USA > Illinois > Cass County > Historical encyclopedia of Illinois and history of Cass County, Volume II > Part 19
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paign of these great leaders will not be followed further, interesting as it was, and productive of very important results. Suffice to say, that it was conducted with great enthusiasm and excitement throughout the length and breadth of the state, and when the election was held it was found that the Democrats had elected a majority of their candidates to the legislature and upon joint ballot on January 6, 1859, Mr. Douglas was again elected to the United States senate. The popular vote, however, showed the Republicans to be in the majority. Cass County elected the Democratic candidates to the local offices by about the same narrow majority they had at the election in 1856.
The campaign of 1860 was, if anything, more exciting than that of 1858, and in Cass as much so as anywhere else. Henry E. Dummer, a dis- tinguished lawyer of Beardstown, was nominated by the Whigs for state senator, and Henry Phillips, who, in later years, became county judge and master-in-chancery of the county, made his first appearance in politics. At the Democratic county convention in June of that year, he was nominated for circuit clerk over Knowlton H. Chandler. Judge Phillips was an able speaker, and made an active canvass, not only for himself, but for the Douglas Democratic ticket. Phillips was elected and in 1864 suc- ceeded himself, holding the office until 1868. Judge Phillips is still living at Beardstown, and is now the master-in-chancery of the city court of that city and of the Circuit Court of Cass County. Judge Dummer was elected as a Republican to the senate for a four year teriu, ending in 1864. A biographical notice of Judge Dummer is given elsewhere in this work. The presidential vote shows that the Douglas Demo- crats received 1308 votes, and the Republican ticket received 1039 in Cass County. The elec- tion was held November 6, 1860. The Demo- crats continued to have a majority in the county, and elected their local ticket until 1872, when a division arose between the east and west end of the county over the county seat question when George Volkmer of Beardstown was elected sheriff, and Albert F. Arenz of the west part of the county was elected circuit clerk, both on the Republican ticket.
During the first . five years following 1860, local matters were largely absorbed in the in- terest and excitement attendant upon the Civil war, which broke upon the nation with the firing upon Fort Sumter on April 14, 1861. Public
excitement was at fever heat. Patriotism was aroused as it had never been before; party lines were broken down, and with few exceptions the people were actuated by a common sentiment of patriotism. Cass County residents at once began the formation of companies of soldiers and tendered them for service in defense of the Union. All of this military history is given elsewhere.
INTERESTING BIT OF LOCAL HISTORY.
An incident arose in 1863 which merits con- sideration. The constitution of 1848 had an article which had been submitted to the voters as a separate provision, providing that the Gen- eral Assembly should, at its first session under the amended constitution, pass such laws as would effectually prohibit free persons of color from emigrating to and settling in this state, and to prevent owners of slaves from bringing them into the state for the purpose of setting them free. Cass County voted in favor of that article, but not by as large a majority as for the constitution itself. The legislature did not, however, pass such laws at the first session thereafter, but it did enact a law on the sub- ject as has been stated, in 1853. This law pro- vided that if any persons brought into this state a negro or mulatto slave, whether set free or not, should be liable to indictment and fine of not less than $100, nor more than $500, and be imprisoned in the county jail for one year ; and further provided, in a subsequent section, that if any negro or mulatto, bond or free, should hereafter come into the state and remain more than ten days, with the evident intention of re- siding in same, should be fined upon conviction before a justice of the peace, $50, but the negro had the right of appeal to the Circuit court on giving bond with security, in double the amount of the fine, and costs, etc., with provisions for the manner of collecting the fines, and for sec- ond offenses, etc. Cass County has never had any negro population to speak of, seven being the highest number of colored persons ever re- ported by the census, that was for 1840. There- fore little attention was here paid to the Black laws as they were called.
In July, 1862, the Seventy-first Illinois Volun- teer Infantry was mustered into service as a three-months regiment. William H. Weaver, of Beardstown, was elected captain of Company G, and Thomas B. Collins of Virginia, was made
& Breves
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HISTORY OF CASS COUNTY
lieutenant of the same company. Quite a num- ber of Cass County men were enlisted in this company, whose names appear in the roster given elsewhere. This regiment was sent to Cairo, Ill., and to points in Kentucky, and after serving its time out, returned to Chicago and was mustered out. While in the South, a negro boy, named Henry Clay, became attached to Captain Weaver as a servant, and with him and Lieutenant Collins went to Chicago. When Col- lins was about to return home, the boy begged to be taken along. Lieutenant Collins, who, perhaps in his country home, in Cass County, ยท where there were no negroes, had never heard of the law against negroes coming into the county or state, and being a very kind- hearted man, took the homeless black boy with him. He had not been at home long before a few of that class of citizens who may well be suspected of not being courageous enough to have gone into the South to assist their south- ern friends in the prosecution of the Rebellion, nor loyal enough to enlist in the Union army for the suppression of that rebellion, and heartily disliked any who did so, soon noised it abroad that a negro had been brought into the state against the law; that Lieutenant Collins was the guilty violator of the law. So a complaint was procured, and the boy was charged with violating the state law above mentioned; Henry Clay, on December 11, 1862, was arrested at the home of Mr. Collins and brought to trial at Beardstown, and convicted, but appealed to the Circuit court.
At the March term of the Circuit court of Cass County, held at Beardstown, in March, 1863, the grand jury found an indictment against Thomas Byron Collins, for a violation of an- other one of the Black laws passed in 1845, which forbids the harboring of negroes or black persons, Judge Harriett being on the bench. He fixed the bail bond at $100. The writ for the arrest of Collins was not issued for some time, as he was away at the front, in the service of his country, and when he returned home, the boy was gone and no further attention was paid to the case, and was, when brought up at court, dismissed. Several versions of the story of the prosecution of the boy, Henry Clay, and the sequel have been printed, even the metro- oplitan press getting hold of it and publishing an account. These accounts do not differ very materially, for, of course, the foundation for them all is the record on file in the clerk's
office in Cass County, but through the efforts of Hon. J. N. Gridley, of Pomona, Cal., while he was yet a citizen of Cass County, the boy, Henry Clay, was traced and found to be in the Soldiers' Home at Danville, Ill. From him, through the assistance of the secretary of the governor of the home, an account of the affair was oh- tained which Mr. Gridley published in his his- torical sketches of Cass County, along with the accounts of the same affair by others, who were more or less cognizant of the facts. The account by Henry Clay himself, which appears to be unbiased and unprejudiced, and withal a simple, pathetic story of the life of one whose sole crime or misdemeanor was that of having a black skin, and having been born in slavery, is given as follows :
HENRY CLAY'S OWN STORY.
Says Henry Clay : "I was born in Moscow, Ky., on the 3rd day of March, 1839, and belonged as a slave to a family by the name of Tichworth, and was employed about the place as a house boy. I lived in Moscow until the breaking out of the Civil war, when I ran away and became a servant for officers of the Tenth Illinois In- fautry. I was taken with a number of men of that regiment as a prisoner and the Confederate troops put me to work building breastworks, etc. I later got away and then became a servant for Capt. William H. Weaver and Lieut. Thomas B. Collins of Company G, Seventy-first Illinois In- fantry. I remained with these officers and ac- companied the regiment to Chicago where it was mustered out in the fall of 1862. Being without a home I requested Lieut. Collins, who had been very kind to me, to take me home with him. This he did and I remained with him and his family for some time, working about the place for which work he paid me. Some time during that winter the sheriff accompanied by two men came to the Collins home and placed me under arrest. The sheriff remained at the Col- lins home over night and the next morning we started to Beardstown accompanied, as I now remember, by Mr. Collins, his wife, his sister, Miss Emma Collins, Dr. Pothicary and some others, whose names I cannot now recall. At one point in the road the sheriff and Dr. Pothi- cary had some discussion as to the proper way to go, my friends thinking that some harm might come to me by going in the direction the sheriff desired to take me. The sheriff finally consented
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and we went the way Dr. Pothicary suggested. When we arrived at Beardstown it was quite late and I was kept in the sheriff's house all night. The trial was held before a justice of the peace and Judge Dummer defended me. I do not remember the results of the trial further than that I was turned over to the care of Dr: Pothicary who gave bond or did something to get me out, and I returned to the Collins home and continued working about the place during the remainder of the winter. Some time during the spring of the year, I cannot tell just what time, but the corn was about 18 to 20 inches high, a mob came to the Collins place and tried to take me away. Mrs. Collins and her daugh- ter hid me out from the house in a field and I remained there until the mob left. Dr. Pothi- cary then took me to Springfield and put me in the care of a family by the name of Donnegan. These people were from Kentucky. I worked at odd jobs until the Twenty-ninth regiment of colored troops was organized, when I went to Quincy and enlisted in D company of that regi- ment on the 12th day of January, 1864, and served until the end of the war. I was twice wounded, once at Petersburg and once at Dan- ville, Va. After being mustered out I returned to Illinois and went to Jacksonville, where I drove a 'bus for awhile and later purchased a team and 'bus of my own and engaged in busi- ness for myself. I remained at Jacksonville until 1885, when I sold out there and moved to Chicago and engaged in the livery business. I remained in that business until about the first of January, 1904, at which time I was compelled to close out my business on account of ill health and I came to the National Soldiers' Home, at Danville."
GOVERNOR YATES PROROGUE OF THE LEGISLATURE.
The legislature of 1861 had passed a new ap- portionment act providing for twenty-five sena- torial districts, and eighty-five representative districts, and placed Cass County and Brown County together to form the Twenty-fifth Dis- trict, and having one representative. The change made by the apportionment of 1854 had left Cass and Menard counties together as one district, having changed the number to that of thirty-four. The original number was twenty- five. This act of 1861 changed us back to num- ber twenty-five but placed us with Brown in- stead of Menard, and this was the only time
Cass and Menard have not been associated in the same representative district, prior to or since that time. At an election in 1862, James M. Epler, a lawyer of Beardstown, was chosen to represent this district in the lower house. Both houses of that legislature were Democratic and elected William A. Richardson, a Democrat, to fill the vacancy in the United States senate caused by the death of Stephen A. Douglas. But little else was done. This was the legis- lature whose wrangle over political resolutions and disagreement over the time of adjournment brought on the famous action of Governor Yates in proroguing the legislature. The ordinary ap- propriations were not made by that legislature, and the state government had to depend upon banks and capitalists to advance the necessary funds for current expenses.
KNIGHTS OF THE GOLDEN CIRCLE.
In the fall of 1863, a little incident occurred which interested Cass County people, especially the "copperhead" element, as it was called. The Knights of the Golden Circle, a society formed in certain of the central western states for the purpose, as alleged, of resisting the draft, but, in fact, for the purpose of harrassing the government and all loyal people in any manner possible. There were at least two bands of the society in Cass County. The government made diligent efforts to obtain the secrets of the order, and succeeded so that at no time was the society very dangerous to the welfare of the state or national government. It was claimed that a man of Meredosia had, after joining the order, gone to Springfield and revealed the secrets of the society. A resident of Beards- town Precinct, who had at one time been a constable, and was also a "Knight," after hav- ing heard of the so-called treachery of the Mere- dosia man, was one day standing on the depot platform of the Wabash Railroad, at Jackson- ville, when a westbound train came in. He noticed the Meredosia man sitting by an open window, and waiting until the train started he attempted to jerk the "traitor" as he regarded him, out of the window. He did not suc- ceed and the other returned to his home at Meredosia, and had a warrant issued for his assailant who was arrested and taken to Jack- sonville for trial. In the meanwhile, in order to stir up an excitement. the "Knights" cir- culated the report that the Cass County man
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was to be dragged off by the military authorities and tried by court martial at Springfield, or some other place, away from the scene of the offense. Nothing of the kind was thought of by the authorities, but a large number of the "Knights" gathered, and with arms, such as old rusty muskets, rifles, shot guns, etc., pro- ceeded to Jacksonville, but they took great care to conceal their weapons in the outskirts of the city before entering. The excitement caused by the various stories circulated, naturally drew a great many people to Jacksonville, who were in no way connected with the "Knights" order, but, like poor old dog Tray, being in bad company, their names got mingled with those who were actually members of the so-called traitorous order. This faet has been used to give some little respectability to this order, hy citing that some very responsible persons were among the "raiders." As a matter of fact the so-called "raid" was a fiasco, and was not mentioned except casually for many years, and in later times when the odium attached to the order had somewhat disappeared, it was only referred to in derision or jest. The case was called and heard in the regular way, the defendant waiving examination, gave bond for his appearance at the Circuit court, but no bill was ever found against him, and the case was dismissed.
RETURN OF PEACE.
James M. Epler was not elected to the next assembly which was the twenty-fourth, but in 1866, was again chosen from Cass County. Two years later he was elected to the state senate from Morgan County, having removed from Beardstown to Jacksonville. Judge Dummer had moved from Beardstown to Jacksonville two years previously, and Garland Pollard had removed from Beardstown to St. Louis. The war over, matters hegan, to assume a peaceful and quiet aspect in Cass County. Population had greatly increased in the central and eastern parts of the county, while it appeared that Beardstown was retrograding. River traffie had been largely displaced by the numerous railroads built through the country, none of which had yet reached Beardstown, although strenuous efforts had been made in that direction. Financial matters were in a chaotic condition, the Leanard Bank. the only one at Beardstown, had made a disastrous failure, and altogether the future of the capital city of Cass County was not very promising.
Virginia adherents, taking advantage of the conditions, again sought a vote upon the re- moval of the county seat. An act of the legis- lature had been procured, passed February 14, 1867, which provided for a vote to be taken on the second Tuesday of April of that year. A history of this interesting contest is given else- where in this work, which finally culminated in the removal of the capital to Virginia.
FURTHER CONSTITUTIONAL REVISION.
The legislature of 1859 had submitted a propo- sition to the people calling a third constitutional convention. The proposition was endorsed by vote of the people at the election of 1860, and in November, 1861, an eleetion for choosing dele- gates was held. By this time excitement was intense over the war, and many of the state's best and ablest men were at the front and little attention was given to the selection of dele- gates to the constitutional convention which as- sembled January 7, 1862, but a majority of the delegates refused to take the oath prescribed by the act creating the body, that they would sup- port the state constitution. They attempted to assume absolute control over the affairs of the state. demanding certain information of the gov- ernor wholly foreign to their rights and duties pertaining to the purpose for which they were elected. Their conduct so incensed the people, that although the draft of a new constitution contained many excellent provisions, yet, when submitted to the people for ratification, at an election held June 17, 1862, it was rejected by a large majority. No further attempt to revise the constitution of 1848 was made for nearly ten years. The war had closed, two amendments had been made to the federal constitution and the legislature of 1867 again submitted a propo- sition to the people, and a constitutional con- vention was ealled, but it was by the extremely narrow vote of 704 majority. The convention was held and the draft of the constitution as adopted by the convention, was submitted to a vote of the people and ratified at an elec- tion held July 6. 1870, and it went into force August S, following. There was a new appor- tionment and redistricting of the state under the provisions of the new constitution. Cass and Menard eounties were again placed together to form one district, and numbered fifty-four. At the election in November of that year, William W. Easley. of Virginia, was elected as the first
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representative from Cass under the new consti- tution. A number of changes have since been made by the various legislatures in arranging districts under various apportionments, mostly actuated by a desire to gain some political ad- vantage in the reformation of districts. Cass County has fared no worse, and certainly no better, than other counties in that regard.
Under the new constitution a general law was enacted relating to the removal of county seats, and Cass County finally. as before stated, secured the removal of its county seat to Vir- ginia as a result of the last election, held in 1872. Virginia did not become the metropolis that it was expected by the more sanguine it would be, and Beardstown did not sink beneath the sand dunes on the river bank. The county seat has become a beautiful little city with ex- cellent business houses and paved streets, while Beardstown has grown at a rapid rate, now having over 7,000 inhabitants with flourishing industries, banks, churches, schools, water works, electric lights and paved streets that make it a city worthy of the efforts of the citi- zens who have made it what it is. Both places can well afford to forget all about the early exasperating contests over that which has proven not to have been of great value to either.
A POLITICAL SIDELIGHT.
Cass County, politically, has been Democratic most of the years since the Civil war, now and then electing a Republican to some local office, and has had, for the greater part of the time since 1870, a representative in the General As- sembly, either in the senate or in the house. In 1885, the county was represented in the lower house by Hon. J. Henry Shaw, as a member of the Thirty-fourth General Assembly, the county then being in the Thirty-fourth Senatorial Dis- trict. That legislature witnessed the most dramatic political contest in the history of the state. The senate was composed of twenty-six Republicans, twenty-four Democrats, and one Greenback-Democrat. The house had seventy- six Republicans, seventy-six Democrats, and Eli- jah Haines, an independent, who had been elected speaker after a somewhat prolonged con- test. A successor to Senator John A. Logan was to be elected, and he had been made the caucus nominee of the Republican party without oppo- sition ; and the distinguished representative in Congress, William R. Morrison, was the Demo-
cratic nominee. On the first joint ballot, which was taken February 18, 1885, Senator Logan re- ceived 101 votes; W. R. Morrison, ninety-four votes; Mr. Haines, four votes, and there were four scattering votes. Ballots were taken on two subsequent days without any material change and then, during the rest of February, March and April, either one side or the other refrained from voting, the purpose being to pre- vent a quorum. On February 26, Robert E. Logan, a Republican of the Nineteenth District died, and on March 20, Senator Frank M. Bridges, a Democrat of the Thirty-seventh Dis- trict dicd. At the special election called to fill these vacancies. a Republican and Democrat, respectively, were elected, thus preserving the political parity. On April 13, Hon. J. Henry Shaw, of Beardstown, representative of the Thirty-fourth District, died very suddenly at his hotel at Springfield. Mr. Shaw was a Demo- crat, in a district that was a Democratic strong- hold. At the time Mr. Shaw was elected to the assembly, Hon. Grover Cleveland carried the dis- triet for president by 2,060 majority. It was assumed that a Democrat would be elected to succecd Mr. Shaw. The special election was called for May 6. At that time the Australian ballot law was not in force, and nominations were made by the convention system. The Democrats held their district convention and nominated Arthur A. Leeper, a well known lawyer of Virginia, who had been state's attor- ney for Cass County. The Republicans held no convention and apparently were letting the elec- tion go by default. The Democratic convention was held at Virginia, and on the same evening a few Republican leaders casually met and it was whispered among them that it might be possible to organize a "still hunt" and elect a Republican and thus end the deadlock at Springfield. In a few days James B. Black, Capt. Reuben Lancaster, Dr. S. M. Colady and one or two others went to Springfield and a con- sultation was held in the old Leland Hotel, where assembled a few of the most intimate and trusted friends of Gen. Logan and a plan was developed and decision made that Capt. Wil- liam H. Weaver should be put up as the candi- date. He was well known, as he was born in Cass County and had lived there until after the Civil war, and had then lived for a time in Mason County. and was then living at Peters- burg, Menard County. A few only of the most careful Republicans in each county of the dis-
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trict were let into the secret. It was arranged that Welles Cory, a newspaper man of Mason City should look after the printing of the tickets. He closed his office at the usual time in the evening after his weekly paper was sent out, and then, with curtains down he went to work at the tickets. To facilitate press work he set up several tickets in one form and then cut them into strips of six tickets on each for delivery, and the handlers of the tickets were to separate them. The plan was that information should not be given out until the morning of election, and then trusted lieutenants werc to go into every voting district and distribute the tickets and quietly pass the word, the voters were not to go to the polls until about four o'clock in the afternoon. Election day came on with little attention being paid to it by the Democrats, who thought there was no contest. The Republicans went about their work as usual, but when four o'clock came they began to pour into the polls in full force. They came in such great numbers and with such enthusiasm that the Democrats realized at once that something was being done, and, discovering the true situa- tion, made every effort to counteract the move- ment, but it was too late, their forces could not be rallied, and the result was that Captain Weaver was elected, and on May 19, 1885. Gen. Logan was, with the vote of Captain Weaver, re-elected to the United States senate. An amusing incident is related relative to one Re- publican, who came in from the field where he had been plowing, and getting hold of one of the slips containing the six tickets, in his ex- citement and hurry, instead of tearing one off, he voted the entire six, thus destroying his vote. The plan being successfully carried out, many persons arose at once to claim credit for it as is usual in such cases. However, the plan was not a new one. In the special election held in Sangamon County in 1855, to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Abraham Lincoln from the legislature, the Democratic leaders suc- cessfully invoked the same tactics and elected a successor to Lincoln when nearly everyone in the county assumed his successor would be a Whig. The real credit belongs to the Repub- licans of the district who had the good judgment to keep the secret ; had they not done that, the plan would have failed utterly, and as it was, the majority of Weaver was only 336 votes. As a matter of fact the whole plan was conceived and laid before Senator Logan by the gentlemen
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