History of Alexander, Union and Pulaski Counties, Illinois, Part 26

Author: Perrin, William Henry, d. 1892?
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Chicago, Ill. ; O.L. Baskin & Co.
Number of Pages: 948

USA > Illinois > Union County > History of Alexander, Union and Pulaski Counties, Illinois > Part 26
USA > Illinois > Pulaski County > History of Alexander, Union and Pulaski Counties, Illinois > Part 26
USA > Illinois > Alexander County > History of Alexander, Union and Pulaski Counties, Illinois > Part 26

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).

bridge the trouble. It was ascertained that Mr. Douglas insisted as a condition prece- dent that Holbrook & Co. should release to the State not only their charter, but all claims to the benefits of the Congressional enactment. On December 15, 1849, Mr. Holbrook, as President of the company, exe- cuted a protest of release to the Governor, a duplicate of which was transmitted to Mr. Douglas at Washington. But the Senator declined to accept this as a document of any value or binding force upon the company of which Holbrook was President, as it was without the sanction of the stockholders or even the board of directors. While he did not impute any such motive, the company, he believed, was still in the condition which would enable it to take all the lands granted, divide them among its stockholders and re- tain its chartered privileges. without build- ing the road. He was unwilling to give his approval to any arrangement by which the State could be deprived possibly of any of the benefits resulting from the expected grant. For the protection of the State and as an assurance to Congress, the execution of a full and complete lease of all rights and privileges and a surrender of the Holbrook charters and all acts, or parcels of acts, sup- plemented or amendatory thereof, or relating in anywise to the Central Railroad, so as to leave the State, through its Legislature, free to make such disposition of the lands and such arrangement for the construction of the road as might be deemed best, was de- manded.

Judge Douglas' requirements were finally fully complied with, but only after the effort had been made to get him to accept an in- sufficient release and one that, no doubt, had he accepted, would have resulted in again bankrupting the State, and perhaps indefinite- ly delaying the building of the Illinois Central

201

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

Railroad. Then Congress passed the act mak ing the donation of land. No sooner had the act passed than did Holbrook in many ways, among others by letters to parties in Illinois which were published, set about making the pretense that his company still was the only rightful claimants to the land grant, and had the only charter that covered the ground on which the road must be built. In a letter from him, dated New York, Sep- tember 25, 1850, to a citizen of Illinois, he said: "I can truly say that I am under ob- ligations to those who with Gov. Cases prevented the repeal of the charter of the Great Western Railway Company. It was granted in good faith and under no other that the State can now grant. * I * am now organizing the company to com- mence the work this fall and put a large part of the road under contract as soon as possi- ble. We shall make the road on the old line, etc., etc." This letter was widely pub- lis hed, as Holbrook probably designed it should be. A Chicago paper in the interests of Holbrook published an editorial, taking even stronger grounds than did Holbrook, and almost said in so many words that Mr. Douglas had been deceived-that he was a fool, and that now Holbrook & Co. had all in their hands they would proceed to do the work and defy Mr. Douglas.

The suffering of the people from the in- ternal improvement swindle had been too severe and too recent to allow them to be in- different to these old pretensions of Hol- brook & Co. The alarm ran over the State and intensified as the time came for the assembling of the Legislature that was to have in its hands the splendid government gift .*

In November, before the meeting of the

Legislature, Walter B. Scates. one of the new corporators of the Great Western Rail- road Company of 1849, addressed a letter of invitation to all his co-corporators, duly named. to meet at Springfield, January 6, 1851, for the purpose of taking such action as might be deemed expedient for the public good by surrendering up their charter to the State, or such other course as might be de- sired by the General Assembly, to remove all doubts and questions relative to the com- pany's rights and powers, and to disembar- rass that body with regard to the disposal of the grant of land from Congress for the building of the much-needed Central Rail- road.

With the opening of the General Assembly appeared at Springfield Mr. Robert Rantoul, of Boston, who being the duly accredited agent of Robert Schuyler, George Griswold, Gov. Morris, Jonathan Sturgis, George W. Ludlow and John F. Sandford, of New York, and David A. Neal, Franklin Haven and Robert Rantoul, Jr., of Boston, presented a memorial to the Legislature, embracing a most just and liberal proposition to build the road. The memorialists stated that they had examined the act of Congress in refer- ence to the road, and had examined the re- sources of the country through which the proposed road was to pass, and estimated the cost and time necessary to build the road; that they proposed to form a joint-stock company of themselves and such others as they might associate with them, and as they say "includ- ing among their number persons of large experience in the construction of several of the principal railroads of the United States. and of the means and credit sufficient to place beyond doubt their ability to perform what they hereinafter propose, etc." They then offer to perform all the requirements of the act of Congress under the direction of

*It should be here stated that this Great Western Charter was the new one and included at least one prominent min in nearly every county in the State, and it was never supposed all these were influenced by evil designs upon the State.

202

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

the State, and to build the road on or before the 4th of July, 1854. That the road should be in all respects equal to the Boston & Albany Railroad, and conclude as follows:

"And the said company from and after the completion of said road. will pay to the State of Illinois annually -- per cent of the gross earnings of said road, without de- duction or charge for expenses, or for any other matter or cause; provided. that the State of Illinois will grant to the subcribers a charter of incorporation, with terms mutually advan- tageous, with powers and limitations as they in their wisdom may think fit, and as shall be accepted by the said company and as will sufficiently remunerate the subscribers for their care, labor and expenditure in that be- half incurred, and will enable them to avail themselves of the lands donated by the said act, to raise the funds or some portion of the funds necessary for the construction and equipment of said road."

This memorial, coming as it did from such eminent and strong financial men, was well received by the Legislature. The time for the completion of the road was much shorter than any one ever had then contemplated, yet Mr. Rantoul was willing to adjust the con- tract so as to prevent a failure, not only on this point, but to give any security that the proceeds arising from the lands would be faithfuly applied to their intended purpose. It was so fair to all parties concerned that it was eventually made the basis for the charter of the railroad. At this time there was developed over the State an opposition to turning over to a private corporation the great donation of land. Some of the fossils of the State folly wanted the State to keep the land, build the road, pay off the State debt, and a hundred other wild and silly schemes were offered and suggested. Then there is but little question but that Holbrook & Co. had

friends in the Legislature, and their hope lay in inaction and a refusal to accept the prop- osition of Mr. Rantoul and the other memo- rialists. When the bill was introduced, many amendments were offered, such as requiring payment for right of way to pre-emptionists or squatters on the public land, without re- gard to benefits, etc. Then there was an op- portunity for much wrangling over the point of divergence of the branch from the main line, but which was finally left with the com- pany to fix anywhere " north of the parallel 39° 3" of north latitude." Much discussion was had as to the points in the main line. and what towns it should touch, but all intermediate points finally failed except the northeast corner of Town 21 north, Range 2 east, Third Principal Meridian, from which the road in its course should not vary more than five miles, which was effected by Gen. Gridley of the Senate, and by which the towns of Decatur, Clinton and Bloomington were assured of the road.

One of the mysteries that developed while the railroad bill was lingering, was a scheme for swallowing the road, the State, and much of everything else, that was absolutely so startling and unique that its paternity has always been in doubt. The bold originality and the unknown paternity of the bantling gave it something of a kinship to Junius' letters, with all of Junins' ability left out. It appeared on every member's table one morning in January, in the shape of a volu- minous printed bill for a charter, the pro- vision whereof, closely scrutinized, con- tained about as hard a bargain as creditor ever offered bondsman. It was coolly pro- posed, among other provisions, that the State appoint commissioners to locate the road, survey the route for the main stem and branches and select the land granted by Congress, all at the expense of the State;

203

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

agents were to be appointed by the Governor to apply to land-holders along the route who might be benefited by the road, for sub- scriptions, also at the expense of the State.

" All persons subcribing and advancing money for said purpose shall be entitled to draw interest upon the sums at - per cent per annum from the day of said advances, and shall be entitled to designate and regis- ter an amount of 'new internal improve- ment stock of this State,' equal to four times the amount so advanced, or stock of this State 'known as 'Interest bonds,' equal to three times the money so advanced, and said stock so described may be registered at the agency of the State of Illinois, to the city of New York, by the party subscribing or by any other person to whom they may assign the right at any time after paying the sub- scription, in proportion of the amount paid; and said stock shall be indorsed, registered and signed by the agent appointed by the Governor for the purpose, and a copy of said register shall be filed in the office of the Au- ditor of Public Accounts, as evidence to show the particular stock secured or provided for as hereinafter mentioned."

The donation from the Government to the State was to be conveyed by the State to the company, to be by it offered for sale upon the completion of sections of sixty miles, the expenses to be paid by the State; the money was to go to the managers of this ter- rible railroad, but the State was to receive certificates of stock for the same; two of the acting managers were to receive salaries of $2,500, and the others $1,500, the company with the sanction of the Governor to pur- chase iron, etc., pledging the road for pay- ment, and the road, property and stock to be exempt from taxation. The bill also em- braced a bank in accordance with the provis- ions of the general free banking law adopted

by the State, making the railroad stock the basis. It also provided that if the constitu- tion was amended (which failed to carry) changing the two-mill tax to a sinking fund, to be generally applied in redemption of the State debt, that then the stock registered un- der the act should also participate in the proceeds thereof.

This was the scheme, and while the im- mortality due the inventor, because he has remained unknown, has been withheld, we propose to lift the veil and let the author's name receive the laurel crown. Any one who will come to Cairo and carefully study Hol- brook's tracks all around the city, will at once conclude that nature never made but one man who could have conceived such a scheme and launched it at the heads of the Illinois Legislature, and Holbrook was that man. There is but one thing about it that casts the slightest doubt upon its paternity and that is where he proposes to divide the salaries with more than one-this is unac. countable and to some extent incomprehensi- ble.

It will be noticed in the quotation that we give above from the memorialist's proposi- tion, that they offered, among other things, to pay the State annually a certain per cent of the gross earnings of the road without. de- ductions for expenses or otherwise. The amount was left blank in their proposition, and the well understood fact was at that time they anticipated it would be fixed at ten per centum of the gross earnings. But after they had secured substantially the accept- ance of their proposition by the Legislature, they set about getting this blank filled in at as low a figure as possible. W. H. Bissell was then a Representative in Congress from Illinois, and although he was by profession a doctor, and not a lawyer, yet these shrewd capitalists employed him as their attorney,

204

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

knowing it was his great personal popularity that would serve their purposes much better than all the legal lore in the world, in the peculiar business they just then had in hand. Mr. Bissel left his seat in Congress and at- tended upon the session of the Illinois Leg- islature as a lobbyist, and the unfortunate results to the State were that the State con- ceded a reduction of three per cent and the amount was fixed at seven per cent of the gross proceeds.

In the Legislature, after all manner of de- lays and procrastinations, until the heel of the session, Mr. J. L. D. Morrison, of the Sen- ate, brought in a substitute for the pending bill, which, after being amended several times, was finally passed-two votes dissent- ing-and shortly after, and without amend- ment, the house also passed it, and thus, on the 10th day of February, 1851, it became a law. The final passage of the bill was cel- ebrated in Chicago by the firing of cannon and other civic demonstrations in honor of the event.

There was some delay in the commence- ment of the work on the road, in conse- quence of the ruling of Mr. Justin Butter- field, Commissioner of the General Land Office, but the President reversed the Secre- tary's decision and the transfer of the land was duly made, and in March, 1852, the contracts were let and the work commenced and rapidly pushed to completion.

This brings us to the completion of that important part of the life of a railroad, namely, the bringing it into existence and successfully putting it on its feet, or, in other words, the organization of a chartered company. under a liberal and just funda- mental law, and the providing ways and means that put money into the hands of the corporation to carry on its work. All this had been done, and the good people of

Cairo had great occasion to rejoice and feel glad. It was the realization of a long de- fered hope, where promise had been the brightest and failure and disappointment the most complete. The improvement of na- tional importance, and upon which hung all Cairo's hopes for the future, was assured.

Much of the credit, and therefore a meed of praise, for securing the building of this road, is due to Stephen A. Douglas, Judge Breese, Hon. David J Baker, Miles A. Gil- bert, D. B. Holbrook, the old Cairo City & Canal Company, Judge Jenkins, Justin Butterfield and many others of Cairo and other portions of the country. And so far as we know, all were content to rest their claims to the honors in the work to the keep- ing of a grateful posterity except Judge Breese. The rejoicing over its success had not abated its first noisy enthusiasm when the voice of Judge Breese was raised, assert. ing his exclusive right to the paternity of the enterprise, and he based his claim to the credit upon the fact that he had projected the whole thing in 1835, and that when in the Senate he had tried to do exactly what Judge Douglas was afterward enabled to do by his previous labors. It was a conception and labor certainly worth the pride of any man. Visions of fame, immortality and emoluments and office were easily discover- able in it.

Judge Breese had been a Senator up to 1849, when he was succeeded by Gen. Shields. In 1850, Breese was in the State Legislature. Under date of December 23, 1850, among other things, in a reply to the Illinois State Register regarding his favor- ing the " Holbrook charters," he says:

" The Central Railroad has been a con- trolling object with me for more than fifteen years, and I would sacrifice all my personal advantages to see it made. These fellows who

J. J. Meyer

207

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

are making such an ado about it now, have been whipped into its support. They are not for it now, and do not desire to have it made because I get the credit of it. This is inevitable. I must have the credit of it for I originated it in 1835, and. when in the Sen- ate, passed three different bills through that body to aid in its construction. My suc- cessor had an easy task, as I had opened the way for him. It was the argument made in my report on it that silenced all opposition and made the passage easy. I claim the credit, and no one can take it from me."

When this came to the attention of Judge Douglas in Washington, he took occasion to reply, on January 5, 1851, at length, giv- ing a detailed history of all the efforts made in Congress to procure the pre-emption or grant of land in aid of building this road, saying: "You were the champion of the pol- icy of granting pre-emption rights for the benefit of a private company [the Holbrook] and I was the advocate of alternate sections to the State." The letter is long and full of interesting facts in relation to the acts and doings in Congress relative to the Illinois Central Railroad. Judge Breese rejoined, under date of January 21, 1851, through the columns of the same paper, at great length, claiming that besides seeking to obtain pre- emption aid he was also the first to introduce "a bill for the absolute grant of the alternate sections for the Central and Northern Cross Railroads," but finding no favorable time to call it up, it failed. "It was known from my first entrance into Congress that I would accomplish the measure, in some shape, if possible." But the Illinois mem- bers of the House, he asserts, took no interest in the passage of any law for the benefit of the Central Railroad, either by grant or pre-emption. He claims no share in the passage of the law of 1850.

" Your (Douglas') claim shall not, with my consent, be disparaged, nor those of your associates. I will myself weave your chap- let, and place it, with no envious hand, upon your brow. At the same time history shall do me justice. I claim to have first projected this road in my letter of 1835, and in the judgment of impartial and disinter- ested men my claim will be allowed. I have said and written more in favor of it than any other. It has been the highest of my am- bitions to accomplish it, and when my last resting place shall be marked by the cold marble which gratitude or affection may erect, I desire for it no other inscription than this, that he who sleeps beneath it projected the Central Railroad."

He also at length cited his letter of October 16, 1835, to John Y. Sawyer in which the plan of the Central Railroad was first fore- shadowed, which opens as follows: "Having some leisure from the labor of my circuit, I am induced to devote a portion of time in giving to the public a plan, the outline of which was suggested to me by an intelligent friend in Bond County a few days since."

To this Douglas, under date of Washing- ton, February 22, 1851, surrejoins at con- siderable length, and in reference to this opening sentence in the Sawyer letter, ex- claims: " How is this! The father of the Central Railroad, with a Christian meekness worthy of all praise, kindly consents to be the reputed parent of a hopeful son begotten for him by an intelligent friend in a neigh- boring county. I forbear pushing this in- quiry further. It involves a question of morals too nice, of domestic relations too delicate for me to expose to the public gaze. Inasmuch, however, as you have furnished me with becoming gravity, the epitaph which you desire engrossed upon your tomb when called upon to pay the last debt of nature,

208

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

you will allow me to suggest that as such an inscription is a solemn and a sacred thing, and truth its essential ingredient, would it not be well to make a slight modification, so as to correspond with the facts as stated in your letter to Mr. Sawyer, which would make it read thus in your letter to me: It has been 'the highest object of my ambition to accomplish the Central Railroad, and when my last resting place shall be marked by the cold marble which gratitude or affec- tion may erect, I desire for it no other in- scription than this: He who sleeps beneath this stone voluntarily consented to become the putative father of a lovely child called the Central Railroad, and begotten 'for him by an' intelligent friend in the County of Bond."

The question as to "who killed Cock Robin ? " seems to have here stopped, and Judge Breese probably retired from the controversy, feeling that he had asserted his Sparrowship rather prematurely, and that the " cold marble of gratitude or affection" may never tell the story just as he fondly hoped it would. The truth is the student of the history of Illinois will come to the con- clusion that Judge Breese never made a greater mistake than when he entered poli- tics, and imagined he was a statesman, and allowed his political disappointments to sour and cloud his life. His egregious error in this respect reminds one of the interviews be- tween Fredrick the Great and Voltaire. They were great friends, and often Voltaire was called to the court and entertained for weeks and months. The king much wanted to talk to Voltaire because the statesman really believed his true greatness lay in literature and poetry, and Voltaire wanted to talk to the king because he never doubted that his own true genius was all in the line of state- craft and military affairs. And when they

met Voltaire would talk military all the time, because that was something he knew nothing about, and the king would with equal persistence read his poems and talk literature all the time, because he knew as little of that as Voltaire did of empire or war. They would complacently exchange sides, and leaving those fields in which each stood pre- eminent, they would talk the most profound- ly idiotic, and invariably separate, denounc- ing each other as hopeless idiots, to meet again in great friendship the next morning and renew the incurable folly.

Breese, no doubt, believed his talents, genius and education made him a great states- man, and that it was merely rusting out a great life to chain it to the woolsack. He probably estimated that Douglas would have made an estimable Justice of the Peace, but it was farcical to hoist him over his (Breese's) head as a statesman. The truth is, the peo- ple understood Judge Breese much better than he understood himself, and they put him exactly where he was best fitted to be, and he will go into history as an eminent jurist. He made the great mistake of start- ing life as a politician, and he reached the United States Senate, but when he was over- shadowed there by his junior colleague, the " dapper little schoolteacher from Win- chester," and actually defeated for a second term by a wild Irishman with brogue a mile thick, he returned to Illinois, heart-broken, and in desperation accepted a place upon the bench, where he worked until the day of his death. His short political life was not a fortunate one, and, in fact, was pretty much a mere blunder from beginning to end, while ghis judicial career was brilliant and eminent.

Judge Douglas was the better poised mind of the two, yet there is but little doubt he would have as completely failed on the bench

209

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

as had Breese in politics. He tried a brief term as Judge, andi realizing his failure, he got out of it as soon as possible, never to re- turn. He would have been a great lawyer, but he never could have made a judge. He may not have been a statesman, we do not assert that he was, but if not, he approached it close enough to be one of the most superb demagoges the country has produced. We do not use the word demagogue in an offen- sive sense. If Douglas fell short of that breadth and profundity that marks the line between the demagogue and statesman, then by what name in heaven's sake shall we des- ignate all the other little great men of Illi- nois ?- the political buzzards that have been with us almost as numerously as the locusts in Egypt. In short, who is Illinois' great man, if not Douglas? Who will the histo- rian of a hundred years hence, when without bias or prejudice or judgment formed for him by others or a popular hurrah, will, with severe discrimination, unmask the shams and cheap frauds, and dispassionately examine what each one did do, and strike the balance sheet and hold forth the results, without mercy and without fear, we say who will he name as the suitable frontispiece to the history of Illinois up to this time. One thing alone is certain to come pure and bright from this alembic, and that is the fact that Illinois to-day owes more to Judge Douglas than to all her other notorious men put together. He gave the country the Illi- nois Central Railroad, and in the grand scheme he not only refused to be corrupted, but he crushed and annihilated the swarming Credit Mobilier robbers that sprung up in al- most countless numbers all along its path. They could neither corrupt him, intimidate him, nor crush him out, and the grand re- sult is a marvel in the history of legislation upon this continent, there is no parallel to

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.

History of Alexander, Union and Pulaski Counties, Illinois, Part 26

Author: Perrin, William Henry, d. 1892? Publication date: 1883 Publisher: Chicago, Ill. ; O.L. Baskin & Co. Number of Pages: 948

Author: Perrin, William Henry, d. 1892?
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Chicago, Ill. ; O.L. Baskin & Co.
Number of Pages: 948