History of Madison County, Illinois With biographical sketches, Part 9

Author: Brink, W.R. & Co
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Edwardsville, Ill. : W. R. Brink & co.
Number of Pages: 698

USA > Illinois > Madison County > History of Madison County, Illinois With biographical sketches > Part 9

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Could we sell the coal in this single State for one-seventh of one cent a ton it would pay the national debt. Great Britain uses enough mechanical power to-day to give each man, woman and child in the kingdom the help and service of nineteen untiring servants. No wonder she has leisure and luxuries. No wonder the home of the common artisan has in it more luxuries than could be found in the palace of good old King Arthur. Think, if you can conceive of it, of the vastarmy of servants that slumber in Illinois, impatient- ly awaiting the call of genius to come forth to minister to our comfort. At the present rate of consumption England's coal supply will be exhausted in 250 years. At the same rate of consumption (which far exceeds our own) tho deposit of coal in Illinois will last 120,000 years. Let us now turn from this reserve power to the

ANNUAL PRODUCTS

of the State. We shall not bo humiliated in this field. Here we strike the secret of our national credit. Nature provides a market in the constant appetite of the race. For several years past the annual production of wheat in Illinois has exceeded 30,000,000. That is more wheat than was raised by any other State in the Union ; with corn, she comes for- ward with 140,000,000 bushels, twice as much as any other State, and one-sixth of all the corn raised in the United States. She harvested 2,767,000 tons of hay, nearly one- tenth of all the hay in the Republic. It is not generally appreciated, but it is true, that the hay erop of the country is worth more than the cotton crop ; the hay of Illinois equals the cotton of Louisiana.

HISTORY OF MADISON COUNTY, ILLINOIS.

The valuation of her farm implements is $230,000,000, and the value of her live stock, is only second to the great State of New York. She raises front 25,000,000 to 30,000,- 000 hogs annually, and according to the last census packed about one half of all that were packed in the United States. This is no insignificant item. Pork is a growing demand of the old world. Illinois marked $64,000,000 worth of slaughtered animals; more than any other State, and one- seventh of all the States.

Illinois is a grand and wonderful State, peerless in the fer- tility of her soil, and inexhaustible resources. She is fast marching on towards her predestined place as first among the sisterhood.

We subjoin a list of the things in which Illinois excels all other States.

Depth and richness of soil; per cent. of good ground ; acres of improved land; large farms-number of farmers ; amount of wheat, corn oats, and honey produced ; value of animals for slaughter; number of hogs; amount of pork; and number of horses.

Illinois excels all other States in miles of railroads and in miles of postal service, and in money orders sold per annum, and in the amount of lumber sold in her markets. She pays a larger amount of internal revenue to the general govern- ment than any other state.

Illinois is only second in many important matters. This sample list comprises a few of the more important :

Permanent school fund (good for a young State); total income for educational purposes; number of publishers of books, maps, papers, etc .; value of farm products and im- plements, and of live stock ; in tons of coal mined.

The shipping of Illinois is only second to New York. Out of one port during the business hours of the season of navi- gation she sends forth a vessel every ten minutes. This does not include canal boats, which go one every five minutes. No wonder she is only second in number of bankers and brokers or in physicians and surgeons.

She is third in colleges, teachers and schools ; cattle, lcad, hay, flax, sorghum, and beeswax.

She is fourth in population ; in children enrolled in public schools, in law schools, in butter, potatoes, and carriages.

She is fifth in value of real and personal property, in theo- logical seminaries and colleges exclusively for women, in milk sold, and in boots and shoes manufactured, and in book- binding.

She is only seventh in the production of wood, while she is the twelfth in arca. She now has much more wood and growing timber than she had thirty years ago.

A few leading industries will justify emphasis. She man- ufactures $210,000,000 worth of goods, which place her nearly equal to New York and Pennsylvania.

In the number of copies of commercial and financial news- papers issued, she is only second to New York, and in her miles of railroads she leads all other States. More than two- thirds of her land is within five miles of a railroad and less than two per cent. is more than fifteen miles away.

The Religion and Morals of the State keep step with her productions and growth. She was born of the missionary

spirit. It was a minister who secured her the ordinance of 1787, by which she has been saved from slavery, ignorance, and dishonesty. Rev. Mr. Wiley, pastor of a Scotch congre- gation in Randolph County, petitioned the Constitutional Convention of 1818 to recognize Jesus Christ as King, and the Scriptures as the only necessary guide and book of law. The Convention did not act in the case, and the old cove- banters refused to accept citizenship. They never voted until 1824, when the slavery question was submitted to the people. But little mob violence has ever been felt in the State. In 1817 the regulators disposed of a band of horse thieves that infested the territory. The Mormon indignitics finally awoke the same spirit. Alton was also the scene of a pro-slavery mob, in which Lovejoy was added to the list of martyrs. The moral sense of the people makes the law supreme, and gives the State unruffled peace. With about $23,000,000 in church property, and 4,321 church organiza- tions, the State has that divine police, the sleepless patrol of moral ideas, that alone is able to secure perfect safety. Con- science takes the knife from the assassin's hand and the blud- geon from the grasp of the highwayman. We sleep in safety not because we are behind bolts and bars-these only de- fend the innocent ; not because a lone officer sleeps ou a distant corner of the street; not because a sheriff may call his posse from a remote part of the county ; but because con- science guards the very portals of the air and stirs in the deepest recesscs of the public mind. This spirit issues within the State 9,500,000 copies of religious papers annually, and receives still more from without. Thus the crime of the State is only one-fourth that of New York and one-half that of Pennsylvania.

Illinois never had but one duel between her own citizens. In Belleville, in 1820, Alphonso Stewart and William Ben- nett arranged to vindicate injured honor. The seconds agreed to make it a sham, and make them shoot blanks. Stewart was in the secret. Bennett mistrusted something, and, unobserved, slipped a bullet into his gun and killed Stewart. He then fled the State. After two years he was caught, tried, convicted, and, in spite of friends and political aid, was hung. This fixed the code of honor on a Christian basis, and terminated its use in Illinois. The early preachers were generally ignorant men, who were accounted eloquent according to the strength of their voices. Gov. Ford says, " Nevertheless these first preachers were of incalculable ben- efit to the country. They inculcated justice and morality. To them are we indebted for the first Christian character of the Protestant portion of the people."

In Education, Illinois surpasses her material resources. The ordinance of 1787 consecrated one thirty-sixth of her soil to common schools, and the law of 1818, the first law that went upon her statutes, gave three per cent. of all the rest to Educa- tion. The old compact secures this interest forever, and by its yoking together morality and intelligence it precludes the legal interference with the Bible in the public schools. With such a start it is natural that we should have about 11,500 schools, and that our iliteracy should be less than New York or Pennsylvania, and about one-half of Massachusetts. What a grand showing for so young a State. These public schools

HISTORY OF MADISON COUNTY, ILLINOIS.

soon made colleges inevitable. The first college, still flour- ishing, was started in Lebanon in 1828, by he M. E. Church, and named after Bishop McKendree. Illinois college at Jacksonville followed in 1830, supported by the Presbyterians. In 1832 the Baptists built Shurtleff college at Alton, and Knox college at Galesburg followed in 1838, and Jubilee college at Peoria in 1847, and the good Catholic missionaries long prior to this had established in various parts of the State, colleges, seminaries and parochial schools. After these early years colleges have rained down. A settler could hardly encamp on the prairie but a college would spring up by his wagon. The State now has one very well endowed and equipped university, namely the North-western University, at Evanston, with six colleges, ninety instructors, over one thousand students, and $1,500,000 endowment. Rev. J. M. Peck was the first educated Protestant minister in the State. IIe settled at Rock Spring, St. Clair County, about 1820, and has left his impress on the State. He was a large contribu- tor to the literature of that day in this State ; abont 1837 he published a Gazetteer of Illinois. Soon after John Russell, of Bluffdale, published essays and tales showing genius. Judge James Hall published the Illinois Monthly Magazine with great ability, and an annual called The Western Sou- venir, which gave him an enviable fame all over the United States. From these beginnings, Illinois has gone on till she has more volumes in public libraries even than Massachu- setts, and of the 44,500,000 volumes in all the public libra- ries of the United States, she has one-thirteenth.

In 1860 she had eighteen colleges and seminaries; in 1870 she had eighty.

That is a grand advance for the war decade. Her growth in the last ten years has been equally marvellous.

This brings us to a record unsurpassed in any age.

THE WAR RECORD OF ILLINOIS.

We hardly know where to begin, or how to advance, or what to say, as we can at best give only a broken synopsis of her gallant deeds. Her sons have always been foremost on fields of danger. In the war of 1812 she aided in main- taining national sovereignty. In 1831-32, at the call of Gov. Reynolds, her sons drove Blackhawk over the Missis- sippi.

When the Mexican war came, in May, 1846, 8,370 men offered themselves when only 3,720 could be accepted. The fields of Buena Vista, Chapultepec and Vera Cruz, and the storming of Cerro Gordo, will perpetuate the bravery and the glory of the Illinois soldier. But it was reserved till our day for her sons to find a field and a cause and a foc- man that could fitly illustrate their spirit and heroism. Illinois put into her own regiments for the United States government 256,000 men, and into the army through other states enough to swell the number to 290,000. This far ex- ceeds all the soldiers of the federal government in all the war of the revolution. Her total years of service were 600,000. She enrolled men from eighteen to forty-five years of age when the law of Congress in 1864-the test time-only asked for those from twenty to forty-five. Her enrollment was otherwise excessive. Her people wanted to

go and did not take the pains to correct the enrollment .. Thus the basis of fixing the quota was too great, and then the quota itself, at least in the trying time, was far above any other State. Thus the demand on some counties, as Monroe, for example, took every able-bodied man in the county, and then did not have enough to fill the quota. Moreover, Illinois sent 20,844 men for ninety or one hundred days, for whom no credit was asked. When Mr. Lincoln's attention was called to the inequality of the quota compared with other states, he replied, " The country needs the sacri- fice. We must put the whip on the free horse." In spite of these disadvantages Illinois gave to the country 73,000 years of service above all calls. With one-thirteenth of the population of the loyal States, she sent regularly one- tenth of all the soldiers, and in the peril of the closing calls, when patriots were few and weary, she then sent one- eighth of all that were called for by her loved and honored son in the White House. Her mothers and daughters went into the fields to raise the grain and keep the children to- gether, while the fathers and older sons went to the harvest fields of the world. What a glorious record there is treas- ured up in the history of this great country for the patriotic Illinois soldier. Her military record during the Rebellion stands peerless among the other States. Ask any soldier with a good record of his own, who is thus able to judge, and he will tell you that the Illinois men went in to win. It is common history that the greater victories were won in the West. When everything else was dark, Illinois was gain- ing victories all down the river, and dividing the confederacy, Sherman took with him on his great march forty-five regi. ments of Illinois infantry, three companies of artillery, and one company of calvary. He could not avoid going to the sea. Lincoln answered all rumors of Sherman's defeat with " It is impossible ; there is a mighty sight of fight in 100,- 000 Western men." Illinois soldiers brought home 300 battle-flags. The first United States flag that floated over Richmond was an Illinois flag. She sent messengers and nurses to every field and hospital, to care for her sick and wounded sons. When individuals had given all, then cities and towns came forward with their credit to the extent of many millions, to aid these men and their families. Illinois gave the country the great general of the war-Ulysses S. Grant-since honored with two terms of the Presidency of the United States.

One other name from Illinois comes up in all minds, embalmed in all hearts, that must have the supreme place in this story of our glory and of our nation's honor: that name is Abraham Lincoln, of Illinois. The analysis of Mr. Lincoln's character is difficult on account of its symmetry. In this age we look with admiration at his uncompromising honesty. And well we may, for this saved us thousands throughout the length and breadth of our country who knew him only as "Honest Old Abe," and voted for him on that account ; and wisely did they choose, for no other man could have carried us through the fearful night of the war. When his plans were too vast for our comprehension and his faith in the cause too sublime for our participation, when it was all night about us, an'l all dread before us.

HISTORY OF MADISON COUNTY, ILLINOIS.

and all sad and desolate behind us : when not one ray shone upon our cause ; when traitors were haughty and exultant at the south, and fierce and blasphemous at the North ; when the loyal men here seemed almost in the minority ; when the stoutest heart quailed, when generals were defeat- ing each other for place, and contractors were lecching out the very heart's blood of the prostrate republic: when everything else had failed us, we looked at this calm, patient man standing like a rock in the storm and said, " Mr. Lin- coln is honest, and we will trust him still." Holding to this single point with the energy of faith and despair we held together, and, under God, he brought us through to victory.

Ilis practical wisdom made him the wonder of all lands. With such certainty did Mr. Lincoln follow causes to their ultimate effects, that his foresight of contingencies seemed almost prophetic. He is radiant with all the great virtues, and his memory shall shed a glory upon this age that shall fill the eyes of men as they look into history. Other men have excelled him in some points, but taken at all points, all in all, he stands head and shoulders above every other man of six thousand years. An administrator, he served the nation in the perils of unparalleled civil war. A statesman, he justified his measures by their success. A philanthropist, he gave liberty to one race and salvation to another. A moralist, he bowed from the summit of human power to the foot of the Cross, and became a Christian. A mediator, he exercised mercy under the most absolute obedience to law. A leader, he was no partizan. A commander, he was un- tainted with blood. A ruler in desperate times, he was unsullied with crime. A man, he has left no word of pas- sion, no thought of malice, no trick of craft, no act of jealousy, no purpose of selfish ambition. Thus perfected, without a model and without a peer, he was dropped into these troubled years to adorn and embellish all that is good and all that is great in our humanity, and to present to all coming time the divine idea of free government. It is not too much to say that away down in the future, when the Republic has fallen from its niche in the wall of time; when the great war itself shall have faded out in the distance like a mist on the horizon ; and when the Anglo-Saxon language shall be spoken only by the tongue of the stranger, then the generation looking this way shall see the great President as the supreme figure in this vortex of hist ry.

CIVIL ORGANIZATION.

The history of Illinois has been traced while a possession of France, and when under the British government ; and the formation of Illinois as a County of Virginia has been noted. The several States afterwards agreed on the adep- tion of Articles of the Confederation, to cede their claims to the western land to the General government. Virginia executed her deed of cession March 1st, 1784. For several years after, there was an imperfect admistration of the law in Illinois. The French customs partly held force, and affairs were partly governed by the promulgations of the British commandants issued from Fort Chartres, and by the regulations which had subsequently been issued by the Vir- ginia authorities.

By the ordinance of 1787, all the territory north-west of the Ohio was constituted into one district, the laws to be administered by a governor and secretary ; a court was insti- tuted of three judges. A general assembly was provided for, the members to be chosen by the people. General Arthur St. Clair was selected by Congress, as Governor of the north-western territory. The seat of government was at Marietta, Ohio.

In the year 1795, Governor St. Clair divided St. Clair County. All south of a line running through the New Design settlement (in the present County of Monroe) was crected into the County of Randolph. In honor of Edmund Randolph of Virginia, the new county received its name.

Shadrach Bond, afterwards the first Governor, was elected from Illinois, a member of the Territorial Legislature which convened at Cincinnati, in January, 1799. In 1800 the Territory of Indiana was formed, of which Illineis consti- tuted a part, with the seat of government at Vincennes. About 1806, among other places in the West, Aaron Burr visited Kaskaskia in an endeavor to enlist men for his treasonable scheme against the government. In 1805, George Fisher was elected from Randolph County a mem- ber of the Territorial Legislature, and Pierre Menard was chosen member of the Legislative Council.

By act of Congress, 1809, the Territory of Illinois was constituted. Ninian Edwards was appointed Governor of the newly organized Territory, and the seat of government established at Kaskaskia. Nathaniel Pope, a relative of Edwards, received the appointment of Secretary.

For nearly four years after the organization of the Terri- torial Government no legislature existed in Illinois. An election for representatives was held on the eighth, ninth, and tenth of October, 1812. Shadrach Bond, then a resi- dent of St. Clair County, was elected the first Delegate to Congress from Illinois. Pierre Menard was chosen from Randolph County member of the Legislative Council, and George Fisher of the House of Representatives. The Legis- lature convened at Kaskaskia on the twenty-fifth of Novem- ber, 1812.

In April, 1818, a bill providing for the admission of Illi- nois into the Union as a sovereign State was passed by Con- gress. A Convention to frame a Constitution assembled at Kaskaskia in the following July. The first election under the Constitution was held in September, 1818, and Shadrach Bond was elected Governor, and Pierre Menard, Lieutenant Governor Illinois was now declared by Congress admitted to the Union as on an equal footing in all respects with the original States. The Legislature again met at Kaskaskia in January, 1919. This was the last session ever held at Kas- kaskia. Vandalia, the same year, was selected as the Capital of the State. It was stipulated that Vandalia was to be the Capital for twenty years. At the end of that period it was changed to Springfield. Below we give list of governors and staff officers of Illinois.

Illinois was constituted a separate Territory by act of Con- gress February 3d, 1809. The boundaries were described as follows :

HISTORY OF MADISON COUNTY, ILLINOIS.

ILLINOIS TERRITORY.

STATE

SOVEREIGNTY

FROM 1809,

UNION

то 1882.

ONAL

* " That from and after the first day of March next, all that part of the Indiana Territory which lies west of the Wabash river and a direct linedrawn from the said Wabash river and Post Vincennes due north to the territorial line between the United States and Canada, shall for the purpose of temporary government, constitute a separate territory, and be called ' Illinois.'"

The seat of government was fixed at Kaskaskia.

The territorial government was continued under the first grade from 1809 until 1812, when by a vote of the people the second grade was adopted.

Under the first grade, the Governor and Judges, who received their appointment from the President, constituted the Legislative Council, and enacted laws for the govern- ment of the people. The Governor possessed almost un- limited power in the appointment of officers ; the Secretary of the Territory being the only officer, not appointed by the Governor.

Under the second grade, the people elected the Legisla- ture, which was composed of a Legislative Council and a House of Representatives. The Legislative Council was composed of five members, and the House of Representatives of seven members.

The Legislature enacted the laws for the government of the people, but the Governor was possessed of the absolute veto power, and was therefore in position to dictate the laws, if he chose to exercise the power.

The people also elected the Delegate to Congress by popu- lar vote.

Territorial Officers.

The following is a complete roster of territorial officers from 1809 until the organization of the State government in 1818 :

GOVERNORS.

John Boyle March 7, 1809. Declined.

Ninian Edwards

.. April 24, 1800, to December G, 1S18.

The term of the Governor's appointment was two years. Governor Edwards was re-appointed from time to time, as his term expired, and served through the entire territorial government.

SECRETARIES.

Nathaniel Pope March 7, 1809, to December 17, 1816.

Joseph Phillips .. December 17, 1816, to October 6, 1818.

AUDITORS OF PUBLIC ACCOUNTS.

H. II. Maxwell .1812 to 1816.

Daniel P. Cook January 13, 1816, to April, 1817.

Robert Black well April 5, 1817, to August, 1817.

Elijalı C. Berry August 28, 1817, to October 9, 1818.

ATTORNEYS-GENERAL.

Benjamin II. Doyle July 24, 1809, to December, 1809.

John J. Crittenden. December 30, 1809, to April, 1810.

Thomas T. Crittenden, April 7, 1810, to October, Isto.

Benjamin M. Piatt October 29, 1810, to Jung, 1813.

William Meurs. .June 23, 1813, to February 17, IS18.

* From Legislative Directory, published 1881.

TREASURERS.

John Thomas 1812 to 1818.

DELEGATES TO CONGRESS.

Shadrach Bond December, 1812, to 1814.

Benjamin Stephenson .September 29, 1814, to 1817.

Nathaniel Pope .. 1817 to 1818.

JUDGES.

Obadiah Jones. March 7, 1809.

Alexander Stuart March 7, 1809. Resigned.

Jesse B. Thomas

March 7, 1809.

Stanley Griswold March 16, 1810. l'ice Stuart.

William Sprigg .. July 29, 1813.

Thomas Towles, .October 28, 1815.

Daniel Cook. (Western circuit.) January 13, 1818.

John Warnock. (Western circuit.) .. June 8, 1818.

John MeLean. (Eastern circuit) .Jannary 13, 1818. Declined.

Elias Kent Kane. (Eastern circuit.) February 17, 1818.

William Mears. (Eastern circuit.). February 17, 1818.

Jeptlia Hardin. (Eastern circuit.) March 3, 1818.

ADJUTANTS-GENERAL.

Elias Rector May 3, 1809, to July 18, 1809.

Robert Morrison .. July 18, 1809, to May 28, 1x10.

Elias Rector. .. May 28, 1810, to October 25, 1813.

Benjamin Stephenson December 13, 1813, to October 27, 1814.

Wm. Alexander. October 27, 1814, to December, 1818.

First Territorial Legislature-1912.

Convened at Kaskaskia on the 25th day of November, A. D. 1812. Adjourned the 26th day of December, 1812. Second session convened and adjourned November S, A. D. 1813.

LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL. OFFICERS.

President

Pierre Menard.

Secretary. John Thomas.

Dvorkeeper Thomas Van Swearingen.

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History of Madison County, Illinois With biographical sketches, Part 9

Author: Brink, W.R. & Co Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Edwardsville, Ill. : W. R. Brink & co. Number of Pages: 698

Author: Brink, W.R. & Co
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Edwardsville, Ill. : W. R. Brink & co.
Number of Pages: 698