USA > Illinois > Cook County > Chicago > History of Chicago : historical and commercial statistics, sketches, facts and figures, republished from the "Daily Democratic press" ; What I remember of early Chicago, a lecture, delivered in McCormick's hall, January 23, 1876 (Tribune, January 24th) > Part 14
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profession, indeed, have combined such power to labor, such keen perceptions, such a nervous, trenchant style, and such manly and vigorous grappling with pri- vate and public evils.
But the pen rests forever. The busy brain, so active that it wore upon itself, is silent. We who are left behind, shall " Jong miss his hearty welcome, his cheery, outspoken voice, and his manly presence. Of those who were identified with the Tribune in the early days of its existence, three are now gone-Scripps, Ballantyne, and Ray. Who next? His memory re- mains with us, and that is precious, and we can recall nothing in his long and useful career which did not bespeak the man and the gentleman. May his rest be peaceful after the fitful fever of his life!
With every sentiment and every word of the above I most cordially agree. Dr. Ray was one of the ablest, and in spite of the brusqueness to which Mr. Upton refers, one of the best men I ever knew. I first came to know him well, I think, in the summer of 1854, when he was editing the Galena Jeffersonian. The anxiety and the hard work which the terrible on- slaughts of Mr. Douglas and his friends made upon our paper for opposing the repeal of the Missouri compromise, broke Mr. Scripp's health and he had to give up all writing and betake himself to his home for two months or more before the election, and for nearly as long after it. Of course I had the entire management of the paper and was glad to get an ar- ticle from any friend that offered. Dr. Ray would sometimes come into the office and volunteer half a column or more. Some of the strongest and most effec- tive articles that appeared in the Demo- cratic Press or any other paper during that canvass were written by Dr. Ray. These were only occasional favors, but they were always timely and most valuable.
In 1858, we, J. L. Scripps, Dr. Ray, Mr. Medill and myself, came together as part- ners and equal owners in the Tribune, Mr. Cowles having then a smaller interest. For the five years that I was the most in- timately associated with Dr. Ray, we never had a word of dispute on any sub- ject. Once, indeed, he gave me " a piece of his mind," rather emphatically, but it was all on his side, for I was thoughtlessly,
though really in the wrong, in some things that I published. I acknowledged my fault and all was well. In all the years we were associated together, the discussion of the question Is it right ? controlled the policy of the paper. Sometimes it re- quired a great deal of care and investiga- tion to determine it. For instance, I was with Prentiss' army on its march from Ironton to Cape Girardeau, and became satisfied that Fremont, as a general, was a failure, and so wrote home to my asso- ciates. , Then Mr. Medill went with the army to Jefferson City and came back with the same report. Dr. Ray then went down to St. Louis and got a great variety of facts from his friends in that city, and finally Mr. Scripps did the same thing ; and then after full consultation Dr. Ray wrote a four or five column article in his most vigorous, trenchant style, calling for Fremont's removal, and giving the rea- sons for it. It created a tremendous ex- citement, and cost us hundreds of sub- scribers and thousands of dollars. The course of the Tribune during and before the war was the result of the matured opinions of four independent thinkers, and hence it was always right. With two such honest, able, patriotic and scholarly men as Mr. Scripps and Dr. Ray, not to mention Mr. Medill, with his sharp, dis- criminating mind, his wide acquaintance with men and things, and his acute jour- nalistic and broad common sense, and with whatever I could contribute to the common stock, is it any wonder the Tri- bune achieved a national reputation? It had the credit, and justly, of bringing out Mr. Lincoln, and doing more than any other paper to secure his nomination, and of doing most effective work in his elec- tion to the Presidency. During the entire. war it never flinched nor faltered for a moment. It led and guided public opin- ion in the Northwest; inspired confidence amid defeat and disaster; always advo- cated the most vigorous measures to put down the rebellion; drove the Copper- heads to their holes, and to say the least, it has probably done as much as any other journal or influence in the country to bring back the peace and the security
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which it now enjoys. With such men as Scripps and Ray editing and inspiring their own journal, and through it giving right direction to the press of the country, it will indeed ever remain " the palladium
of our liberties," the unflinching foe of all that is false and wicked ; and be ever ready to use all its influence and its power to promote the social, the intellectual and the moral welfare of the race.
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1871.
From the Chicago Tribune, March 29th, 1871. CANADIAN WATER ROUTES.
THE CHICAGO COMMITTEE AT OTTAWA, CANADA.
The committee (Messrs. Bross, Holden, and McMullen) sent by a public meeting at the Board of Trade rooms to Ottawa, Canada, to represent to the Dominion Parliament the importance of increased facilities of transit by the St. Lawrence route between the Upper Lakes and the seaboard, returned to the city yesterday. They report the very best of feeling in Canada in relation to this important sub- ject, and that their reception was of the most cordial and friendly character. The Railway and Canal Committee of the Canadian Parliament is composed of some fifty of the leading members, and other gentlemen were also present when the Chicago Committee were invited to appear before this large body, and to lay before them any communication they might wish to make. The following account of the proceedings is taken from the Ottawa papers of the 24th:
Increased Facilities of Transit for the Com- merce of the Lakes to the Ocean.
Remarks of Ex-Lieutenant Governor Bross, of Illinois, before the Canal and Railway Com- mittee of the Canadian Parliament, March 23, 1871.
Honorable Chairman and Gentlemen of the Com- mittee:
I thank you most cordially, in behalf of myself and associates, for your very kind invitation to appear before you. We are here simply to express to you our deep in- terest, and that of our city and the West generally, in the progress and develop- ment of your great lines of internal improve- ments, and to assure you that, in due time, the West will furnish them with all the business they can possibly do. The West will be thankful for the use of any and all the means of transit to the seaboard which you now have or may hereafter construct. Hence, we trust that you will enlarge the Welland Canal, and open the Ottawa route; but, from our standpoint,
knowing how rapidly the vast resources of the Northwest are developing by the extension of our railways, many of our leading business men have come to the conclusion that the Huron and Ontario Ship Canal, avoiding entirely the St. Clair Flats, Lake Erie, and the Welland Canal,
with only eighty miles of canal and slack water navigation, and with the capacity to pass vessels of a thousand or twelve hun- dred tons burden, and a corresponding enlargement of the St. Lawrence Canals, is the only channel adequate to the real wants of the commerce of the country west of Lake Michigan.
I can scarcely hope to state anything new to this large assembly of learned and eminent gentlemen in regard to this sub- ject; but I beg to introduce a few facts in relation to the growth of the Northwest which we trust may be worthy of your consideration. I hold in my hand the report of the survey of the Huron and Ontario Ship Canal, made by Mr. Tully, as engineer, and Colonel R. B. Mason, now Mayor of Chicago, as consulting en- gineer, and published in 1857. In that report there is a table showing what were then the population and resources of the several Northwestern States, with an esti- mate of their probable increase, and of its effects upon the revenues of the canal for a series of years, based on an increase of 29 per cent. for every five years-1850 to 1855. In that table the population of the States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Mich- igan, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota, is given, in 1857, at 3,090,000. On the ratio as above, they are estimated to be, in 1870, 5,907,716, and in 1880, 9,980,776. The census for 1870 shows that they now have a population of 10,759,981, nearly twice the estimate for 1870, and nearly a mill- ion more than the estimate for 1880.
So certainly are all the figures of our boldest statisticians far exceeded by the actual facts as time rolls onward. Leav- ing out of the account the population of the two great States, Ohio and Indiana, the remaining States above mentioned, for whose business the canal could legiti- mately compete, with the exception, per- haps, of the eastern half of Michigan, which would be more than balanced by the trade of Nebraska, have now a popu- lation of 6,419,510. The city of Chicago, in 1857, had a population of 130,000; it has now 300,000. The shipments of grain in that year from Chicago were 18,483, 678 bushels; last year they were 54,745,903; just about three times what they were thirteen years previous. The revenues of the canal, estimated from a careful analy- sis of the commerce of the Lakes previ- ous to 1857, would have been in 1865, had it then been completed, $1,126,758, and
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for 1870, $1,453,577. As the population of the Northwestern States from 1857 to 1870 increased threefold, it will be safe to double the estimates for the receipts of the canal for the last year. This would give for last year a total revenue of $2,907,034; and by 1880 on the same premises it would exceed $4,000,000.
We are well aware that the construction of this canal would cost a large amount of money. But the country to furnish it with business is vast in. extent, and un- bounded in resources. There are 700,000 square miles of territory between Lake Michigan and the Rocky Mountains, not counting your own rich fertile region in the valleys of the Red River and the Sas- katchewan -enough to form fourteen States as large as Ohio. On an average the land is richer and far more productive than the soil of that State. This country is now filling up with a hardy, industrious, enterprising population more rapidly than was ever before known in the history of our Republic. Our city and the North- west are greatly obliged to Canada for the large number of excellent citizens she has sent us. Through this vast fertile country railways are penetrating in all directions. The great central line is fin- ished, and the cars run from ocean to ocean. The North Pacific Railway will, undoubtedly, be done in five years, and the extent of the commerce which all these lines will pour upon Lake Michigan, no sane man would dare to put down in figures had he the ability to do it. To accommodate it, the West looks mainly to the Lakes and the mighty St. Lawrence. We know full well, to quote a remark I made years ago, "that national pride and immense capital and the beaten track of commerce are on the side of New York; but God and nature are stronger than all these, and let any intelligent man compare the 'Erie ditch' with the mighty St. Lawrence, and a canal to pass vessels of 1,000 tons burden from the Georgian Bay to Lake Ontario, and he cannot doubt for a moment on which side the immuta- ble laws of commerce will decide the contest." What the West wants are the cheapest and the largest possible outlets to the ocean. She cares not a rush for New York. While that city nurtures such men as Vanderbilt, who waters the stock of his railway two or three times over, and then demands from the West full rates on the results of his " ways that are dark " and tricks that are villainous; while Fisk and Gould flourish in that city, the West is surely free to cultivate the most intimate relations with their neigh- bors across the line. What if our com- merce benefits Canada; what if it builds up Toronto and makes another New York of Montreal or Quebec, always we trust
bating the rascality of Wall street; the benefits will be mutual and entirely recip- rocal to the people of the West. We think we can safely assure you that a large majority of the West are in favor of reciprocal free trade with Canada and with all mankind as well; and what is more, they are determined to have it. If our legislators now at Washington will not give it to us, the West will send men there who will. With the Lakes and one of the great rivers of the world to make their commercial relations close and almost identical, speaking the same language, and with the same progressive Christian civilization, Canada and the Northwestern States of America have a common and an absorbing interest in all that can elevate and enoble our common humanity.
I close, Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, with an expression of the most cordial thanks for the very kind and courteous manner in which you have received us.
Hon. Mr. Holton thanked Mr. Bross for his able and eloquent speech. He believed there was no division of sentiment on this subject among parties in Canada. The views which had been expressed coincided exactly with his own. There were ques- tions, of course, as to the choice of route of proposed canals, but he would assure the gentlemen from Chicago that the views of the people were in unison with what had been so ably expressed by Mr. Bross.
Sir F. Hincks expressed his gratifica- tion at what he had heard, and agreed generally with what Mr. Bross had said. He therefore had much pleasure in mov- ing a vote of thanks to the Hon. Mr. Bross and the gentlemen who accompanied him for the information they had given and the kindly sentiments they had expressed.
Mr. Shanley said he had listened with great pleasure to what had been said on this important subject. We in Canada had the great natural outlet for the im- mense trade of the West; our position on this continent was unequaled, owing to the St. Lawrence and the great Lakes, yet we had done but little to improve our great natural advantages. This subject had been spoken of for years, but had never found a more practical result than reports.
Hon. Mr. Anglin hoped the government would take this question earnestly in hand, and should they do so they would have the support of the people of the Eastern Provinces in carrying it out. [Hear, hear. ]
Mr. Capreol then addressed the com- mittee. He pointed out the great advan- tages of public works for promoting im- migration.
Sir A. T. Galt was glad to welcome the gentlemen from Chicago. The reason
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why the route to the West had not been opened up was the want of a good under- standing with the United States, but he hoped for a better state of things in the future. He had much pleasure in second- ing the motion of Sir F. Hincks.
Hon. Mr. Holden then rose and ex- pressed his gratification on meeting the members of the committee. He hoped the result of this meeting would be grati- fying to both parties concerned. He supported the views expressed by Mr. Bross, and thanked the committee for the kind reception extended to them.
Sir G. E. Cartier said he was glad to hear the clear and forcible exposition which had been made by the Hon. Mr. Bross, and was happy to learn that the Western peo- ple properly estimated the influence of New York. The Treasury at Washington had pursued a policy calculated to build up the Atlantic cities at the expense of the interior country. According to his views there was a natural commercial bond between Canada and the Western States, and a feeling of sympathy that we were willing to cultivate if the United States Treasury would pursue a more equitable policy. He thought the Wes- tern people should consider our country their natural seaboard while we regarded their trade and commerce a part of our own as their prosperity was, rightly con- sidered, the prosperity of the Dominion. [Hear, hear. ] The motion was then put and carried with applause. The com- mittee then adjourned until noon to-day.
The committee were invited to break- fast on Friday morning by Sir Francis Hincks, and, by invitation, dined with His Excellency Lord Lisgar, Governor General of the Dominion, on Saturday evening. Thos. Reynolds, Esq., the Man- aging Director of the Ottawa Railway, sent them to Prescott in his own car. At Toronto they spent half a day with F. C. Capreol, Esq., the indefatigable President of the Huron and Ontario Ship Canal
Company, who was, throughout, most efficient in contributing to the comfort of the committee and advancing the com- mercial interests of Canada and the West.
The following article is from the Ottawa Times of Friday, the 24th:
FROM LAKE TO OCEAN.
We direct the especial attention of our readers to the speech of the Hon. William Bross, ex-Lieutenant Governor of Illinois, on the subject of the transport of produce from the Western States to the ocean. The subject is one to which we have often alluded as being of the utmost importance, and perhaps no one is more thoroughly able to deal with it intelligently than the gentleman to whose remarks we refer.
Whatever may be the views adopted by our government in reference to the exact nature of our canal policy, and whether or not they may feel justified in agrceing to the propositions made by Mr. Bross and the other delegates from Chicago, we may rely upon it that nothing but good can spring from the visit of these American gentlemen to the Canadian capital, and from a free interchange of thought and opinion between them and our leading public men. Our neighbors will find that but one desire exists here, as far as our social and commercial relations with the United States are concerned, viz. : that they shall be of the most intimate and friendly character-and without at the present moment entering into a discussion as to the respective merits of the various canal schemes proposed, we feel justified in saying on behalf of the government and people of this Dominion, that they are thoroughly alive to the importance of establishing a commodious water high- way from the Western Lakes to the Atlan- tic Ocean, through the Valley of the St. Lawrence, and are disposed to work ener- getically with that end in view.
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HISTORY OF CHICAGO.
THE GREAT CHICAGO FIRE,
OCTOBER 9, 1871.
As the great fire of October 9th, 1871, is to be ever memorable in the history of Chicago, and as the most extensive and destructive that ever occurred in any age or nation, it is well that each citizen put on record his own obser- vations and experience, so that the future historian can from them condense a true account of that wonderful event.
In the first place, the city had for six or eight weeks been preparing, under a scorching sun and strong south and southwest winds, for that terrible fire. It was probably the longest " spell " of that kind of weather the city had ever suffered. Scarcely any rain had mois- tened a roof or lain the dust. The inter- nal structures of the buildings, and in hundreds, perhaps . thousands, of cases the frame work as well, were of wood, and under the burning sun for so many weeks the whole city became virtually a tinder box. When the fire broke out among the wooden houses and stables in the southwestern part of the city, a fierce wind was blowing from the southwest, which under the influence of the fire soon became a gale. Once fairly under way no fire department in the world could stand before it. Under like circumstances every other city in the United States would burn up, for every other city, like Chicago, is mainly built of wood. Till more incombustible materials are used in this as they are in the old country, and until rigid rules for building substantially are adopted and enforced, the cities of the United States will never be safe from such calamities as befell Chicago.
Some few incidents are inserted here to show how terrible was the fire. When it had reached the business centre of the city it ceased to be governed by any of the
ordinary rules that are commonly atten- dant upon even great fires, as the terms are usually understood. In places the heat could only be compared to that from the combustion of oxygen and hydrogen by means of the blow-pipe. In places it would strike great iron columns nearly two feet square, and for four or five feet, perhaps more, the iron would be all burned up. No residuum would be left. Sometimes car wheels standing on the track would be half burned up. Safes if exposed to these jets of heat were of no account.whatever. Geo. C. Smith, Esq., banker, told me that they had standing in a back office a large safe full of ledgers and other books. That safe and its con- tents were all burned up. Not a vestige of it remained to mark where it stood. Many safes that stood where brick walls soon fell on and protected them were all right, and as usual the manufacturers made a great noise about them; but in no case that I heard of, if they stood in ex- posed positions were their contents pre- served. Brick vaults with safes inside were all right. The Tribune vault among other things had a linen coat and a box of matches inside, which were not injured, and the painted figures on the safe door were not even blistered. It should be added, that the vault was near the centre of the building, north and south, and was protected by the south as well as its own wall. Some of the freaks of the fire are scarcely credible. Very reliable gentle- men reported that they saw jets of flame dart across an entire block and in an instant envelop the building it struck in a winding sheet of lurid flame. The heat of the burning city was felt far away on the lake, and I have been assured by gen- tlemen on whose word I place implicit
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confidence that so hot was the wind over at Holland, Michigan, a hundred miles or more northeast of Chicago, that some parties there on the afternoon of Monday, were obliged for some considerable time to get down behind a hedge and let the scorching blasts pass over them. They were unable then to account for the heat, and greatly feared that the time had come when "the earth and all things therein would be burned up."
The fire commenced an hour or more before midnight, near the corner of Jef- ferson and DeKoven streets. Soon after starting it became a great river of fire, and from its central track at first not more than a block or two on either side, swept directly through the business por- tion of the city, reaching the water works and 'the old cemetery before daylight. But on either side of that track it kept up its destructive work till noon of Monday, and perliaps in some localities even later than that. Along all great rivers there are eddies, and it was these eddies of wind charged with flame that enabled the fire to work westward in the heart of the city to the river, and eastward to Michigan avenue as far south as Congress street. This comparison of the central track of the fire to a great river and its eddies on each side of that track, will probably ex- plain its action better than any other com- parison that could be made.
Following out the idea that each citizen should give the incidents happening to himself or under his own observation, I mention that never did friends toil more loyally than ours did for us. They saved most of our books, furniture, pictures, etc., that were left to us. Some that were not friends helped themselves to whatever struck their fancy when opportunity offered. My coachman filled my buggy with some harness, a bag of coffee and other articles, and left it with his friends on the lake shore. Some one coming along and finding it was my "plunder," said he knew me; would put some more goods in to take home and return the buggy tome. That was the last I ever heard of the buggy or anything that was in it. My daughter supposed that I had hired
an express wagon that stood at the door, and I supposed that she had. We filled it full of goods and furniture, among other things, a valuable picture-a farm and animal scene-by Herring, the great English painter. The driver slipped off in the crowd and that was the last we heard of that picture or any part of the load. I met a man at my door, looking decidedly corpulent. ".My friend," said I, "you have on a considerable invoice of my clothes with the hunting suit outside. Well, go along, you may as well have them as to let them burn." These were slight affairs compared with what many others suffered by the thieving crowd. .
Having got out all we could, about 11 A. M. of Monday, the 9th, I sat down by my goods piled up indiscriminately on the lake shore. Soon I saw the angry flames bursting from my home-the result of years of care and toil. Quickly and grandly they wrapped up the whole block and away it floated in black clouds over Lake Michigan. I know not how great calamities affect others; but for myself I looked on calmly without any of those deep emotions which one might be ex- pected to feel. The thing was inevitable; I was no worse off than most of my fel- low citizens, and indeed I felt grateful to a kind Providence that the homes of some of my friends were saved, where we could find refuge. I indulged in no useless sor- rows, and, as I saw my home burn, simply resolved as in the past, to do my duty each day as it came along as best I could. I had begun life with no patrimony, save strong arms, willing hands, and I hope, an honest heart; and I could do so again.
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