USA > Illinois > Hancock County > Historical encyclopedia of Illinois and history of Hancock County, Volume II > Part 157
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The letter of the Adjutant General to Mr. Dallam is as follows:
Mr. Philip Dallam,
Chairman, Former Local Board for Hancock County, % The Warsaw Bulletin, Warsaw, Ill.
Dear Sir :
Referring to previous correspondence con- cerning the checking of the list of registrants of your local board who are charged with draft desertion, I have the honor to inform you that check, which has just been completed, has resulted in the removal of the names of all registrants of your local board from the list of draft deserters which will be published.
Under the circumstances, it will not, of course, be necessary to call upon you for any assistance in this connection. I desire, how- ever, to thank you for your kind interest in the matter and to assure you that your offer of cooperation is highly appreciated.
Very respectfully,
P. C. HARRIS, The Adjutant General.
The letter of Mr. Dallam to Mr. Scofield is as follows:
Hon. C. J. Scofield, Carthage, Ill.
Dear Judge :
Perhaps you will recall that when I was in your office in January last I stated that the Adjutant General wrote to me relative to submitting a list of those charged with draft desertion for the purpose of having us check it over, to ascertain what ones of our registrants were properly on the list. I have just received the enclosed letter from him, which was good reading to me and I know it will be to you. To employ the vernacular of the street, it is a gratification to know our district "comes clean." Sincerely yours,
PHILIP DALLAM.
P. S .- The above was too hastily written. A list was to be submitted, but I never received it, and the Adjutant General's letter explains why. P. D.
SIDELIGHTS
Sidelights on Early State and County His- tory, taken from acts of the Territorial Legis- lature or of the State General Assembly.
JULIAN BART
On January 9, 1816, the territorial legisla- ture, fourth session at Kaskaskia, passed an act for the relief of Julian Bart, in which the governor was authorized to apply to the audi- tor for a warrant or warrants for such sum or sums as might from time to time become necessary for the support of the said Julian Bart, and to provide for his removal from St. Louis to Kaskaskia, his place of residence.
The preamble to this act states that Julian Bart was drafted to serve a tour of duty as a military man under a legal requisition of the Government of the United States, during the past summer, and that the said Bart, while in service and obeying the orders of his officer, was most shockingly wounded, having one arm shot off, the other broken in different places, his body lacerated, and his eyesight greatly injured. The preamble stated that Bart was then lying in a most distressing situation in the town of St. Louis, dependent on the bounty of a poor family, who were totally unable to provide the necessary comforts and accommodations for him, and that it would be cruel and unjust to per- mit him to linger out a miserable existence, rendered so in the service of his country, with- out the support which it is able to afford him. (Laws of 1815-16, page 39.)
In an act, passed January 9, 1816, requiring the owner of a ferry to keep the banks of the river or watercourse in repair, it was pro- vided that all preachers of the gospel when going to and from preaching should pass, ferry free. (Laws of 1815-16, page 44.)
By act of the legislature of January 11, 1816, an appropriation of $2.00 per day was made to William Bennett for house-room and fire wood "during the present Session." (Laws of 1815-16, page 75.)
RETALIATION OR RECIPROCITY
In the fifth session of the territorial legis- lature, 1816-17, an act was passed which re- cited that there was a law in force in the
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HISTORY OF HANCOCK COUNTY
state or Indiana by which persons who did not reside therein, althoughi qualified accord- ing to the laws of their own state or terri- tory, were not permitted to practice in the Indiana courts, and further recited that such restriction was "illiberal, unjust and contrary to those principles of liberality and reciprocity by which each and every state or territory should be governed." It was further enacted by the Illinois territorial legislature that no person residing in the state of Indiana should thereafter be permitted to practice as coun- sellor or attorney-at-law in any of the courts of this territory. The act further provided that if any person resided in Indiana, who had theretofore obtained license or had been ad- mitted to practice law in any of the courts of this territory, should attempt thereafter to prac- ยท tice in any of the said courts, either by mark- ing his name to any suit on the docket, filing his warrant of attorney therein, or in any way attempting to avail himself of the privi- leges of attorney of any such court, he should be subject to a fine of $200.00. However, an attorney was permitted to attend any case to its final termination where he had been retained as counsel before the act was passed.
The act went further and imposed a penalty of $500, to be recovered by action of debt, qui tam, in any court of competent jurisdic- tion, upon any court in the territory who should knowingly suffer or permit any person residing in Indiana to practice as counsellor or attorney-at-law in any of the courts of this territory. (The imposition of a penalty upon a court would be an extraordinary provision at the present day, there being nothing like it now except as to the refusal of a judge in a proper case to cause a writ of habeas corpus to be issued.)
It was provided by the act in question that it should be in force from and after the first day of the following March, and should con- tinue in force until the laws of Indiana re- ferred to should be repealed, and no longer.
This was a clear case of resort to the doc- trine of reciprocity which has been applied in later days to the tariff. (Laws of 1816-17, pages 9 and 10.)
An appropriation act for the year 1817 or- dered paid to William Morrison for house rent furnished "at the present session," the sum of $1.50 per day, and to Michael Beavienue for wood furnished the legislature,
$21.25, and to William Bennet for house rent and fire wood, for two days during the "pres- ent session," the sum of $2.00 per day. (Laws of 1816-17, page 53.)
On January 6, 1825, the Fourth General As- sembly of Illinois authorized the Secretary of State to advertise, if necessary, three months previous to each regular meeting of the Gen- eral Assembly, that he would receive propo- sals for furnishing fire wood for the use of the said assembly, and it was required of him to contract with the person who would furnish it with the greatest certainty and at the cheapest rate. (Laws of 1824, page 59.)
On January 15, 1825, there was passed and went into effect an act providing for the es- tablishment of free schools. This was a lengthy act for that day. It provided that there should be established a common school or schools in each of the counties of this. state, which should be open and free to every class of white citizens between the ages of five and twenty-one years, and provided that persons over the age of twenty-one years could be ad- mitted into such schools, on such terms as the trustees of the school district should prescribe.
It was provided that the County Commis- sioners' Court should, from time to time, form school districts upon petition for that purpose by a majority of the qualified voters residing within such contemplated district, provided that every such district, when laid off, should contain not less than 15 families.
The provisions of this statute are in a cer- tain sense the foundation of our extensive pub- lic school system.
The preamble is worthy of printing in this connection :
"To enjoy our rights and liberties, we must understand them : their security and protection ought to be the first object of a free people ; and it is a well established fact that no nation has ever continued long in the enjoyment of civil and political freedom, which was not both virtuous and enlightened; and believing that the advancement of literature always has been and ever will be the means of developing more fully the rights of man, that the mind of every citizen in a republic is the common property of society, and constitutes the basis of its strength and happiness ; it is therefore consid- ered the peculiar duty of a free government, like ours, to encourage and extend the improve- ment and cultivation of the intellectual ener-
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gies of the whole." (Laws of 1824-5, Pages 121-8.)
On January 17, 1825, an act was passed to more effectually prevent kidnapping any negro, mulatto, or person of color.
It was enacted that if any person should kidnap, steal, seize, take, and carry away, from and out of this state, or from and out of any one county in this state into any other county, or should make an attempt to do the same, any negro, mulatto, or person of color, with intent to subject such person to involuntary slavery or servitude, as to which he or she was not liable, or should cause or procure it to be done, or should aid, abet, or assist any other person in doing it, such person, so offending, should be deemed guilty of felony, and should be pur- ished with stripes, not less than twenty-five nor more than one hundred, and should stand in the pillory not less than two nor more than four hours, and should also be fined in the sum of $1000, and should pay the costs of prosecu- tion.
It was further enacted that the same punish- ment should be imposed upon any person who should hire, persuade, entice, decoy or seduce by false pretences, misrepresentations, or other means, any negro, mulatto, or person of color, not being a slave, to go out of this state, or be taken or removed therefrom, with intent to sell such person and subject him or her to slavery or servitude, or otherwise dispose of him or her, against his or her will.
Accessories were made liable as principals and were to be punished accordingly.
There were ocher provisions in the act for the protection of persons of color, who were held in temporary servitude under the laws of the late territories of Indiana and Illinois, from being hired out to live or reside in any other state, territory, or foreign country, and from being sold or otherwise disposed of to any citizen or resident of any other state, ter- ritory, or foreign country, to reside therein before the expiration of his or her term of servitude. The offender was subject to a pen- alty of $600.00 or $700.00.
Thus, in 1824, the whipping-post and the pil- lory were still in favor as a means of punish- ment for certain offences. (Laws of 1824-5, pages 149-51.)
The Fourth General Assembly, 1824-5, passed a resolution, reciting that the General As- sembly of the State of Ohio, on Jan. 17, 1824, passed certain resolutions, by way of propo- sitions to the states and to congress, recom- mending the consideration of system providing for the gradual emancipation of the people of color held in servitude in the United States, and expressing the opinion that a sys- tem of foreign colonization, with correspondent measures, might be adopted, that would, in due time, effect the entire emancipation of the slaves in our country, without any violation of the national compact, or infringement of the rights of individuals, by the passage of a law by the general government (with the con- sent of the slave-holding states), which would provide that all children of persons now held in slavery, born after the passage of such law, should be free at the age of twenty-one years, provided they would then consent to be trans- ported to the place of colonization.
The resolution of the Ohio legislature stated that it was expedient that such a system should be predicated on the principle that the evil of slavery was a national one, and that the peo- ple of the states of this union ought mutually to participate in the duties and burdens of re- moving it.
Thereupon, having recited by way of pre- amble the Ohio resolutions, the General As- sembly of the State of Illinois resolved that it was expedient to concur in the plan pro- posed in the said resolution, and requested the governor to transmit copies of the preamble and resolution to the executives of the several states, with a request that they be laid before the legislatures thereof, and that he transmit copies of the same to our senators and repre- sentatives in congress. (Laws of 1824-5, on the page following 185.)
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