The biographical encyclopedia of Illinois of the nineteenth century, Part 1

Author: Robson, Charles, ed
Publication date: 1875
Publisher: Philadelphia, Galaxy
Number of Pages: 770

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Gc 977.3 B52 1169828

M. L.

GENEALOGY COLLECTION

ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 00839 1002

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A. Lincoln

THE

BIOGRAPHICAL

ENCYCLOPÆDIA

ILLINOIS

THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.

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PHILADELPHIA: GALAXY PUBLISHING COMPANY. 1 875.

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1875, by CHARLES ROBSON, In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C.

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THE

BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPÆDIA

ILLINOIS. 1169828

INCOLN, ABRAHAM, the sixteenth President of [ though narrowly escaping assassination at the hands of men the United States, was born in Hardin county, whom his proclamation years after liberated from slavery. It was a happy thing for him that, living among the roughest of rough men, he never acquired a vice. In March, 1830, the family moved again, locating on the Sangamon, in Ma- con county, Illinois, where the father died, January 17th, 1851. Abraham, at this time, was six feet four inches in height, tall, angular and ungainly, " but a welcome guest in every house." He earned his livelihood by splitting rails and farm labor. The success of a flatboat voyage to New Orleans gained him a clerkship in a pioneer store, where he studied grammar and attended debating clubs at night, and marked his character by an integrity which secured him the soubriquet of " Honest Abe," a characterization which he never dishonored and an abbreviation that he never out- grew. In 1832 he became Captain of Clary's Grove Boys, and served under General Gaines in the Black Hawk War. Upon his arrival home, then twenty-three years old, he was named as candidate and elected a member of the Legisla- ture, the result of the popularity he achieved in his brief military campaign, and soon after President Jackson made him Postmaster. At the close of this service he was ap- pointed by John Calhoun, subsequently the President of the Lecompton Constitutional Convention, in Kansas, as his assistant in surveying Sangamon county, and he pursued this business for a year with such accuracy that the lines have never since been called in question. In 1834 he en- tered more thoroughly upon the study of law, and became again a candidate for the Legislature, to which he was elected. He walked one hundred miles to attend each ses- sion. In 1836 he was re-elected, and during the ensuing session made his reputation as a party leader. The Sanga- mon delegation, of which he was foremost, has been handed Kentucky, February 12th, 1809, in a rude log- cabin planted in a remarkably picturesque region of a wild and newly opened country. His pa- rents were Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hauks, the latter a woman out of place among those primitive surroundings. Schools in that region were scarce, and those to be found simple and irregular-the religious institutions still more so. Parson Elkin was the only preacher in the vicinity, and it is said that from the simple addresses of this humble and devoted itinerant Abraham gathered his first ideas of public speech. When eight years of age his father removed into an almost unbroken wilderness within the limits of Spencer county, Indiana, not far from the present town of Gentry- ville, where within two years they laid the faithful mother to rest. Inheriting a strong impulse for study, whichi was stimulated by his parents, Abraham became an early reader and writer, his books, though few in number, being well calculated to form a character which has never been sur- passed for quaint simplicity, earnestness, purity and great wisdom. They were of a kind, too, which excited his taste for politics, kindled his ambition, and, though a lad, made him a warm admirer of the statesmen of that time. In the winter of 1819 he passed under the care of a step-mother, and as he grew up he became increasingly helpful on the farm. In physical strength and in athletic feats he was the master of all his companions, his modesty as well as his generosity winning their lasting esteem. When eighteen, he built a flatboat and made his first venture to a down-the- river market, and when nineteen, though unaccustomed to business, and ignorant of the great stream he was to move upon, he made a successful flatboat trip to New Orleans,

BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.

down to posterity as " The Long Nine," each member being over six feet high. It was at this session, also, that he met Stephen A. Douglas, and these two commenced then a struggle which now forms an epoch in our national history. The prevailing sentiment in Illinois at this time was pro- slavery. Both parties, Democratic and Whig, did not doubt that the Constitution protected the institution of slavery, and when the former introduced into the Legislature extreme pro-slavery resolutions, but two men of the latter were found willing to subscribe to a protest against them, and these were Abraham Lincoln, and Daniel Stone, of Sangamon. The time had now arrived for the translation of the former to a new sphere, and on April 15th, 1837, he went to Spring- field as law partner with an old friend, Major Stuart, and found this association of practical benefit. In 1838 he was sent to the Legislature again, and was prominent in all of the debates. Here he developed more fully the tactics he had early adopted for ridding himself of troublesome friends as well as enemies, which were simply the telling of stories to change the current of conversation. For this he had a marvellous faculty. He soon obtained a very large prac- tice, and earned the reputation of a sound lawyer. In 1840, the " Sangamon Chief," as he was now called, was re-elected to the Legislature, and about this time, actuated by motives of gallantry, he challenged James Shields, subsequently a United States Senator, to a broadsword combat. Friends in- tervened and no harm was done, nor intended, at least by Lincoln, who said he had selected broadswords because his arms were long, and he could easily hold his opponent at bay. In this year he formed a law partnership with Judge S. T. Logan, of Springfield, and in 1842 married Mary Todd, daughter of Hon. Robert S. Todd, of Lexington, Kentucky. The fruit of this marriage was four sons, Robert Todd, Ed- ward, who died in infancy, William, who died in Wash- ington, and Thomas, better known to the country as " Tad." The oldest and youngest survive. In the active discharge of his professional duties, and in study of State and party interests, the months past away and brought Lincoln to the great political contest of 1844, when Clay was the Whig candidate for the Presidency. The result of the campaign was to this party a sore disappointment, and Lincoln was one of the profoundest mourners. He had a strong convic- tion of the soundness of the principles of the Whig party, and of the immeasurable superiority of Clay over Polk. This defeat made him distrust, for a time, the capacity of the peo- ple for proper self-government. In 1846 he was nominated for Congress, was triumphantly elected, and took his seat December 6th, 1847, when Douglas entered the Senate. In 1848 he was a member of the Whig Convention in Phil- adelphia which nominated General Taylor, and was an ac- tive leader of the ensuing canvass. During his first term in the National House of Representatives, he discharged his duties ably and conscientiously, carrying into it the anti- slavery record of an anti-slavery Whig. He dissolved his law association with Judge Logan during this period, and

became partner with William H. Herndon. In 1852 he was on the Scott electoral ticket, but did not go into the canvass with his customary earnestness. A new political era opened in 1854, upon the proposed organization of the territories of Kansas and Nebraska, and the effort which was persistently made to render it impossible for them cver to become free States, aroused him as never before to the hanging crisis which was to be either the triumph of free- dom or the triumph of slavery. Between him and Doug- las, the responsible author of the " Popular Sovereignty " bill giving the right to the people of a territory to choose their own institutions, the great contest over the questions growing out of this bill was hotly waged. Lincoln's indig- nation was an index to the popular feeling all over the North. Wherever Douglas went, Lincoln followed to apply the antidote to the poison at once. The slavery question was now the question, and the latter entered heartily into the organization of a new party-the Republican-which was to resist the extension of slavery. Under his leadership this party in Illinois was organized, May 29th, 1856, and he was appointed one of the delegates to the Philadelphia Con- vention shortly after, which was to give the new party a national character. In 1858 he entered into his memorable contest with Douglas for the United States Senatorship, and was beaten by the unfair apportionment of the Legisla- tive districts. This battle was waged with unusual energy on both sides : both men debated the issues at stake before the same audiences and upon the same occasions ; and their speeches, their interpretations of the principles of the Decla- ration of Independence, and of party policy, were published entire as a campaign document in the Republican interest, without word or comment, when Lincoln was nominated for the Presidency. His addresses in this contest were sound, logical, powerful and exhaustive, and in connection with two or three others form the chief material on which his reputation as an orator and debater must rest. In 1858- 9, having some leisure, he diverted himself by writing a lec- ture on the history of inventions. In 1859 the movement to make him the Republican candidate for the Presidency took form, and at this time it was only too clearly the fact that the Southern leaders were preparing the minds of their people for some desperate step, under the conviction that where the issue was between complete liberty, or slavery, it was useless to postpone the conclusion longer. Bands of secret conspirators organized for treason were started in various sections of the South ; southern arsenals were being filled with munitions of war; and even the church pro- claimed the divine right of slavery. These and hundreds of other circumstances only too plainly indicated that if in the ensuing Presidential contest Republicanism triumphed, the slave-holding States would secede en masse. The Re- publican Convention assembled at Chicago, June 16th, 1860, and upon the second ballot nominated Abraham Lincoln, and adopted the old Whig platform, except in the matter of slavery, where it introduced, with some modifications, the

BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPÆDIA.

principle of the " free soilers." This selection became very popular, and Lincoln, in the fifty-second year of his age, having spent half of his years in a wilderness, born in the remotest obscurity, and for a long time subject to the rudest toil and meanest offices, was now placed before the nation as a candidate for the highest honor in its power to bestow ; and from this moment he knew nothing of leisure. He was a wise candidate. He held his tongue. No abuse provoked him to utter a word in self-vindication. He had accepted the platform, his record was before the country, and he calmly awaited the result. This result was his triumph in the electoral college by a handsome plurality, the popular vote being for him 1,857,610; for Stephen A. Douglas 1,365,976; for John C. Breckenridge 847,953, and for John Bell 590,631. On December 16th following, South Caro- lina took the lead in secession, and before Buchanan's ad- ministration was ended she was followed by six other slave- holding States. In February, 1861, Lincoln went from his Springfield home to Washington, his journey being a con- tinuous ovation on the part of the loyal North, and on the 4th of March took the oath of office, and delivered an in- augural which was moderate and conciliatory in tone. And now began the great work of his life, to which no limited sketch can ever do full justice. Treason was everywhere, and every department was infected, so that he could take no step which some spy in government employ did not convey to his enemies. The horizon was dark, and the black clouds were rising on every hand. It was no little satis- faction to him, with treason and falsehood all around, to feel that Douglas, his old senatorial opponent, was now his firm, loyal friend. With the fall of Sumter came a revival of patriotism, which silenced northern disloyalty, and turned a deaf ear to compromise. Thousands upon thousands readily responded to his first call for troops; and this call with his proclamation declaring the blockade of the southern ports, were the preliminaries of one of the most remarkable wars that have occurred in the history of the human race. In May, Douglas died. The President felt his death as a calamity, for he had been of great service · in unveiling the designs of the rebels, and in bringing to the support of the government an element which a word from him at any favorable moment would have alienated. On the next meeting of Congress it was soon evident that it was ready to do all that the President asked, and even more, for the preservation of the Union. It placed at his disposal five hundred million dollars, gave him authority to call out half a million men, legalized all the steps he had thus far taken for the suppression of the rebellion, and labored in all ways to strengthen his hands and encourage his heart. In 1862 he had to contend not only with the gigantic labor involved in the war, but against the recognition by England and France of the rebels as a belligerent power, in which he succeeded perhaps not so much through the action of his cabinet and foreign ambassadors, as through the doubt of the expediency of such a recognition on the part of England

and France themselves. Perhaps the most noticeable of his efforts in the spring of 1862 was to secure an advance of the army under McClellan in Virginia, which had not up to this time struck a blow, though the North was clamorous for action. The President was impatient, for that General had then over a hundred thousand men, and was waiting for reinforcements before advancing. The result of this constant procrastination was the retirement of Mcclellan, and with this change, and movements along the coast, and in the Southwest, the new year of 1863 witnessed a consid- erable advance into the enemy's country. On September 22d, 1862, President Lincoln issued a proclamation, which declared free the slaves of those States in rebellion on Jan- uary Ist, 1863, leaving to every rebel State an opportunity to save its institution by becoming loyal; on September 15th, 1862, he suspended the writ of Habeas Corpus ; and on January Ist, 1863, the final proclamation of emancipation was issued, which changed the aspect of affairs. Though it was immediately followed by dark and doubtful days, the results indicated its wisdom. President Lincoln was re- nominated by the Republicans, at their Convention in Bal- timore, June Sth, 1864. July of this year was memorable for the arrival of rebel ambassadors at Niagara Falls, to effect a compromise between the North and South. They anticipated that the Government would be only too willing to meet them half way; but when the President sent them word that " any proposition which embraces the restoration of peace, the integrity of the whole Union, and the aban- donment of slavery, which comes by and with an authority that can control the armies now at war against the United States, will be received and considered by the Executive Government of the United States," they discovered that the President meant to concede nothing which was against the honor of the nation, and returned South without accomplish- ing their mission. The Democratic party, in convention at Chicago, named General McClellan for President, and George H. Pendleton for Vice-President. The result of the election was an overwhelming majority for Lincoln, New Jersey only, among the Northern States, giving a ma- jority against him. The military operations of 1864 were of the most momentous character, memorable for Sherman's march to the sea, and the closing up of the Union forces around the Confederate stronghold at Richmond. Congress, during the session commencing in December of this year, finally passed the amendment to the Constitution abolishing slavery. On the 4th of March, 1865, President Lincoln was reinaugurated, and made his address immortal with these words : " With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in." In the stirring campaign in Virginia, which was the beginning of the end of the war, he was constantly at the front, and en- tered Richmond with the army. The surrender of Lee and Johnston brought the great rebellion to a close on April 2d, 1865. Lincoln had now reached the pinnacle of his life,

BIOGRAPIIICAL ENCYCLOPÆDIA.

by the forces of his nature and character, and without ad- ] ventitious aids. Hle had saved a nation from wreck, and disenthralled a race. Ilc had now no resentment to gratify, no revenge to inflict. His constant thought was to show the South that he entertained for them no ill will. While thus engaged, the mine was being laid which was to turn the joy of a victorious people to grief. While in a private box in Ford's theatre, on the night of April 14th, the Pres- ident was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth, a young actor who had been openly disloyal throughout the war. At the same time, according to a preconcerted design, the murder of Secretary Seward was attempted. This terrible event thrilled the popular heart with anguish. The nation became one of mourners, and every house where loyalty existed was draped with the habiliments of woe. A just vengeance was specdily inflicted upon the conspirators, and the crime was as much abhorred by the majority in the South as in the North. On the 19th of April, the funeral ceremonics took place in the Capitol, and while these were in progress, similar services were taking place in every part of the eoun- try. On April 21st, the funeral train left Washington for Springfield, Illinois, the beloved remains lying in state in nearly every city on the route, and on May 3d, the inter- ment took place in Oak Ridge Cemetery, Springfield, in the presence of a vast multitude. A grand monument, the tribute of a loving people, now rises above his gravc. Abraham Lincoln was a man of powerful intellect, but it was not by this that he wrought out the grand results of his life. These were rather the work of the heart. He was a man of true piety, conscientious in his labors, and possessed with a strong sense of duty which he readily obeyed. " The name of Lincoln," says D'Aubigne, " will remain of the greatest that history has inscribed on its annals."

OND, SHADRACH, the first Governor of Illinois clected to that office under the State Constitu- tion, was born in Frederick county, Maryland, in 1773, and was raised by a pious father-Nich- olas Bond-on a plantation. Agriculture was his pursuit in Illinois, whither he emigrated in 1794, when he had reached his majority, residing in the American Bottom, Monroe county, with his uncle, Shad- rach Bond, Sr. He received in Maryland a plain English cducation, such as farmers generally bestow on their chil- dren. For some years he resided with his uncle, when he purchased a farm on a lake bank in the American Bottom and thoroughly improved it. Here he lived for many years a single farmer. While quite young he was elected to the General Assembly of Indiana Territory, which met at Vin- eennes. He made a good member and attended faithfully to the business of the people. In 1812 he was elected the first Delegate to Congress from the Territory of Illinois, and in this office he performed great and important services for ! or no country. I have favored cvery honorable compromise,

his constituents. By his cxertions in that body the first Act of Congress was passed, in 1813, to grant the citizens the right of pre-emption to secure their improvements. This was the great lever that moved Illinois onward towards her present eminence. In 1814 he moved from his old planta- tion to Kaskaskia, and made a large farm near that village. He remained in Congress only one term, and was appointed Receiver of Public Moneys at Kaskaskia. In 1818, when Illinois was admitted as a State, he was chosen Governor without opposition. The duties of this new office were im- portant, onerous, and difficult to perform, and called for prudence, circumspection, and much wisdom. He pos- sessed these qualifications, and performed his duties to the general satisfaction of the people. Shortly after his term of office as Governor expired he was appointed Register of the Land Office at Kaskaskia, wherein he remained in his old age. He died April 11th, 1830, at Kaskaskia.

AWLINS, GENERAL JOHN A., Lawyer, Soldier and Secretary of War, was born, February 13th, 1831, in Jo Daviess county, Illinois. The family on his father's side was originally from Virginia, but had at an early day removed to Missouri, and thence to the vicinity of Galena. He was edu- cated in the common schools of the district, and attended an academy for a short period, but he was entirely indebted to his own exertions for the knowledge he possessed, and it was obtained under very adverse circumstances. His parents were very poor, and he labored on a farm until he was nearly twenty-three years old, occasionally working as a charcoal burner. In November, 1853, he entered the law office of J. P. Stevens, of Galena, where he made the ac- quaintance of General U. S. Grant. In October, 1854, he was admitted to the bar, and subsequently opened an office for the practice of his profession, and although he did not make a fortune he was tolerably successful. Thus he con- tinued, taking considerable interest in the political move- ments of the day. He was a strong and earnest Democrat, but held no office prior to the war. In 1860 he was selected as Presidential Elector on the Douglas ticket for the First Congressional District of Illinois. He made a thorough canvass in his section of the State, delivering many ad- dresses during the exciting campaign of that year. When the Rebellion broke out he deserted the Democratic ranks. A few days after the bombardment of Fort Sumter a meet- ing of the citizens of Galena was called irrespective of party. U. S. Grant was chairman of the meeting, in the course of which a Democrat arose and sought to throw the responsi- bility for the existing state of things on the Republican party. At this moment General Rawlins entered, and when the other had closed he sprang to his feet and gave utterance to the following : " I have been a Democrat all my life, but this is no longer a question of politics. It is simply, country

BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.

but the day for compromise has passed. Only one course [ a Cabinet Minister the insidious disease reasserted its do- is left us. We will stand by the flag of our country and ap- minion, and terminated his existence at Washington, Septem- ber 6th, 1869. He was buried with all the honors of war, the President, General of the Army, the Admiral of the Navy and Cabinet officers being chief mourners. peal to the God of battles." Subsequently a regiment was being raised in and around Galena, when it was proposed to make Grant a Captain and Rawlins a Lieutenant ; but soon after Grant was made a Colonel and then Brigadier- General, and as such was engaged at Springfield mustering troops into service. Meanwhile, Rawlins was at home chafing restlessly, and was about accepting the position of OLEY, RT. REV. TIIOMAS, Bishop of Per- gamus in partibus infidelium, Coadjutor and Administrator of the Diocese of Chicago, was born, March 6th, 1822, in Baltimore, Maryland, and is of Irish parentage. He is the son of Mat- thew Foley, of the county Wexford, Ireland, his mother being also a native of the same locality. These emigrated to the United States early in 1821. At the early age of ten years he entered the preparatory school of St. Mary's College, Baltimore, and after pursuing the prescribed course of study, matriculated at the college itself. He en- joyed there the best educational advantages that the institu- tion afforded, and, in 1840, at the age of eighteen, graduated with the degree of A. B. Having determined to devote his future life to the service of the church, he next entered the Theological Seminary attached to St. Mary's, where hc studied divinity, and passed six years in preparing himself for the sacred calling to which he was about to consecrate his being. Having received the minor orders in due course, he was ordained to the priesthood August 16th, 1846, at the Cathedral in Baltimore by the Most Rev. Dr. Eccleston, Archbishop and Metropolitan, by whom he was subsequently appointed to take charge of the Catholic Missions in Mont- gomery county, Maryland. In this charge there were four churches to be served, these being located at Rockville, the shire town, Rock Creek, Seneca, and Barnesville. After officiating in this field for a period of eight months, he was called upon to act as Assistant Pastor at St. Patrick's Church in Washington, District of Columbia, having for his senior the venerable Father Matthews, who had for fifty years ably filled the pastorate in the capital city, a most eminent scholar, and one who enjoyed the confidence and friendship of General Washington, as well as of all the Presidents during his lifetime. He passed two years in this parish, at the expiration of which he was called, in 1849, to the Baltimore Cathedral by Archbishop Eccleston. He here labored with acceptability for a period of twenty one years, and during that time filled several important positions. When the late Archbishop, F. P. Kendrick, was translated to that See, in 1851, he became his Secretary and Chancellor of the Arch- diocese of Baltimore. He also filled a similar position under the late Archbishop Spalding. He also acted as Secretary and Notary of the Plenary Council, which was held in Baltimore in 1866. In 1867 he was made Vicar- General of the Archdiocese of Baltimore, which office he filled, being eminently qualified for the same, until his re- moval to Chicago. He was appointed by the Holy Sce, Major of the 45th Illinois Regiment, commonly termed the " Lead Mine Regiment," when one morning he read in the paper his appointment as Adjutant-General with the rank of Captain. This was in August, 1861. Ile received orders to report to General Grant on September Sth; owing to the death of his wife he delayed for a week, but finally reported for duty at Cairo, September 15th, 1861. From that date until March 11th, IS69, when he was commis- sioned Secretary of War, he was constantly with Grant, who appointed him Chief of Staff November, IS62, and his services were very valuable. He was present and partici- pated in the battles of Belmont, Fort Henry, Fort Donelson, Shiloh, Corinth, Iuka, the Tallahatchie Expedition to Ox- ford, in Mississippi, Port Gibson, Raymond, Jackson, Cham- pion's Hill, Big Black, the crowning victory of Vicksburg, Chattanooga, the Wilderness, North Anna, Pamunkey, Toloobatamoy, Cold Harbor, Front of Petersburg and Richmond. During this period he was commissioned Major, February 16th, 1862, Brigadier-General of Volunteers August 11th, 1863, and on March 3d, 1865, Congress ap- pointed him by special act Brevet Major-General of Volun- teers to date from February 24th, 1863, and also Brigadier- General and Chief of Staff in the Regular Army at the same time. Upon the accession of General Grant as President, he was made Secretary of the War Department, March I Ith, 1869. In this position he acted in direct opposition to the policy of Secretary Stanton. He was at all times subordi- nate to the President. While reflecting the views and en- forcing the policy of General Grant, he brought to the dis- charge of his duties a high order of executive ability, which enabled him to dispose of the routine business in the most prompt and satisfactory manner. The earnestness with which he seconded the efforts of the President and General Sherman to inaugurate a system of economy in the vast machinery of which he was the head gave promise of great benefit to the public service. His first wife, by whom he had two daughters, died in September, 1861. During the Vicksburg campaign he made the acquaintance of a Miss IIurlbut, of Danbury, Connecticut, who was then an invol- untary resident of the bcleaguered city. After its capitula- tion, July 4th, 1863, and during the occupancy of the cap- tured territory by General Grant, the acquaintance ripened into an attachment which resulted in their subsequent union. During this same year General Rawlins contracted a sevcrc cold, and consumption was threatened. The progress of the disease was averted for a time, but soon after becoming

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The biographical encyclopedia of Illinois of the nineteenth century, Part 1

Author: Robson, Charles, ed Publication date: 1875 Publisher: Philadelphia, Galaxy Number of Pages: 770

Author: Robson, Charles, ed
Publication date: 1875
Publisher: Philadelphia, Galaxy
Number of Pages: 770