USA > Illinois > St Clair County > Historical encyclopedia of Illinois and history of St. Clair County, Volume I > Part 54
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State Capitol in his defense. This was replied to by Abraham Lincoln, then a private citizen, to whom Douglas made a rejoinder. Speeches were also made in criticism of Douglas' position by Judges Breese and Trumbull (both of whom had been prominent Democrats), and other Demo- cratic leaders were understood to be ready to assail the champion of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill, though they afterwards reversed their position under partisan pressure and became supporters of the measure. The first State Convention of the opponents of the Nebraska Bill was held at the same time, but the attendance was small and the attempt to effect a permanent organization was not successful. At the session of the Nineteenth General Assembly, which met in January, fol- lowing, Lyman Trumbull was chosen the first Republican United States Senator from Illinois, in place of General Shields, whose term was about to expire. Trumbull was elected on the tenth ballot, receiving fifty-one votes to forty-seven for Governor Matteson, though Lincoln had led on the Republican side at every previous ballot, and on the first had come within six votes of an election. Although he was then the choice of a large majority of the opposition to the Demo- cratic candidate, when Lincoln saw that the original supporters of Trumbull would not cast their votes for himself, he generously insisted that his friends should support his rival, thus determining the result. (See Matteson, Joel A .; Trumbull, Lyman, and Lincoln, Abraham.)
DECATUR EDITORIAL CONVENTION .- On Feb. 22, 1856, occurred the convention of Anti-Neb- raska (Republican) editors at Decatur, which proved the first effective step in consolidating the opposition to the Kansas-Nebraska Bill into a compact political organization. The main busi- ness of this convention consisted in the adoption of a series of resolutions defining the position of their authors on National questions-especially with reference to the institution of slavery-and appointing a State Convention to be held at Bloomington, May 29, following. A State Cell- tral Committee to represent the new party was also appointed at this convention. With two or three exceptions the Committeemen accepted and joined in the call for the State Convention, whichi was held at the time designated, when the first Republican State ticket was put in the field. Among the distinguished men who participated in this Convention were Abraham Lincoln, O. H. Browning, Richard Yates, Owen Lovejoy, John M. Palmer, Isaac N. Arnold and John Went- worth. Palmer presided, while Abraham Lin-
coln, who was one of the chief speakers, was one of the delegates appointed to the National Con- vention, held at Philadelphia on the 17th of June. The candidates put in nomination for State offices were: William H. Bissell for Governor; Francis A. Hoffman for Lieutenant-Governor (afterward replaced by John Wood on account of Hoffman's ineligibility); Ozias M. Hatch for Secretary of State; Jesse K. Dubois for Auditor; James H. Miller for State Treasurer, and William H. Powell for Superintendent of Public Instruction. The Democratic ticket was composed of William A. Richardson for Governor; R. J. Hamilton, Lieu- tenant-Governor; W. H. Snyder, Secretary of State; S. K. Casey, Auditor; John Moore, Treas- urer, and J. H. St. Matthew, Superintendent of Public Instruction. The American organization also nominated a ticket headed by Buckner S. Morris for Governor. Although the Democrats carried the State for Buchanan, their candidate for President, by a plurality of 9,159, the entire Republican State ticket was elected by pluralities ranging from 3,031 to 20,213-the latter being the majority for Miller, candidate for State Treas- urer, whose name was on both the Republican and American tickets. (See Anti-Nebraska Editorial Convention, and Bloomington Convention of 1856.)
ADMINISTRATION OF GOVERNOR BISSELL. - With the inauguration of Governor Bissell, the Republican party entered upon the control of the State Government, which was maintained with- out interruption until the close of the administra- tion of Governor Fifer, in January, 1893-a period of thirty-six years. On account of physical disa- bility Bissell's inauguration took place in the executive mansion, Jan. 12, 1857. He was immediately made the object of virulent personal abuse in the House, being charged with perjury in taking the oath of office in face of the fact that, while a member of Congress, he had accepted a challenge to fight a duel with Jefferson Davis. To this, the reply was made that the offense charged took place outside of the State and be- yond the legal jurisdiction of the Constitution of Illinois. (See Bissell, William H.)
While the State continued to prosper under Bissell's administration, the most important events of this period related rather to general than to State policy. One of these was the deliv- ery by Abraham Lincoln, in the Hall of Repre- sentatives, on the evening of June 17, 1858, of the celebrated speech in which he announced the doctrine that "a house divided against itself can- not stand." This was followed during the next
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few months by the series of memorable debates between those two great champions of their respective parties-Lincoln and Douglas-which attracted the attention of the whole land. The result was the re-election of Douglas to the United States Senate for a third term, but it also made Abraham Lincoln President of the United States. (See Lincoln and Douglas Debatcs.)
About the middle of Bissell's term (February, 1859), came the discovery of what has since been known as the celebrated "Canal Scrip Fraud." This consisted in the fraudulent funding in State bonds of a large amount of State scrip which had been issued for temporary purposes during the construction of the Illinois and Michigan Canal, but which had been subsequently redeemed. A legislative investigation proved the amount ille- gally funded to have been $223,182, and that the bulk of the bonds issued therefor-so far as they could be traced-had been delivered to ex-Gov. Joel A. Matteson. For this amount, with ac- crued interest, he gave to the State an indemnity bond, secured by real-estate mortgages, from which the State eventually realized $238,000 out of $255,000 then due. Further investigation proved additional frauds of like character, aggre- gating $165,346, which the State never recovered. An attempt was made to prosecute Matteson criminally in the Sangamon County Circuit Court, but the grand jury failed, by a close vote, to find an indictment against him. (See Canal Scrip Fraud.)
An attempt was made during Bissell's adminis- tration to secure the refunding (at par and in violation of an existing law) of one hundred and fourteen $1,000 bonds hypothecated with Macalis- ter & Stebbins of New York in 1841, and for which the State had received an insignificant consideration. The error was discovered when new bonds for the principal had been issued, but the process was immediately stopped and the new bonds surrendered-the claimants being limited by law to 28.64 cents on the dollar. This subject is treated at length elsewhere in this vol- ume. (See Macalister & Stebbins Bonds. ) Governor Bissell's administration was otherwise unevent- ful, although the State continued to prosper under it as it had not done since the "internal improvement craze" of 1837 had resulted in im- posing such a burden of debt upon it. At the time of his election Governor Bissell was an invalid in consequence of an injury to his spine, from which he never recovered. He died in office, March 18, 1860, a little over two months
after having entered upon the last year of his term of office, and was succeeded by Lieut .- Gov. John Wood, who served out the unexpired term. (See Bissell, William H .; also Wood, John.)
POLITICAL CAMPAIGN OF 1860 .- The political campaign of 1860 was one of unparalleled excite- ment throughout the nation, but especially in Illinois, which became, in a certain sense, the chief battle-ground, furnishing the successful candidate for the Presidency, as well as being the State in which the convention which nominated him met. The Republican State Convention, held at Decatur, May 9, put in nomination Richard Yates of Morgan County, for Governor ; Francis A. Hoffman for Lieutenant-Governor, O. M. Hatch for Secretary of State, Jesse K. Dubois for Auditor, William Butler for Treasurer, and Newton Bateman for Superintendent of Pub- lic Instruction. If this campaign was memorable for its excitement, it was also memorable for the large number of National and State tickets in the field. The National Republican Convention assembled at Chicago, May 16, and, on the third ballot, Abraham Lincoln was nominated for President amid a whirlwind of enthusiasm unsur- passed in the history of National Conventions, of whichi so many have been held in the "conven- tion city" of the Northwest. The campaign was what might have been expected from such a beginning. Lincoln, though receiving consider- ably less than one-half the popular vote, had a plurality over his highest competitor of nearly half a million votes, and a majority in the elect- oral colleges of fifty-seven. In Illinois he received 172,161 votes to 160,215 for Douglas, his leading opponent. The vote for Governor stood: Yates (Republican), 172,196; Allen (Douglas- Democrat), 159,253; Hope (Breckinridge-Demo- crat), 2,049; Stuart (American), 1,626.
Among the prominent men of different parties who appeared for the first time in the General Assembly chosen at this time, were William B. Ogden, Richard J. Oglesby, Washington Bushnell, and Henry E. Dummer, of the Senate, and Wil- liam R. Archer, J. Russell Jones, Robert H. McClellan, J. Young Scammon, William H. Brown, Lawrence Weldon, N. M. Broadwell, and John Scholfield, in the House. Shelby M. Cul- lom, who had entered the Legislature at the previous session, was re-elected to this and was chosen Speaker of the House over J. W. Single- ton. Lyman Trumbull was re-elected to the United States Senate by the votes of the Repub- licans over Samuel S. Marshall, the Democratic candidate.
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BEGINNING OF THE REBELLION .- Almost simul- taneously with the accession of the new State Government, and before the inauguration of the President at Washington, began that series of startling events which ultimately culminated in the attempted secession of eleven States of the Union-the first acts in the great drama of war which occupied the attention of the world for the next four years. On Jan. 14, 1861, the new State administration was inaugurated; on Feb. 2, Commissioners to the futile Peace Conven- tion held at Washington, were appointed from Illinois, consisting of Stephen T. Logan, John M. Palmer, ex-Gov. John Wood, B. C. Cook and T. J. Turner; and on Feb. 11, Abraham Lincoln took leave of his friends and neighbors at Spring- field on liis departure for Washington, in that simple, touching speech which has taken a place beside his inaugural addresses and his Gettysburg speech, as an American classic. The events which followed; the firing on Fort Sumter on the twelfth of April and its surrender; the call for 75,000 troops and the excitement which prevailed all over the country, are matters of National his- tory. Illinoisans responded with promptness and enthusiasm to the call for six regiments of State militia for three months' service, and one week later (April 21), Gen. R. K. Swift, of Chicago, at the head of seven companies numbering 595 men, was en route for Cairo to execute the order of the Secretary of War for the occupation of that place. The offer of military organizations pro- ceeded rapidly, and by the eighteenth of April, fifty companies had been tendered, while the public-spirited and patriotic bankers of the prin- cipal cities were offering to supply the State with money to arm and equip the hastily organized troops. Following in order the six regiments which Illinois had sent to the Mexican War, those called out for the three months' service in 1861 were numbered consecutively from seven to twelve, and were commanded by the following officers, respectively : Cols. John Cook, Richard J. Oglesby, Eleazer A. Paine, James D. Morgan, W. H. L. Wallace and John McArthur, with Gen. Benjamin M. Prentiss as brigade com- mander. The rank and file numbered 4,680 men, of whom 2,000, at the end of their term of serv- ice, re-enlisted for three years. (See War of the Rebellion.)
Among the many who visited the State Capitol in the early months of war to offer their services to the Government in suppressing the Rebellion, one of the most modest and unassuming was a gentleman from Galena who brought a letter of
introduction to Governor Yates from Congress- man E. B. Washburne. Though he had been a Captain in the regular army and had seen service in the war with Mexico, he set up no pretension on that account, but after days of patient wait- ing, was given temporary employment as a clerk in the office of the Adjutant-General, Col. T. S. Mather. Finally, an emergency having arisen requiring the services of an officer of military experience as commandant at Camp Yates (a camp of rendezvous and instruction near Spring- field), he was assigned to the place, rather as an experiment and from necessity than from convic- tion of any peculiar fitness for the position. Having acquitted himself creditably here, he was assigned, a few weeks later, to the command of a regiment (The Twenty-first Illinois Volunteers) which, from previous bad management, had manifested a mutinous tendency. And thus Ulysses S. Grant, the most successful leader of the war, the organizer of final victory over the Rebellion, the Lieutenant-General of the armies of the Union and twice elected President of the United States, started upon that career which won for him the plaudits of the Nation and the title of the grandest soldier of his time. (See Grant, Ulysses S.)
The responses of Illinois, under the leadership of its patriotic "War Governor," Richard Yates, to the repeated calls for volunteers through the four years of war, were cheerful and prompt. Illi- nois troops took part in nearly every important battle in the Mississippi Valley and in many of those in the East, besides accompanying Sher- man in his triumphal "March to the Sea." Illi- nois blood stained the field at Belmont, at Wilson's Creek, Lexington, Forts Donelson and Henry; at Shiloh, Corinth, Nashville, Stone River and Chickamauga; at Jackson, during the siege of Vicksburg, at Allatoona Pass, Kenesaw Moun- tain, Resaca, Peach Tree Creek and Atlanta, in the South and West; and at Chancellorsville, Antietam, Gettysburg, Petersburg and in the battles of "the Wilderness" in Virginia. Of all the States of the Union, Illinois alone, up to Feb. 1, 1864, presented the proud record of hav- ing answered every call upon her. for troops without a draft. The whole number of enlist- ments from the State under the various calls from 1861 to 1865, according to the records of the War Department, was 255,057 to meet quotas aggre- gating 244,496. The ratio of troops furnished to population was 15.1 per cent, which was only exceeded by the District of Columbia (which had a large influx from the States), and Kansas
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and Nevada, each of which had a much larger proportion of adult male population. The whole number of regimental organizations, according to the returns in the Adjutant General's office, was 151 regiments of infantry (numbered con- secutively from the Sixth to the One Hundred and Fifty-seventh), 17 regiments of cavalry and 2 regiments of artillery, besides 9 independent bat- teries. The total losses of Illinois troops, officially reported by the War Department, were 34,834 (13.65 per cent), of which 5,874 were killed in battle, 4,020 died of wounds, 22, 786 died of disease, and 2,154 from other causes. Besides the great Commander-in-Chief, Abraham Lincoln, and Lieut .- Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, Illinois furnished 11 full Major-Generals of volunteers, viz. : Generals John Pope, John A. McClernand, S. A. Hurlbut, B. M. Prentiss, John M. Palmer, R. J. Oglesby, John A. Logan, John M. Schofield, Giles A. Smith, Wesley Merritt and Benjamin H. Grierson; 20 Brevet Major-Generals; 24 Brigadier- Generals, and over 120 Brevet Brigadier-Generals. (See sketches of these officers under their respec- tive names.) Among the long list of regimental officers who fell upon the field or died from wounds, appear the names of Col. J. R. Scott of . the Nineteenth; Col. Thomas D. Williams of the Twenty-fifth, and Col. F. A. Harrington of the Twenty-seventh-all killed at Stone River; Col. John W. S. Alexander of the Twenty-first; Col. Daniel Gilmer of the Thirty-eighth; Lieut .- Col. Duncan J. Hall of the Eighty-ninth ; Col. Timothy O'Meara of the Ninetieth, and Col. Holden Put- nam, at Chickamauga and Missionary Ridge; Col. John B. Wyman of the Thirteenth, at Chickasaw Bayou; Lieut .- Col. Thomas W. Ross, of the Thirty-second, at Shiloh; Col. John A. Davis of the Forty-sixth, at Hatchie; Col. Wil- liam A. Dickerman of the One Hundred and Third, at Resaca; Col. Oscar Harmon, at Kene- saw; Col. John A. Bross, at Petersburg, besides Col. Mihalotzy, Col. Silas Miller, Lieut .- Col. Melancthon Smith, Maj. Zenas Applington, Col. John J. Mudd, Col. Matthew H. Starr, Maj. Wm. H. Medill, Col. Warren Stewart and many more on other battle-fields. (Biographical sketches of many of these officers will be found under the proper heads elsewhere in this volume.) It would be a grateful task to record here the names of a host of others, who, after acquitting them- selves bravely on the field, survived to enjoy the plaudits of a grateful people, were this within the design and scope of the present work. One of the most brilliant exploits of the War was the raid from La Grange, Tenn., to Baton Rouge,
La., in May, 1863, led by Col. B. H. Grierson, of the Sixth Illinois Cavalry, in co-operation with the Seventh under command of Col. Edward Prince.
CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION OF 1862. - An incident of a different character was the calling of a convention to revise the State Constitu- tion, which met at Springfield, Jan. 7, 1862. A majority of this body was composed of those opposed to the war policy of the Government, and a disposition to interfere with the affairs of the State administration and the General Gov- ernment was soon manifested, which was resented by the executive and many of the soldiers in the field. The convention adjourned March 24, and its work was submitted to vote of the people, June 17, 1862, when it was rejected by a majority of more than 16,000, not counting the soldiers in the field, who were permitted, as a matter of policy, to vote upon it, but who were practically unanimous in opposition to it.
DEATH OF DOUGLAS .- A few days before this election (June 3, 1862), United States Senator Stephen A. Douglas died, at the Tremont House in Chicago, depriving the Democratic party of the State of its most sagacious and patriotic adviser. (See Douglas, Stephen A.)
LEGISLATURE OF 1863 .- Another political inci- dent of this period grew out of the session of the General Assembly of 1863. This body having been elected on the tide of the political revulsion which followed the issuance of President Lin- coln's preliminary Proclamation of Emancipation, was Democratic in both branches. One of its first acts was the election of William A. Richard- son United States Senator, in place of O. H. Browning, who had been appointed by Governor Yates to the vacancy caused by the death of Douglas. This Legislature early showed a tend- ency to follow in the footsteps of the Constitu- tional Convention of 1862, by attempting to cripple the State and General Governments in the prosecution of the war. Resolutions on the subject of the war, which the friends of the Union regarded as of a most mischievous charac- ter, were introduced and passed in the House, but owing to the death of a member on the majority side, they failed to pass the Senate. These denounced the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus; condemned "the attempted enforcement of compensated emancipation" and "the transpor- tation of negroes into the State;" accused the General Government of "usurpation," of "sub- verting the Constitution" and attempting to establish a "consolidated military despotism;"
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charged that the war had been "diverted from its first avowed object to that of subjugation and the abolition of slavery;" declared the belief of the authors that its "further prosecution . . . . cannot result in the restoration of the Union . . . . unless the President's Emancipation Proc- lamation be withdrawn;" appealed to Congress to secure an armistice with the rebel States, and closed by appointing six Commissioners (wlio were named) to confer with Congress, with a view to the liolding of a National Convention to adjust the differences between the States. These measures occupied the attention of the Legisla- ture to the exclusion of subjects of State interest, so that little legislation was accomplished-not even the ordinary appropriation bills being passed.
LEGISLATURE PROROGUED .- At this juncture, the two Houses having disagreed as to the date of adjournment, Governor Yates exercised the constitutional prerogative of proroguing them, which he did in a message on June 10, declaring them adjourned to the last day of their constitu- tional term. The Republicans accepted the result and withdrew, but the Democratic majority in the House and a minority in the Senate continued in session for some days, without being able to transact any business except the filing of an empty protest, when they adjourned to the first Monday of January, 1864. The excitement pro- duced by this affair, in the Legislature and throughout the State, was intense; but the action of Governor Yates was sustained by the Supreme Court and the adjourned session was never held. The failure of the Legislature to make provision for the expenses of the State Government and the relief of the soldiers in the field, made it neces- sary for Governor Yates to accept that aid from the public-spirited bankers and capitalists of the State which was never wanting when needed during this critical period. (See Twenty-Third General Assembly.)
PEACE CONVENTIONS .- Largely attended "peace conventions" were held during this year, at Springfield on June 17, and at Peoria in Septem- ber, at which resolutions opposing the "further offensive prosecution of the war" were adopted. An immense Union mass-meeting was also held at Springfield on Sept. 3, which was addressed by distinguished speakers, including both Re- publicans and War-Democrats. An important incident of this meeting was the reading of the letter from President Lincoln to Hon. James C. Conkling, in which he defended his war policy, and especially his Emancipation Proclamation, in a characteristically logical manner.
POLITICAL CAMPAIGN OF 1864 .- The year 1864 was full of exciting political and military events. Among the former was the nomination of George B. McClellan for President by the Democratic Con- vention held at Chicago, August 29, on a platform declaring the war a "failure" as an "experiment" for restoring the Union, and demanding a "cessa- tion of hostilities" with a view to a convention for the restoration of peace. Mr. Lincoln had been renominated by the Republicans at Philadelphia, in June previous, with Andrew Johnson as- the candidate for Vice-President. The leaders of the respective State tickets were Gen. Richard J. Oglesby, on the part of the Republicans, for Gov- ernor, with William Bross, for Lieutenant-Gov- ernor, and James C. Robinson as the Democratic candidate for Governor.
CAMP DOUGLAS CONSPIRACY. - For months rumors liad been rife concerning a conspiracy of rebels from the South and their sympathizers in the North, to release the rebel prisoners confined in Camp Douglas, Chicago, and at Rock Island, Springfield and Alton-aggregating over 25,000 men. It was charged that the scheme was to be put into effect simultaneously with the Novem- ber election, but the activity of the military authorities in arresting the leaders and seizing their arms, defeated it. The investigations of a military court before whom a number of the arrested parties were tried, proved the existence of an extensive organization, calling itself "American Knights" or "Sons of Liberty," of which a number of well-known politicians in Illinois were members. (See Camp Douglas Conspiracy.)
At the November election Illinois gave a major- ity for Lincoln of 30,756, and for Oglesby, for Governor, of 33,675, with a proportionate major- ity for the rest of the ticket. Lincoln's total vote in the electoral college was 212, to 21 for McClellan.
LEGISLATURE OF 1865 .- The Republicans liad a decided majority in both branches of the Legis- lature of 1865, and one of its earliest acts was the election of Governor Yates, United States Sena- tor, in place of William A. Richardson, who had been elected two years before to the seat formerly held by Douglas. This was the last public posi- tion held by the popular Illinois "War Gov- ernor." During his official term no more popular public servant ever occupied the executive clair -a fact demonstrated by the promptness with which, on retiring from it, he was elected to the United States Senate. His personal and political integrity was never questioned by his most bitter political opponents, while those who had known
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