Historical encyclopedia of Illinois, Part 54

Author: Bateman, Newton, 1822-1897. cn; Selby, Paul, 1825-1913; Gale, W. Shelden
Publication date: 1899
Publisher: Chicago : Munsell Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1388

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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 which 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 Donglas, his leading opponent. The vote for Governor stood: Yates (Republican), 172,196; Allen (Donglas- 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 Honse. 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 his 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 (who were named) to confer with Congress, with a view to the holding 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 had 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 MeClellan.

LEGISLATURE OF 1865 .- The Republicans had 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 chair -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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him longest and most intimately, trusted him most implicitly. The service which he performed in giving direction to the patriotic sentiment of the State and in marshaling its heroic soldiers for the defense of the Union can never be over- estimated. (See Yates, Richard.)

OGLESBY'S ADMINISTRATION .- Governor Ogles- by and the other State officers were inaugu- rated Jan. 17, 1865. Entering upon its duties with a Legislature in full sympathy with it, the new administration was confronted by no such difficulties as those with which its predecessor had to contend. Its head, who had been identi- fied with the war from its beginning, was one of the first Illinoisans promoted to the rank of Major-General, was personally popular and enjoyed the confidence and respect of the people of the State. Allen C. Fuller, who had retired from a position on the Circuit bench to accept that of Adjutant-General, which he held during the last three years of the war, was Speaker of the House. This Legislature was the first among those of all the States to ratify the Thirteenth Amendment of the National Constitution, abolish- ing slavery, which it did in both Houses, on the evening of Feb. 1, 1865-the same day the resolu- tion had been finally acted on by Congress and received the sanction of the President. The odious "black laws," which had disgraced the State for twelve years, were wiped from the statute-book at this session. The Legislature adjourned after a session of forty-six days, leav- ing a record as creditable in the disposal of busi- ness as that of its predecessor had been discredit- able. (See Oglesby, Richard J.)

ASSASSINATION OF LINCOLN .- The war was now rapidly approaching a successful termination. Lee had surrendered to Grant at Appomattox, April 9, 1865, and the people were celebrating this event with joyful festivities through all the loyal States, but nowhere with more enthusiasm than in Illinois, the home of the two great leaders-Lincoln and Grant. In the midst of these jubilations came the assassination of Presi- dent Lincoln by John Wilkes Booth, on the evening of April 14, 1865, in Ford's Theater, Washington. The appalling news was borne on the wings of the telegraph to every corner of the land, and instantly a nation in rejoicing was changed to a nation in mourning. A pall of gloom hung over every part of the land. Public buildings, business houses and dwellings in every city, village and hamlet throughout the loyal States were draped with the insignia of a univer- sal sorrow. Millions of strong men, and tender,

patriotic women who had given their husbands, sons and brothers for the defense of the Union, wept as if overtaken by a great personal calam- ity. If the nation mourned, much more did Illi- nois, at the taking off of its chief citizen, the grandest character of the age, who had served both State and Nation with such patriotic fidel- ity, and perished in the very zenith of his fame and in the hour of his country's triumph.

THE FUNERAL. - Then came the sorrowful march of the funeral cortege from Washington to Springfield -the most impressive spectacle witnessed since the Day of the Crucifixion. In all this, Illinois bore a conspicuous part, as on the fourth day of May, 1865, amid the most solemn ceremonies and in the presence of sorrowing thousands, she received to her bosom, near his old home at the State Capital, the remains of the Great Liberator.

The part which Illinois played in the great struggle has already been dwelt upon as fully as the scope of this work will permit. It only remains to be said that the patriotic service of the men of the State was grandly supplemented by the equally patriotic service of its women in "Soldiers' Aid Societies," "Sisters of the Good Samaritan," "Needle Pickets," and in sanitary organizations for the purpose of contributing to the comfort and health of the soldiers in camp and in hospital, and in giving them generous receptions on their return to their homes. The work done by these organizations, and by indi- vidual nurses in the field, illustrates one of the brightest pages in the history of the war.

ELECTION OF 1866 .- The administration of Gov- ernor Oglesby was as peaceful as it was prosper- ous. The chief political events of 1866 were the election of Newton Bateman, State Superintend- ent of Public Instruction, and Gen. Geo. W. Smith, Treasurer, while Gen. John A. Logan, as Representative from the State-at-large, re-entered Congress, from which he had retired in 1861 to enter the Union army. His majority was un- precedented, reaching 55,987. The Legislature of 1867 re-elected Judge Trumbull to the United States Senate for a third term, his chief competi- tor in the Republican caucus being Gen. John M. Palmer. The Fourteenth Amendment to the National Constitution, conferring citizenship upon persons of color, was ratified by this Legis- lature.

ELECTION OF 1868 .- The Republican State Con- vention of 1868, held at Peoria, May 6, nominated the following ticket: For Governor, John M. Palmer, Lieutenant-Governor, John Dougherty ;

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Secretary of State, Edward Rummell; Auditor, Charles E. Lippincott, State Treasurer, Erastus N. Bates; Attorney General. Washington Bushnell. John R. Eden, afterward a member of Congress for three terms, headed the Democratic ticket as candidate for Governor, with William H. Van Epps for Lieutenant-Governor.

The Republican National Convention was held at Chicago, May 21, nominating Gen. U. S. Grant for President and Schuyler Colfax for Vice- President. They were opposed by Horatio Seymour for President, and F. P. Blair for Vice- President. The result in November was the election of Grant and Colfax, who received 214 electoral votes from 26 States, to 80 electoral votes for Seymour and Blair from 8 States-three States not voting. Grant's majority in Illinois was 51,150. Of course the Republican State ticket was elected. The Legislature elected at the same time consisted of eighteen Republicans to nine Democrats in the Senate and fifty-eight Republicans to twenty seven Democrats in the House.

PALMER'S ADMINISTRATION .- Governor Palm- er's administration began auspiciously, at a time when the passions aroused by the war were sub- siding and the State was recovering its normal prosperity. (See Palmer, John M.) Leading events of the next four years were the adoption of a new State Constitution and the Chicago fire. The first steps in legislation looking to the con- trol of railroads were taken at the session of 1869, and although a stringent law on the subject passed both Houses, it was vetoed by the Gov- ernor. A milder measure was afterward enacted, and, although superseded by the Constitution of 1870, it furnished the key-note for much of the legislation since had on the subject. The cele- brated "Lake Front Bill," conveying to the city of Chicago and the Illinois Central Railroad the title of the State to certain lands included in what was known as the "Lake Front Park," was passed, and although vetoed by the Governor, was re-enacted over his veto. This act was finally repealed by the Legislature of 1873, and after many years of litigation, the rights claimed under it by the Illinois Central Railroad Com- pany have been recently declared void by the Supreme Court of the United States. The Fif- teenth Amendment of the National Constitution, prohibiting the denial of the right of suffrage to "citizens of the United States . . on account of race, color or previous condition of servitude," was ratified by a strictly party vote in each House, on March 5.

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Historical encyclopedia of Illinois, Part 54

Author: Bateman, Newton, 1822-1897. cn; Selby, Paul, 1825-1913; Gale, W. Shelden Publication date: 1899 Publisher: Chicago : Munsell Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 1388

Author: Bateman, Newton, 1822-1897. cn; Selby, Paul, 1825-1913; Gale, W. Shelden
Publication date: 1899
Publisher: Chicago : Munsell Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1388