History of Bureau County, Illinois, Part 29

Author: Bradsby, Henry C., [from old catalog] ed
Publication date: 1885
Publisher: Chicago, World publishing company
Number of Pages: 776

USA > Illinois > Bureau County > History of Bureau County, Illinois > Part 29

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But who has any wish to harm them? I know of no one. It is right and justice, or some ap- proach to them, that we are after. Having sub- mitted to wrong for many years, we think it about time to seek redress, and some of the people do mean to re-establish the supremacy of the Govern- ment over the railroads, make them submit to law, and regulate them as right and justice demaud. * * * They will so constitute the courts that they will sustain the liberties of the people, with- out regard to any precedent or old decision what- ever. * *

* Mr. Harris, in his talk before the Railroad Committee, two years ago, insisted that we should so legislate that this company (the C., B. & Q.) could make good dividends-eight or ten per cent at least. But how is it with the millions of

people by whom, and for whose more especial bene- fit this Government was instituted, and is sustained ? Are they not as much entitled to legislation that will ensure good dividends, as these railroads? Nay, more, for they are children to the manor born. while the most of the railroad stock is owned by foreigners, and is controlled by a set of Wall Street gamblers. passing from hand to hand, like a shuttle-cock. The railroad rings have absorbed nearly all the earnings of our people for many years, and made themselves rich. Is it not about time the tables were turned? Cannot these people who have made such enormous dividends afford to take something less for a time, while the crushed people take a breathing-spell, and recruit a little? Is it not our right, nay, our duty, to compel them to do it, and thus save our people from poverty and our liberties from anuihilation ?

The times are sadly out of joint. Many of our public men, who have long been trusted, have lost the confidence of the people. Corruption, bribery and peculation have taken the place of old-fash- ioned integrity and honest dealings with the men of all parties, in our State and National councils. Force and fraud are more common and more suc- cessful in their schemes than ever before in the history of our country. There has never been a time when murders and other high crimes were so frequent and so boldly committed, or when human life was held so cheap, or when legislation was so corrupt, and the administration of justice so lax ; when the sauctity of an oath was so little regarded; when taxation was so oppressive on the mass of the people, or when public funds were so crim- inally or needlessly wasted, and our public treas- uries so shamelessly plundered.

" The frequency of crimes has washed them white." * *

* *

Scarce an instance of legislative or judicial bribery has come to light that could not be traced to some connection with railroads. The corrupting influence of money, in the hands of their emissa- ries-money wrongfully filched from your pockets- is sapping the very foundations of society. Rail- road men subsidize the press, fee leading attorneys, and seek the favor of all active business men and other men of influence, by special favors, and all at the expense of the people who foot the bill.

[Here follows a brief and lucid account of the celebrated Dartmouth College case, and an explana- tion that it was not a decision that would sustain, except by the grossest distortion, the claims of the railroads and their attorneys .- ED. ]

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It is time this error of opinion was corrected, and a more just and sensible one promulgated. If our courts and attorneys cannot of themselves arrive at a more correct opinion-if they cannot see that the doctrine of vested rights, as applied to railroads, strikes at the very foundation of our liberties-it is for the people at large to give them lessons in State and National jurisprudence. The common instinct of the people teaches them better. They see the danger, and are determined to avoid it. If our courts will cling to this radical error, we must, as we have opportunity, replace them with men of more enlightened and just convictions.

. This talk that the people condemu the courts for deciding the law to be what it really is, is all non- sense, as much as to say the law is an exact science like mathematics, and that Judges can cipher out an infalible decision. The decision of the court is only the opinion of the men constituting the court -usually founded upon the opinion of other men given in similar cases. It may be right and it may be wrong. Another court may and ought to set it aside, if they believe it contrary to justice, and the best good of those concerned. Law, as administered, is for the time being what the court of last resort declares it to be. It is true there are immutable principles of right and justice, which ought to gov- ern courts. And it is equally true that Judges, who are only men with the prejudices and imperfections common to us all, do not alway find the right, or if they do, are not always controlled by it in making up their decisions. * **

Mr. President and gentlemen, reflecting upon the subject under consideration, it has seemed to me the hope of the Nation in this crisis is with the people of these Northwestern States, and I think I can give good reasons for my opinion. Ours is a great segregated population, by which I mean. that with us generally each individual man in his ma- terial interest, at least stands more independent of every other man than is the case in any other part of our country. There is a smaller part of our people who are directly and necessarily dependent upon others for lahor and bread, than in any other sec- tion of this Nation. They are also less controlled by the conventionalities of society than in the older States where wealth is more in the hands of thefew. Our people are consequently better prepared to act independently and more directly upon their convic- tions of right, and more decidedly and intelligently for the public good. Now let us turn to the older States, Massachusetts, for example. There the pre- ponderance of population and political power is in

the cities and manufacturing villages. There a larger majority of voters are under the influence, if not control, of the wealthy employer or corporation. Thus the corporate wealth of the State, consisting of the railroads and the great manufacturing estab- lishments, which are essentially one in interest, con- trol the political destinies of the State. So completely is this the case that their Railroad Commissioners de- clare, in their report, that the railroads are the con- trolling power in the Legislature. The other New England States are no exception in this respect, and New Jersey and Pennsylvania are not far behind, while New York is essentially controlled by her vast, overshadowing corrupt metropolis and monopolies."

* *

One is almost led to think that in this last para- graph Mr. Bryant was foreseeing what would soon come in the way of distorting and misrepresenting the people of Illinois, and especially the people of Bureau County, in the entire false coloring of this very important chapter in history. He plainly in- dicates that such a movement could only start in the Northwest, as it did, and that it is here the country will some day learn to look for its bold and able defenders-to the people possessing that genius of freedom that dares stand up in the face of all the world and assert their rights.

During the past summer several places have come forward as the champion spots of the birth-place of the Republican party. We believe some place in Maine, August 13 last. celebrated the anniversary of this great event. There are hundreds of people here living in the county that will recollect a meet- ing held on the grounds of J. H. Bryant, July 4, 1854, where resolutions were passed and an organ- ization formed, and as Judge Stipp informs us, named Republican party, and many persons signed the articles or constitution, and this was the same organization that extended over the country and in six years after its birth elected Abraham Lincoln President. There is strong evidence going to prove the fact that here was the birth-place of the Repub- lican party. Here, too, originated the idea and finally the act of the State Legislature which led to the building of the noted and splendid Princeton High School, and the general law empowering other townships in the State to huild similar schools.

We assume the fact that these three things are great historical events; events that have had. and will continue to have, immense influence and effect throughout the State and Nation. And like many of the greatest events in history that were freighted with the weal of Christendom, and that will grow

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and deepen for incalculable generations to come, they came so silently, were born of the brain and heart of men so retiring by their very nature, that their nearest neighbors heard no bluster and brag and noise, and really were not aware that they were moving in the midst of events that would never be forgotten, and that would, be studied and con- templated in the long after-ages as the pages of most absorbing interest.

It is not the noisy events, or the notorious and noisy men that are always the true themes of the histo- rian. But it is this common error of writers that talk so long and so learnedly and so silly, often, about notorious things in the belief that they are the only items in history worth considering. The writer remembers hearing, not long ago, a discussion in a literary society of "Who is the greatest living American?" One speaker bravely contended it was Seth Green, the father of fish culture. Another speaker ridiculed the Green idea; inquired who ever heard of Green, and contended that Beecher was the man, because everybody knew of Beecher, and declared that the whole population would turn out to see him if he was to come to the village, etc., etc. The neat retort was, that if notoriety constituted . greatness, then Guiteau, the assassin (who was then on trial), was the greatest man in the world. To ninety-nine men in a hundred, all they ask is, Was he ever in Congress or worth a million dollars, and if not, they jump to the conclusion, " Oh, he wasn't much-no greater than I am." They can estimate a man only by the noise he makes, much as did the darkey when he said, "That was the biggest speech I ever heard; why, you could hear it a mile."

We have no hesitation in saying that Bureau County will eventually go into history as the his- toric county in the Nation, and she will wear this great title from the men who have passed their act- ive lives here and wrought out some of the most important events in our Nation's history.

CHAPTER XVII.

THE ILLINOIS AND MICHIGAN CANAL-HISTORY OF THE PROJECT OF EXTENDING TO THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER-JACOB GALER, THE FATHER OF THE SCHEME-SOME CURIOUS LEGISLATION-INTER- NAL IMPROVEMENTS-SOME STATUTORY PYROTECNICS, ETO., ETC.

We sing the song of the farmer, Who tills the stubborn soil, And feeds carth's countless millions With the fruits of his patient toil. -JOHN H. BRYANT.

A S early as 1821 the Legislature appro- priated $10,000 for a survey of the route of this canal. Judge Smith and others were appointed Commissioners, and they ap- pointed René Paul, of St. Louis, and Justin Post, of Cairo, as engineers. They surveyed the route, reported the work easily practica- ble, and estimated it would cost $600,000 or $700,000. In 1826 Congress donated to the State about 300,000 acres of land on the route of the canal. The stock was never subscribed. In 1828 another law was passed, providing for the sale of lots and land, for the appointment of a Board of Commission- ers, and for the commencement of the work. Nothing was done under the law, except the sale of some of the lands, and a new survey of the line and a new estimate, by the new engineer, Mr. Bucklin. He ran the estimate up into millions, instead of thousands, but still too low, as experience finally demon- strated. After this second failure there were various projects of giving the work to a com- pany, or of making a railroad over the con- templated route. But nothing effectual was proposed to be done until in the Legislature of 1834-35.

George Farquer, of Sangamon County, was Chairman of the Senate Committee of In- ternal Improvements, and he made a masterly State paper in a report on the canal project,

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and recommended the authorization of a loan of the State credit, which passed the Senate, but failed in the House. Its failure in the House was principally due to the fact that the Governor, in his message, had asserted with great confidence that the money for the work could be obtained upon a pledge of the lauds alone. And Farquer's bill. thus amended, became a law. This was the firet efficient movement toward the construction of the canal. The loan failed, but at a special session of 1835 a law was introduced by James M. Strode, of Peoria, authorizing a loan of $500,000 on the credit of the State. This loan was negotiated by Gov. Duncan in 1836, and with this money the work was com. menced in the month of June of that year. William F. Thornton, of Shelby County, Gurdon S. Hubbard, of Chicago, and Will- iam B. Archer, of Clark County, were the first Canal Commissioners.

In the spring of 1836 the great land and town lot speculation of those times had fairly set in and was affecting the whole country, and Illinois was a favorite field for the wild craze that took possession of the people. It seemed to commence in this State first in Chicago, and was the means of starting up that place and at once transforming it from a mere trading-post to a struggling, bustling town of several thousand inhabitants-looking something like a flock of new barns had alight- ed among boggs and mud puddles and had most of them brought their stilts along to alight upon. The stories of the sudden fortunes made there traveled over the civilized world, exciting the amazement and wonder of men, and the pell-mell rush commenced. A spirit of gambling was started there and specula- tors and adventurers and all were wild with a desire for sudden and splendid wealth. Chicago had for a few years been only a great town market. It now became an immense

"Board of Trade." For hundreds of miles around the plats of towns were carried there to be disposed of at auction. From one end of the State to the other, indeed, into other States, the infection spread, and at Cairo the absolute furor was worse even than in Chi- cago, and there was D. B. Holbrook and his great " South Sea Bubble," backed not only by every politician and statesman in south- ern Illinois, but by the State Legislature it- self. And upon the State statute books of that day are solemn acts of the Legislature enacting " by the authority of the people of the State of Illinois," that Cairo was high and dry above high water mark-that it was the natural point for the great city of the New World. Solemnly these men enacted the most absurd spread-eagle auctioneer stump speeches and were ready to vote the State's credit-fortunately there was no money in the treasury - to these mad-cap schemes where they had purchased or been given lots.

The East caught the infection, and every vessel coming West was loaded with people, bound for these fairy cities of the West. But as it was impossible for the people of the old States to get here fast enough for the desires of the Western speculators, they freighted the returning vessels with town lots, cities, parks, fountains, colleges (good places for them), canals, railroads, etc. Lands and town lots were the only exports of the country, pretty much the sum total of the productions, and the decorative arts were taxed in producing those highly colored lithographs of cities (that were to be) with their six and eight- story blocks and squares, their magnificent public buildings, schoolhouses, churches, foun- tains, parks and lawns; elegant carriages and equipages, the smoking chimney stacks of factories, glittering spires and minarets filled the distant prospective of the alluring pictures. And upon great auction days in

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HISTORY OF BUREAU COUNTY.

these leading embryo cities would gather the people by thousands-statesmen, poets, edi- tors, literary men and great orators-and with bands of music the momentous event would be inaugurated by the people assem- bling about the platforms erected for the auctioneers and commence exercises, dedicate them, as it were, by ' a poem, perhaps by George D. Prentice, and speeches from some of the most celebrated orators from Kentucky or Ohio, and then the auctioneer would com- mence and at fabulous prices lots out two or three miles in the swamps and jungles would be scrambled for.

Across in Missouri one of these towns, called Marion City, was laid off on the banks of the river, a bottom prairie, surrounded by swamps. The founder of this city had dis- covered the spot in the dry season of the year and he at once commenced extended opera- tions. He borrowed money and commenced building warehouses, mills and factories, and here came the people, and temporary tents, brush huts and cabins were put up. So im- mense was this promised city that fifteen miles back on an elevation was laid off grounds for a college, and a railroad was to be built from the city to the institution. The first little rise that came in the river flooded the place, and then money was borrowed and levees were built. This gave work to thous- ands of men, as they were seven or eight miles long and averaged over seven feet high. And then people would come and every steam- boat was laden with fresh immigrants, the most of whom had had their houses all framed and made ready to put up on their arrival. The spring freshets came and the city and levees and all were soon lost from view be- neath the eddying waters.

This rage for new towns was so general and the paper towns became so numerous that the wags began to say that the whole

State would be just towns with not enough room left for a single farm. After Marion City had been literally swept from the face of the earth by the waters, a cartoon appeared in an Eastern paper, which represented parties in a flat-boat with long poles hunting for their houses. One man had run down his pole a great length and exclaimed: "I . think I felt the top of my chimney."

When the present generation reads the story of the internal improvement craze that seized upon the State about this time through the Legislature, and which resulted in State bankruptcy, they are apt to wonder how so many fools in finance and business could have been gathered together at the Capital. But the facts we have given above explain the action of the State, and is only another proof that in a representative government the con- dition of the public mind is generally truly reflected in the law makers. Or, in other words, the best of legislative bodies are no more to be implicitly trusted for wisdom than are their constituents, and may furnish the student of history a hint that the dema- gogue's often repeated assertion that rox pop- uli, rox Dei, is to be received cum grano salis.

It was this widespread craze that unsettled the judgments of business men, and the evi- dence of honest sincerity of the proprietors of these paper towns, especially along the rivers, is given by the fact that while they borrowed immense sums of money in the East and in Europe, they expended it in levees that were washed away, and in houses aud foundations for great public buildings that were flooded before they were built, and the bubble would burst and wreck proprietor and purchasers in one common ruin.

Hence, as already intimated, in the fall of 1836 began the agitation of the system of internal improvements. It was argued that Illinois had all the advantages to become a

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great State; that her soil, climate and vast territory were such as to invite people here and make all who would come rich. All it needed was inhabitants and enterprise, and these would be invited by a liberal system of State improvements. Public meetings were called and resolutions passed and this new craze spread over the State so rapidly that be- fore the Legislature of that winter assembled, delegates were appointed by the people's meetings and they were to meet in a great Convention at the Capital simultaneously with the Legislature. This Convention had much greater men in it than did the legisla- tive body. It formed a plan and pointed out ways for the vast improvements by the State, and in its communication to the Legislature it concluded with this significant phrase: "that it should be commensurate with the wants of the people." This was the culmination of the new frenzy, and wild speculation once more became the order of the day, and every means was adopted to hastily give an artifi- cial value to property. People surrendered their judgments to the dictates of the wild- est imaginations. No scheme was so extrav- agant as not to appear plausible to some. Experience had taught them that their own pockets were not inexhaustible, but now the State had stepped in they never dreamed that there could come an end to the golden stream from this fountain. Possibilities were argued into probabilities and the latter into infallibilities.

The people were deeply moved and their actions influenced the legislators, and in the memorable session of that body of 1837 it passed an act providing for a canal from Pera to Chicago, for making the Kaskaskia River and the Little Wabash and Rock Rivers nav- igable, and for railroads from Galena to Cairo; from Alton to Mt. Carmel; from Alton to the east boundary of the State in the direc-

tion of Terre Haute; from Quincy via Spring- field to the Wabash River; from Bloomington to Pekin; and from Peoria to Warsaw. In addition to the canal and rivers there were 1,300 miles of railroad provided for. A sep- arate loan of $4,000,000 was for the Peru & Chicago Canal. The Legislature had already provided for Canal Commissioners and now a Board of Fund Commissioners was created, which was to negotiate the loan for the whole of the contemplated improvements, as well as a Board of Public Works, one for each of the seven judicial circuits of the State. This Board was to superintend the works, and the crown- ing folly of the act was a provision that the works should all commence at the same time, at each end of the roads, and at the river crossings. Thus was a swarm of officials pro- vided for, and their control and appointment became one general political intrigue. The Legislature was to elect these multitudes of men to expend the people's millions, and that honorable body came very near making cor- rupt combinations to elect and appoint each other to all the best places, although the Con- stitution made them ineligible, by providing that no member should be appointed to an office created during the term for which he had been elected. Gov. Duncan had to declare he would not commission members, if elected, to these offices. And the Legislature attempt- ed to pass a law to nullify the Constitution by dispensing with a commission from the Gov- ernor, in the face of the provision of the fundamental law that "all civil officers should be commissioned" by him. The Legislature made a vigorous fight against the Governor and the Constitution and adjourned from day to day. And the people were not shocked by these flagrant acts of their representatives.

The Long Nine .- All the north part of the State was deeply interested in the canal. Sangamon County was then represented by

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the immortal Long Nine, two Senators and seven Representatives, as follows: Abra- ham Lincoln, E. D. Baker, John Dawson, Ninian W. Edwards, W. F. Elkin, A. McCor- mick, Daniel Stone and Robert L. Wilson were the Representatives, and Archer G. Herndon and Job Fletcher in the Senate. Sangamon County wanted the State Capital from Fayette County, and the "Long Nine " were a conspicuous power in that session of the Legislature. Of the means used in the Legislature, Gov. Ford says: "The canal was threatened if other sections of the State were denied the improvements demanded by them; and thus the friends of the canal were forced to log-roll for that work by support- ing others which were to be ruinous to the country. Roads and improvements were pro- posed everywhere, to enlist every section of the State. Three or four efforts were made to pass a smaller system, and when defeated, the bill would be amended by the addition of other roads, until a majority was obtained for it. Those counties which could not obtain a road were to receive their portion of the $200,000 set apart for them. Three roads had to be made to terminate at Alton, before the Alton interest would agree to the system. The seat of government was to be removed to Springfield. Sangamon County was represented by the ' Long Nines,' the seven Whigs (only one of the ten being a Democrat) in the house, and two Whig Senators. Amongst them were some dextrous jugglers and managers in politics, whose whole object was to obtain the seat of govern- ment for Springfield. The .Long Nine' threw themselves as a unit in support of, or opposition to, every local measure of interest, but never without a bargain for votes in return on the seat of government question. Most of the counties were small, having but one Representative, and many of them with

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History of Bureau County, Illinois, Part 29

Author: Bradsby, Henry C., [from old catalog] ed Publication date: 1885 Publisher: Chicago, World publishing company Number of Pages: 776

Author: Bradsby, Henry C., [from old catalog] ed
Publication date: 1885
Publisher: Chicago, World publishing company
Number of Pages: 776