceded that he had exercised an ar-
bitrary power unwarranted by the Constitution. Mr. Douglas took
different and higher ground. He contended that the judge was
wrong in imposing the fine, and that the General did not "assume
to himself any authority which was not fully warranted by his po-
sition, his duty and the unavoidable necessity of the case."
These positions were maintained with an ability so marked as to
attract and command general attention ; and from that time forth
he was ranked with the ablest debaters, in a body numbering
among its members some of the most distinguished men in the
country. It was natural that Mr. Douglas, trained as his mind had
been from its earliest years to habits of self-reliance, should, in
dealing with constitutional questions, strike out from the beaten
track of interpretation into new paths. The instance I have cited
is not the only one. In a speech in the House of Representatives
on the annexation of Texas, he took the ground that the right to
acquire teiritory, one of the most vexed questions of constitutional
authority, was included within the power to admit new States into
the Union. So, at a subsequent period, as Chairman of the Com-
mittee on Territories in the Senate, he contended that the right to
establish territorial governments, was also included in the power
to admit new States. In nearly all preceding discussions, it had
been assumed that the right to institute governments for the terri-
tories was included in the power "to dispose of and make all need-
ful rules and regulations respecting the territory or other property
belonging to the United States. " The propositions thus advanced
by Mr. Douglas, were stated and defended with his native clear-
ness and force, and they may be considered as constituting an es-
sential part of the great body of commentary by which the exercise
of the powers referred to is surrounded, and in regard to which di-
visions of opinion will continue to exist, notwithstanding the
70 HISTOKY OF THE
practical interpretation they have received in the legislation of the
country.
In 1846, three years after his election to the House of Repre-
sentatives, he was chosen a member of the Senate of the United
States, and he was continued in that body by successive re-elections
until his death in June, 1861. As a member of both bodies he
took part in the discussion of nearly every great question which
arose during those eighteen years of unexampled agitation and ex-
citement. His speeches on the annexation of Texas, the war with
Mexico, our foreign policy, the aggressions of EurojDean states in
America, the extension of our own territorial limits, the compro-
mise acts of 1850, the Oregon, California, Kansas, Nebraska and
Lecompton controversies, internal improvements, and incidentally
the .question of slavery, the prolific source of nearly all the agita-
tions of the last quarter of a century, and of the civil war which
has drenched the country in fraternal blood, are all marked by the
clearness, vigor and boldness which were the chief characterist'es
of his oratory. It was perhaps in the patriotic but vain attempt
to calm the prevailing excitement and close up forever the source
of the dissensions which had so long distracted the country, by
the preparation and defense of the compromise measures of 1850,
that the great ability of Mr. Douglas was more signally displayed
than in any other political labor of his life. In January, 1850, Mn
Clay introduced into the Senate a series of resolutions, hoping that
they might be made a basis of legislation which would be satisfac-
tory to the contending parties. While these resolutions were un-
der consideration, Mr. Douglas, as chairman of the Committee on
Territories, introduced two bills — one for the admission of Califor-
nia into the Union as a State, and the other for the organization of
the Territories of Utah and New Mexico and the adjustment of the
boundary question with Texas.
In April a committee of thirteen, with Mr. Clay at its head, was
appointed, and all propositions concerning the slavery question
were referred to it. On the 8th of May, Mr. Clay rejiorted from
the committee Mr. Douglas' two bills combined in one, with a sin-
gle amendment. When introduced by the latter they provided that
the power of the Territorial Legislature should embrace all subjects
of legislation consistent with the Constitution. As reported by Mr.
Clay, the slavery question was expressly excepted from the power
of legislation. This exception was subsequently rescinded, and
the bill was passed as originally reported by Mr. Douglas. The
compromise measures, so far as they related to the organization of
DOUGLAS MONUMENT. 71
the Territories, were his work and they were founded on the prin-
ciple that the people of the Territories, through their legislatures,
should determine the slavery question for themselves " and have
the same power over it as over all other matters affecting their
internal policy." These measures, as you all know, though they
were, at the Presidential election of 1852, approved by both the
the great political parties, were far from calming the popular ex-
citement. And when Mr. Douglas, in 1858, as Chairman of the
Committee on Territories, introduced the Kansas-Nebraska Bill,
it led to a fierce and protracted discussion. The object, as the com-
mittee declared in a special report accompanying it, was " to or-
ganize all Territories iu the future upon the principles of the com-
promise measures of 1850;" and " that these measures were intended
to have a much broader and enduring effect than merely to adjust
the disputed question growing out of the acquisition of Mexican
territory, by prescribing certain fundamental principles, which,
while they adjusted the existing difficulties, would prescribe rules
of action in all future time, when new Territories were to be
organized or new States to be admitted into the Union. That the
principle upon which the Territories of 1850 were organized was,
that the slavery question should be banished from the halls of
Congress and the political arena, and referred to the Territories
and States which were immediately interested in the question, and
alone responsible for its existence," and the report concluded by
saying that "the bill reported by the committee proposed to car-
ry into effect these principles in the precise language of the com-
promise measures of 1850." The repeal of the Missouri com-
promise was incorporated into the bill at a subsequent period as
an amendment, and in this form it passed both houses of Congiess
and became a law in 1854.
Whatever differences of opinion may exist, or may heretofore
have existed, in regard to these measures, no one at this day will
call in question the patriotic motive by which Mr. Doughis was ac-
tuated, his deep anxiety to preserve the harmony of the Union, his
sincerity and the great intellectual power with which he maintained
every position he took. No opposition in or out of the Senate, no
popular clamor, no fear of personal consequences, disturbed his
equanimity or his courage. He threw himself into every arena in
which he was assailed, and defended himself with an intrepidity
and a manly frankness which always commanded the respect of
those who differed with him, and with a vigor which often won
them over to his own convictions. At no period of his life, per-
72 HISTORY OF THE
haps, did Mr. Douglas appear so remarkable as on an occasion
which you all remember — when he returned to this city in 1854
where he had often been received with triumphant demonstrations
of respect, and appointed a meeting in front of the North Market
hall, to speak in defense of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill. It was a mo-
ment of the wildest excitement throughout the country. Kansas was
rent by contending parties; associations had been organized and
armed. North and South — the latter to force slavery into that ter-
ritory, and the former to exclude it by force. Such was the popu-
lar indignation that it was determined Mr. Douglas should not be
heard. For more than four hours he faced an angry and excited
multitude, calm, undaunted, regardless of personal danger, attempt-
ing to speak in the intervals of popular clamor, and at last quietly
retiring unhear»l,but not the lessunconquered and unconquerable.
Fellow-citizens, no man that ever lived could have confronted such
a demonstration of popular disapproval if he had not felt that he
had done right. Courage and a consciousness of wrong are never
companions of each other; and it may be sal'ely said that there is
not one of those who was then arrayed against him that will not,
now that excitement and passion have passed away, bear testimony
to the sincerity of his convictions, and the moral grandeur with
which he maintained and defended them. The peculiar constitu-
tion of our government and the character of our people have given
an impulse to public speaking unknown to any other country. Or-
atory is of the natural growth of free institutions. There are no
orators where there is no freedom of speech. They degenerated
and disappeared in Greece after the era of Philip, and in Rome
after the era of Augustus.
Suffrage and education being nearly universal with us, all have
the desire and need to know whatever concerns the administra-
tion of public affairs. The communication of intelligence in re-
gard to the designs and the policy of parties by the press is, to a
great extent, ex parte and incomplete; and the defect has led to a
practice peculiar to the United States, of holding assemblies of the
people in which all unite for the purpose of discussing public
questions, both sides being defended respectively, by speakers of
opposite opinions. This practice is general in the Western and
Southern States, but less so in the Middle and Eastern. It is to
be regretted that it is not universal. Nothing can be more fair
than such a comparison and criticism of measures and opinions.
When misstatements may be instantly corrected, there is no tempt-
ation to make them, as there is in mere party meetings; and the
DOUGLAS MONUMENT. 73
facts of the case being undisputed, the influence of the speaker,
apart from the merits of his cause, depends altogether on the pow-
er of his eloquence and the soundness of his logic. It has the ad-
vantage of ^carrying before the great tribunal of the people in
every neighborhood (for there is scarcely a locality in which such
meetings are not held) the issues to be tried; and thus before the
right of suffrage is exercised every man is enabled to form an in-
telligent understanding of the duty he is to perform. It was in
this field of public debate that Mr. Douglas' oratory was, to a
great extent, found. His labors at various periods of his life in
traversing the State for the purpose of addressing these assemblies
of the people are almost incredible; and the influence he acquired
is due in a great degree to the impression which he made on these
occasions by his eloquence and his logical power.
The most memorable of these popular canvasses, and one which
is not likely ever again to occur, was that of 1858, when Mr. Lin-
coln and Mr. Douglas, both candidates for the senate at the time,
and for the presidency two years afterwards, traversed the State,
speaking together at difi"erent places designated by previous ap-
pointment and published for the information of the people. The
magnitude of the issues involved in the election of that year (far
more vital to the peace and permanent interests of the country
than any one at that time could have foreseen, although subse-
quent events were even then faintly foreshadowed), the great abil-
ity of the speakers, the confidence reposed in them by the political
parties which they respectively represented, and the immense mul-
titudes that were drawn together to witness so extraordinary a con-
test, gave it an importance which no similar trial of intellectual
power has ever attained. The relation in which they stood to each
other and the whole country so soon afterwards, give it, now that
their earthly labors are ended, a posthumous character of heroism
surpassing that which it possessed at the time. They may be said
with perfect truth to have been the nation's representatives and the
exponents of its opinions. They were actors in a political drama as
far transcending in grandeur all other popular canvasses, as an epic
rises in dignity above a narrative of ordinary life. In April, 1861,
when the first gun was fired upon Fort Sumter, Mr. Lincoln and
Mr. Douglas were again together, the former as President, and the
latter as a Senator of the United States, taking counsel in reo-ard
to the measures to be adopted to vindicate the insulted honor of
the government, to uphold its violated authority, and to save the
Union from forcible dismemberment. Mr. Douo^las advised the
74 HISTOEY OF THE
most ample preparations and the most vigorous action. I have the
highest authority for saying that he had the entire confidence of the
President, and when they parted, Mr. Douglas set out on that last
great service of traversing the free States, and rousing them by his
resistless eloquence to the great duty of maintaining the Union un-
broken against the gigantic treason by which its existence was
threatened. And thus these two distinguished men, so recently
opposed to each other, came together in friendly confidence under
the impulse of an exalted patriotism, and an impending national
peril, forgetting past differences, having no thought of themselves,
and desirous only of knowing how each could do most for the com-
mon cause. It pleased God that both should perish in carrying out
the great purposes of their hearts. Mr. Douglas died of a disease
contracted in his herculean efforts in canvassing the North and
West in support of the war. Mr. Lincoln died by a flagitious act
of cowardice and crime on the very day when the old flag went up
on the battlements of Fort Sumter, amid the shouts, the congratu-
lations and the tears of the thousands who came together to witness
this significant vindication of the national power. Happily the one
was spared till he saw the people of the free States inspired with
his own enthusiasm in the country's cause; the other, till he had
made his name immortal by striking from the limbs of three mil-
lion human beings the manacles of slavery, and seen the last hos-
tile force surrendered to the armies of the Union.
Fellow citizens, there is a view of this sudden revolution in the
social condition of the colored race, which ought never to be over-
looked. The proclamation of Mr. Lincoln abolishing slavery was
an act of war, and extended only to the States which had taken up
arms against the government. It did not reach Maryland, Dele-
ware, Kentucky or Tennessee, which remained true to their alle-
giance. Slavery still existed in those States; and for its final ex-
tinction, for the consummation of the great measure of manumis-
sion, for the obliteration of the only feature in our political consti-
tution which has ever been regarded as inconsistent with its fun- ^
damental principles of freedom and equality, the country is in-
debted to the prestent Chief Magistrate of the Union. His
personal influence with the South has achieved what no power of
the government could have effected — the adoi^tion by three-fourths
of the states of the constitutional amendment declaring slavery
forever abolished throughout the Union. The glory of President
Lincoln is to have, by an act of his own will, emancipated all
slaves within the reach of his legitimate power. The glory of
H
DOUGLAS MONUMENT. 75
President Johnson is to have completed what the former left un-
finished, and to have made the Constitution what eleven of the
thirteen original parties to it desired to make it at its formation.
Two of the slave states refused to concur in the great measure of
1865, and it will be recorded in our history as one of the marvels
of the times that slavery was abolished in Kentucky and Deleware
by the votes of South Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi and Alabama.
Let the fact be proclaimed in honor of the last named states, and
it need not be doubted that the time is near at hand when they
will find, in high moral considerations, and an immeasurably in-
creased prosperity, cause to congratulate themselves that their
names are enrolled in the great army of emancipators throughout
the civilized world. In the State of Illinois, there has been no
great interest for a quarter of a century with which Mr. Douglas
was not in some degree identified. His views were eminently con-
servative. He opposed all useless expenditures, all loose interpre-
tations of organic or administrative laws, all attempts to evade
obligations resting upon legitimate compacts; and yet he was al-
ways one of the foremost in advocating judicious internal improve-
ments. He was particularly conspicuous for his persevering efforts
to secure the errant of lands from the United States for the Illlinois
Central Railroad, to which so much of the prosperity of the State
is due. It is no injustice to the representatives in Congress from
Illinois, to whose active and zealous co-operation with him that in-
valuable grant was obtained, to say that but for his determined op-
position, it would have been made to a private company, and not,
as he insisted it should be, to the State.
You all remember his earnest and long continued exertions, ex-
tending through a series of years, to procure the passage of a bill
by Congress for the construction of the Pacific railroad, the most
gigantic enterprise of this or any other age. He addressed pub-
lic meetings and wrote papers to enforce upon the judgment of
the country the necessity of executing a work which he regarded
as destined to become one of the strongest bonds of Union between
the States and the people on the two shores of this continent, and
as essential to the full dt&velopment of our internal resources and
our commercial capacity. He did not live to see the great enter-
prise commenced. But, thanks to him and those who like him
foresaw its importance without being appalled by its magnitude,
it is now in a course of rapid execution. It was commenced a
year ago; the tracklayers passed Fort Kearney on the 30th of last
month; they are now more tnan 200 miles west of Omaha; they
76 HISTORY OF THE
are more than half way across the Continent. On the 1st of April
next, this city will reach, by one unbroken railway communica-
tion, into the heart of the great plains which stretch from the
Rocky mountains eastward, and be within 200 miles of Denver, in
Colorado. Of the 3,300 miles of railroad required in this parallel of
latitude to cross the continent, only 1,300 will remain unfinished.
There is every reason to believe, should no unforeseen event oc-
cur to retard it, that in five years from this time the work will be
completed, the Atlantic and Pacific oceans and the population on
their respective shores will be united by bonds of iron which no
man can break, and a large portion of the trade with China will
be turned from maritime into overland channels. The results to
which this improvement must lead, no human sagacity can foresee,
and no human calculation compute.
In connection with this subject, let me recall to your remembrance
the general gloom which overspread the country when the late civil
war broke out. The stoutest hearts were not without their misgiv-
ings, and even those of us who never doubted the issue, and who
were determined from the beginning to fight it out to the end, with-
out regard to consequences, had our hours and days of the deepest
anxiety. While calling out, like the psalmist, from the depths of
our distress, " Z^e pro/widis,'''' the gates of our valleys and our
everlasting hills were unlocked, as if in response to our cry, and
treasures which had lain buried in the darkness of ages were poured
out in boundless profusion, to sustain us under the enormous burdens
cast upon us by the war. To these prolific fountains of wealth the
Pacific railroad is to convey us on its way across the continent — to
the Rocky Mountains, the Sierra Nevada, and the lower gold and
silver bearing ranges. The auriferous mountains of Europe and
Asia have been penetrated and ransacked for thousands of years for
the precious metals they contain. Ours are, as yet, almost un-
touched, and there is every reason to believe — I had almost said to
fear — that the treasures which are to be developed and distributed
among us will exceed all that history has pictured of the riches of
the great oriental empires. For let us bear in our remembrance
that the administration of wealth by governments is always a source
of corruption; that communities grow less scrupulous as they grow
more rich; that simplicity of manners gives way to luxury and econ-
omy to extravagance; and that rivalry in industry is succeeded by
that worst and most demoralizing of all competition — emulation in
expenditure. Social evils of this sort may be endured and made
comparatively innoxious so long as public legislation is pure. I say
DOUGLAS MONUMENT. 77
to you then, men of the West, look to the purity of your representa-
tives in your State legislatures and in Congress. Let them be men
of talent, if they are also men of integrity. But let them, first of
all, be honest arid incorruptible. It was the good fortune of Mr.
Douglas to have borne his part in the national councils, when incor-
ruptibility was deemed as essential in a public legislator as chastity
in a woman, and to have gone through life, during the highest
party excitement, without a stain on his reputation in his personal
or public relations. Impure legislation was the evil for which,
above all others, the founders of our government had the deepest
concern.
Quod nostri timuere patres,
and it ison you, as voters, holding in your hands the power of
selection, that the responsibility rests of maintaining the stability
of the government by confiding its administration, and especially
its legislative functions, to pure men. It has pleased the Sovereign
R.iler of the Universe to strengthen and uphold us in the
seasons of our adversity and peril. Let us implore Him not
to leave us to ourselves in the more dangerous ordeal of
our prosperit3\ The oratory of Mr. Douglas was marked by
the same characteristics which distinguished him in all the
actions of his life. It was bold, earnest, forcible and impress-
ive. It is quite manifest that he never chose as a model any one
of tlie great orators of his own time or of the past. It is equally
certain that he bestowed little labor on ornament. He seems to
have had a single object in the preparation of his speeches — to
express his thoughts in the simplest and most forcible words, and to
give to his hearers the clearest conception of his meaning ; and it
was from the steady pursuit of this object that he acquired the ex-
traordinary power which he possessed of moving other minds, by
pouring into them the overpowering convictions of his own. He
never turned out of the direct path of logical deduction to run after
a rhetorical figure. He never impaired the force of a plain propo-
sition by loading it with unnecessary words. His style w^as the
growth of practice in speaking rather than study — a practice which
began in his boyhood, and which, through his early appointment
to offices requiring argument and debate, became a part of his
daily life. It is doubtful whether any man of his age ever spoke
so often in courts, legislative bodies and in popular assemblies.
H3 may be said to have been eminently an orator of the people.
His greatest power was, perhaps, in influencing the judgments and
feelings of the masses. And yet, in the Senate Chamber, he was
78 HISTORY OF THE
scarcely less distinguished. He was for years the associate in that
arena of the first men of the Union, often their opponent in debate,
and never coming out of the contest without honor. Indeed, as a
ready and effective debater he had very few equals. His long and
laborious training in the intellectual battlefields of the West, his
clear mental conceptions, and the direct and forcible rendering of
his thoughts gave him a power in extemporaneous discussions
which few other men possessed. It is unnecessary to say to you,
who knew him so well, that there were occasions when, under the
influence of strong excitement, he rose to the very highest flights
of oratory; when the passion by which he was moved, broke out
into those pointed and epigramatic utterances which live for years
after the lips of the speaker have been closed forever. Such an oc-
casion occurred in the debate on the Mexican war, in the House
of Representatives in 1846, when he was but thirty- three years of
age. Some of the ablest and most prominent members of that
body had denounced the war as " unholy, unrighteous and damna-
ble, " when Mr. Douglas turned upon them with the following out-
burst of fiery indignation: — " Sir, I tell these gentlemen it requires
more charity than falls to the lot of frail man tu believe that the
expression of such sentiments is consistent with the sincerity of
their professions — with patriotism, honor and duty to their country.
Patriotism emanates from the heart, it fills the soul, inspires the
whole man with a devotion to his country's cause and speaks and
acts the same language.
" America wants no friends, acknowledges the fidelity of no
citizen who, after war is declared, condemns the justice of her
cause and sympathizes with the enemy; all such are traitors in
their hearts, and it only remains^ for them to commit some
overt act for which they may be dealt with according to their
deserts." Though Mr. Douglas was always a member of the dem-
ocratic party, he never considered himself bound by his associa-
tions to support measures which he believed wrong. His sense of
right, his conscientious convictions of duty were with him obliga-
tions above all party ties. It was under this high feeling of honor
and self-respect, and with an indejiendence worthy of all praise,
that he broke away from the political associations with which he
had been all his life identified, and denounced, resisted and opposed
with all the resistless energy of his character, and with all the ear-
nestness of his eloquence, what he denominated the Lecompton
fraud. There can be no higher evidence of his stern integrity than
his course on this occasion; no better illustration of the truth that,
DOUGLAS MONUMENT. 79
though party ties may bind us on questions of mere expediency,
no honest man will hesitate to break away from them when the al-
ternative is to do, on a question of principle, what he feels to be
wrong. The last public appearance of Mr. Douglas was on two
occasions, one immediately succeeding the other. On his return to
this State, after the attack on Fort Sumter, he addressed the mem-
bers of the legislature at their request, denouncing the rebellion,
urging the oblivion of all party differences, appealing to his polit-
ical friends and opponents to unite in support of the government,
and calling on the people to come in their strength to its rescue
from the perils which surrounded it, and preserve the Union from
being broken up by force of arms. In a speech to the people of
Chicago, six days afterwards, the same earnest appeals were made
to them to lay aside all considerations but that of preserving the
government of their fathers. On this occasion he was received by
all parties with demonstrations of respect, surpassing in enthusi-
asm, if possible, all others of the great ovations of his life. These
speeches, though pregnant with the most determined spirit, and
with an un doubting faith in the issue of the contest, were obvi-
ously make under great depression of feeling. He had been one
of the most consistent, resolute and efficient defenders of the con-
stitutional rights of the Southern States. He had done everything
that justice and magnanimity dictated to sustain them. To the
members of the legislature he said: " AVhatever errors I have com-
mitted have been leaning too far to the Southern section of the Un-
ion against my own ;" to the people of Chicago, that he had gone
*■' to the utmost extremity of magnanimity and generosity," and
that the return was " war upon the government." It was this sense
of the inutility of his own personal sacrifices and labors, and the
ungenerous return on the part of those for whom he and others
acting with him had done so much, that embittered the last days
of his life, and aggravated the disease under which he was labor-
ing.
A vein of sadness runs through these two last speeches, and
seems now, as we look back to the events speedily following them,
a prefiguration of his approaching death. On these two intellec-
tual eiforts his reputation may well rest, as examples of the purest
patriotism and of an undying faith in the ultimate triumph of the
cause of the Union A few hundred yards west of us, shut out
from our sight by an intervening grove, stands the Chicago Uni-
versity. In the magnitude of its extent, the massiveness of its
architecture and its well-balanced proportions, it is not only an
80 HISTORY OF THE
ornament to the city, but a living testimonial of the liberality with
which private wealth has contributed to the cause of science. Two
hundred students are receiving instruction within its walls from a
learned and accomplished faculty, and from its noble observatory
astronomy holds nightly consultations with the heavenly bodies.
The ample grounds, in the center of which the institution stands,
were the munificent gift of Mr. Douglas, whose name the main
edifice bears. The instruction which in his youth he labored so
hard to obtain, he wished to see fully extended to the young
men of this city and State. And thus shall the two structures —
that of which he was one of the enlightened and liberal founders,
and this of which you have laid the foundation to-day — stand side
by side, we trust for ages to come, as great landmarks of civiliza-
tion, on the shore of Lake Michigan, where little more than a quar-
ter of a century ago majestic nature from the beginning of time had
not yet been roused from her silent and solitary sleep.
And now, fellow-citizens, our task is done; mine in this brief
and imperfect delineation of the character and review of the ser-
vices of Mr. Douglas, yours in laying deep in the solid earth the
foundation of the structure which is to bear his name, and stand
for centuries as a memorial to your children of one whose talents,
political and personal integrity and devotiofi to the public welfare
you would wish them to know and to emulate. In the changeful-
ness of human things the time may come when the stone which is
to surmount and crown it may be brought down to the level of that
which is to be laid at its base to-day. For families and races, and
communities and empires, must, in the future as in the jDast, run
their course and perish. But great actions, great virtues and great
thoughts, emanations and attributes of the spiritual life — types of
the immortality which is to come — shall live on when all the mon-
uments that men contrive and fashion and build up to perpetuate
remembrances of themselves shall, like them, have crumbled into
their primeval dust. One of the greatest poets of the Augustan
era, nearly nineteen hundred years ago, boasted that his works
should live as long as the priest with the silent virgin should ascend
the capitolium. Of the millions of treasure lavished upon the deco-
ration of the capitol no trace remains; its very site was long dis-
puted, and priests and virgins, with the knowledge of the mysteries
they celebrated, have been buried for more than a thousand years
in the darkest oblivion. But the immortal verse, in all its purity
and grace, still lives, and will make the name and genius of its
author familiar until the records of humm thoughts shall be ob-
DOUaLAS MONUMlENT. '8*1
firterated and lost. Thus shall be the name of him whose memory
.you are honoring be as imperishable as the history of the State ifi
whose service he lived and died; borne on his annals as one who
was identified with its progress and improvements; who illustrated
the policy and the social spirit of the great West; who gained
strength and influence from its support and confidence, and who
gloried in its energy and its unconquerable enterprise. He will
be remembered above all for those heroic words, the last he ever
uttered, worthy to be graven on stone and treasured to the end of
time *in ^Tl patriotic hearts-swords which cbnie'to us, as we stand
around his grave, with, a solemnity and a paChos which no lan-
guage can express. When his wife bent over hirti as his spirit
was departing; and asked him if he had anything to say to his
children; forgetting himself, his domestic ti^s, everything precious
in life, from which he was al>out to be seyered; thinking only of
his country rent by civil strife, and overshadowed by 'impenetra-
ble darkness, he replied, " Tell them to obey the laws, and sup-
port the Constitution of the Union."
The orator was frequently interrupted by applause.
GENERAL GRANT SURROUNDED AND ENGAGED IN CONVERSATION.
During the delivery of General Dix's oration. General Grant
quietly left.tl\e upper platform and took a. seat on the lower and
larger- platform-, where he sat for a time.'qiiietl]f indulging in a
cigar. ■ He -vyas unattended by -any of his, usual suite, buft-of course
he could not remain long unnoticed. His admirers on-' this occa-
sion, were siich as to completely exercise the General's' proverbial
reserve. He was at first taken by surprise,'- but it is evident" that
the General can talk to some purpose'. when he pleases. Three
young graces, utter strangers to the General^ opened their batteries
upon him, and, after gaining a little ground, and engaging the
General in a chat, the youngest and loveliest of them, rairsed' her-
s;elf to the seat on the General's left flank, While another perched
herself updn his iright, the third cutting ofl" "all 'retreat in front.
The Gener.al met their sallies and replied to them good humoredly,
and there is dQubt but we might have given an account of what
the GenetaJ saidand how he:conducted himself in this emergency,
but We feared a too near £lpproach with book and pencil would
have frightened oft" the spirited young ladies, and drawn upon us
the frowns of the General. The scene was, however, enjoyed by
many, and a number of committee men who broke in upon it and
carried off the General to the little embowered cottage which Mr.
6
82 HISTORY OF THE
Douglas in his life-time made a temporary resting place when he
visited the neighborhood, got but little praise for their intrusion.
THE PRESIDENT'S SPEECH.
When General Dix had concluded, the President of the United
States was called for. He appeared at the front of the platform
and delivered the following brief address:
Fellow Citizens: — I have traveled over eleven hundred miles,
having been invited to attend the ceremony of laying the corner-
stone of the monument to be erected, I will say, to my friend, per-
sonally and politically, that in accepting the invitation to be pres-
ent on this occasion, it was for the purpose of bearing testimony
on my high respect for a man who perished in the public service,
and one whom I respected and loved. (Cheers.) I have no eulogy
to pronounce; that has been done better than I could do it, and it
will be handed down and placed in the possession of all who took
an interest in the history and character of the distinguished indi-
vidual who is now no more. (Applause.) Some men may wear
the civic wreath which the nation weaves for those who serve their
country in lofty positions, or they may be graced with laurels pre-
pared for those who defend her in the hour of peril, and their
names may be engraved upon the imperishable records of national
glory. This column is reared in memory of the legislator and
the representative man. A consciousness of duty performed was
his remuneration while living, and his reward will be the inscrip-
tion of his name high on the cenotaph erected by a grateful na-
tion to commemorate the services of those who lived and toiled
for the people and the Union of the States. (Immense applause.)
Fellow citizens, I believe in my heart that if we could communi-
cate with the dead, and cause them to know what was transpiring
on earth — were it possible for Stephen A. Douglas to be disturbed
from his slumbers, he would rise from his grave, shake off the hab-
iliments of the tomb and proclaim, " The Constitution and the
Union, they must be preserved. " (Great applause.)
DOUGLAS MONUMENT. 83
SECRETARY SEWARD'S SPEECH.
Secretaky Seward then came forward, in response to repeated
calls, and said:
Like the President, I am not here to make a speech. Less than
on any other occasion could I consent to speak without considera-
tion. It would be a disrespect to the great dead to oifer a hurried
and heedless tribute to the greatness and fame of Stephen A.
Douglas. (Cheers.) You have just heard, as all the world knows,
that Stephen A. Douglas was concerned many years in the great
affairs of this nation at the capital. You are not ignorant that I
have been concerned in the same way; for the last eleven years of
his life that I was an associate in the Senate of Stephen A. Doug-
las. During the last six months of that period I was a fellow la-
borer on the same side, in supporting the same great cause; and I
say that cause was the Union against the rebellion. All the pre-
vious portions of that time we were in a party sense adversaries.
It is among the proudest of my personal recollections that, al-
though we were enemies as the world understands it, political men
arrayed against each other by partisan combinations for ten years,
and were political friends and associates only for six months, yet,
notwithstanding this, the widow, the children, the kindred, the
friends and the party of Stephen A. Douglas paid me the extraor-
dinary compliment of asking me to be the orator on the occasion
for which we have assembled. It proved this, namely, that Stephen
A. Douglas was a great and generous man. Had he not been, he
covild not have gone through ten years of opposition to me without
leaving in my heart a pang or wound. It proved that I knew all
the while that he was a patriot, and that he thought me to be one
also. When they, broken down with grief for his loss — struck
down as he was on the ramparts of his country's defence — came to
me and begged to commit to me the care of his great name and
memory, I was unable to accept the precious trust. I am glad now
that I declined, because I rejoice that the task of his eulogist has
been performed by one who throughoiit his whole life was united
to him in the bonds of political as well as personal friendship, and
who therefore could more justly appreciate his great merits, and
who, having sympathized with him so deeply and so long, knew how
his fame ought to be presented for the emulation of his country-
men. I am sure the oration just delivered will live in history and
81 HISTORY OF THE
the affections of mankind long after you and I shall have perished,
and even after this corner-stone shall be crumbled into dust. And
what, fellow citizens, made a whole nation admire him during the
last eventful years of his life? What is it that has made us unan-
imous in the homage now paid his memory? It was because, in
the most fearful crisis that ever overtook our country, he rushed
forward to the country's defense, and gave up his life in the eiFort
to maintain and save the Union of these States (applause), and
through it to preserve to posterity the blessings which, by the will
of Providence, it was designed to confer. It shows one great and
important truth from which men in every age should take encour-
agement. It is a mistake to suppose the greatest merit on earth is
to found an empire or state — there is a great deal more merit in
preserving it. The study I have been obliged to make of the af-
fairs of nations has satisfied me that he who saves a falling state
is greater than he who founds a state. (Great applause.) There-
fore, I think that Stephen A. Douglas, with Abraham Lincoln, will
live in the memory and homage of mankind equally with the
Washingtons and Hamiltons of the revolutionary age. For my-
self, I could not ask higher commendation to the favor of mankind
in future ages than this — when they shall mark and read the trials
of this our beloved country under the administrations of Abraham
Lincoln and Andrew Johnson — that they may find that Avith Abra-
ham Lincoln .and Stephen A. Douglas I was in true association,
and with Ulysses S. Grant and David G. Farragut, and with all
the great heroes and all the great statesmen who have given to the
American people a new lease of life — a life that I feel able to defy
faction, sedition and powerful enemies to destroy, either now or
hereafter, for evermore.
Tremendous cheers greeted the utterance of these sentences.
GENERAL GRANT's RECEPTION.
General Grant was next introduced and received the most tre-
mendous greeting, as he has through all the places we have passed.
Admiral Farragut was, as usual, warmly greeted. The other dis-
tinguished excursionists were introduced and applauded.
VISITING THE OPERA HOUSE. -
The excursionists, with the exception of the President, visited
the opera house to-night, and were escorted thither by the commit-
tee of reception. They were applauded by the audience as they en-
tered. During the evening. General Grant was cheered, when he
DOUGLAS MOXL'MENT. 85
rose and said they could get nothing from him as agreeable as they
got from the stage. Admiral Farragut responded to the cheers
for him by saying that he and Gen. Grant had made a bargain to
speak three minutes and a half, but as General Grant had engrossed
nearly all the time there was nothing left for him to say. This
produced much laughter.
Secretary Seward, in return for a similar compliment, rose and
merely bowed his thanks; Secretary "Welles and several army offi-
cers, following his example under like circumstances.
INJURIES EECEIVED BY THE PARTY.
Admiral Farragut has seriously injured his hands while getting
in and out of the carriage; one is bandaged. General McCullum
has injured a foot, and several others of the party were more or
less injured by jams in crowds.
The gross receipts of the Douglas Monument Association, on
the occasion of laying the corner-stone, were as follows:
For seats $3,581.00
For committee badges 114.00
For opca house concert (about) 1,000.00
For medals, etc , 454.20
For photographs, etc., at registry 20.35
From four contribution boxes in Tremont, Sherman and
Briggs Houses, and at the Committee Rooms, from Sep-
tember 5 to September 9, inclusive 1.31
At registry on the grounds 2.55
Amount raised by the finance committee prior to the 6th in-
stant, and as reported at last meeting 6,500.00
Total $11,673.41
There is no report from the gentlemen having charge of refresh-
ment stands. The supposition is that nothing in that direction has
been made. As soon as the bills for expenses incurred have been
rendered, and audited by the auditing committee, the public will
be duly informed of the amount.
L. W. VoLK, Secretary.
Chicago, September 11, 1866.
[From the Chicago Evening Journal.]
A Pleasant Affair. — During the progress of the ceremonies
on the occasion of 'the laying of the comer stone of the Douglas
Monument, the cottage of L. W. Volk, Esq., situated near the
monument grounds, was visited by many of the Presidential party,
the Committee of Arrangements, and others, who enjoyed the re-
86 HISTORY OF THE
freshments so bountifully furnished by the host and hostess.
Amono- the distinguished guests present were Generals Grant,
Meade, Dix, Custer, Rousseau, Admiral Farragut, Postmaster Gen-
eral Randall, General Rawlins, General Steadman, Admiral Rad-
ford and General McCullum. After the prolonged march of four
miles, occupying nearly three hours, the refreshments thus provided
were very acceptable to the party. A number of toasts were pro-
posed and responded to by the gentleman present. The tables
were loaded wth good things, and excellent taste was displayed
by Mrs. Volk in all the arrangements.
The amount of $6,500.00, reported as having been raised by
the finance committee of the committee of arrangements for
the purpose of defraying the expenses, was expended by that
committee, and the association proper was drawn upon for
$1,304.69 additional, to make up the deficit.
On June 3d, 1868, the anniversary of Mr. Douglas' deatli,
liis remains were taken from the ground and deposited in a
sarcopliagns, the marble of which came from his native county,
Rutland, Yermont, and was placed in the center of the tomb.
While being conveyed by the trustees from the grave, the Ger-
mania Maennerchor sang a beautiful hymn. An impressive
prayer was made by the Eev. Dr. Haven, and for a day or two
the public was allowed to view the face of the deceased senator
through the glass cover of the casket. It appeared quite nat-
ural, being well preserved by the embalment, and presenting
no appearance of decomposition. The students of the Univer-
sity of Chicago acted as a guard of honor around the casket,
some time before it was carried to the tomb.
In January following, a memorial was drafted by the presi-
dent of the association, Walter B. Scales, with a statement of
its condition, asking for $50,000 to complete the monument,
and was forwarded to the legislature.
The amount asked for was reduced to $25,000, and thus
amended the bill passed the House of Representatives. But
DOULGAS MONUMENT. 87
from some negligence it was not presented to the Senate before
the adjournment, and therefore went by default.
MEETING OF THE BOAKD OF TEUSTEES.
Parlor No. 10, Sherman House,
Wednesday, 7th December, 1870.
In response to a call from President "W. B. Scates, a meet-
ing of the Board of Trustees was held at 3 o 'clock this P. M.
Present Messrs. Scates, Fuller, Yolk, Goudy, Stearns, Bur-
roughs, "Wilson and Chandler : Mr. Scates occupying the
chair.
It hav'ing been stated that the chief object of the meeting
was to consider and determine upon the propriety of remov-
ing the monument to the grounds of the University of Chicago,
and of using the value of the present site towards completing
it, Mr. S. AV. Fuller, after some preliminary discussion, offered
the following resolution, which was upon consideration unani-
mousl}' adopted.
" Resolved, That in the opinion of the directors of the Douglas Monument
Associa'.ion, if the widow and children of the late Stephen A. Douglas shall
first consent thei-eto, it is best and expedient for this association to make appli-
cation to the next legislature of the State of Illinois for leave to remove the
remains of the late Judge Douglas from their present resting place, together
with the monument now erected over them, to some suitable place within the
grounds of the University near by, to be hereafter selected and agreed upon
between this association and the trustees of said University, and for the sale of
the land now belonging to the State of Illinois and occupied by ihis association
for its corporate purposes, and the application of the jiroceeds of such sale, or
as much as may be necessary to the cost of completing the monument according
to the original design, and to apply the balance of the proceeds, if any, to-
wards the maintenance and preservation of the monument, in such manner as
shall be agreed upon by and between the State of Illinois, the trustees of the
University and this association."
Letters having been received by the chairman from Messrs.
Turner and Treat, who could not be present at this meeting,
were read, favoring the object of this resolution; and as pre-
liminary to the consummation of its object, Messrs. Burroughs,
PQ HISTORY OF THE
Scates and Gage were, upon motion, appointed a committee to
confer with and obtain the consent of the widow and children
of the hate Judge Douglas.
Upon motion of Dr. Burroughs, Mr. C. Beckwith Avas also
added to this committee, and another committee, consisting of
Messrs. Fuller and Goudy, was also, on motion to that effect,
appointed to memorialize the legislature, and to prepare such
act or acts as may be necessary for its action.
The secretary, Mr. L. "W. Volk, then stated that he was about
to start for Europe, and would probably be gone two yeai'S, and
tendered his resignation as secretary and trustee of the associ-
ation, with the request that he be relieved from further duty,
and that a committee be appointed to examine and audit and
report upon his accounts.
"Whereupon the Board declined to accept his resignation as
trustee, but, on motion of Dr. Burroughs, accepted his resigna-
tion as secretary, and on further motion, Messrs. D. A. Gage
and John B. Turner were appointed to adjust and report upon
his accounts.
On motion, the board then proceeded to fill the vacancy oc-
casioned by the resignation of Mr. Yolk, which resulted in the
election of Joseph B. Chandler as secretary.
Mr, S. W. Fuller then submitted the following resolution,
which was unanimously adopted:
Resolved, That, we regret the intended journey of Mr. L. W. Volk, to Europe,
makes it necessary in his opinion for him to resign the office of secretary of
this Association ; and in accepting his resignation, we tender him our thinks
for the unremitting zeal, energy and tidelity with which he has discharged iiic
duties of his oflBce and labored to promote the objects and interests of the Asso-
ciation,
A vacancy existing in the Board, caused by the death of
Francis 0. Sherman, a ballot was taken, resulting in the elec-
tion "of W. F. Coolbaugh to fill the unexpired term of Mr.
Sherman, ending January 30th, 1872.
ISTo further business requiring attention, the board, on mo-
tion, adjourned till 2 p. m. of Saturday, the 24th inst.
Attest: Jos. B. Chandlek, Secretary.
DOUGLAS MONUMENT. 80
The following is Mrs. Williams' (formerly Mrs. Douglas)
reply to the Committee appointed at the foregoing meeting:
To Messrs. Walter B. Scates and others:
Gentlemen: In reply to your letter dated Dec. 3, 1870, which
I have this day (March 5, 1871) received through the Dead-Letter
Office, I have the honor to say that I heartily agree with your Com-
mittee, and ths Members of the Monument Association, in the pro-
priety of removing the monument to theUniversity grounds. It is
my most eaniest and heartfelt wish that it should be as speedily
completed as possible, and I hope the legislature will consent to
the sale of the ground and the appropriation of the funds to the
immediate completion of the •monument. My step-sons, Robert
and Stephen, are of the same mind.
Your Committee's letter reached me without stamp, and simply
addressed to Mrs. A. Williams, only after being opened at the
Dead-Letter Office, after the lapse of three months. This will, I
hope, excuse my apparent negligence of so important a subject.
With respects, gentlemen, I am very truly yours.
Adele Williams.
Washington, D. C, March 5, 1871.
]^o definite action was taken by the trustees for the removal
of the monument till 1875, and meanwhile, in 1873, another
memorial to the legislature, asking for $50,000 to complete the
monument where begun, was presented by a member of the
House of liepresentatives from Chicago, Mr. W. H. Condon,
who earnestly and efficiently labored for its passage, and was
ably assisted by his colleagues Judge Bradwell, General Sher-
man and others; and just before the recess of the legislature
the bill passed the House, with two votes to spare.
The following is the financial statement, as submitted to the
legislature with the last memorial, dating from the organiza-
tion of the society to January 1, 1871, and signed by the pres-
ident and treasurer:
Amount by subscriptions in sums from ^500 to $20 | 2,856.40
P'rom sales of photographs and engravings of Douglas and the mon-
ument, diplomas of membership, and small contributions 8,137.32
Sale of seats at laying of corner-stone 3,581.00
Sale of concert tickets, opera-house, on same occasion 1,00G.08
Sale of donated real estate (2 lots, each 120x50 feet 6,000.00
Total 121,580.80
90 HISTORY OF TPIE
AMOUNTS PAID OUT :
Building foundations and first section of monument, marble sar-
cophagus, iron doors, fencing and grading $12,275.00
Expenses laying corner-stone, September 6, 1866 I,o04.69
Photographs, engravings, diplomas and medals 2,227.08
Stationery and postage 57.00
Agents' commissions 506.68
Taxes on real estate 157.15
Sidewalk and fence in front of monument gi-ounds 351.00
Design of Douglas monument 75.00
Lithographing monument 314.00
Printing diplomas, pamphlets, circulars, and office furniture 962.82
Secretary's services, eight years, including office rent, furnished by
him 3,321.78
Balance ia treasurer's hands 29.10
Total $21,580.80
Several hundred dollars' worth of photographs, engravings,
diplomas, steel-plates of diplomas, medals, and office furniture
belonging to the association, vrere destroyed in the great lire,
but its important books and papers escaped.
At the adjourned session held the following winter of 1874,
the House bill came up in its order in the Senate, but was de-
feated.
Dispatch from Mr. Condoit.
Springfield, 111. Apl. 34, 1873.
To Leonard W. Volk, Chicago:
We have passed the bill only two votes to spare.
(Signed.) Wm. H. Condon.
In 1875 the bill for removal of the monument was presented
in the House of Representatives by authority of the Trustees.
A BILL
FOR AN ACT ENTITLED " AN ACT TO REMOVE AND COMPLETE THE
DOUGLAS MONUMENT." INTRODUCED BY MR. HISE.
Section 1. Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
represented in the General Assembly. That the " Douglas Monu-
ment Association" is hereby authorized and empowered to remove
the " Douglas Monument," from the grounds upon which the same
now stands, to such locality in the grounds of the University of
Chicago as may be agreed upon between the board of trustees of
the said university and the board of directors of the " Doughis
DOUGLAS MONUMENT. 91
Monument Association." And power and authority is hereby given
to the said board of trustees of the said University and the said
board of directors of the "Douglas Monument Association" to
agree upon such re-location of said moiiumeut within said grounds
of the said University of Chicago, to preserve the ground upon
which said monument shall be so re-built for the use of the same,
and to fix and agree upon the terms for the maintenance, repair
and custody of said monument and grounds.
§ 2. Said board of directors of the " Douglas Monument Asso-
ciation " are hereby authorized and empowered to make sale or
sales of all that lot, piece or parcel of land, situate in the county
of Cook and State of Illinois, whereon the Douglas Monument
now stands, and known and described as follows, viz: lot one (1),
in the lower tier of Oakenwald subdivision, fronting on Wood-
land Park and Douglas Place, of a part of the south half of the
north-east quarter of section thirty-four, in township thirty-nine
north, range fourteen east of the third princii^al m3iidian, in the
city of Chicago, together with the appurtenances thereunto be-
longing, for such price and upon such terms as they may deem
most advantageous; and the Governor of the State of Illinois, for
the time being, be and he is hereby authorized and empowered to
execute all necessary deeds of conveyance of said premises to
carry into eflfect any sale or sales made by said board of directors,
and any and all preliminary contracts to effectuate any sales that
may be made by the said board of directors on credit: Provided,
that said board of directors shall be entitled to no compensation
for services rendered under the provisions of this act; and i^^'O-
vided further, that no sale shall be made by said directors until the
written consent of Mrs. Adele Williams, formerly Mrs. Senator
Douglas, shall have first been obtained.
3d. Said board of directors of the Douglas Monument Associ-
ation is hereby authorized and empowered to remove the said
Douglas monument from the grounds whereon it now stands, and
to re-erect and finish, and complete the same according to the
plans and specifications adopted by the Douglas Monument Asso-
ciation, or such others as may be adopted, on such location as may
be selected, as hereinbefore provided; and for that purpose they are
hereby authorized and empowered to expend the proceeds of the
sale of the grounds whereon said monument now stands, or so
much thereof as may be necessary, for the completion of said mon-
ument according to said plans and specifications, and the protec-
tion and preservation of the ground upon which it may be erected.
92 IlISTOKY OF THE
4tli. That if there shall be any balance left of the proceeds re-
sulting from the sale of said lands after the completion of said
monument, such balance shall be invested in United States bonds,
or bonds of the State of Illinois, and the income to be derived
therefrom, shall be applied toward the preservation and protec-
tion of said monument, and of the grounds immediately adjacent
thereto.
About the same time the following bill for an appropria-
tion to complete tlie monument where began, was introduced
in the Senate by Mr. Hodges.
A BILL
FOR AN ACT TO APPROPRIATE FIFTY TH0USA2?^D DOLLARS TO COM-
PLETE THE DOUGLAS MONUMENT AT CHICAGO.
Section 1. Be it enacted by the people of the State of Illinois,
represented in the General Assembly, that Walter B. Scates, Jo-
seph B. Chandler, Joshua L. Marsh, J. H. McVicker, Melville W.
Fuller and Potter Palmer, all of the city of Chicago, and Benja-
min F. Fridley, of Kane county, Illinois, be and they are hereby
constituted commissioners of the Douglas Monument at Chicago,
and are empowered to receive proposals and contract for the com-
pletion of the Douglas Monument: Provided, that said commis-
sioners shall not obligate the State of Illinois to exceed the sum
named in section three of this act.
Sec. 2. Said commissioners shall receive no compensation for
their services.
Sec. 3. For the purpose of defraying the cost of the comple-
tion of said monument, the sum of fifty thousand dollars is hereby
appropriated out of the State treasury, and the auditor of public
accounts is hereby authorized to draw his warrant on the State
treasurer for said amount, out of money not otherwise appropria-
ted, upon the certificate of a majority of the said commissioners,
from time to time, as may be necessary, during the progress of the
work: Provided, no money shall be drawn under the provisions of
this act prior to the first day of April, A. D. 1870, which is made
payable out of revenue from the assessments for the year A. D.
1875.
AMENDMENT.
Amend section 1, after the words " of Kane county, Illinois," by
DOUGLAS MONUMENT. 93
inserting the names of " William A. Richardson, of Adams coun-
ty, Illinois, and Gustavus Koerner, of St. Clair county, Illinois."
Thereupon, Mr. Hise did not press the bill for removal, in
the House, and after the passage of the Senate bill appropriat-
ing $50,000, he, with other members, labored to pass it in the
House. But on the final vote the bill failed to pass, for the
want of a constitutional majority — lacking some five votes.
[From the Illinois State Register.]
It is a pity the House refused to concur in the Senate's bill, ap-
propriating $50,000 for the purpose of erecting a monument to the
memory of the great Douglas. This it did this morning. Douglas'
remains would not to-day be in Illinois soil, were it not for the
fact that prominent citizens of the State, regardless of party,
begged his widow to allow them to be interred here, at the time
of his death. The House has struck an economical vein, but is
very inconsistent. To-day, within one hour's time it refvised to
pay a debt of honor to the memory of a man who has done more
fOr the state thin any other man that ever belonged to Illinois, on
the score of its "costing too much," and immediately, by a vote,
continued the useless fraud-protecting and expensive election reg-
istry system, that costs the tax-payers of Illinois not less than
two hundred thousand dollars annually! Next in order will be
" Copperas creek," an unconstitutional taking of the people's
money; and if our vote would pass this appropriation it would
never be made.
At the next legislature, two years later, the same appropri-
ation bill, except as to names of commissioners, was introduced
in the house by Mr. Jos. E. Smith, member from Chicago, who
worked mitiringly for the measure, and had the satisfaction of
seeing the following bill pass both houses and become a law.
A BILL
FOE A5f ACT To APPROPRIATE FIFTY THOUSAND DOLLARS TO COM-
PLETE THE DOUGLAS MONUMENT AT CHICAGO.
Section 1. Be it enacted by the pgople of the State of Illinois,
represented in the General Assembly, that John D. Caton, Thomas
94 HISTORY OF THE
Drummoncl, Lyman Trumbull, Melville W. Fuller, Robert T. Lin-
coln and Potter Palmer, all of the city of Chicago, county of Cook,
Benjamin F. Fidley, of Kane county, Gustavus Koerner, of St.
Clair county, and Ralph Plvimb, of LaSalle county, Illinois, be and
they are hereby constituted commissioners of the Douglas Monu-
ment at Chicago, and are authorized and empowered to receive
proposals and contract for the completion of the Douglas monu-
ment : ^^rovit^^ec?, that said commissioners shall not obligate the
State of Illinois to exceed the sum named in section three of this
act.
Sec. 2. Said commissioners shall receive no compensation for
their services.
Sec. 3. For the purpose of defraying the cost of the comple-
tion of said monument, the sum of fifty thousand dollars is hereby
appropriated out of the State treasury, and the auditor of public
accounts is hereby authorized to draw his v/arrant on the State
treasury for said amount, out of the money not otherwise appro-
priated, upon the certificate of a majority of the said commission-
ers, from time to time during the progress of the work: Provided,
no money shall be drawn under the provisions of this act prior to
the first day of April, A. D. 1S77, which is made payable out of
revenue from the assessments for the year 1876.
[From the Chicago Times, March 24, 18T7.]
THE ILLINOIS HOUSE PASSES THE APPROPRIATION
FOR THE DOUGLAS MONUMENT.
Ivi the house this morning, the special order being the discussion
of the bill appropriating ^50,000 for the completion of the Douglas
Monument, Mr. Smith, who introduced the measure, made a strong
speech in its favor. He said that justice and right demanded the
passage of this bill. From time immemorial monuments had been
erected by grateful people to their great and good men. The
pyramids of Egypt were but tombs of kings, and the mausoleum
but a monument from a widowed queen to her departed husband.
But if monuments were erected to those who had contributed to
the moral or historical wealth of a nation, how much more should
they be erected to those who, in addition, had contributed to the
material wealth of the State. The persistent efforts of Judge
DOUGLAS MONUMENT. 95
Douglas from the time he entered Congress in 1843 till he succeed-
ed in passing the law, were given to obtaining from the Congress
of the United States the land- grant to the Illinois Central railroad.
This grant enabled the company to build that road which opened
up the heart of the state. It has poured into the coffers c>f this
state in cash the the sum of nearly seven millions of dollars. Year
by year hereafter it will continue to yield to the treasury its mil-
lions. But these cash payments represent not a tithe of the ma-
terial wealth which has come to the state through this great enter-
prise. The cities and towns along its line have become populous
and wealthy, and lands which could not be sold for anything, now
yield from 820 to $30 an acre in taxes.
It was Douglas' wish that he be buried where he now lies. The
state demanded it, and purchased the land where his unfinished
monument now stands. Attempts are being made to remove it,
but it should be finished where it now stands. The state bought
the land that it might have the power to jDrevent what is now at-
tempted. It cannot be said that economy demands its postpone-
ment, for the state has now nearly two millions balance in its treas-
ury. The state can well afford to pay less than one mill on a dol-
lar of what Douglas contributed to the coffers of the state.
Mr. Smith closed with a tribute to the character of Douglas,
speaking of him as a representative man of the genius and char-
acter of the American people.
Mr. Herron argued that there could not be any objection to the
passage of this bill, except on the question of economy. There
have been millions expended in the construction of public insti-
tutions, which have been as bread cast upon the water. Civili-
zation is more exacting now than it was a century ago. The old
church was the monument of Christianity a hundred years ago, but
to-day we do not hear the vials of wrath thundered from the pulpit.
We hear that God and Christianity are realities. Monuments are
erected to show the progress the human family are making in
civilization. If this be true, it is meet that we should preserve
the memory of him who has stamped his name as among the great
of earth. Mr. Herron continued with a history of Douglas' record
in this state, especially during the critical period when the state
of South Carolina fired on the Star of the West and arrayed her-
self against the Federal Government.
Mr. Connelly — Did he sever his relations with the democratic
party in the stand he then took?
Mr. Herron : He did not; but he told them there was no time to
96 IIISTOKY OF THE
discuss party affiliations; the country Avas in danger, and the first
duty of democrats was to rush into and close up the chasm; after
that they could unite for political warfare. After the children of
Israel crossed the Jordan, Joshua 'commanded each of the twelve
tribes to take a stone and build thet'efrom a moimment. He said
to his people: " When your children shall ask their fathers, in time
to come, 'What mean these stOttefe?' then you shall let your chil-
dren know, saying Israel came over this Jordan on dry land."
When your children visit the tomb of Douglas, they will ask you,
" What means this monument?" You shall tell them it is- the
earthly home of him who forgot position for patriotism, and who
died, as he lived, for his country.
Mr. Merritt wished to'say afe%v Words. He was not much in
favor of stone monuments, and was not enthusiastically in favor
of the deceased Stephen. DOitglas predicted that war was disun-
ion and the destruction of constitutional liberty, and his predic-
tions had been verified. . In the face of his opinions he lia;d joined
with Lincoln in urging war, and with his skin full of brandy had
pranced about in the vain idea -that he was a second Napoleon.
The sjjseaker was opposed to the appropriation, oh the groiinds that
enough money hstd already been subscribed for the purpose con-
templated,'.expended and not been accounted for, and that his rep-
utation was a part of 'history, more enduring than stone.
Morris, of Hardin, followed in a brief speech supporting the ob-
ject of the bill, and was succeded by Morrison, of Christian,- who
denied' in. emphatic language that Merritt's speech represented the
sentiment of the democratic party or the sentiment of a constitu-
ency Merritt had left in Marion. What has Douglas done? He
united in contcibuting to the country's salvation at 'a time when
such effort was vital. The gentleman from Marion'had said 'if he
had died, bfefore the delivery of his war speeches, he wouW have
left a reputation, more lasting than brass. True, but to-day there
would have been no country in which to e^njoy' coi)stitution;il
liberty. ■ ...,'.-
Mr. James was in favor of commemorating the excellence of
great men, but was apprehensive that the means suggested were
illegal, and the end to be attained unnecessary. He did not need
a monument, and he didn''t think it was right to take money from
the public treasury for the purposes suggested, and for those rea-
sons he should vote against the measure. If, however, it wks in-
dispensable that his memory should be perpetuated, let it be done
by voluntary contributions.
DOUGLAS MONUMENT. 97
Rowett moved the previous question, but at the solicitation of
many on the republican side of the house, who were solicitous lest
there piece wouldn't be spoken, he withdrew the motion, and
Dunne, of Cook, addressed the House in support of the bill. He
said a great state should do honor to its illustrious dead. There-
fore, Illinois should do honor to the memory of Douglas, and in no
more fitting way can she do this than by erecting a suitable mon-
ument over his remains. Let no paltry consideration of expense
defer this merited tribute any longer. Let no party prejudice
hinder its accomplishment. Stephen A. Douglas spent his life in
the service of the state, and died in his prime with his armor still on
He died not alone in the service of Illinois, but although disease
had stricken him, he hesitated not to raise his voice in an eloquent
and patriotic appeal for his country, and died before its echoes had
ceased to reverberate in the hearts of thousands of his fellows.
With his death Illinois lost her most brilliant and illustrious
statesman, the nation one of its most devoted champions. Lincoln
and Douglas, patriots both, the sons of Illinois, died battling for
the preservation of the Union, and their names will go down to
posterity associated with the- hallowed names of the fathers of the
republic. The» one sleeps the everlasting sleep of the just and
good within sight of this hall, beneath the splendid obelisk erected
over his remains by the patriotic and grateful people of the nation,
in Oak Ridge cemetery; the other lies buried beneath an incom-
pleted and crumbling tomb on the beautiful spot selected by him-
self on the shores of Lake Michigan, his coffin exposed to the vicis-
situdes of the weather, reminding the visitor forcibly and sadly
of the old-time saying that republics are ungrateful.
The services of this great man, who, during his life, was the idol of
his party and the admiration and pride of his country, are worthy
of more honorable recognition, and no remains are deserving more
decent sepulchre, and it is a burning shame and disgrace to the
people of this great and rich state that he, on whose words thou-
sands hung entranced as he uttered his last memorable sentences
of patriotic fervor and devotion to the cause of free government in
this land, should now lie uncared for and forgotten, with no fit-
ting monument to tell the traveler who, with reverent steps, visits
his grave, where his remains are laid. Gentlemen tell us that he
needs no monument to recall his fame; that his great deeds, and
particularly the great railroad that runs through the state, which
he did so much to have constructed, is a more enduring and glori-
ous monument than any he could erect. That may be true, but,
7
tfO HISTORY OF THE
gentlemen, that was founded by liim, not in his own honor, but for
the prosperity and benefit of his people. It is our duty to mani-
fest our respect and admiration for the great departed by at least
erecting a memorial over his remains. I trust that no niggardly
economy, nor partisan feeling, will defeat this appropriation, I
know that our constituency will approve of our action, and that
no legislative action we may take in this session will be more gen-
erally commended.
Mr. Phillips, of Montgomery, opposed the appropriation, and at
the conclusion of his remarks the House took a recess until 2:30
P. M. When the house convened after recess, Mr, Winter, of
Bloumington, led off in a brisk and fervent speech in favor of the
measure. He claimed, that as $60,000 had been appropriated by
the state for the building of a monument for Lincoln, it was no
more than fair and just that $50,000 should be appropriated to the
erection of a monument to perpetuate the memory of Douglas.
Mr. Rowett followed with a warm argument, also in favor of the
appropriation. He believed it was a patriotic duty which this
assembly owed to the people of the State and to the memory of a
great man, to build a monument over his remains.
The roll was called, and when the name of Pinn^y was reached,
he explained his vote by leave of the House. He believed the bill
was for a patriotic purpose, and he should cast his vote for it. Mr.
Matthews also explained his vote, during which he stated that he
was in favor of the bill, and hoped enovigh of the republicans
would change their votes to cause it to pass.
Mr. Wall thought that Mr. Merritt had insulted the young
democracy of Illinois, in his remarks to the House, and he should
therefore vote aye.
Mr. Chambers explained his vote by claiming that the people of
the state should be consulted as to the time this expenditure
should take place. He wanted to cast his vote for the bill.
Mr. Jack also voted aye.
The bill was passed by a vote of 81 to 40. The following is the
vote:
Yeas — Abel, Allen, Bartholow, Bibb, Bielfeldt, Bower, Brown, Buckniaster,
Busey, Byers, Gallon, Chambers, Chesley, Clover, Cronkrite, Crooker, Davis,
Dennis, Dunne, Easton, English, Evans of Kane, Fontch, Graham, Granger,
Hall, Hendrickson, Herrington, Herron, Hickey, Hopkins, Irvin, Jack, Jay,
Kearney, Kedzie, King, Kiolbassa, Leiper, Lott, Matthews, McCreery, Mitch-
ell, Monohon, Mooneyham, Moore, Morris, Morrison of Christian, Morrison of
Morgan, Neal, Oakwood, Palmer, Pinney, Raley, Reavill, Reed, Robison of Ful-
ton, Rourke, Rowett, Secrist, Sexton, Sheridan, Sittig, Smith of Cook, Smith of
Sangamon, Smith of Tazewell, Stowell, Taylor of Cook, Taylor of Kankakee,
DOUGLAS MONUMENT. 99
Thomas, Thompson, Truesdel, Voss, Wall, Wentworth, Wilderman, Wilkinson,
Winter, Wood, Woodward, Wright, Zepp, Mr. Speaker — 82.
Nats — Albright, Baldwin. Black, Boyd, Browning. Budlong. Collier, Con-
nelly, Curtis, Evans of Bond, Fosbender, Fritts, Gill, Goodrich, Gray, Halley,
Heslet, Hogge, Hollister, Hurd, James, Kouka, Latimer, Mace, Merritt, Nevitt,
Pierce of Pope, Phillips of Franklin, Phillips of Montgomery, Ranney, Pica-
burn, Ross, Taggart, Tierney, Tyrrell, Vandeventer, Walker, Washburn, Wells,
Whitaker of McDonough, Wilderman — 41.
Absentees — Armstrong, Ashton, Berry, Boydstone, Cannon, Duwey, Foun-
tain, Fox, Gilbert, Gi'ennell, Heffernan, Klelim, Koplin, Lindsey, McKindley
of Madison, Powell, Powers, Ramsey, Reman, Robinson of Effingham, Roche,
Rogers, Sherman, Tice, AVatkins, Westfall, Wheeler, Whitaker of St. Clair, and
Williams— 30.
[From the Chicago Evening Journal. ^
HON. JOSEPH E. SMITH'S ELOQUENT APPEAL IN BE-
HALF OF THE DOUGLAS MONUMENT.
DELIVERED IN THE ILLINOIS HOUSE OP REPRESENTATIVES, FRIDAY,
MARCH 23.
Mr. SpeaJcer: — I approach the consideration of this subject
this morning in the earnest hope that, when the discussion is con-
cluded, this bill,which is not now for the first time before the General
Assembly of this State, may pass this House by a large majority,
in which event I feel assured that it will also in due time pass the
Senate, receive the Executive approval, and become a law.
It seems to me, Mr. Speaker, that justice and right alike re-
quire that this bill be passed; and my hope is that I may be able
to convince at least a constitutional majority of this House that
such is the fact, before I conclude the remarks, necessarily brief, that
I shall make in its support; for if it be true that justice and right
demand the passage of this bill, surely gentlemen will not hesi-
tate to vote the appropriation, and especially will this be so when
they take into consideration the other fact, sufficient, it would
seem, in itself, that it is asked to complete a monument, now par-
tially constructed, on land owned by the State, and designed to
perpetuate the memory of certainly one of the two greatest men
that the State of Illinois has thus far produced.
It has been almost from time immemorial, certainly so far back
as history has left us a record, the uniform practice of nations and
peoples to erect to their great and good men lasting monuments to
commemorate their names and deeds. The pyramids of Egypt arc
100 HISTORY OF THE
but the monuments of mighty kings, and one of the seven won-
ders of the world was the mausoleum erected by a widowed queen
to the memory of her royal husband. Indeed, sir, it will be found
that all through the ages — barbaric as well as civilized — it has
been the custom to erect monuments and monumental tombs, in
some cases magnificent and costly, and in others crude and inex-
pensive, to perpetuate the memory of men who had done their
State great service.
But, Mr. Speaker, while throughout all th3 ages monuments
have been thus erected by grateful peoples in commemoration of
the deeds of men mighty in war or renowned in peace, who had
contributed to the moral or historical wealth of their country, where
there is found an instance, like the one before us, of a citizen who
in his life-time largely contributed not only to the honor, dignity and
greatness of the Commonwealth, but also by persistent and deter.
mined and successful effort added immensely to the material wealth
of his State; where you find a State that, like our own, has enjoyed
for nearly a quarter of a century, is enjoying now, and for years to
come — aye, for all time — shall continue to enjoy the fruits of the
efforts of such a man, — it does seem, as I said before, that justice
and right alike require that such services be commemorated in a
fitting way, and that the General Assembly of a State like ours can
well afford, and should not hesitate, to take from the wealth which
svich a man has poured into its treasury, enough to fittingly com-
memorate the great sei'vices he rendered to her. It will be ray
pleasure, before I conclude, to give some statistics showing in what
the services to which I immediately refer consisted, and explain-
ing why I claim so confidently that every principle of equity and
fair-dealing demands that this act of tardy justice be done. Of
course, sir, these statistics will show but meagerly the vast amount
of wealth, which through the efforts of Judge Douglas have been
i^oured into the treasury of the State. What we can touch and
see can be approximately arrived at, but the remote and intangible
cannot be calculated. I will, however, before entering upon that
branch of the discussion, endeavor to give briefly the history of
previous legislation touching this matter, and, so far as necessary,
describe the present condition and needs of the Douglas monument
and grounds.
Judge Douglas died in 18G1, and in the General Assembly of
1865 a bill was introduced, which afterwards became a law, and is
to be found in the session laws of that year, on page 18, appropri-
ating 125,000 " for the purpose of purchasing," as the bill reads, " in
DOUGLAS MONUMENT. 101
tho name of the State of Illinois, the lot of ground in which now re-
pose the remains of Stephen A. Douglas, deceased." In that bill
it is stated that this ground was owned by Mrs. Douglas. The bill
further provides that "said land shall be held for a burial place for
the deceased, and for no other j^urpose.'''' I hold in my hand that
bill, which passed both houses, and was approved February 16, 1865.
I also hold in my hand the original deed from Mrs. Adele Douglas
to Richard J. Oglesby, Governor of the State of Illinois. It con-
veys the land mentioned in that act, is a general warranty deed,
and states that " this deed is executed in conformity with the act
of the legislature of the State of Illinois, authorizing the Gover-
nor of said State to purchase the premises therein descrihed."
I am not aware that any measure has been introduced into this
House or the other — but it has been mooted in the public papers
— to change the location of this monument, and to remove the
remains from the place where they now repose to some other local-
ity in the city of Chicago. Doviglas Park on the West side, the
Chicago University grounds, the entrance to the Grand boulevard,
and the entrance to Drexel boulevard have been mentioned, and
some even desire — notably the Chicago Tribune — that the remains
be removed to Graceland or Rosehill, and interred in one or the
other of those public cemeteries. Now, sir, the act to which I
have referred reads, " where now repose the remains." That plat
of land which was purchased by the State for $25,000 was and is
the place " where now repose the remains," and the sum so apj^ro-
priated for its purchase is the only appropriation ever made by the
State in aid of the Douglas monument. That land is worth now,
even at the low prices of to-day at least double the amount that
it cost in 1865.
In case of the removal of the remains by the State, the title
would, in my judgment, revert to Mrs. Douglas, now Mrs. Will-
iams; but whether this would be so or not, the idea of removal
should not be entertained for a moment, and I am unwilling to be-
lieve that it will find a single advocate on the floor of this House.
Besides, sir, it is a fact that the plat of land on which that unfin-
ished monument now stands, was the only piece of land, unincum-
bered, which the widow of Stephen A. Douglas possessed at the
time of his decease. It is unnecessary for me to state why it was
that Judge Douglas, a few years before his death, became embar-
rassed and was obliged to mortgage his property, the principal
part of which was finally lost. Had he been of a less generous
disposition he might have died rich. But I do state it as a fact,
102 HISTORY OF THE
and one which I wish to impress upon every member of this Gen-
eral Assembly, that it was the desire of Judge Douglas, frequently
expressed, that his body might repose where it did repose at the
time this bill for the purchase of the land became a law. That plat of
land is on the borders of Lake Michigan; it is a part of that large
tract which once belonged to Judge Douglas, and upon which ho
erected a cottage, and to which he gave the name of Cottage Grove,
which it still retains. When he died there were but few residences
erected in its immediate neighborhood, and it was his almost dying-
request that he be laid there, near the waters of Lake Michigan,
and close upon its banks. He was laid there, and there he still
reposes.
After his death it will be remembered that there was a struggle
for the possession of his remains. Mrs. Douglas herself had ex-
pressed the wish that the body should be laid in the Congressional
burying-ground at Washington, and but for the request of her hus-
band, to which I just alluded, she would probably have insisted up-
on its being taken to the National Capital. But the State of Illinois
persistently demanded that the body of her dead statesman should
repose beneath her soil, and her persistency carried the point, and
he was buried beneath her soil, on the very spot where the unfin-
ished monument now stands. Sir, the State itself offered to buy
this land. It was no request of Mrs. Douglas, or of the heirs, or
of the people of Chicago, that this land be purchased by the State;
but the State itself, of its own motion, off"ered to purchase of the
widow of Stephen A. Douglas that lot of land which he himself
had selected as his burial-place, and to pay for it its full value, in
order that the remains might lie in the soil of this State, in land
to which the State had the title, and so that no one thereafter could
have the right, at any time, to remove those remains without the
consent of the State and the widow and the heirs-at-law. Such is
the fact so far as the purchase of the land is concerned. It was
bought by the State at the request of the people; and it was then
proposed to erect over the remains a monument which should be a
fitting memorial of the illustrious dead. The State was not asked
at that time to appropriate anything for this purpose, but sub-
sequently a bill appropriating money to build a monument passed
in one branch of the General Assembly, but failed to secure a con-
stitutional majority in the other, and therefore did not become a
law. Private subscriptions were then started, and other means re-
sorted to to procure funds for the purpose, and upwards of $20,000
was collected, and so much of the monument as is now completed
DOUGLAS MONUMENT. 103
was thereupon erected. It has been stated, I am free to say, that
in the payment of salaries, office rent, etc., several thousand dol-
lars of the money so collected was diverted from the object for
which it was contributed. On the other hand, it is asserted that
every dollar was prudently expended. I prefer to believe and do
believe the latter assertion. But be that as it may, the money,
whether wisely expended or not, was all expended, and none of it
remains. It served to construct so much of the monument as is
now complete, that is, so far as to be fitted to receive the sarcoph-
agus containing the remains.
This bill asks for an appropriation of $50,000 to complete the
monument where it now stands. The high character of each
of the commissioners named therein, is a sufficient guaranty
that the money, if appropriated, will be wisely and economically
expended ; and I assure you, gentlemen, that with the amount
named, the monument shall be completed on its present site, the
grounds made worthy of the treasure they hold, and that no further
or other sum will be asked by the Monument Association in aid of
the one object or the other. Bills to accomplish the purpose sought
to be accomplished by this bill, have from time to time been in-
troduced into the General Assembly of the State, at one session
passing one house and at another session the other house, but up
to this time failing to pass both houses, and thereby becoming a
law. In the meantime, the monument and grounds are neglected;
cattle wander at will over the premises; the fences have gone to
decay and fallen — only that of wooden pickets surrounding the
monument itself remains standing — and within that narrow space
the monument is cared for.
But, perhaps, gentlemen will say: "Why not erect monuments
to other men? Is not this establishing a bad precedent? Shall
we not be called upon by and by to make other appropriations of
a similar character and for similar reasons? Is it prudent to do
this thing?" These objections are not without weight. But, sir,
I say to all who make them, " coine and let us reason together."
If we except that of Abraham Lincoln, is there now, or is there
likely to be in our day and generation, an instance requiring at our
hands the recognition that the one before us does? In view of
tlie man and all that he did for us, do we ask anything that is not
pre-eminently just and right?
I commenced, Mr. Speaker, by saying that to vote this appropri-
ation was but an act of justice and right. Let me try to explain
now wh}^ I so consider it. The older members of this House know,
104 HISTORY OF THE
because they were here; the younger members know, because they
have read and heard of it — of the long siege which finally resulted
in the passage by the two houses of Congress of the bill for an act
donating lands to the Illinois Central Railroad Company of this
State. That act became a law in the year 1850. Judge Doug-
las entered the United States Senate in 1847 ; he entered tli"^
House of Representatives in 1843, being then but 30 years old.
From the time he entered the House up to the time this bill
finally became a law, he had devoted himself, all the while, with
persistent effort, to obtaining this grant. True, he was not alone
in this effort; the distinguished Justice Breese, who has for so
many years adorned the Supreme bench of this State, was, during
a large portion of that time, representing the State of Illinois in
the Senate of the United States, and, as chairman of the Commit-
tee on Public Lands, devoted his time and attention and exerted
his great influence and his every effort, while he remained in the
Senate, to further the measure which Judge Douglas had intro-
duced into the House, and subsequently so earnestly and success-
fully advocated in the Senate.
It was owing to the efforts of these two men that that measure
was finally adopted. By the passage of that law, the Illinois Cen-
tral Railroad ComjDany received alternate sections of the public
lands on the line of that railroad. Some question arose as to
whether the road should be built on the line of the old Illinois
Central road or follow a different course, and it is a part of the
history of the State how that difficulty was finally settled by tak-
ing the old road-bed, and constructing a branch from Chicago,
tapping the main line at Centralia. There was great opposition
to this land grant in some parts of the State, because the proposed
line of the road cut them off from its advantages. All these dif-
ficulties were finally adjusted by the construction of this branch
line. Judge Douglas at the first feared that to include this branch
line might result in the defeat of the whole bill, but was finally in-
duced to advocate the measure, with the branch line included, and
in 1850 the bill became a law. At that time thp State of Illinois
had a population of less than 800,000. Within five years its pop-
ulation had increased to nearly 1,500,000. That line of railroad
which started over the prairie and through sparsely-settled vil-
lages, became alive with active, strong men and brave women, the
founders of towns now populous and Avealthy. The population of
the State increased at an unprecedented rate, not only enabling
the railroad company to build its road by the sale of its lands, and
DOUGLAS MONUMEKT.
105
to pay the State, as it has done from that day to this, a vast in-
come, but the General Government itself, which had donated this
land found that by the settlement of the alternate sections still
belonging to it, money was poured into its own coffers, so that the
United States lost nothing by its gift, and the State gained and
the road gained immensely. The Illinois Central Railroad was
completed, an outlet for the products of the fertile Valley of the
Mississippi was provided, and cities, towns and villages sprang up
all along the line as if by enchantment.
The other day I asked the Auditor of Public Accounts, to have
prepared for me a detailed statement of the annual receipts by the
State from the Illinois Central Railroad Company, which, by the
terms of its charter pays 7 per cent, of its gross earnings to the
State. I now hold in my hand that statement. A copy has been
furnished the press, and will be found printed in the morning pa-
pers of to-day. In 1855, the first year of its operation, there was
but $29,751.59 paid into the treasury of the State. In 1876, the
last year, $356,005.58. In 1865, the year of the close of the war,
the amount was $496,489,84, being about $32,000 in excess of any
other year; while the aggregate received into the State Treasury
during the twenty-two years of its operation, from the Illinois Cen-
tral Railroad Company, as shown by the subjoined statement,
reaches the enormous sum of $6,976,607.48. The annual receipts
have been as follows:
TEAR. AMOUNT.
1855 $ 29,751.59
1856 77,631.66
1857 145,646.84
1858 182,005.53
1859 132,104.46
l.'^eO 177,557.22
1861 177,257.81
1862 212,174.60
1863 300,394.58
1864 405,514.04
1865 496,489.84
YEAR. AMOUNT.
1866 $ 427,075.65
1867 444,007.74
1868 4 8,397.48
1869 464,933.81
1870 464,584.52
1871 463,512.91
1872 442,856.54
1873 428.574.00
1874 394,366.46
1875 375,766.02
1876 356,005..')8
Total $6,976,607.48
But that amount, enormous as it is, represents only the cash that
has been paid directly by the Illinois Central Railroad Company
into the treasury of the State; it includes no portion of that added
wealth of which I have heretofore spoken as incalculable, and for
which the State is so largely indebted to the construction of that
road.
I assume, sir, that no one on the floor of this House will deny
106 HISTORY OF THE
that it was owing to the efforts of Judge Douglas that this sum
was secured to the State. Without him the land grant bill would
not have passed. Prior to its passage, Judge Breese, who had so
ably advocated its passage, had retired from the Senate and been
succeeded by General Shields, Avho also succeeded him as chair-
man of the Committee on Public Lands. But Judge Douglas, not
leaving it when his associates left him, pushed the bill with rei^ewed
vigor and did not relax his efforts till it became a law; and I assert,
Mr. Speaker, that but for his persistent efforts, this grant to the Illi-
nois Central Railroad Company would not have been made and
this road would not have been built, and this sum would not have
been paid into the treasury of the State; and I repeat that vast as
that sum is, it represents but a fraction of the wealth that this
State has derived from the construction of that road. In popula-
it has increased from less than a million to three millions and a
half, and who can estimate the proportion of that increase justly
to be credited to the building of that road, or tell in figures the
value of that living wealth? Thousands of acres of land that a
quarter of a century ago could not have been sold for a dollar an
acre, are now yielding from twenty to thirty dollars an acre yearly
in taxes. I do not say but that this population might have gone
somewhere else in this State than along the line of that road or
that other roads might not have been built; but it may be asserted
without fear of contradiction that this great artery would not have
been opened through the heart of the State, but for the grant
which Judge Douglas procured from the United States of
America.
Now what are the friends of this measure asking from the State?
They are asking the comparatively small sum of 150,000. For
what? It is not to erect a monument; not to start a new project:
not to establish a precedent which may be bad; but they coiae
before the General Assembly to say to us, the representatives of
the great State of Illinois: " You have purchased and you own
this plat of land on the shores of Lake Michigan; you purchased
it for the purpose of depositing in it the remains of one of your
greatest sons. Individuals have done what they could, and have
left there a monument in an unfinished state, and we ask only that
you take from the coffers of this State less than one cent on the
dollar of the vast sum that Judge Douglas contributed to place in
those coffers, for the purpose of completing this work, which has
been so long begun, and which the State owes it to itself to finish."
And speaking for myself, I say, Mr. Speaker, that it is a disgrace
DOUGLAS MONUMENT. 107
to the State that that monument should be left in the condition that
it is now in, when comparatively so small a sum is required to com-
plete it.
But it may be said that it is better not to do it now, as a matter
of economy; that the State is called upon to appropriate large sums
of money for charitable institutions, and that it is better to wait
awhile. Anticipating this, I this morning asked the Auditor of
Public Accounts to give me a statement showing the balance in
the treasury on the first day of March, A. D. 3 877. That balance
was $1,771,309.17; our State debt is comparatively nothing; and
I venture to say that there is not a State in the Union that can give
a better showing. Of that money, during the last year, 1356,005.-
58 was paid into the treasury by the Illinois Central Railroad
Company.
Now, I rose, Mr. Speaker, simply for the purpose of giving these
facts. I shall be followed by gentlemen who will give the record
and illustrate the character of Stephen A. Douglas in more elo-
quent language than I could hope to do. I never in my life met
him but once. I never heard from his lips but two words, and
those M-ere addressed to myself. Those words were " Get right! "
But I must say that I knew him by his works. I knew him by
hearing of him from those who were intimate with him, and who
knew his worth and appreciated what he was. . The true nobility
and greatness of a nation consists in the nobility and greatness of
its representative men. I regard Stephen A. Douglas as one of
the two greatest men that Illinois has ever produced. I regard
him as pre-eminently a self-made man. Coming into this State a
stripling, with but two dollars in his pocket; serving as an auc-
tioneer's clerk, and earning his first six dollars in that wa}'^; teach-
ing school and eking out a meager livelihood till he attained his
majority; stepping forth a marked man on the very threshold of
his manhood, and going on " conquering and to conquer," I re-
gard him as a representative man of the genius and character of
the American people. I regard him as a man, honest, upright,
just; of great power of intellect and of great strength of purpose;
knowing and always pursuing the right; a man, in short, whom any
State or people should delight to honor. And shall this State re-
fuse to honor him — rather 1 should say to do him justice — when all
we ask is that his unfinished monument on the banks of Lake Mich-
igan may be completed? That on the foundation which the liber-
ality of individuals has constructed, a column may rise bearing the
statue of the illustrious statesman, and visible from the land and
108 . HISTORY OF THE
from the broad bosom of the lake, upon whose banks the dust of
the honored dead reposes, a fitting memorial of the greatness of
him whose achievements it is erected to commemorate, and of the
gratitude of the State which honored itself in honoring him.
If, sir, my limited time permits me to allude to anything else
which should operate to make men unite for the passage of this bill,
let me briefly refer to those dark days of the Republic, when the
black cloud of secession and disunion hung over this nation, and
when we knew not whether out of that cloud should come the
lightning stroke that would destroy us as a people, or whether from
behind it the light of heaven should again shine forth, dispelling
the darkness, and again illuminating everything with the bright-
ness of its rays. Let me remind you, gentlemen, that in those dark
days, Stephen A. Douglas rose up in his might, here in the city of
Springfield, and in a speech glowing with eloquence and jDatriot-
ism, put at rest all doubt, quieted all fear, and nerved the hearts
of his countrymen to that mighty effort, the issue of which was the
maintained integrity of the Union. Two months afterwards that
voice, then so mighty for good, was hushed in the silence of death;
a nation stood with bowed head, and the hearts of a great people
were filled with a sadness inexpressible. Men who had opposed
him in the political arena, and against whom the mighty power of
his matchless eloquence had been brought to bear, stood sorrow-
ful before the tremendous reality that one of earth's greatest men
had fallen; while those who had been of his political household,
who were his familiar friends, who had sat, as it were, at his ieeti
and drunk in the political wisdom that flowed from his lips, felt
almost as if death had entered their own homes and taken from
their family circle the form of a loved one. Like him whom Web-
ster apostrophized so grandly, Douglas was cut off in the hour of
overwhelming anxiety and thick gloom, and like his would I have
the memory of Douglas endure, " wheresoever among men a heart
shall be found that beats to the transports of patriotism and liberty. "
It may be, sir, that republics are ungrateful; it can never be that
they are justly so. Carlyle has said that " the hands of forgotten
brave men have made it a world for us." Forgotten brave men!
True. But that such men have been forgotten, though it prove
the truth not only of the adage that republics are ungrateful, but
that all nations are alike so, proves none the less that they should
not be.
Upon the one side of this house hangs the portrait of Abraham
liincoln, upon the other that of Stephen A. Douglas — Illinois' two
DOUGLAS MONUMENT. 109
greatest sons. In Oak Ridge Cemetery'-, almost within the shadow of
the dome which rises above us, the massive monument to the former
towers to Heaven, grand, perhaps, in its architectural design, grander
in its purpose, grandest in that it is a memorial of the gratitude and
the grief of a great State and nation. On the shores of Lake Mich-
igan, within sound of the sighing of the waves of that mighty sea,
unfinished and neglected, stand the foundation stones of the monu-
ment proposed to be erected to the memory of that other illustrious
man, upon whom for years every son of Illinois looked with pride
and affection. The friends of this bill ask of the State that hon-
ored Stephen A. Douglas so much while living, to no longer neg-
lect to do justice to his memory. Let the monumental shaft at
Oak Ridge Cemetery, and the beautiful column on the shores of
Lake Michigan, as they point heavenward, teach our young men, as
they stand at the base of the one or the other, to emulate the vir-
tues and the example of those whose virtues and patriotism those
monuments are erected to commemorate. Victor Hugo has said
that it is well to celebrate the anniversaries of great ever.ts, for
such celebrations stimulate to other great achievements. As truly
may it be said that it is well to erect monuments to perpetuate the
memory of the truly great, for they stand always as monitors, bid-
ding the living strive to be also great, that their words and deeds
may be alike remembered and honored by those whose benefactors
they may prove to be.
In conclusion, I appeal to you, gentlemen, one and all, to vote
the appropriation asked in this l)ill.
On the 15tli day of May, 1877, the House bill was taken up
by the Senate and passed without debate. It was approved on
the 22d following by Governor Cullom, and thus became a law,
taking effect July 1st, 1877.
The same Legislature voted an appropriation of $27,000 to
complete the Lincoln monument at Springfield, and it was pre-
sumed that one measure assisted the other.
Pursuant to a call, the commissioners named in the foregoing
bill met at the Palmer House July 2d, 1877, and organized, by
the selection of a President and Secretary, and an Executive
Committee.
110 HISTORY OF THE
The writer was requested to submit his designs for the mon-
ument, which were substantially the same as had been adopted
by the Trustees in 1864 — the original model of the design
liaving been destroyed in the great lire of '71, he had since
then reproduced it by drawings, with some slight modifications,
and the same were exhibited before the Legislature of 1875.
These designs, together with plans for coping around base
of monument, coping and sidewalk along Douglas avenue south
of monument grounds, and a terrace wall along the railway
track east of the grounds, were submitted and explained before
the commission, and were unanimously re-adopted by the com-
missioners.
The next meeting of the commission was held July 7th.
Tlie Chicago Thaes of the 8th contained the following:
"The Douglas Monument Commission, consisting of Judges
Drummond, Trumbull, Caton, and Fridley, and Messrs. Potter
Palmer, M. W. Fuller, R. T. Lincoln, and Ralph Plumb, met in
Judge Drummond's room, United States building, on yesterday
afternoon, the full board present.
Mr. Lincoln, on behalf of the committee appointed at the meet-
ing on Monday to make an examination of the design for the mon-
ument, as originally made by Leonard W. Volk, and in accord-
ance with which the work was begun in 1868, reported that in
their judgment it fulfilled the requirements in every respect, and
recommended its adoption by the commission. The committee
had taken the advice of a competent architect, whose opinion was
that a granite shaft might safely be placed on the Lemont lime-
stone base already erected; or, the monument could be completed
with the same stone as that used in the tomb, though it
would be necessary to see, first, that the foundations were well
and carefully laid. The committee would recommend a division
of the work, giving to Mr. Volk the statuary, and putting the ma-
sonry into the hands of an architect. In conclusion, the committee
submitted a resolution to the eflfect that Mr. Volk be asked to
submit double proposals for completing the monumental statuary;
one stating time and terms for doing the work as a whole, the
DOUGLAS MONUMENT. Ill
other, times and prices for the surmounting statvie and the sur-
rounding allegorical prices, separately, that the commission might
choose.
Considerable discussion followed. Mr. Fuller favored a division
of the work — one man to do the statuary, another the masonry.
Judge Fridley thought the work could be done cheaper if let to
one man, and it seemed to him that the most reliable person was
Mr. Volk. Judge Caton was in favor of granite, and opposed to
limestone for the shaft. So, also was Judge Drummond. He pre-
ferred advertising for the work as a whole. Mr. Palmer thought
there should be an architect. The commission should advertise
for proposals, and let each part of the work to the lowest bidder.
Judge Caton suggested that they advertise for proposals both in
whole and in part, and then they could choose. After some further
talk the report of the committee was received, and the resolution
adopted. On motion the same committee, consisting of Messrs.
Fuller, Lincoln, and Palmer, was continued, with instructions to
procure plans and specifications, and after a careful examination
of them to advertise for proposals for the work, except the statuary.
The commission then adjourned to meet two weeks from Tuesday
next. The committee will meet at the Palmer house, at 2 o'clock
this afternoon."
The following resolution was passed at this meeting :
Resolved, That the secretary of this commission be and he is hereby directed
to request Mr. Leonard W. Volk to submit to this commission, at his earliest
convenience, proposals for the execution and completion, including the placing
of the same, of the statuary for the Douglas Monument, at Chicago, according
to the design adopted by the Douglas Monument Association. Wiiich propos-
als shall state the price at which, and the time within which he would contract
to execute and complete said statuary in whole, and also the price and time for
and within which he would contract to execute, complete and place: First, the
statue designed to surmount said monument ; Second, the figures at the corners,
and Third, the Relief work ; taken and considered separately.
A true copy of resolution adopted by commissioners to com-
plete Douglas Monument at Chicago, July 7th, 1877.
M. W. Fuller,
Sec'y of said Commission.
At a subsequent meeting of the Executive Committee, held
soon after, the writer was ordered to prepare working plans and
112 HISTORY OF THE
specifications, to be made ready forthwith, for tlie siipei-striict-
nre of the monument, (i. e. all that portiow above the tomb to
the base of statue) to be of a light-colored New England
granite.
Also, plans and specifications for coping around base of mon-
ument ;;nd along Douglas avenue, a sidewalk in same street,
and a terrace wall along the railway.
The following agreement was made:
This memorandum of an agreement made at Chicago, this first
day of August, A. D. 1877, between the Commissioners of the
Douglas Monument at Chicago, and Leonard "W. Volk, of the city
of Chicago, county of Cook and State of Illinois, Witnesseth:
That the said Leonard W. Volk, for the consideration hereinafter
named, agrees that the designs, plans, drawings and specifications
of the Douglas Monument at Chicago, already drawn and prepared
by him and furnished to said Commissioners, shall and do belong
to the latter, and they and the preparation of the same are paid for
in full by this agreement.
Said Volk, further for said consideration agrees to furnish all
working plans, drawings, designs and specifications, and copies
thereof, and models which may be required for the architectural
and other work named in specifications No. 1, and all work speci-
fied in specifications Nos. 2 and 3 (said specifications having
been already prepared by said Volk), needed and required for the
execution of the work herein named, and also all other specifica-
tions, plans, drawings, etc., required for the completion of said
monument in accordance with the existing general design thereof.
Said Volk further agrees for said consideration to superintend
the work named in specifications Nos. 1, 2 and 3 as the same may
be contracted for and directed by said Commissioners to be done,
and all other work in and about the completion of said monument
audits grounds, if and as requested and directed by said Commis-
sioners. The superintending of said Volk to be strictly under the
direction of said Commission, and no authority being hereby given
to said Volk to incur any liability for and on account of said Com-
missioners, or make any change in said work not authorized by them
without their specific assent.
And in consideration of the faithful performance of the fore-
going, the said Commissioners of the Douglas Monument at Chi-
cago hereby agree to pay to said Leonard W. Volk the sum of five
DOUGLAS MONUMENT. 113
liundred dollars. In witness whereof the parties hereto have sub-
scribed these presents (the party of first part by its President and
Secretary) the day and year first above written.
Commissioners of Douglas Monument at Chicago, by
J. D. Caton, Pres.
M. W. Fuller, Sec'y.
Leonaed W. Volk.
The writer subsequently rebated $200 from the above con-
tract.
At the next meeting of the committee, the writer was ordered
to omit certain ornaments resting on the corners of the main
base of the superstructure, and enlarge the diameter of the
column at the top, when the following advertisement was pub-
lished in the daily papers:
DOUGLAS MONUMENT COMMISSION.
Proposals are invited for the New England granite work necessary to com-
plete the Douglas Monument in Chicago, and for walls, sidewalk and limestone
or sandstone coping,
Also for marble and tile work in the tomb chamber and work on sarcophagus.
Full plans and specifications of the work can be seen at the ofiSce of Robert
T. Lincoln, No 31 Portland Block, Chicago.
The above work is described in three separate specifications, and proposals
are requested for the work on each specification separately, and also for all the
work together. Specimens of the material proposed must accompany each bid.
Each bidder will name in his proposal the time within which he will com-
plete the work proposed for by him, if his bid is accepted.
A satisfactory bond, with two sureties, in the sum of one-half the amount of
each contract, will be required of the successful bidder, to insure the comple-
tion of such contract. Names of proposed sureties should accompany bids.
No payments will be made on any contract until the full completion of the
work named.
Proposals should be in sealed envelopes, marked "Proposals for Work on
Douglas Monument," and addressed to Melville W. Fuller, Secretary of the
Commission, No. 152 Dearborn street, Chicago.
Proposals will be received until ten o'clock in the morning of Saturday, July
28, 1877, and will be opened at a meeting of the Commission.
The right is reserved to accept or reject any bid, or to reject all bids, in the
absolute discretion of the Commission.
Chicago, July 18, 1877.
ROBERT T. LINCOLN,
POTTER PALMER,
MELVILLE W. FULLER,
Committee.
The meeting was held as advertised and the bids of a large
number of contractors were opened.
The superstructure was let to one of the lowest bidders
8
114 ."'rinsTOET of the
at $15,600, to he of Hallowell, Maine, granite, and was com-
pletedJnly, 1878.
The limestone work, consisting of the copings, sidewalk and
terrace wall, was let shortly after at $4984, and was completed
ia sixty days.
In October, the writer was commissioned to execute a colos-
sal statue o£ Douglas, in bronze, to surmount the monument,
as appears by —
This agreement, made this 17th day of October, A. D. 1877, be-
tween the Commissioners to complete the Douglas Monument at
Chicago, of the first part, and Leonard W. Volk, of the city of
Chicago, comity of Cook and State of Illinois, of the second part,
witnesseth:
That the said Leonard W. Volk, for the consideration hereinaf-
ter mentioned, agrees to execute for the Douglas Monument at
Chicago, Illinois, to the satisfaction of the party of the first part, a
colossal statue of Stephen A. Douglas, in standard bronze metal,
not less than nine feet high, to be a faithful and true likeness of
said Douglas both in feature and in form throughout, and place it
on the column of the monument as designed, by the first day of
June, A. D. 1878.
And said Volk also agrees that the model for said statue shall
be exhibited to said party of the first part, and that the party of
the first part shall be informed of the formula adopted by said
Volk for the bronze metal, and that said party of the first part
shall be satisfied with the execution of the model and with the
formula adopted before the casting of the statue is attempted.
In consideration whereof, the said party of the first part agrees
to pay the said L. W. Volk, upon the completion of the statue as
aforesaid, of the likeness and material aforesaid, and the placing
of the same in positon and acceptance thereof by said party of the
first part, the sum of eight thousand dollars (|8,000).
In witness whereof, the parties hereto have subscribed these
presents (the party of the first part by its President and Secretary
thereunto duly authorized), the day and year above written.
The Commissioners to complete the
Douglas Monument at Chicago,
BY J. D. Caton, President.
M. W. Fuller, Secretary.
Leonard W. Volk.
1
DOUGLAS MONUMENT.
115
Soon after, it was decided by the Commissioners to remove the
limestone tomb or substructure built twelve years before and
rebuild it of granite, utilizing the old ashler facing for the in-
ner walls. Some changes were made by reducing the diameter
of the tomb at the top, and omitting the arches which connect-
ed the octagonally formed buttrass-pedestals at the four cor-
ners of tomb with the cornice, substituting square ones about
half the height, and making a square door-way instead of the
keyed arch. The foundations as originally constructed were
examined by experts but were not disturbed.
On Dec. 31,1877, the contract for the renovated substruct-
ure was let to the lowest bidders at $7803, and is of "Fox Isl-
and " Maine granite, and was completed in June, 1878.
The statue of Douglas was hoisted into position as soon as
the capstone of the column was placed. And was informally
unveiled July 17th, in presence of several of the Commission-
ers, the only sister of Senator Douglas, Mrs. Granger, who
came from her home at Clifton Springs, New York, to view the
work, and a considerable number of spectators.
The following remarks were made by Judge Caton upon the
occasion:
"As a representative of the Commission appointed by the State
Legislature to execute its purpose in the completion of the monu-
ment for Senator Douglas, it is proper for me to say that we are
gratified to see so many appear here to witness the manner in
wliich this work has been done. We have assembled here, — the
Commission, — not for the purpose of a public exhibition in any
manner or form, or in any sense of the word; but for the purpose
of examining how the work thus far has been executed. It has
now progressed to that stage when you can see, and we can see,
the form and features of the monument erected in honor of Judge
Douglas, and we deem it proper that the Commission should meet
here, for the purpose of examining the manner in which this work
has been executed; and I repeat, that it is a matter of gratifica-
tion to see so many of the citizens of Chicago spontaneously met
here with us for the same purpose. I may be permitted to say,
116 HISTORY OF THE
that the completion of this work — so far as the monument proper
and the statute are concerned, it is completed, — I may, I say, be
permitted to say that the completion of this work is an era in the
history of our State, which, some of us at least, can sensibly feel.
Seventeen years ago. Judge Douglas was taken from among us.
At that time his features were familiar to almost every man, woman
and child in Illinois. Since that time a new generation has grown
up, strangers to his features.
They all knew the sound of his voice which electrified the mul-
titude; they knew the expression of his countenance whence
beamed that light which lit up the great multitudes of people.
During the meantime, many of these have passed away, and a new
generation has come, who will to-day for the first time look upon
the countenance of which they had only heard. Standing as I do
in this position, it is proper to say, that but few comparatively, of
the contemporaries of Judge Douglas are left; the most dis-
tinguished of them have been swept away, one by one; and why a
few of us of lesser light should have been spared, none but
Omnipotence can tell. How long we shall follow in his footsteps
of course is hidden in the future.
We return to you our thanks for your kind attendance. I will
now proceed to uncover the statue, that all may look on the
features which all so much loved."
In August, the writer entered into the following agreement to
execute the four heroic size symbolical statues for the pedestals
at each corner of the tomb.
This agreement, made this 7th day of August, A. D. 1878, be-
tween the Commissioners to complete the Douglas Monument at
Chicago, of the first part, and Leonard W. Volk, of the city of
Chicago, county of Cook, and State of Illinois, of the second part,
witnesseth:
That the said L. W. Volk, for the consideration hereinafter men-
tioned, agrees to execute for the Douglas Monument at Chicago,
Illinois, to the satisfaction of the party of the first part, four stat-
ues representing " Illinois," " History," " Justice" and " Eloquence,"
ill standard bronze metal, not less than seven feet high, if standing,
but to be in sitting posture, each, and place the same upon four
pedestals at the four corners of the substructure of said monument by
the 1st day of May, A. D. 1879.
And said Volk also agrees that the model fw each of said statues
DOUGLAS MONUMENT. 117
shall be exhibited to said party of the first part, and that said
party of the first part shall be informed of the formula adopted
by said Volk for the bronze metal, and that said party of the first
part shall be satisfied with the execution of the model and with the
formula adopted before the casting of either of the said statues is
attempted.
In consideration whereof, the said party of the first part agrees
to pay the said L. W. Volk, upon the completion of each of the
four statues aforesaid of the material aforesaid, and the placing of
the same in position and acceptance thereof by said party of the
first part, the sum of sixteen hundred and twenty-five dollars,
being the sum of six thousand five hundred dollars for said
four statues when completed, placed in position and accepted as
aforesaid.
In witness whereof, the parties hereto have subscribed these
presents (the party of the first part by its president and secretary
thereunto duly authorized) the day and year above written.
The Commissionees to complete the
Douglas Monument at Chicago,
(Signed) By J. D. Caton, Pres.
(Signed) M. W. Fuller, Sec'y^
(Signed) Leonard W. Volk.
I, Melville W. Fuller, of Chicago, the Secretary of the Commis-
sioners to complete the Douglas Monument at Chicago, do hereby
certify that the foregoing is a correct copy of the contract for four
statues entered into between said Commissioners and L. W. Volk,
and voted May 1st, 1878. As witness my hand this 8th day of
August, A. D. 1878.
Melville W. Fuller,
Sec'y Commissioners to complete Douglas Monument at Chicago.
Upon the assembling of the legislature in the winter of 1879,
the Commissioners forwarded their report to the Governor, stat-
ing the amounts expended from the appropriation of $50,000
and liability under contract for symbolical statues; and that in
order to complete the four bas-reliefs as originally designed for
the panels of the base of superstructure, and also to substitute
granite in place of the old limestone steps or base of substruc-
ture, $9,000 additional to the $50,000 would be required.
118 HISTORY OF THE
Governor Cull om in his message recommended that this sum
be appropriated for the purpose.
, The following bill was introduced in the House by Mr. Mo-
ses Wentworth, iand was in due time passed.
An act to appropriate nine thousand ($9,000) dollars for the
completion of the Douglas Monument at Chicago. That said Com-
mission was compelled to remove and rebuild the substructure
thereof, requiring an expenditure not anticipated at the time of
the passage of the act creating said Commission, and necessitating
a further ajDpropriation; therefore,
Be it enacted, by the people of the State of Illinois, represen-
ted in the General Assembly, That the sum of nine thousand
(19,000) dollars be, and the same is hereby appropriated for the
completion of said monument, and the Auditor of Public Accounts
is hereby authorized and directed to draw his warrant on the State
Treasurer for said amount out of money not otherwise appropria-
ted, upon the certificate of a majority of said Commissioners, from
time to time, as the same may be needed.
The same bill was presented to the Senate by Mr. Bash, who
in a speech advocating its passage explained the reasons for the
appropriation. It was defeated; whereupon Senator De Lany
moved a re-consideration. The vote resulted in a tie. Lieut.
Gov. Shuman, the presiding officer, voted in favor of re-consid-
eration, and the discussion of the bill was then resumed, which
was amended, making the amount $5,000, and then it was
moved to refer it to committee on appropriations. Lost. The
Senate again refused to order it to a third reading by a vote
of 21 to 22.
Just before the adjournment in May, ex-member of the
House of Hepresentatives, Hon. Jos. E. Smith, who introduced
the original bill, proceeded to Springfield and succeeded in get-
ting the House bill which liad gone to Senate committee on
appropriations resurrected, and it was shortly afterwards passed
by the Senate and approved by the Governor May 27th, 1879.
About July 22d, the first of the four statues, representing
Illinois, was successfully placed upon its pedestal, and on Sep-
tember 28th the second, History, was put in position.
DOUGLAS MONUMENT. 119
Aboat December 30th, 1879, the third. Justice, was com-
pleted and seated safely upon its pedestal.
On July 24th, 1879, the Executive Committee of the Board
of Commissioners issued an advertisement inviting proposals
to complete in granite the circular bases or steyjs around the
tomb in place of the limestone. Three, instead of the seven
original stej)s, and curtailment of diameter eight feet and four
inches, having been previously determined upon, the contract
was in due time let to the lowest bidder at $3,925, and com-
pleted March, 1880. All the granite work was cut at the quar-
ries in Maine.
On March 1st of same year the last contract was made with
the writer to execute the four Bas-reliefs as follows:
Tills agreement, made this 9th day of March, A. D. 18S0, be
tween the Commissioners to complete the Douglas Monument at
Chicago, of the first part, and L. W. Volk, of the city of Chicago,
County of Cook, and State of Illinois of the second part, Witness-
eth : That the said L. W. Volk for the consideration hereinafter
mentioned, agrees to execute to the satisfaction of the party of the
first part, four Bas-reliefs in standard bronze metal, for the four
panels on the main base of the superstructure of the Douglas Monu-
ment at Chicago, and to place the same in, position, all to be done
to the satisfaction of the said party of tb^ first part, by the first
day of January A. D. 1881. And said Volk also agrees that the
design as well as the model for each of said Bas-reliefs shall be ex-
hibited to said party of the first part, and that said party of the first
part shall be informed of the formula adopted by said Volk for the
bronze metal, that said party of the first part shall be satisfied with
the design as well as the execution of the model, and with the
formula adopted, before the casting of either of the said Bas-reliefs
is attempted.
In consideration whereof the said party of the first part agrees
to pay the said L. W.Volk, upon the completion of each of the Bas-
reliefs aforesaid, of the material aforesaid, and the placing of the
same in position and acceptance thereof by said party of the first
part, the sum of twelve hundred dollars, being the sum of four
thousand eight hundred dollars for said four Bas-reliefs when com-
pleted, placed in position and accepted as aforesaid.
In witness whereof, the parties hereto have subscribed these
120 HISTORY OF THE
presents (the party of the first part by its committee thereunto
duly authorized) the day and year above written.
Commissioners to complete the
Douglas Monument at Chicago,
By Potter Palmer,
Lyman Trumbull,
M. W. Fuller,
Robert T. Lincoln,
Committee.
Leonard W. Volk.
The last of the statues of the monument, representing Elo-
quence, was safely placed May 13th, 1880. All these statues, in-
cluding the Douglas, were first modeled in clay by the writer,
in Chicago, and approved by the commissioners; then cast in
Plaster of Paris, and in that material forwarded to the bronze
foundry of M. J. Power, I^ew York, who has cast them in the
best bronze metal, i. e.: 90 parts copper, 8 parts tin, and 2
parts zinc.
The statue of Douglas, which is 9 feet 9 inches high, weighs
about 2200 pounds. The four symbolical statues, if standing
in upright posture, would be about 7 feet 6 inches high, and
average weight of each is about 1150 pounds.
description and dimensions of the monument as completed.
The octagonal base coping, of Lemont, 111., Limestone, is
70 feet in diameter. The first of the three circular bases of
the substructure is 42 feet 2 inches in diameter, and the height
of the three together is 4 feet 3 inches. The tomb is octagonally
formed, 20 feet 3 inches in diameter, and 10 feet high, to the
plinth-base of superstructure. Its chamber is 8 feet 9 inches
square by 7 feet 2 inches high. The pedestal at each of the
four corners of the tomb is 6 feet high, with base 4 feet 2 inches
square. The octagonally formed pedestal of the superstructure
above the tomb is 18 feet 10 inches high, to the circular base
DOUGLAS MONUMENT. 121
of the column. Its plinth-base is 15 feet in diameter. The
length of the column, including its base, which is 2 feet thick,
is 46 feet 5 inches, and is 5 feet 2 inches in diameter at base,
with a diameter of 3 feet 6 inches at the top. The cap, includ-
ing the ornamented frieze, is 4 feet 6 inches high, and the statue-
base above is 2 feet high, making the entire height of the
monument, including the statue, 95 feet 9 inches. The orna-
mentation cut in the granite consists of a wreath and the letter
" D " on the lintel of the tomb door. There are raised shields
on the corners of the main base of superstructure, the pedestal
of which is ornamented with festoons and wreaths of laurel,
sa^d ^a7nheaux on the octagonal corners — all in high has-relief.
The two main sections of the column are marked by belts of
raised stars, indicating the number of states ; and the frieze of
the cap is encircled with oak leaves in high relief.
Within the tomb-chamber repose the remains of Senator
Douglas, in an iron casket which is placed in a white marble
sarcophagus, lined with lead. The following inscription is let-
tered on the front side:
" STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS, I
" Born Apkil 23d, 1813. Died June 3d, 1861.
"Tell my children to obey the laws and uphold the Constitution."
The marble of the sarcophagus is from his native State and
county — Rutland, Yermont. The tomb has a heavy wrought-
iron grated door, with padlock, and an inner iron safe-door
with combination lock. The entire superstructure of the mon-
ument is made of solid blocks of granite except the die of
pedestal, which is in four parts, and has a small hollow space
within, containing the copper box of records, coins, etc., which
was deposited in the corner-stone of the original limestone
tomb.
The faces of the raised shields, stars and panels are polished
or glossed.
122 HISTORY OF THE
THE BKONZE STATUARY.
The colossal statue of Douglas surmounting the top of the
column, looking, eastward over the lake, is 9 feet 9 inclies high,
and represents him standing in repose, with scroll in left hand
pressed against the hip, and the right hand thrust under the
lapel of his tightly buttoned under-coat.
The four pedestals at the base are occupied by heroic-size
statues representing Illinois, History, Justice and Eloquence,
in sitting attitudes; the forn.er has her right hand placed on
the State coat of arms, with ears of corn in her left hand, and
crowned with a chaplet of wheat, and is supposed to be in the
act of relating the story of' the State to History, on the oppo-
site corner, who, with stylus in hand, is about to record it up-
on the scroll lying across her lap; her left foot rests upon a
pile of tablets.
Justice rests her right hand upon a sheathed sword, and
holds the balances in her left. Eloquence points with her right
hand towards the statue of Douglas, while the left rests upon
a lyrical instrument.
All these statues are differently composed and robed in har-
monious and classical garments.
The four Bas-reliefs in the panels of the main base of suj^er-
structure represent the advance of civilization in America,
first by an Aboriginal Indian scene in which appears the sun
rising above the horizon of a lake, upon which two Indians
are about to embark in a canoe; wigwams, with squaws and
papoose, and an elder and two younger Indians, and a dog,
the elder injthe act of shooting a deer with bow and arrow.
• The second represents Pioneer Settlers building log cabin,
plowing, sowing grain, and a group of mother, children and
doo- restino: before the unfinished cabin and the "Prairie
Schooner" wagon.
In the third scene Commerce and Enterprise are represented,
DOUGLAS MONUMENT. 123
by trackmen working on the railroad, a locomotive, vessels
discharging and receiving merchandise, an elevator warehouse
and telegraph line. The fourth and last of the scenes il-
lustrates Education — the culmination of civilization.
THE MONUMENT GROUND
Is bounded on the north by Woodland P$rk with frontage of
260 feet.
On the east by the Illinois Central Railway and lake Michi-
gan, with frontage of 300 feet. On the south by Douglas
avenue or 35th street, with a frontage of 402 feet.
And on the west by an alley, and the width of the lot along
this alley is 266 feet.
124 RECAPITULATION OF COST OF MONUMENT.
RECAPITULATION OF THE COST OF THE GROUND
AND MONUMENT.
The ground — State appropriation $25,000
Foundations and limestone tomb — Public subscriptions. . . 13,350
Drafting and superintendence — State appropriation 300
Limestone copings, sidewalk and terrace wall — State ap-
propriation 4,984
Superstructure, Hallowell granite — -State appropriation. , . 15,600
Substructure, four pedestals and tomb. Fox Island granite
— State appropriation 7,893
Statue of Douglas, in bronze metal — State appropriation . . 8,000
Statues of Illinois, History, Justice and Eloquence, in
bronze metal — State appropriation 6,500
Three base-steps around tomb. Fox Island granite — State
appropriation 3,925
Four Bas-reliefs, in bronze metal — State appropriation. . . . 4,800
Miscellaneous expenses — grading and gardening done and
to be done — State appropriation 6,998
Total expense of the Douglas Monument $96,350
Douglas's Cottage, and the Registry for Visitors to the
Monument, are numbered 36 Douglas Avenue, adjacent to
THE Monument Grounds.
-^.^am^imQ^^wsi^ ■
-'*—i-—^^&t
HISTORY
DOUGLAS MONUMENT
At CHICAGO;
80)
1
PREFACED WITH A
BRIEF SKETCH OF SENATOR DOUGLAS' LIFE,
3t[u$tration8 of tbc Dloniimcnt, etc.
LEONARD W. VOLK,
SCULlTOtt, AND DESIGNER OF TME MONUMENT.
CHICAGO :
THE CHICAGO LEGAL NEWS COMPANY.
1880.
g^p55^^3£S^-
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