USA > Illinois > Effingham County > History of Effingham county, Illinois > Part 14
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These pretensions plainly show that the apprehensions of the people were not ground- less, particularly when it is remembered that there is to this day no positive evidence that the release executed in New York had ever been signed or duly authorized by the Illi- nois corporators, and when the Legislature did meet, it was soon manifest that the Cairo Companies had secured friends in that body. But, when baffled at every turn by Douglas, a new and a yet bolder scheme was inaugurated and presented to the Legislature. When the Legislature met to pass the Cen- tral charter, one of the first things that met the members was a voluminous printed bill for a charter, which was simply a proposition to place this grand enterprise into the hands of the State bondholders with a wild-cat bank added to the scheme. It was known as the bondholder's plan. The provisions of this extraordinary bill contained about as hard a bargain as "creditor ever offered bondsman," or as Credit Mobilier ever offered the Govern-
ment of the United States. It was coolly proposed, among the provisions, that the State appoint Commissioners to locate the road, survey the route for the main stem and branches, and select the lands granted by Congress, all at the expense of the State; agents were further to be appointed by the Governor to apply to land-holders along the routes who might be benefited by the road, for subscriptions, also at the expense of the State; any person subscribing money shall be entitled to draw interest upon the amount at - per cent per annum from the day of said advance, and shall be entitled to designate and register an amount of "New Internal Im- provement Stock of this State" equal to four times the amount subscribed, or of stock of this State known as "Interest Bonds" equal to three times the money so advanced; and stock so subscribed may be registered at the agency of the State of Illinois, in 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 subscrip- tion, in proportion to the amount paid; and said stock shall be indorsed, registered and signed by the agent appointed by the Gov- ernor for the purpose, and a copy of said register shall be filed in the office of Auditor of Public Accounts, as evidence to show the particular stock secured, or as herein pro- vided for.
The lands were to be conveyed by the State to the managers of the road; to be by them offered for sale upon the completion of sections of sixty miles, expenses to be paid by the State; the money was to go to the managers, but the State was to receive cer- tificates of stock for the same. They ap- pointed their own managers, and the State was to pay two of them $2,500 a year each, and all the others were to get $1.500 a year each. These were very big salaries for those
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days of democratic simplicity. The company. with the sanction of the Governor, was to purchase iron, etc., pledging the road for payment: and the road stock and property to be exempt from all taxation. To this ad- mnirable scheme of plunder were added pro- visions for a bank attachment to the concern, to be organized under the general banking law of the State, to be adopted at the session of the Legislature granting the charter. It wound up with the magnificent proviso, if the constitution was changed or amended, such as was pending (it failed, however, to carry), changing the 2 per cent mill tax to a sinking fund to be generally applied in re- demption of the State debt, that then the stock registered in this act should also par- ticipate in the proceeds thereof.
Such were the salient points in the bond- holders' magnificent scheme of robbery. For boldness and unblushing impudence it has never been excelled, and it has only been equaled in this respect by its stupid frank- ness in admitting and proclaiming its own venality and rascality. It was a bold and daring attempt to fasten upon the State a horde of high-salaried officials to eat out the sustenance of the people. empowering the company to increase at pleasure its officials, and fix their compensation; and to holders of interest bonds-then worth but little in the market-it offered the control of the road to four times their actual outlay; to mortgage it for iron, attach a wild-cat bank to the en- terprise and strangle it. It bore the brands of its own infamy upon its face, and to the eternal good fortune of the people of the West, so plainly was this seen by all that it was unceremoniously scotched and killed.
Perhaps, from all these things combined, and the further fact that, as the people dis- cussed the measure, the magnitude of the gift by the Government was so overpowering
to the minds of many that an opposition arose to turning over to any private corporation this golden fountain. There was that foolish chimera of the State policy also ready to step to the front upon the slightest pretext, al- though its career had already nearly stran- gled and maimed the young State of Illinois, and spread only bankruptcy and desolation along its entire path, and all over the State it had its unconvincible followers and prose- lytes. These, too, were besieging the Legis- lature with their Utopian schemes. They argued that the State should alone act, and, keeping everything within itself, build the 700 miles of railroad. pay off the public debt of many millions, and, by wise State man- agement, make all its own people rich. . Mr. John S. Wright, of Chicago, published a pamphlet, insisting that the State would be everlastingly dishonored if the Legislature did not devise laws to build the road, and disenthrall the State of its enormous debt out of the avails of the land grant.
It was soon a developed fact in the Legis- lature that efforts on the part of the Holbrook influence for delay were being strenuously put forth, in the hope that this might revive the Cairo charter. To this end, a resolution was offered in the Senate instructing the Committee on Internal Improvements to pre- pare and bring in a bill providing for the ap. pointment of agents to locate the road, with the view to further construction, and to select the lands under the grant of Congress.
These were some of the obstacles and as- saults that were made upon the enterprise when it was in its budding state, and which Judge Douglas was called upon to guard and defend it against, and to all these were added the jealousies and bickerings that were raised at every stage of the work, by genuine and by false claimants, to a part of the credit of the idea. It is to be regretted that Judge
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Breese and Judge Douglas were ever driven into any controversy in reference thereto. And it is only now that they have both gone, when they are silent forever, and their works alone may speak for them, that men may dis- passionately look into the merits of that con - troversy of paternity. It is highly probable, from quotations and facts already given, that Judge Breese had formulated in his own mind-partly his own and probably partly other ideas-what resulted and was event- ually the Central Railroad. And when he was in the United States Senate, he did all he could to hasten the good work. There is but little doubt but that he and other men were not only dreaming dreams that were to become a real road some day, but they were moving forward in the actual work. But it is doubtful that, without Judge Douglas, we would ever have had the Central road as we pow have it-the richest jewel, to be un- tainted with corruption-that ever came from a national or State legislation. The two great and invaluable ideas that are unques- tionably due to Judge Douglas are the idea of giving each alternate section of land and doubling the Government price of the re- mainder, and the watchful and rigid exclu- sion of all jobbery from the enterprise, These are his. Let the others be awarded to the memory of Judge Breese. Thus are di- vided and abundant honors for bothi.
In the perpetually increasing grandeur and glory of this master-work of modern time. there is so much. so rich a legacy of respect and gratitude, flowing like the ever.gather- ing river, bearing immeasurable tributes of wealth, happiness and gratitude to the mill- ions of people in the Mississippi Valley, that Illinois may well say to her two noble and ambitious sons, peace and amity, " for in thy Father's house there is enough and to spare."
There was nothing in the lives of the two
men-Douglas and Breese-that those who have in keeping their memories should ever permit to clash and jar the one against the other. Breese was a great and pure jurist, and it was here he toiled, and his genius built his enduring monument. Douglas was a statesman-the most difficult place in life for genius to properly assert itself and rear its tenement among the immortals. It has been said by a great philosopher that state- craft, in its whole nature and conditions, is an inferior plane of life, from whence it is next to impossible for true greatness to spring forth, that great measures of law are simply compromises-temporary expedients -- and it is of necessity their nature to decay, and soon they have passed away; that their effects are short-lived, and at best they are merely the developed one-half, or part, at least, of the ideal of the statesman. The great Burke realized this in his young and better days, to the extent that it is said to have cast a gloom over his life. But in the face of the saying of the philosopher, it is a truth, and will so remain forever, that men are, after all, dispassionately judged at some time by their posterity, according to the real and true work of their lives. When this just judgment comes-and if it is not here now, it will come-Stephen A. Douglas will take his place, easily and naturally, as the pre- eminently great man that Illinois has yet produced. This is not prediction; it is the assertion of a simple, palpable truth. The mob, "with stinking breaths and greasy caps," may not have run after him shouting " Live forever!" But of this a just posterity will make no inquiry. They will inquire of him. as they will of all: In life, what did you do for the permanent good of men? And his- tory will point to the Central Railroad, by which the greatness and glory of Illinois- more than could all the battle-fields in history
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-is proudly fixed, and the comfort and hap- piness of her millions of people secured be- yond peradventure. One other act of Doug- las' life should and will be placed by this as a companion piece, namely: When the Illi- nois Legislature, of which Douglas was then a member, had concluded to repudiate its State debt. When Douglas heard of it, on his sick bed, he had himself carried into the hall upon a stretcher. The matter was un- dergoing a closing discussion. He was not able to rise from his sick couch and speak, as he only would or could have spoken, upon such an occasion, so he wrote and sent to the Clerk the following: " Resolved, That Illi- nois will be honest if she never pays a cent."
And repudiation was instantly killed for- ever in Illinois. Are not these two acts properly denominated companion pieces ? The one saved the honor and credit of the State; the other created her wealth. her greatness and her glory.
When the General Assembly of 1851 met, there were wealthy capitalists represented there, who proffered, in the most equitable and generous terms, to build the railroad and its branches, as the following memorial will fully explain :
TO THE HONORABLE, THE SENATORS AND REPRE- SENTATIVES OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, IN THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY CONVENED:
The memorial of Robert Schuyler, George Gris- wold, Gouverner Morris, Jonathan Sturgis, George W. Ludlow and John F. A. Sandford, of the city of New York, and David A. Neal, Franklin Haven and Robert Rantoul. Jr., of Boston and vicinity, respectfully represent:
Having examined and considered an act of Con- gress of the United States, whereby land is donated for the purpose of insuring the construction of a railroad from Cairo, at the mouth of the Ohio. to Galena and northwest angle of the State of Illinois, with a branch extending to Chicago, on Lake Mich- igan, on certain conditions therein expressed: and having also examined the resources of the traet of country through which it is proposed that said rail-
road shall pass, and the amount of cost and space of time necessary to construct the same, the sub- scribers propose to form a company, with such stockholders as they may associate with them, in- clnding among their number persons of large expe- rienee in the construction of several of the principal railroads in the United States, and of means and credit sufficient to place beyond doubt their ability to perform what they hereinafter propose, make the following offer to the State of Illinois for their con- sideration:
The company so formed by the subscribers will, under the authority and direction of the State of Illinois, fully and faithfully perform the several conditions, and execute the trust in the said act of Congress contained. And will build a railroad. with branches between the termini set forth in said aet, with a single track, and complete the same. ready for merchandise and passengers, on or before the 4th day of July, which will be in the year of our Lord 1854.
And said railroad shall be, in all respects, as well and thoroughly built as the railroad running from Boston to Albany, with such improvements thereon as experience has shown to be desirable and expe- client, and shall be equipped in a manner suitable to the business to be accommodated thereby.
And the said company, from and after the com- pletion of said road, will pay to the State of Illinois, annually, - per cent of the gross earnings of said road, without deduction or charge of expenses, or for any other matter or cause: Provided, That the State of Illinois will grant to the subscribers a char- ter of incorporation, with terms mutually advantage- ous, with powers and limitations as they, in their wisdom, may think fit, as shall be accepted by said company, and as will sufficiently remunerate the subscribers for their care, labor and expenditure in that behalf incurred, and will enable them to avail themselves of lands donated by said act, to raise the funds, or portion of the funds, necessary for the construction and equipment of said road.
Mr. Rantoul, one of the memorialists, was the accredited agent of the others. with full power to act. He attended personally at Springfield during the sitting of the Legisla- ture, and the above proposition, coming from gentlemen of such bigh financial standing. was very favorably received from his hands, particularly as it offered a completion of the road and its branches in a much shorter space
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of time than was by any one anticipated. He was willing to adjust the conditions of the contract so as to render the completion of the road certain, and without a possibility of the misapplication of the lands, or the be- stowal of a monopoly upon the company, which was ready to give any guarantee that might reasonably be asked to guard the State against loss from defalcation, both as respect- ed the prosecution of the work and the ap- plication of the proceeds of the sales of the lands.
These terms were made the basis, ulti- mately, of the Central Railroad charter.
This bill, wise and just as it was, lingered in the Legislature. Many amendments were offered and rejected, such as requiring pay- ment for the right of way to pre-emptionists or settlers upon the Government land, the same as to actual owners, though their bene- fits and the enhanced value of the land would be many hundred per cent. The point of di- vergence for the Chicago Branch was stren- nously attempted to be fixed. but was finally left with the company anywhere " north of the parallel of 39° 30' of north latitude. Much discussion was had upon the location of the main line, what towns it should touch between the termini designated in the Con- gressional grant, but all intermediate points failed of being fixed in the act except a sin- gle one-the northeast corner of Township 21 west, Range 2 east, Third Principal Mer- idian, 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 the road. It will be remembered that the memorialists, in their proposition to the Legislature to ob- tain the charter, offered, among other things, to pay the State of Illinois annually a cer- tain per centum of the gross earnings of the
road, without deduction for expense or other cause. The amount was left blank, to fix which, however, became subsequently a mat- ter of no little trouble and scheming. In the first gush of desire to obtain the splen- did grant of land from the State, it is said the corporators would have readily consented to fill this blank at 10 per centum of the gross earnings. But unfortunately for the people and the treasury, the railroad, it is said, employed W. H. Bissell, then a mem- ber of Congress, as their attorney, and that he left his place in Washington and attended at Springfield in the capacity of a lobbyist for the company, and the result was the State conceded a reduction of 3 per cent from that figure, the amount being fixed at 7 per centum, and that in lieu of all taxes, State or local. this 7 per cent tax yields the State about half a million dollars annually. From time to time, efforts have been made by the road to get rid of paying into the State Treasury this 7 per cent tax, and against which the people clamored so much that the last State Constitutional Convention fixed the matter irrevocably in the organic law of the State, which places the subject beyond the control or meddling of the Legislature.
In the Legislature, after procrastinating action until the heel of the session, Mr. J. L. D. Morrison, of the Senate, brought in a substitute for the pending bill, which, after being amended in several particulars, was finally passed with but two dissenting votes, and at once the House took up the Senate bill aud passed it without amendment, also by two dissenting votes, and it became a law February 10, 1851.
In the following spring, surveys were com- menced, and the good people of Chicago were at once alarmed, fearing that the branch road would be carried to the Indiana line to form a jnuction with the Michigan Central, and
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thus practically become an extension of the latter road to Cairo, leaving Chicago north- ward of this thoroughfare about twenty or thirty miles.
Mr. Douglas was appealed to; he replied at length, denying the power of the company to do so, citing the language of the charter that the Chicago Branch should diverge " from the main trunk at a point north of the parallel 39' 30' and running by the most eli- gible route into the city of Chicago." That one object of the grant of land by Congress was to render salable the public lands in Il- linois, which had been twenty or thirty years in the market, etc.
There was some delay in the commence- ment of the work, occasioned by the Com- missioner of the General Land office at Washington, Justin Butterfield. The com- pany had negotiated a loan of $400,000, but before it could be consummated it was neces- sary that there should be a conveyance of land from the Government. The Commis- sioner, who was from Chicago, construed the grant as entitling the company to lands for the branch on a straight line to Chicago, which would avoid the junction with the Michigan Central. But this decision was reversed by the President and Secretary of he Interior.
In March, 1852, the necessary documents of conveyance were finally secured, contracts were let and the work commenced and carried forward with little or no interruption to com- pletion.
It will be remembered that the memorial- ists offered to complete the road within three years from the time of commencement. They kept their word, not only in this, but in every respect.
In the latter part of 1852, John F. Ber- nard, who had a contract extending from near Mattoon to Centralia, a distance of seventy-
five miles, commenced the work, and. as early as 1854, a construction train roused up the long sleeping silence of the wilderness with its echoes, as it carried men and materials from point to point, where the workmen were engaged in large numbers. Barnard and his immediate employes made their temporary home at Ewington, and their advent and presence there was a marked change in the face of affairs. His large force of workmen were of course in tents, huts and cabins along the line of the road. He opened a supply store at Ewington, and here great crowds of laborers assembled on pay day, and numerous extravagant frolics were sometimes indulged in by the men. The police force and regu- lations of the county were so meager that, in the face of these sometimes boisterous gather- ings, they could offer little or no obstacle to any extravagancies the crowd saw proper to engage in. But considering the large force of Barnard's men-men who felt they were only transient inhabitants, who realized that there was little or nothing to restrain any outbreak they might make, there was in fact little or no serious lawlessness among them. For nearly three years the force of men in this county was from three to six hundred; these were scattered in squads through the entire county, the heaviest force being at what was called the " Patch," at the Little Wabash Crossing, in the southern part of the county. When Effingham had grown to be sufficiently large to furnish a doggery occasionally, a squad from the " Patch " would come up and a few miscellaneous street rows was the result, but just here the early education of the young pioneers was of signal use and value as it made short and rough work of the gentlemen from the " Patch," and this probably had the happy effect of putting a check upon these visitations, and those men would only after- ward appear as mere stragglers, who. when
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drunk enough, would. without complaint, go to the lock-up and sleep off their debauch, and then pay their fine and costs and quietly go home. A goodly number boarded here, and they were as peaceable, quiet and indus- trious citizens as we had.
A man by the name of McNutt was a sub- contractor from Green Creek, north, nearly opposite this city. But a little south for a distance of two miles, J. F. Schwer- man was the sub-contractor. And the re- markable fact of a man and his family lit- erally building that length of road almost alone and unaided. was an instance of toil and labor never excelled in the county, if anywhere. It is said that they literally worked day and night, and that the wife would go home, cook the food and return with it, and the husband did much of his sleeping by sticking his spade in the ground and sitting, leaning against it, slept. South of Schwerman's contract, a man named Whip- ple was the contractor. Freeman and Will- iam Williamson, assisted by E. C. Van Horn, had charge of the carpenter work pretty much along Barnard's entire line.
In the latter part of 1855 the road was fin- ished and freight trains commenced running. The first regular passenger train, on schedule time. passed over the road from Chicago to Cairo. January 1. 1856.
After the great work had been crowned with a successful completion of the road, and all could begin to realize its importance and value to the whole country, different parties came forward eager to claim the paternity of the original idea that had borne such a rich fruition. Of all these there are none worthy of notice here except Douglas and Breese. The real facts are that, like the engine. the spin- ning-jenny and nearly all the the great and benign inventions that have been given to the world, it was an idea or discovery that had
grown from gradual accretions received from many different busy minds. In the inception. too much credit cannot be awarded to Judge Breese aud his co-laborers, and yet the mas- ter work of putting it in its present living shape is due almost exclusively to Judge Douglas. As already intimated in this chap- ter, it was in some respects a misfortune that any jealousies should have arisen between those two eminent sons of Illinois. In their young political lives, they had to some extent crossed each other's paths, and this no doubt helped to pave the way to some of the spirit of gentle carping that marked the newspaper squibs that passed between them on this sub- ject, and we known of no more fitting conclu- sion to this subject than the following sub- joined synopsis of what passed between these two men upon the question of the road's pa- ternity.
Judge Breese had been a Senator in Con- gress to March 4, 1849, when he was suc- ceeded by James Shields. In 1850, he was a member of the Illinois Legislature. Under date December 23, 1850, among other things in reply to the Illinois State Register, re- garding his favoring the "Holbrook Cher. ters." he says:
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