USA > Illinois > Madison County > Centennial history of Madison County, Illinois, and its people, 1812 to 1912, Volume I > Part 11
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83
What Rev. Thomas Lippincott calls, in his reminiscences, "The Conflict of the Century" was fought to a finish in Illinois in the notable campaign of 1823-4, and Madison county was the storm-center, with Gov. Edward Coles, of Edwardsville. as leader and director of the anti-slavery forces. The election in 1824, the main issue of which was to obtain a public ex- pression for or against the calling of a con- vention, the object of which was to adopt a new constitution admitting slavery to the state, witnessed the first contest at the polls in the west to resist the aggressions of the slave power and the extension of its dominion. It was the forerunner of the great Kansas- Nebraska contest of 1854-8 to resist the ex- tension of slavery into the territories, but, unfortunately, the actors in the earlier contest do not stand out on the hilltops of history as prominently as they deserve; yet their suc- cess made possible the triumph of freedom in the later contest. The story of this great cam- paign, one of the most momentous the country has ever known, involves the career of Ed- ward Coles as the chief actor therein to such an extent that the story is most understand- ingly told in a sketch of his career. The sketch is an extended one but, as the campaign in which he was the leading actor, was the most important in the history of the State, and
involved its destiny for all time, it is worthy the prominence we give it below, especially as the whole contest centered about Madison county.
The long line of Illinois governors, from the admission of the state into the Union in 1818 to the present time, is a galaxy of splen- did names. Nearly all of the state's execu- tives have been men of exceptional talent, de- voted to the service of the people; but there are two of the early governors whose names shine with special lustre in the retrospect of history and whose works do follow them. They are Edward Coles, of Edwardsville, the second governor, who saved the state from the blight of slavery, and Thomas Ford, the sev- enth governor, who rescued it from the almost equally blighting curse of repudiation and dis- honor. To both of them, men of opposing policies but both Democrats, the, state of Illi- nois owes a debt of perennial gratitude. Other men were linked with Coles and Ford in their great accomplishments, but they were the leaders, the self sacrificing representatives of those issues whose triumph became the vindi- cation and the glory of those who championed them in days of stress and turbulence.
The first of these, Edward Coles, after a brilliant career of thirteen years in Illinois, be- came an exile from the state which had been
41
42
HISTORY OF MADISON COUNTY
GOVERNOR EDWARD COLES
43
HISTORY OF MADISON COUNTY
made famous by the fruition of his labors, and removed to Philadelphia, where he lies buried, far away from the sunlit prairies he had res- cued from the covetous clutches of the slave driver. But before his eyelids closed in death another generation had come upon the stage and he beheld the whole nation delivered from the dominion of slavery by another Illinoisan just as he had saved the Prairie State from the same impending calamity.
The second of these early benefactors, Thomas Ford, after a turbulent career as gov- ernor, succumbed to disease and misfortune and died in want and obscurity. He who saved the state from financial disgrace and destruc- tion and placed it on the high plane of pros- perity and good repute, whose acts as governor were worth untold millions to the state, came to this untoward end. Of late years Illinois, with a faint glimmering of its obligation, has erected a monument over his lowly grave at Peoria, upon which it has squandered the princely sum of twelve hundred dollars. Ford was a resident of Edwardsville for several years, and was married there.
COLES, A KNIGHTLY FIGURE
But it is of Governor Coles that I wish to write, and a character more inspiring cannot be found in our western annals. Easily the most knightly and notable figure in the early rec- ords of this great commonwealth is that of its second governor. The records of chivalry and philanthropy display nothing more daring or self-sacrificing than his career from early manhood to the culmination of his labors. Like Governor Edwards, but unlike most of the pioneer governors of the state, who had strug- gled up from the obscurity and privations of life on the border to honor and distinction- Edward Coles was born to the purple, reared in luxury and refinement in the most exclusive and aristocratic circles of the old Dominion. His father was Col. John Coles, a soldier of the Revolution and a Virginia slave owner,
whose wealth for those days was so great that when his estate was divided among several heirs, the portion falling to his son, Edward, was twenty-five slaves and one thousand acres of land.
Edward Coles was born December 15, 1786, on the family estate, called "Enniscorthy," in Albemarle county, Virginia, which was also the native county of Thomas Jefferson. Young Coles received his boyhood education from private tutors, and later pursued his studies at William and Mary College. But more advantageous and inspiring perhaps than his college course was the intimacy he en- joyed with the great Virginia statesmen of that era. Such patriots as Patrick Henry, Jef- ferson, Madison, Monroe and other great men of the epoch succeeding the Revolution, were frequent visitors at the family mansion, and intercourse with such notables, at an impress- ionable age, doubtless had much to do with forming his character.
EARLY OPPOSED TO SLAVERY
A year after young Coles had completed his college course his father died, leaving him owner of a large plantation and a retinue of slaves. Nature had been kind in bestowing on him a handsome personality. To this were added the attractions of liberal culture, courtly address and kindly characteristics. During his college days he had become imbued with the conception or belief, that no man had a legal right to property in his fellow men, and that no such right existed morally. Such opinions, in the atmosphere in which he was brought up, were not only radical but revolu- tionary. He studied the question from an in- dependent standpoint, and finally came to the decision that he would neither hold slaves nor live in a state which tolerated and protected involuntary servitude. To this conviction he remained steadfast through a storm of oppo- sition from those of his own household, and never knew shadow of turning. But to carry
44
HISTORY OF MADISON COUNTY
his views into practice, in a state where he could not legally free them (and he refused to sell them), was a problem impossible of elucidation in Virginia, but which he solved later in a dramatic manner.
MADISON'S PRIVATE SECRETARY
In 1809, when young Coles was a man of twenty-three, President Madison appointed him his private secretary, which position he accepted and filled with great credit for six years, during which period occurred the war of 1812. It is interesting to note in this con- nection that his elder brother, Col. Isaac Coles, filled the same office a few years pre- viously, as private secretary to President Jef- ferson, and was known as "the most perfect gentleman in America." His position at Wash- ington brought young Coles in contact with the great men of the nation. He acquired there the knowledge of public affairs, the tact and diplomacy which so greatly distinguished his later career. But the subject of slavery was ever uppermost in his thoughts and in 1814 he opened the correspondence with Ex- President Jefferson, on that topic, which be- came famous in history, Jefferson, though a slave owner himself by force of circumstances, being a bitter enemy of the institution. In his first letter Mr. Coles urged the "Sage of Mon- ticello" to take the lead in the cause of eman- cipation, but Jefferson, in his reply, which ex- pressed the fullest sympathy with his corre- spondent's views and recounted his own early efforts in behalf of the abolition of slavery, argued that in his advanced years (he was then seventy-one) prevented his undertaking the task, but urged his young friend to assume the leadership as one fitted therefor by his tal- ents, his position and his enthusiasm.
JEFFERSON ALSO AN ABOLITIONIST
This put Jefferson on record as a conscien- tious abolitionist-not of the anarchistic, revo- lutionary brand, but an advocate of abolition
by peaceful and educational means, just such an Abolitionist as Lincoln was at the date of delivering his second inaugural mes- sage in which he advocated compensated emancipation. After the cession of the so- called Northwest territory by Virginia to the national government in 1784, Jefferson then a delegate in congress, introduced a bill provid- ing for the organization and government of the new territory. One of its provisions was that neither slaves, nor involuntary servitude should exist in the territory after 1800, except in punishment for crime. This bill did not be- come a law until 1787 and then in a modified form. The anti-slavery provision, however, was not only retained, but made effective on the passage of the bill, instead of in 1800, in exchange for which concession it was provided that fugitive slaves, escaping into the new territory should be returned to their mas- ters.
No more notable letters than those passed between Jefferson and Coles exist in the ar- chives of anti-slavery literature. They re- vealed the mutual adherence of the writers to principles which, even at that time, had forced Coles to exile himself, for conscience's sake, from his native state, and sever the ties of home and kindred.
After the conclusion of the war of 1812 Mr. Coles thought he saw his way clear to liberate his slaves by removing them from the state. Accordingly he determined to make a tour of the new Northwest territory, which, under the "Ordinance of 1787," had been dedicated to freedom, for the purpose of finding a suitable location. He resigned his position in Wash- ington and traveled through Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, reaching St. Louis by way of Kas- kaskia and Shawneetown; thence by river to New Orleans; by sea to Savannah and back to Virginia.
Immediately subsequent to the close of the war with Great Britain grave diplomatic dif- ferences arose between this country and Rus-
45
HISTORY OF MADISON COUNTY
sia which made it necessary to send a special envoy, with dispatches to St. Petersburg, and President Madison induced his young secre- tary to undertake the delicate mission. To give emphasis to the mission and dignity to the official envoy Coles was dispatched on a man- of-war, the "Prometheus." After various de- lays Mr. Coles concluded his negotiations with the czar in a manner which proved highly sat- isfactory to President Madison and the state department. Leaving St. Petersburg he made the tour of Europe, visiting all the leading capitals, his credentials as the special envoy of the United States being the "open sesame" to the chancelries of the old world. In Paris he was received with special distinction, and was the guest at times of the Marquis La Fayette, little dreaming that a few years later, as gov- ernor of a sovereign state, he would have the honor of welcoming the renowned soldier to the soil of Illinois. After a stay of three months in Paris he visited Great Britain and Ireland, thus returning home.
COLES FREES HIS SLAVES
But his prolonged absence in foreign lands had not shaken the young diplomat's purpose to liberate his slaves. In furtherance of this object, he made the exploration trip to the western country, spoken of heretofore, and de- cided upon Illinois as his future home and Ed- wardsville as the place where he would locate with his slaves. Returning to Virginia, he made the necessary preparations for removal, and in the spring of 1819, gathering all his slaves together, he started on the long jour- ney. The trip was made from Albemarle county in emigrant wagons to the Ohio river. There he purchased two flat boats and loaded the whole party thereon. The slaves knew nothing of their master's intentions-only that they were removing to a new country-but when the boats were below Pittsburg Mr. Coles called the company together and made them a short address, in which he announced
his sentiments in regard to slavery, and then declared them all unconditionally free-at lib- erty to proceed with him or go ashore as they pleased. 1
The scene which followed was indescribable. The slaves from whom the shackles had thus suddenly fallen were hysterical in their happi- ness and their expressions of gratitude were so heartfelt and profuse that no portrayal thereof would be adequate. With tearful eyes and tremulous voices they implored Heaven's blessings on their benefactor. All elected to stay with their old master until he was "fixed" in his new abode. But this Mr. Coles would not agree to; they were free to work for themselves and make the most out of their lives. Still, he assured them, they would always remain under his friendly care . and protection. This scene of emancipation is fittingly portrayed in a magnificent historical painting at the head of the main stairway in the state capitol at Springfield. Arrived be- low Louisville the emigrants disembarked and proceeded overland in wagons to Edwards- ville.
Arrived at their destination Mr. Coles pur- chased a large tract of land and deeded to each head of a family, or adult of twenty-four years, one hundred and sixty acres of land, and saw that others obtained employment suited to their capacities. It should be pre- mised here that this seemingly Utopian ex- periment succeeded, the negroes developing into industrious citizens. In addition to the general certificate of freedom given them, be- fore reaching Illinois, Mr. Coles, on arriving at Edwardsville, found that, in order to make them secure in their freedom, it would be nec- essary to comply with certain provisions of the barbarous black laws of the state. This he did, and issued a certificate of emancipa- tion to each individual and had it recorded at Edwardsville. These freedom papers were issued July 4th, 1819. The instrument recited, in preamble, that his father had bequeathed to
ยท
1
46
HISTORY OF MADISON COUNTY
him certain negro slaves, and added that "not believing that man can have of right property in his fellow man, but that, on the contrary, all mankind are endowed by nature with equal rights, I do, therefore, by these presents, re- store to (naming the party) that inalienable liberty of which he (or she) has been de- prived."
The greatness of this chivalric act on the part of Mr. Coles, in that age, can hardly be fittingly appreciated. For the sake of the principle above enunciated he deliberately stripped himself of wealth, and violated all the traditions of his family and the society in which he had been brought up. He gave up his ancestral home; severed the ties of kin- ship ; gave up a life of luxury and the assur- ance of a brilliant career in his native state, and, in brief, sacrificed to his conscience all that a young man looks forward to as repre- sented by ambition, wealth or fame. How different the record of this practical anti-slav- ery man to that of many ranting abolitionists of a later age who were anxious to abolish slavery at some one else's expense. Mr. Coles abolished slavery, as far as he was concerned, at his own material cost and at the sacrifice of all that he held dear.
"IRREPRESSIBLE CONFLICT" IN ILLINOIS
Mr. Coles had been appointed by his friend, President Monroe, register of the Govern- ment Land Office at Edwardsville, a position at that time of importance, which, in connec- tion with his previous public career, brought him at once into prominence in his adopted state. He had, also, on his previous visit in 1818, borne letters of introduction from the president to Gov. Ninian Edwards, then United States senator, which opened to him the doors of private and official hospitality. All these influences combined to give him, al- most at once, a wide acquaintance, not only with the prominent people of the state, but with the humblest settlers in search of a new
home by the entry of government lands. All who met the new register felt the charm of his rare personality. So rapid was the popu- larity he acquired that three years after his arrival in the state (1822) he was brought forward by those sympathizing with his views as a candidate for governor. The opposing candidates were Chief Justice Joseph Phillips, Judge Thomas C. Browne and Gen. James B. Moore. While the slavery question did not figure as a direct issue in the campaign the sentiments of the candidates were well known. Phillips and Browne were strongly pro- slavery, while Coles' record was as strongly anti-slavery. Moore was also classed as mildly opposed to slavery.
At the election Coles received 2,854 votes ; Phillips, 2,687 ; Browne 2,443, and Moore 662 -Coles thus receiving a bare plurality of 167, a close margin ; but upon which hung events of transcendent moment. The result was a surprise, it being supposed that the election lay between Phillips and Browne. But while Coles was elected by a small plurality the pro- slavery vote, as represented by Phillips and Browne, cast 5,130 votes, while the opposition, as represented by Coles and Moore, cast only 3,476 votes, a pro-slavery majority of 1,654. The legislature elected at the same time re- turned a pro-slavery majority, a premonition, at once, of trouble for the new governor.
As regards the right to hold slaves in Illi- nois there was room for difference of opinion. Slavery already existed to a limited extent among the old French residents. In 1720 Philip Renault, manager of "the company of St. Phillips" holding a grant from the king of France to the mines of gold and silver in the Illinois country, brought to Illinois five hun- dred African slaves bought in St. Domingo, with whom to work the mines supposed to ex- ist in Illinois. He founded the village of St. Phillips, in what is now Monroe county, and proceeded to develop the country. After a long and desperate struggle his schemes of ex-
47
HISTORY OF MADISON COUNTY
ploitation collapsed, and he returned to France, in 1744, after selling his slaves to the French residents. When the Illinois country was ceded by France to England, in 1763, the French inhabitants were confirmed in their property rights by treaty. In 1784 the North- west territory (which had been a county of Virginia since its conquest by Gen. George Rogers Clark in 1778) was ceded by Virginia to the national government, under a similar guarantee of the rights of property. In 1787, when congress adopted the ordinance for the government of the territory, the sixth article, heretofore referred to, read: "There shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in said territory otherwise than in punishment for crimes whereof the party shall have been duly convicted."
Illinois was admitted to the Union in 1818 as a free state, under the provisions of the or- dinance of 1787, but there was a strong ele- ment in the state which contended that said ordinance could not abrogate the rights of property guaranteed by the treaty in 1763, and by the Virginia cession of 1784, and that "property" included the slaves. Of course this contention put the power of the state above that of the national government and the claim was ignored by congress when the state was admitted. The pro-slavery adherents being thus balked now changed their tactics and con- tended that while the constitution of 1818 might not permit slavery still it was within the province of the people to adopt a new consti- tution and admit slavery. Their scheme, therefore, was to have the legislature provide for submitting to the electors at the next elec- tion a proposition for or against a convention to revise the constitution.
This was the situation which confronted Governor Coles on his inauguration December 5, 1822. He found himself opposed by a strong and bitter majority of the legislature, which took emphatic exception to his appeal, in his inaugural address, for the abolition of
the "black laws" passed by the first legislature and for wiping out the remnants of slavery which still existed in the state in defiance of the "ordinance of 1787." This address marked the line of demarcation between the execu- tive and the pro-slavery element and there- after to the end of his term the war waged against him was fierce and unrelenting. But the man who had sacrificed all he held dear for the sake of principle was not to be intimi- dated by threats. And "the irrepressible con- flict" was on in Illinois.
The resolution introduced in the legislature providing for submitting the question of call- ing a constitutional convention to a vote of the people, required a two-thirds vote of the as- sembly, and upon lining up their forces the pro-slavery men found that while they had the requisite two-thirds vote in the senate they lacked one vote of two-thirds in the house. How to obtain the additional vote was the question. The anti-slavery minority was firm and determined, there was not a break in the ranks-but it happened that there was a contested election case at the opening of the session, and it was discovered that the con- testant, who had been seated, Gen. N. Hansen, of Pike county, was opposed to the conven- tion. The pro-slavery majority thereupon conceived a scheme to obtain an additional member by reconsidering their previous action in seating Hansen, and passed a resolution de- claring the other contestant, John Shaw, who was known to favor the convention, to be en- titled to the seat. By thus unseating Hansen and admitting Shaw, in violation of their own record, they obtained the necessary two-thirds majority and the resolution submitting the question of a convention to a popular vote was passed.
The contest in the legislature was pro- longed ; excitement rose to fever heat through- out the state. After the agreement for the ex- pulsion of Hansen had been made, but the night before the final passage of the resolu-
48
HISTORY OF MADISON COUNTY
tion, the wildest demonstrations of delight were indulged in by the pro-slavery element. A riotous procession paraded the streets of Vandalia, then the capital, and halted before the residence of Governor Coles and other anti-slavery leaders, and heaped upon them vituperation and insults. Governor Reynolds, a pro-slavery man, in his history, "My Own Times," holds that the illegal unseating of Hansen was an outrage and that "the saturn- alia of indecent rejoicing which followed gave the death blow to the convention." No doubt they weakened the pro-slavery cause in the minds of conscientious men.
The heavy combined majority cast for the two pro-slavery candidates for governor, at the state election, and the subsequent action of the legislature cast a gloom over the anti- slavery element in the state. Their cause seemed hopeless and the adoption of a pro- slavery constitution a foregone conclusion, but Governor Coles neither quailed nor faltered, but faced the issue with wisdom and courage. -determined, although he represented a min- ority of the voters, to convert that. minority into a majority and defeat the proposed con- vention. It will naturally be asked why the governor did not interpose his veto to the ac- tion of the legislature, and the answer is that he had no such power, the existing constitution providing that a new convention, to revise the constitution, could be called at any time that two-thirds of the legislature decided to submit the question to a vote of the people. In this matter then the governor had no veto power.
COLE'S "CAMPAIGN OF EDUCATION"
The campaign that followed was the most bitter and vituperative in the history of the state. Families were separated, brothers op- posed brothers, churches were divided-the opposing leaders went armed on the hustings. Personal encounters were frequent. The in- tensity of feeling developed came perilously
near to civil war. Three-fourths of the inhab- itants of Illinois at that time were from slave states, Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia and the Carolinas. Some had moved to Illinois be- cause opposed to slavery on moral grounds ; some because not being able to own slaves they could not compete with slave labor, on its own ground, in the struggle for a livelihood; but the majority were pro-slavery by heredity and choice, and dreamed of ease and luxury for themselves while negroes tilled the fertile soil of Illinois and enriched their masters with the fruits of unrequited toil.
Although the convention men were arrogant and confident of victory and included nearly all the leading statesmen, they were opposed by a band of heroic men headed by Governor Coles, who conducted a campaign of education.
Hon. E. B.Washburne, in his life of Gov- ernor Coles, says : "As soon as the legislature adjourned Governor Coles invited all the prin- cipal anti-convention men of the state to meet with him in Vandalia, to consult upon the course to be adopted in view of the action of the legislature. Fully appreciating the su- preme importance of the question thrust upon them, they determined upon an immediate or- ganization and to resist at the very threshold the conspiracy to make Illinois a slave state. The first thing was to have the members of the legislature, who voted against the convention, issue an address to the people. This appeal, undoubtedly drawn by Governor Coles, un- masked the purpose of the conspirators to make a slave constitution, and exposed all the nefarious means employed to accomplish the purpose."
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.