USA > Illinois > Illinois, historical and statistical, comprising the essential facts of its planting and growth as a province, county, territory, and state, Vol. I > Part 26
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In congress, he faithfully represented the interests of his con- stitutents, securing the passage not only of the law providing for raising and equipping three companies of rangers for the protection of the infant settlements, but also of that important and popular measure known as the preemption law of 1813.
In 1816, upon the election of Nathaniel Pope to congress, Col. Bond was a candidate for the office of territorial secretary, and requested the support of Gov. Edwards, which was refused; and from this time the antagonism between these distinguished officials marked more plainly the dividing line between their
* Unfortunately, however, the affair was not destined to be without bloodshed. The bad feeling engendered between Bond's second-James Dunlap, and Jones, a short time after, resulted in the assassination of the latter by Dunlap in a public street of Kaskaskia. The killing is characterized by Gov. Reynolds as having been unprovoked and cowardly-Dunlap firing at his victim from behind. The mur- derer escaped the vengeance of the indignant citizens by flight to Texas, and was never brought to justice.
From the Chicago Historical Society's Portrait.
Chicago Photo Gravure Co.
Pierre Menare Oct. 7, 1766 .- June 13, 1844.
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PIERRE MENARD.
respective adherents. At this first election, however, it seems that a truce had been agreed upon between the warring fac- tions, by the terms of which Bond was to be elected governor and Edwards United-States senator.
The governor was fortunate in his appointment of Elias Kent Kane as secretary of state, of whose able assistance he freely availed himself in the preparation of his state-papers.
Pierre Menard, the lieutenant-governor elect, was born at St. Antoine, thirty-five miles from Montreal, October 7, 1766, and came to Kaskaskia, from Vincennes, in 1790, where he engaged in business as a merchant. He soon became active in public affairs, however, and was elected a member of the territorial legislature of Indiana. He was president of the council of the territorial general assembly of Illinois during the entire period of its existence. His height was below the average, his manners quick and abrupt, his temperament nervous, and his nature kind-hearted, though impulsive. He seemed to know instinc- tively how to manage the Indians, over whom he wielded great influence. As a government agent his popularity was equalled only by his success in negotiating important treaties. He was the most distinguished of those French emigrants who came to Illinois during and after the Revolution, nearly all of whom were enterprising, patriotic, and intelligent-a very different class from those who had preceded them, to whom they were far superior.
His command of the English language was limited and his speeches though pointed were of the shortest. But he had a sound judgment, and comprehensive mind .*
His hospitality was boundless, embracing every comer, white or red. Unlike the class of merchants described by Burke- "their counting-house is their church, their desk is their altar, their ledger is their bible, and their money is their God," his heart went out to the care of his slaves, and the suffering poor around him. At one time there was a great scarcity of salt in
* When the proposition came up in the senate to memoralize the treasurer of the United States to receive the bills of the Bank of Edwardsville in payment for lands, believing it to be iniquitous, he refused to put the question. Upon being shown that it was his duty to put it to vote, he said, "Gentlemen, if I mus', I mus'. You who are in favor of dis resolution, will say aye; but I bet you one thousand dollar congré never make him land-office money; you who are opposed, will say no."
19
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the country, and Menard held the only supply outside of St. Louis. A number of his neighbors called upon him to engage what they wanted; he declined to let them know whether he could supply them or not, but told them to come to his store on a certain day, when he would inform them. They came at the appointed time, and were seated; Menard passed around among them, and inquired of each one, "You got money?" Some said they had, and some that they had not, but would pay as soon as they killed their hogs. Those who had money he directed to range themselves on one side of the room, and those who had none on the other. Of course those who had the means expected to get the salt, and the others looked very much distressed and crestfallen. Menard then spoke up in his brusque way, and said, "You men who got de money, can go to St. Louis for your salt. Dese poor men, who got no money shall have my salt, by gar."# Such was the man-noble-hearted, and large minded, if unpolished and uncouth, who was now to preside over the first State senate.+
In the apparently complex system of the distribution and correlation of powers between the federal and state governments of this country, while the prosperity of the Nation largely rests upon the administration of its affairs in relation to foreign governments, the raising of revenue, its coinage and currency laws, and the management of its war, naval and interior depart- ments by congress; so also does the growth and progress of a state depend very much upon the character of the legislation framed, within constitutional limitations, under which the administration of its domestic affairs is conducted. A wide field is here opened for the adoption of such measures of internal policy as are best calculated to develope its resources, amelior-
* Joseph Gillespie, in " Fergus' Historical Series," No. 13.
+ He retired from public life at the expiration of his term of office, and died at Kaskaskia, June 13. 1844. He left a large estate; and among his papers were found many notes of his friends upon which his name appeared as endorser, and which he had paid. He also left a large number of uncollectable accounts due from those to whom he had too trustingly parted with his goods. The county of Menard was named after him; and a monument to his memory-the generous and munificent gift of Charles Pierre Chouteau of St. Louis, whose father was formerly Menard's partner in business-has been erected at the east front of the capitol, in the grounds of the State-house at Springfield.
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ate the condition of the people, and improve their industries; in which field, untried legislators, and embryo statesmen, may and do often venture upon the passage of ill-advised laws, which retard rather than advance the highest interests of the common- wealth. Instances of this kind, as will be seen, have frequently occurred in the history of this State, which have seriously im- peded its growth, and hindered the ·welfare of the people.
The first general assembly of the State, composed of thirteen senators and twenty-seven representatives, convened at Kaskas- kia, Oct. 5, 1818. The State-house in which the body assembled, and which had been previously occupied by the territorial legislature, was built of limestone, surmounted by a gambrel-roof of unpainted boards and shingles, in which were placed dormer- windows. The lower floor was fitted up for the house, and the chamber above for the senate. Only two of those who had served in the territorial legislature were honored with seats in this, namely, Willis Hargrave in the senate, and Risdon Moore in the house. Five senators and an equal number of represent- tatives had been members of the recent constitutional conven- tion. The house was organized by the election of John Mes- senger, speaker, and Thomas Reynolds, clerk. Messenger was a native of Massachusetts, and had become a resident of Illinois in 1802. His occupation was that of a surveyor, in which capacity he was known and distinguished throughout the country. He was a cartographer of no mean pretentions, as is shown by his map of Illinois. He had been a member of the constitutional convention, where he displayed marked ability as a politician. His preference, however, was for the chain and compass, and the more attractive home-life on his farm, where he resided until his death in 1846.
Thomas Reynolds, a younger brother of Gov. John Reynolds, was an active politician in this State until 1828, when he removed to Missouri, of which commonwealth he was elected governor in 1840. William C. Greenup was elected secretary of the senate.
The governor's first message to the general assembly was a modest, brief, and clearly-written document. After acknow- ledging his obligations to the people for their confidence and support, he referred to the depleted condition of the treasury,
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ILLINOIS-HISTORICAL AND STATISTICAL.
and the necessity of providing means to meet the expenses of the State government. He recommended a revision of the laws, and called attention to the subject of education, remarking, that "it is our imperious duty, for the faithful performance of which we are amenable to God and our country, to watch over this interesting subject." He advised that provision for the leasing of the salt-springs should be made; and urged upon the attention of the legislature the importance of a canal to con- nect Lake Michigan with the Illinois River. His message devoutly closed as follows: "and may that almighty Being from whose goodness and bounty all the blessings we enjoy have emanated, be present in your councils, and bless the measures of your adoption."
After the delivery of the governor's inaugural the general assembly at once proceeded to elect two United-States senators, and the remaining State-officers, and judges of the supreme court, the latter to serve also as circuit-judges. The two sena- tors elected were: Ninian Edwards on the first ballot, receiving thirty-two votes, and Judge Jesse Burgess Thomas on the third ballot, receiving twenty-one votes, to eighteen for Leonard White and one for Michael Jones; John Thomas was elected State-treasurer; Elijah C. Berry, auditor of public accounts; Daniel P. Cook, attorney-general; Joseph Phillips, chief-justice of the supreme court; and Thomas C. Browne, William P. Foster, and John Reynolds, associate-justices.
Elias Kent Kane, having been appointed by the governor, was confirmed as secretary of state; and the firm of Blackwell & Berry was elected public printers.
Jesse B. Thomas, one of the senators elect, had been a prominent figure in Illinois from the time of its territorial organization. He was born in Hagerstown, Md., in 1777, and claimed direct lineage from Lord Baltimore. He located in Lawrenceburgh in 1803, and in 1805 was elected to the Indiana territorial legislature, of which he was chosen speaker. Having been elected to congress on the issue of a division of Indiana Territory, as heretofore related, upon the organi- zation of the territory of Illinois he removed to Kaskaskia. He was a delegate to the constitutional convention, over which he presided. He was finely proportioned physically, being
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JUSTICES OF THE SUPREME COURT.
in stature fully six feet, with a florid-brown complexion, dark- hazel eyes, and dark-brown hair. He was not regarded as a great lawyer, and made no pretentions as a public speaker- acting rather upon one of his proverbs, that "you could not talk a man down, but you could whisper him to death." But he more than compensated for these deficiencies by his dignified bearing, his agreeable address, and refined manners .* He was the author of the celebrated Missouri compromise of 1820, and was instrumental in securing its adoption.
Judge Phillips, elected chief-justice, had been a captain in the regular army, and secretary of the Territory. He was a good lawyer and an able man.
John Reynolds for the first time made his appearance in the political arena at this session. He visited the seat of govern- ment, as he remarks, at the solicitation of friends, out of mere curiosity ; and the proposition to elect him one of the supreme- judges "broke upon him like a clap of thunder."+ But the taste for public life which this office created, remained with him ever after.
Thomas C. Browne, another of the justices of the supreme court elected, became a resident of the State at Shawneetown in 1812, and had been a member of the territorial legislature, and also prosecuting attorney.
The career of Foster, another of the judges elect, affords a striking illustration of the possible success of a polished but unscrupulous adventurer, in a new country. An entire stranger in the Territory, a lawyer by neither profession nor practice, in a few weeks, through his plausible address and skilful manipu- lations of credulous members, he succeeded in capturing one of the highest judicial offices in the gift of the legislature. He never took his seat upon the bench, and after drawing a year's salary for services not rendered, he left the State. His sub- sequent career was that of an accomplished swindler who traveled from city to city, numbering his victims by the score. Foster was succeeded by William Wilson, then a talented young lawyer, who worthily occupied the bench for many years.
The interest in the first election under the constitution cen-
* Reynolds' " Pioneer History of Illinois," 2d ed., 402.
+ "My Own Times," 35, 2d edition.
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ILLINOIS-HISTORICAL AND STATISTICAL.
tered in the race for congress, although the term of the office would expire on the third of March, following. The candidates were John McLean of Shawneetown, and Daniel Pope Cook of Kaskaskia. They were both lawyers, young, talented, and ambitious, having immigrated to the Territory the same year, 1815, and attached themselves to rival political factions. Mc Lean was born in North Carolina in 1791, and raised in Ken- tucky. He belonged to the family of Ewing, which has pro- duced so many distinguished men. Cook was born in Kentucky in 1794. He was a member of the influential Pope family of that State, being a nephew of Nathaniel Pope, the first secretary of Illinois Territory. He entered successfully into the practice of the law, attending the courts in nearly all the organized counties. In 1816, he combined with his practice a part owner- ship and management of the Illinois Intelligencer, the first, and at that time, the only newspaper in the Territory. His rise in public life was unexampled; he was elected clerk of the second and third territorial houses of representatives; auditor of public accounts from January, 1816 to April, 1817; appointed circuit- judge in 1818, and then attorney-general. He found time also to discharge the responsible duties of a bearer of dispatches to our minister at the British court, where he made the acquain- tance of John Quincy Adams, with whom his relations were ever afterward intimate. The Missouri question was then the absorbing subject of discussion and agitation from one end of the country to the other. The admission of that Territory as a slave-state would have a serious if not controlling influence upon the question whether Illinois should not also adopt the same policy. McLean was on the side of slavery, and Cook on that of freedom. Both being singularly well-equipped by study, experience, and inclination, for public debate, and each of them feeling confident in the justice of his respective side, joint discussions were held by them in all the principal counties. Hon. Orlando B. Ficklin, who heard these, as also, many years afterward, the debates between Lincoln and Douglas, involving the same questions, "awarded the palm" for oratory and interest to the former. McLean, though of lighter com- plexion, was said to resemble the great Charles Fox in person, and in his style of oratory. Cook on the other hand was small
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COOK VS. MCLEAN.
in stature, and of delicate physique, being an exception to the rule in those early days that a public man to be suc- cessful must have an imposing and prepossessing personal appearance. But Cook held his rare gift of eloquence well in hand; and with clearness of thought, boldness of expression, and intensity of purpose, made an impression upon an audience at once deep and lasting. So sincere and defiant was his advocacy of liberty for all, slavery for none, among those whose prejudices were on the side of "the peculiar institution," that his opponents gave him the nick-name of "that d-d little Yankee." His habits were abstemious, his manners charming, his voice strong and melodious.
The contest in 1818 resulted in the success of Mc Lean by the small majority of fourteen. The following year, when the same race was repeated, with added interest and excitement, Cook was successful by a majority of 633-the poll standing in the nineteen counties, for Cook 2192, McLean 1559.
Further than the election of officers, the general assembly did not propose to proceed until the result of the application to congress for the admission of the State had been ascertained; and after a session of eight days the body adjourned to meet the following January. As has already been seen, this applica- tion was successful and Illinois assumed its position as the twenty-first state in the sisterhood of the "United States of America."
At the reassembling of the legislature, January 4, 1819, law- making began in earnest. A code was adopted which for the most part was copied from the statutes of Virginia and Ken- tucky, including the law concerning "negroes and mulattoes" so long continued on the statute books of this State. Mr. Kane, who in addition to his duties as secretary of state, acted as clerk of the judiciary committee, was the compiler of the greater portion of these laws, in the performance of which task he manifested great care and intelligence. This code, how- ever, in its entirety, had but a very short and feeble existence. Its provisions were altered by each succeeding general assembly . with a regularity and persistency wonderful to behold. A session of the legislature was like a great fire in the bound- less prairie: it consumed everything. But it was also like the
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genial breath of spring, making all things new .* This insatiate desire to tinker the laws became, so to speak, an epidemic, the ravages of which were not checked until the winter of 1826-7, when the revised code, framed by the justices of the supreme court was adopted.
This was the longest session of the general assembly held prior to that of the eighth in 1832. The revenue law enacted provided for the raising of money for State purposes by taxing the lands of non-residents, which were divided into three classes, whose respective values were fixed in the act at two, three, and four dollars per acre. County revenue was to be derived from taxation of personal property and real estate of residents.
The salaries of State-officers were fixed as follows: governor $1000, judges the same, state auditor $700, secretary of state $600, State treasurer $500, attorney-general $250, circuit-attor- neys $150, adjutant-general $100.
The penalties affixed to specified offenses by the code of the territory were all reenacted, including those of whipping, con- finement in the stocks and pillories, as well as that of death by hanging, for the crimes of rape, arson, horse-stealing, and murder.
Not the least important of the acts passed was that providing for the removal of the seat of government. It does not appear that there was any popular demand for such a measure. The movement grew out of the mania for speculation, then so rife, by which the members of a certain coterie hoped to realize great fortunes. Kaskaskia, the leading commercial town of the State, and the most populous, as well as the most readily accessible by steam navigation and post-roads, might have remained the capital had it not been that some of its most influential citizens had become interested in a project for making money out of the choice of a new location. The scheme first showed its head in the constitutional convention, by the adoption of an article as far-reaching in its scope as it was harmless on its face, which provided that the seat of government should remain at Kas- kaskia until the general assembly should otherwise determine; and that that body at its first session should petition congress for a grant to the State of four sections of land for the seat
* Ford's "History of Illinois, " 32.
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REMOVAL OF THE CAPITAL.
of government, and if the prayer was granted a town should be laid out thereon which should remain the capital for the period of twenty years. Under this provision, the legislature at its first session adopted the petition as directed, which was duly presented to congress and upon which favorable action was secured by the new senators on March 3, 1819, by the passage of an act granting the four sections of land as requested.
At this second session, five commissioners were appointed to make the selection of land, to lay out the town, and erect a tem- porary two-story building for a State-house. They were limited in their choice of a location to the Kaskaskia River and "as near as might be east of the third principal meridian on that river." The place selected was known as "Reeve's Bluff," a high, heavily-timbered tract, beautifully situated on the right bank of the river. It was eighty-two miles northeast of Kas- kaskia, fifty-seven miles nearly due east of Alton, and twenty miles north of any settlement-the county of Fayette not having been established until February, 1821.
There are two accounts of the origin of the name given to the. prospective capital, which are substantially the same. The commissioners were anxious to fix upon a cognomen which should be at once euphonious and historic-their preference being for one which would not only please the ear but perpetu- ate the memory of the aboriginal inhabitants. A wag who was. present gravely suggested that the Vandals had once been a powerful tribe of red men living on the Kaskaskia, and that Vandalia a word derived from their name would preserve the memory of that once renowned, but now extinct race. The commissioners were delighted with the suggestion, which was adopted without a dissenting voice .* However this may be, it was symbolically appropriate in one respect at least, as those who laid out the town suffered not a single one of the many noble forest trees which covered its site to remain standing to. adorn its public-square and streets.
The selection of a town-site for a capital from the lands of the government, without in the least regarding their interests, proved a death blow to the speculators, and a sad disappoint- ment to those citizens of Kaskaskia who had favored a change.
Ford's "History of Illinois, " 35.
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But the location having been irrevocably fixed, the next best thing that offered in the way of speculation was to "boom" the town-lots. Of these, the number to be sold by the commission- ers was limited to one hundred and fifty. So great was the anxiety thus created to secure a foothold in a city which everyone regarded as destined to become a centre of commerce and influence, that the prices realized for lots were simply astounding. The lowest price bid was $100, while for more elegible locations in this wilderness, as high as $780 was willingly agreed to be paid-the average price being $234, and the aggregate proceeds reaching the sum of $35,234. Sales were made on time, and as might have been foreseen, many pur- chasers failed to meet their contracts, and the property thus forfeited was subsequently sold for about one-tenth of the price originally agreed upon.
As required by law, the commissioners proceeded to erect a temporary building to be used as a State-house; it was a two-story frame of the plainest description of architecture. To this humble structure, which stood in the midst of a forest, tl.e State officers removed in December, 1820. The archives of the State, in the care of Sidney Breese, making in all one small wagon-load, were transported at a cost of $25. It was indeed a pioneer trip, and the roadway had frequently to be cut through dense forests before the new capital was reached.
To return to the proceedings of the first general assembly: in the legal lottery between the two recently-elected United- States senators, Gov. Edwards had drawn the short term, which would expire March 3, 1819; and it therefore became necessary to elect his successor. He had hardly taken his seat in Wash- ington before his opponents began to intrigue against his reëlec- tion. One of the schemes to accomplish this result, was a proposition to divide the State into two senatorial districts, which was only defeated in the house by a majority of three. Michael Jones, then a senator from Gallatin County, was the opposing candidate. He was from Pennsylvania, and had been a very active member of the anti-Edwards party ever since his incumbency of the registry of the land-office in 1812-15. He was a man of no mean ability, of good address, but having a violent temper, which he was not at all backward in showing
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