History of Sangamon County, Illinois, together with sketches of its cities, villages and townships, educational, religious, civil, military, and political history, portraits of prominent persons, and biographies of representative citizens, Part 82

Author: Interstate publishing co., Chicago. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Chicago, Inter-state publishing company
Number of Pages: 1084

USA > Illinois > Sangamon County > History of Sangamon County, Illinois, together with sketches of its cities, villages and townships, educational, religious, civil, military, and political history, portraits of prominent persons, and biographies of representative citizens > Part 82

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

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HISTORY OF SANGAMON COUNTY.

of Douglas offered the only peaceable solution of a common National ground upon which all could meet in the theory of Territorial sover- eignity. To it, through his labors, the Demo- cratic party was committed in 1856, gained a triumph at the polls and there, was basely betray- ed by Buchanan and the South. But Douglas was true and faithful to the last and defended it whenever and wherever assailed. And while he was personally pursued by bitter, implacable, open political opponents, his darling idea which was empire or ruin with him, was more grossly betrayed by perfidious friends who rode into power upon it.

The most striking peculiarity in the physique of Mr. Douglas was his stature, which was great- ly below the medium height-not above five feet. His trunk was ample, compact and erect, with full chest and square, well defined, though not broad shoulders; but his extremities were dis- proportionately short. In the latter years of his life he grew stout, though not obese. His figure would have been fatal to the divinity of the Ap- pollo Belvidere. While his diminutive stature would arrest attention, his facile and natural dignity of manner, not to say grace, with an air, as if borne to command, would cause idle curiosity in the contemplation of his person to pass into speedy forgetfulness by the respect and attention which he inspired. His splendid head, covered with a heavy suit of dark hair, nicely poised upon his shoulders, and connected by a short neck, was massive in its brain development, conveying, under animation, the impression of almost infinite power. The ample forehead was squarely buit up over the wide arches of his heavy brows, under which rolled a pair of large, restless, deep-set, dark blue eyes, capable of shooting out glances of electric fire, when under the impulse of the powerful brain battery back of them. His nose was broad and short; flaring nostrils, denoting coolness and courage. At its junction with the projecting forehead it left a peculiar transverse crease. His mouth was ample, cleanly cut, with lips finely arched, and whole evincing decision, and by the depressions at the angles, conveying a mingled idea of sad- ness and disdain. His chin, backed by a firm jaw, squared well to the general outline of his face, indicating ardor, strength and vigor. He wore no beard, but presented smoothly shaven cheeks and handsome throat, with slight double chin. The general contour of his face was regu- lar, and its muscles wonderfully mobile, giving a pleasing and winning countenance. His com- plexion, though somewhat dark, with his usually

good health, was clear; the exuberance of his animal spirits was extraordinary. He was of the vital temperament. Such is a brief physical description of the "Little Giant."

This soubriquet originated very early in his public life. In 1833, President Jackson added to his refusal to re-charter the United States Bank, the removal of the deposits. Great was the consternation of the people, and a general panic prevailed. Party feeling ran extremely high, the President's supporters were unsettled in their views, and thousands differed with him on these measures. Douglas had just located at Jacksonville and opened a law office in a room in the court house. The Whigs of Morgan county, from their number and standing, were arrogant and audacious in their denunciation of the Administration. Douglas mingled freely with the people, who usually crowded the county seat on Saturdays, and among them was out- spoken in his approbation of the acts of the Ad- ministration. Ile, and the editor of the Demo- cratic paper at Jacksonville, deeming it advisa- ble to rally the undecided, effect an organization of the Administration party, and define its posi- tion, in opposition to the views of many friends, called a mass meeting, and prepared a set of resolutions endorsing the bank policy of the Administration. On the day of the meeting the court house was thronged with people of both parties. Douglas being comparatively a stranger, declined to offer resolutions, but as it soon be- came apparent unless he did, it would not be done, he boldly advanced and read them, follow- ing with a few brief explanatory remarks. Im- mediately upon his conclusion, Josiah Lamborn, a Whig of great influence and oratorical powers, attacked the resolutions and their reader in a severe and caustic manner. The blood of Dong- las was up; this was his first political effort, but he met his antagonist with such arguments, so vehement and effective, that the excitement of his friends reached the highest point of endur- ance; they cheered, seized and bore him aloft through the crowd and around the public square, in gratitude and admiration, applying to him such complimentary titles as "high combed cock," "little giant," etc., which last, by its pe- culiar appropriateness, adhered to him to the last. His effort that day, in a measure, changed the political destiny of Morgan county. It was long remembered, and the old veterans of Mor- gan always held that Douglas never equalled this speech of March, 1834.

As an orator, Douglas possessed the peculiar magnetism of imparting to his auditory the hue

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of his sentiments and views, swaying their will, or directing their sensibility, at pleasure. He affected no Senatorial airs, betrayed no aristo- cratic spirit, but naturally and easily identified himself with the democracy. He had been the genial companion of many an early pioneer, and his intimate knowledge of the people and sym- pathy with them enabled him on the stump to convey to their common understanding, in their own accustomed vehicles of thought, his reas- onings upon the political questions of the day, often enforcing and clenching an argument to those who remembered the frontier times, by a peculiar border figure, carrying conviction to their minds, as evinced by a spontaneous out- burst of applause at frequent intervals. But his most inseparable attributes were rapidity and boldness of thought, and his dexterity in debate, of which he became a consummate mas- ter, cropped out early in life, giving promise of unequaled power in his first efforts on the stump. He had the faculty of summoning all his mental resources with a promptitude which served ad- mirably the occasion, even if required instantly, in reply to a powerful antagonist in the Senate. Therefore, while his forte lay, to a certain ex- tent, in his matchless power upon the hustings, he swayed a no less power in the caucus or the au- gust Senate.

His manner of treating a subject was bold and independent, always striking the hard and strong points. To halting friends, he appeared at times to be overbearing, and there was a vein of cold irony in his nature, which, with a defiant tone in his remarks, a haughty manner, and a curling lip, sunk deep into the heart of an enemy. En- ergy and activity, courage and fortitude, were of the essence of his nature. The assaults that would excruciate some men only excited a smile of derision on his intrepid face. Elastic in both body and mind, he was capable of performing an incredible amount of political labor in the open field. Thus, with sagacity as if inspired by genius, a mind matured by careful study, a judgment clear and decisive, a courage which shrank from no danger, amounting at times to apparent audacity, yet always tempered with discretion; a will to yield to no difficulty, and unappalled by any obstacle; appreciation of the people, and the faculty to lead them, Douglas was a statesman of the very first order.

To further illustrate Douglas' power among the people we give the following graphic sketch, by the editor of the Newburyport (Mass.) Herald, who was a fellow passenger in the cars with Mr. Douglas, through Illinois, on occasion of opening

the Ohio and Mississippi Railroad, and after- ward: "That man with a big, round head, a brow almost as broad as Webster's, and a quick, active eye that rolls under the heavy, projecting brow, watching every other man, and not allow- ing a motion to escape him; with arms too short for his body, which is full and round, as though it never lacked the juices that supply life, and with small, duck legs, which, had they grown as thick as his back-bone (and they would, probably, if Providence had not foreseen that he would want back-bone more than legs in his battle of life), would have made him of respectable stat- ure-that little man is no less than the great politician of the West, who has attracted more attention in the last four years than any other man of the Nation, and done more to give direc- tion to public affairs than even the President, with a million and a half of voters at his back, and the army, navy, and treasury of North America at his command. It is the 'Little Giant,' Stephen A. Douglas, with whom we parted company at Vincennes, and who has slowly come along, feeling the public pulse to learn the political health of the 'Suckers,' up to Springfield, the capital of the State. The means of success in Senator Douglas are very apparent. First, he is really and intellectually a great man. Eastern people, who view him only as a low politician, should disabuse their minds in relation to one who is to exercise a wide influence in the affairs of the country, and, very probably, for he is yet young, to be the head of the Republic. He is massive in his concep- tions, broad and comprehensive in his views, and in a good measure is endowed with all those powers of mind that make a statesman.

"But he is greater still in energy of character. There are those that think that a defeat of him next year would be his death in politics; but the man who sprung from a cabinet-maker's shop in Vermont, and without father or friend worked his way to an honorable place upon the bench of judges, who entered Illinois with less than fifty cents in money, and not one cent in credit, and has acquired great wealth, and the highest sta- tion and influence, is not ready to be whipped out. But if he is great in mind, and greater in energy, he is greater in those winning manners for which the world calls him a demagogue. Scarcely a man, woman or child in the cars es- capes his attention, or passed by unspoken to. At one moment he talks with the old, stern- visaged politician, who has been soured by a thousand defeats and disappointments; in the next to that well-formed and genial Kentuckian,

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who has just sought a free State; now he sits down with the little girl approaching her teens, and asks of her school studies; and he pats the little boy on the head, and in presence of his mother and proud father (what father is not proud to see his boy noticed?) says a word of his mild eyes and glossy locks. Again the lady is approached with a fair word and a bland smile, and goes home pleased to tell her father how he looks, and then half a dozen are about him, all standing together. He can talk religion with the priest as well as politics with the states- man; he can congratulate the newly appointed Buchanan office-holder, who has surplanted his friend, tell the displaced friend of the good time coming, when his wing shall be up; and at every station, more regularly than the conductor, Mr. Douglas is upon the platform with a good- bye to the leaving, and a welcome to the depart- ing traveler-a shake of the hand with one man that stands at the depot, and a touch of the hat to another. He knows everybody; can tell the question that effects each locality; call the name of every farm owner on the way; tell all travel- ers something of the homes they left, that they never knew themselves, and suggest what place they deserve in Heaven. Now, such a man as that, in contact with everybody, knowing every- body, and at the bottom, wrapped up with the idea of preferment, power and dominion among men is not easily to be put down; and his op- ponents might as well believe at once, that when they fight him they fight a strong man-a little giant indeed. He would be popular in Boston or anywhere else, and half the ' three thousand clergymen' he denounced would have their hearts stolen if he could speak to them a half hour."

Douglas' speeches contain few rhetorical flourishes. But they are models of exact lan- guage, orderly and systematic in thought, full and comprehensive in grasp. There is never a strained effort at mere beauty of word painting. The architecture of his sentences, as well as the ideas are solid, massive masonry, with broad foundation laid on firm rock, and the details and working plans so accurate as to be perfect in their adaptation, with nothing amiss or foreign and no surplus or waste material. So well and thoroughly are his sentences woven together that it is difficult to extract from his speeches any separate sentence conveying, text-like, a summary of the whole. While they are com- plete they yet seem parts necessarily connected with the whole. Ilis arguments succeed each other like the weighty blows of an enormous

trip-hammer, shaping the subject in hand with irresistible power, flattening the points opposed to him, and possibly the adversary under its mighty tilts.

In the circle of Washington life, Douglas, with the honors of a Senator, appeared with a natural grace and dignity rarely excelled. At the social board, or in dinner-table conversation, Colonel Forney, in his sketches of public men, says: "Douglas was almost unrivalled. His repartee was a flash, and his courtesy as knightly as if he had been born in the best society."

Stephen A. Douglas died in Chicago, June 3, 1861.

WILLIAM H. BISSELL.

Though not a resident of Sangamon county until called to fill the gubernatorial chair, Jan- uary, 1857, he then made choice of it as his future home, and here in the beautiful cemetery Dear Springfield, where lie other men of National fame, his body lies buried, while his spirit rests in a fairer world.

William H. Bissell was born in Hartwick, Otsego county, New York, April 25, 1811. He was self-educated, attending school in the sum- mer and teaching in the winter. Upon reach- ing manhood, he studied medicine, and grad- nated in 1834, at a medical college in Philadel- phia. Subsequently he removed to Jefferson county, in this State, in 1838, but was prostrated shortly after his arrival, which used up what scanty means he had, and so far discouraged him that he was on the point of enlisting in the United States army, but was unable, on ac- count of debility, to pass examination Cross- ing over from Jefferson Barracks to Monroe county, he secured a school, which he soon, however, relinquished, and commenced with success the practice of his profession, at Water- loo. In 1840, he was brought out by the De mo- cratic party, and after an active canvass, elected a representative in the legislature, redeeming Monroe county from the control of the Whigs. He at once acquired a reputation in the legisla- ture as a ready and vigorous debator, and upon returning home he was persuaded by his friends to study the profession of the law. Upon be- ing admitted to the bar, he formed a partner- ship with General Shields, and removed to Belleville. In 1844, he was elected State's At- torney for that circuit, and at once distinguished himself as an eloquent, successful and honor- able proscutor. In 1846, upon the breaking out of the Mexican War, he enlisted as a volunteer and was elected Captain of one of the St. Clair county companies, and was subsequently chosen

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Colonel of the Second Illinois regiment without opposition. His services in that war, and es- pecially in the hard fought battle of Buena Vista, are well known to every reader of Amer- ican history. In 1848, he was elected a Repre- sentative in Congress of the Eighth District, without opposition; was re-elected in 1850, with- out opposition; and was again re-elected in 1852. During the winter of 1851, he was taken sick with partial paralysis, which continued to afflict him till the day of his death. He was so much indisposed in the summer of 1854, when the Kansas-Nebraska bill was under discussion in Congress, that he was not able to take his seat; but he was opposed to that measure, and declared that if his vote would defeat it, he would insist on being carried to the House that he might cast it. In 1856, without any solicitation on his part, he was unanimously nominated by the Republican convention for Governor of the State, and elected over his Democratic competi- tor, William A. Richardson. To the duties of this office he was devoting his undivided atten- tion at the time of his death.

Governor Bissell was twice married; first, in 1839, to a daughter of John James, of Monroe county. Two daughters were the issue of this union. He was married the second time to Elizabeth Kane, a daughter of Elisha Kent Kane, of Kaskaskia, a former United States Senator.

The life of William H. Bissell was brilliant, honorable, and full of service. In every position in which he was placed, he not only ably and nobly sustained himself, but reflected luster upon his adopted State. As a professional man, as a soldier, as a legislator, as an executive officer, he was faithful, capable, honest and chivalrous. He was a politician, but despised demagogism. He was a statesman of enlarged views, and vigor of mind which comprehended and was able to apply the true principles of government. The dis- tressing disease which made him a cripple dur- ing the last ten years of his life, was the only preventative to the attainment of still higher honors. But for that he would in all probability have received the Republican nomination for the Presidency in 1856. He was a man of great elocutionary powers, and there was a vein of scathing and burning satire which occasionally run through his speeches. He was brave to a fault. As already intimated, in the battle of Buena Vista he won imperishable honors. In this battle Jeff Davis commanded a regiment of Mississippi troops. After the war, Davis, in the United States Senate, made a speech in which he attempted to claim for his regiment the glory

which truly belonged to the Illinois troops, and especially to Bissell's regiment. Bissell, being a member of the House of Representatives, called the attention of that body to Davis' speech, and administered to him a withering rebuke, and charged him with deliberate slander. Davis then sent him a challenge, which he promptly accepted, and having the choice of weapons and the distance, selected muskets loaded with buck- shot, at a distance of twenty paces. The friends of both parties interfered, and the matter was amicably settled.

William H. Bissell died in Springfield, March 18, 1860, and was buried in Hutchinson's Ceme- tery. Subsequently his body was removed and interred in Oak Ridge Cemetery, and a beautiful monument erected over the grave, which attracts the attention of every visitor.

GOVERNOR MATTESON.

Joel A. Matteson was born August 8, 1808, in Jefferson county, New York, whither his father had removed from Vermont, three years before. His father was a farmer in fair circumstances, but a common English education was all that his only son received. Joel first tempted for- tune as a small tradesman in Prescott, Canada, before his majority. He returned thence home, entered an academy, taught school, visited the large Eastern eities, improved a farm his father had given him, made later a tour south, worked there in building railroads, experienced a storm on the Gulf of Mexico, visited the gold dig- gings of Northern Georgia, whence he returned, via Nashville, to St. Louis, and through Illinois to his father's home, and married. In 1833, hav- ing sold his farm, he removed, with his wife and one child, to Illinois, and took a claim on gov- ernment land near the head of Au Sable river, in the present Kendall county. At the time, there was not exceeding two neighbors within a range of ten miles, and only three or four houses between his location and Chicago. He opened a large farm. His family was boarding twelve miles away while he erected a house on his claim, sleeping, during this time, under a rude pole shed. Here his life was placed in imminent peril by a huge prairie rattlesnake sharing his bed. In 1835, he bought largely at the govern- ment land sales. During the speculative real estate mania, which broke out at Chicago in 1863, and spread all over the State, he sold his lands under the inflation of that period, and re- moved to Joliet. In 1838, he became a heavy contractor on the Illinois and Michigan canal.

Upon the completion of his job in 1841, when hard times prevailed, business at a stand, con-

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tracts paid in State scrip; when all the public works, except the canal were abandoned, the State offered for sale seven hundred tons of rail- road iron, which was purchased by Matteson at a great bargain. This he shipped and sold at Detroit, realizing a very handsome profit, enough to pay off his canal debts, and leave him a sur- plus of several thousand dollars. His enterprise next prompted him to start a woolen mill at Joliet, in which he prospered, and which, after successive enlargements, became an enormous establishment. In 1842 he was first elected a State Senator, but, by a bungling appointment, John Pearson, a senator holding over, was found to be in the same district, and decided to be en- titled to represent it. Matteson's seat was de- clared vacant. Pearson, however, with a noble- ness difficult to appreciate in this day of greed for office, unwilling to represent his district under the circumstances, immediately resigned his unexpired term of two years. A bill was passed in a few hours ordering a new election, and in ten day's time, Matteson was returned, re-elected, and took his seat as Senator. From his well known capacity as a business man, he was made Chairman of the Committee on Finance, a position which he held during this half and two full succeding senatorial terms, discharging its important duties with ability and faithfulness. Besides his extensive woolen mill interest, when work was resumed on the canal under the new loan of $1,600,000, he again be- came a heavy contractor, and also subsequently operated largely in building railroads. He had shown himself a most energetic and thorough business man.

Matteson's forte was not on the stump; he had not cultivated the art of oily flattery, or the falculty of being all things to all men. His qualities of head took rather the direction of efficient executive ability; his turn consisted not so much in the adroit management of party, or the powerful advocacy of great governmental principles, as in those more solid and enduring operations which cause the physical develop- ment and advancement of a State - of com- merce and business enterprise. into which he labored with success to lead the people. As a politician he was just and liberal in his views, and both in official and private life he stood un- tainted and free from blemish. As a man, in active benevolence, social virtues and all the amiable qualities of neighbor or citizen, he had few superiors. His messages present a per- spicous array of facts, as to the condition of the State, and are often couched in elegant diction.

The helm of State was confided to no unskill- ful hands.

Governor Matteson died in Springfield.

RICHARD YATES.

Richard Yates was born January 18, 1818, on the banks of the Ohio river, at Warsaw, Galla- tin county, Kentucky. His father, in 1831, moved to Illinois, and settled (after stopping for a time in Springfield) at Island Grove, San- gamon county. Here, after attending school, Richard joined the family. Subsequently, he entered Illinois College at Jacksonville, where, in 1837, he graduated, with first honors. He chose for his profession the law, the Hon. J. J. Hardin being his instructor. After admission to the Bar, he soon rose to distinction as an ad- vocate. Gifted with a fluent and ready oratory, he soon appeared in the political hustings, and, being a passionate admirer of the great Whig leader of the West, Henry Clay, he joined his political fortunes to the party of his idol. In 1840, he engaged with great ardor in the excit- ing "hard cider campaign " for Harrison. Two years later, he was elected to the legislature, and snch was the fascination of his oratory, that by 1850, his large Congressional district, extending from Morgan and Sangamon north, to include La Salle, unanimously tendered him the Whig nomination. His opponent of the Democratic party was Major Thomas L. Harris, a very pop- nlar man, who had won distinction at the battle of Cerro Gordo, in the late war with Mexico, and who, though the district was Whig, had beaten for the same position, two years before, the Hon. Stephen T. Logan, by a large majority. The contest between Yates and Harris, animat- ing and persevering, resulted in the election of the former. Two years later, the Democracy ungenerously thrust aside Major Harris, and pitted John Calhoun against Yates, and, though Calhoun was a man of great intellect, and, when aroused, of unsurpassed ability as a political de- bater-whom Mr. Lincoln had said he would dread more in debate than any man in Illinois- the result was as before. It was during Yates' second term that the great Congress, against which he early arrayed himself, and took de- cided and advanced anti-slavery ground, in a speech of rare oratory and remarkable power, which gained him National reputation. But we have seen that at the formation of the Republi- can party, the Whigs of Central Illinois, unwil- ling to join their fortunes with a sectional party, went with the Democracy, and in 1854, Major Harris being again his opponent for Congress.

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History of Sangamon County, Illinois, together with sketches of its cities, villages and townships, educational, religious, civil, military, and political history, portraits of prominent persons, and biographies of representative citizens, Part 82

Author: Interstate publishing co., Chicago. [from old catalog] Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Chicago, Inter-state publishing company Number of Pages: 1084

Author: Interstate publishing co., Chicago. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Chicago, Inter-state publishing company
Number of Pages: 1084