USA > Illinois > Illinois, the story of the prairie state > Part 7
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In 1865 a bill was introduced in the legislature to remove the capital to Peoria. Springfield's hotel accommodations were inferior, the charges exorbi- tant. - This bill was finally tabled, but it made the citizens of Springfield anxious. They recognized the consequences that might follow. Immediately they built a new hotel, and made plans for a new state house. The county agreed to buy the old building and the square for two hundred thousand dollars. The city gave eight acres as the site for a new capitol, and a bill was introduced for an initial appropriation.4
There were, of course, other cities wanting the state house. But, as before, many other bills were being considered. One county was asking for the state university, another section for a penitentiary, Chicago was eager to have park and canal bills passed. And with so many interests, not combined against her, Springfield won. As the final argument it was urged that the residence of Abraham Lincoln
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State Capitol 1837-1876. Here Lincoln received news of his election to the Presidency
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had made the city historic ground, sanctified by his grave.
The new capitol was limited to a cost of three million dollars. A prize of three thousand dollars was offered for the best design, and twenty-one were submitted. The one chosen was a blending of classic and modern architecture, in the form of a great cross with a stately dome. The plan to have statues of Lincoln and Douglas at the north and south por- ticos was never carried out. The cornerstone was laid in October, 1868, but work went along very slowly.
Three years later Peoria offered to reimburse the state for the full amount expended, nearly a million dollars, and donate ten acres for a site, if the capital was moved to that city. Springfield, however, of- fered additional ground, and finally succeeded in getting the appropriations for the state house passed, despite Peoria's lobbying and the free excursion to that city given to the legislature.5
Completed with an additional expenditure of nearly a million and a half, the building was occu- pied in 1876, although it was not finally finished till twelve years later. One of the most beautiful of the state capitols, its dignity and strength fitly symbolize the resources and power and pride of Illinois. The growth of the state's business, dur- ing the last decades, has made what seemed most
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generous quarters crowded and cramped. But in- stead of a new state house, the plan is to erect addi- tional buildings near by, making a beautiful archi- tectural unit. The arsenal, the supreme court building, and the new centennial building, with the state house, are an earnest of a civic center of which Illinois will be justly proud.
XVII
THE ALTON TRAGEDY
E LIJAH PARISH LOVEJOY was a New Englander, a Presbyterian minister, who moved to Illinois in 1836. For three years he had been editing a religious newspaper in St. Louis. Many of his editorials were strong arguments against slavery, and, published in a slave state, they excited unfavorable comment. When a group of influential citizens counseled him "to pass over in silence everything connected with the subject," he refused in an article on the liberty of the press. Re- quested then to resign, he announced his intention of removing the paper to Alton.
On the eve of his departure a mob entered his office and most of the press was destroyed. The remnants, shipped to Alton, arrived on Sunday. Lovejoy planned to leave the press on the wharf till the next day; but that night it was broken in pieces and thrown into the river. Men said it was disrespectful to the city of Alton to permit the press to be established there when the paper could not be published in Cincinnati or Louisville or St. Louis.
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They feared that an abolition journal so near Mis- souri, a slave state, would do the town a serious injury and prevent its growth.
But the people of Alton were excited by this cowardly destruction of property, and a public meet- ing was called, where Lovejoy made a speech. He stated that, though he was opposed to slavery and thought it wrong, he was not an abolitionist, and had indeed been frequently denounced by Garrison because he did not favor their extreme measures. He said that "he was now removed from slavery and could publish a newspaper without discussing it, and that it looked like cowardice to flee from the place where the evil existed and come to a place where it did not exist to oppose it."1 He wished to establish, not an abolition paper, but a religious weekly. Funds were raised for a new press, and copies of the Alton Observer appeared.
Begun solely as a religious journal, Lovejoy's edi- torials soon changed. Slavery was very moderately referred to, then denounced mildly, but presently the fiercest and most rabid abolition doctrines were being preached. Religion was pressed into service as a mere auxiliary to the cause. Here, for exam- ple, is a Lovejoy paragraph on the fourth of July :
"This day reproaches us for our sloth and inac- tivity. It is the day of our nation's birth. Even as we write crowds are hurrying past our window
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in eager anticipation to the appointed bower, to listen to the declaration that 'All men are created equal'; to hear the eloquent orator denounce, in strains of manly indignation, the attempt of Eng- land to lay a yoke on the shoulders of our fathers which neither they nor their children could bear. Alas! what bitter mockery is this! We assemble to thank God for our own freedom, and to eat with joy and gladness of heart while our feet are on the necks of nearly three million of our fellow men. Not all our shouts of self-congratulation can drown their groans; even that very flag which waves over our head is formed from material cultivated by slaves, on a soil moistened by their blood, drawn from them by the whip of a republican task-mas- ter."2
The citizens, not wishing to see the public peace disturbed, sent a deputation to call on Lovejoy, to remind him of his first plans for the Observer, and urging him to desist from his course. He denied having made any promise and contended for the liberty of the press. The people assembled, quietly took press and type, and threw them into the Mis- sıssıppı.
It was now apparent to all rational men that the Observer could no longer be published in Alton as an abolition paper.3 The more reasonable of Love- joy's party thought it useless to try again, and dis- cussed going to Quincy or some other city. Some
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of the group, however, seemed to think the salvation of the black race depended on continuing publication of the Observer. Sustain the press at all hazards! Others said it was madness to make the attempt, that already their efforts had come near destroying the religious feeling of the community.
Perhaps not more than fifty men upheld Lovejoy in this crisis, when he said, "I will start another paper, no matter what the consequences may be." Far from being discouraged, he was more deter- mined than ever to publish his sheet in Alton, at the point of the bayonet, if necessary: Another press was ordered, arrived in a few weeks, and was promptly cast into the river. Still another was sent and destroyed, the excitement assuming a spirit of frenzy, increasing to a perfect tornado.
An outbreak was now confidently looked for. All business was suspended. Nothing was talked of but the efforts of the abolitionists.4 Lovejoy's followers formed themselves into a military company and kept guard at the wharf. When the next press arrived, on the night of November sixth, they removed it to a warehouse and kept watch about the building all the following day. But in the evening every- thing was quiet, and all but nineteen of the fatigued party left.
The citizens were goaded on to madness by the taunts and threats of the abolitionists-that they
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did not dare touch the press, that powder and lead were not mere playthings, that they had thirty rounds of cartridges and the mob should feel their virtue! Soon after nine o'clock a group of thirty - men assembled in front of the warehouse and de- manded that the press be given up to them. The night was so clear that both parties were distinctly visible during the parley. The men within replied that they were well provided with arms and ammu- nition and would defend the press to the last ex- tremity rather than surrender it. With stones and brickbats the assailants attacked the building, trying to carry it by storm. Some one in the warehouse fired from the second floor, killing one of the crowd. Loud and bitter imprecations were heard, and the death of all in the defending group was boldly threatened.
The party outside scattered. Some went to get powder, to blow up the stone building; some for ladders, to set the roof on fire; the bells of the city were rung, and horns blown to assemble a greater multitude.5 Armed men came rushing to the scene of action. One side of the warehouse had no win- dows; and here, safe from shots from within, a man ascended a ladder with a burning torch in his hand. When volunteers were called for to dislodge him, Lovejoy and two others responded, stepped out on the levee, and aimed at the figure on the ladder.
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The fire was returned by several men hidden behind a pile of lumber, and Lovejoy was hit by five bul- lets. 1 inning into the warehouse, he exclaimed, "My God! I am shot!" and died in the arms of a friend.
The crowd continued to fire at the building until the defenders surrendered the press, which was broken up and thrown into the river. The fire com- pany extinguished the flames on the warehouse roof, and all quieted down into darkness and oblivion. Several men on both sides were indicted in cases arising from this riot, but none was found guilty. Both parties judged it advisable to forgive and for- get the whole transaction. Indeed, it was made a matter of court record that the abolitionists had not provoked an assault, that there had been no mob, and that no one was killed or wounded !
The day after the tragedy, without ceremony, Lovejoy's body was buried on a high bluff in the south part of Alton.6 Some years later this site was chosen for a cemetery, and the main avenue chanced to pass over his grave. His ashes were moved to another place, and on the sixtieth anniversary of his death a monument, erected half by the state and half by public subscription, was dedicated "in grat- itude to God, and in the love of liberty."
A man of talent and extraordinary energy and pertinacity, Lovejoy's life was aggressive, his death
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tragic. Like all true reformers, he had a grasp of intellect enabling him to see and act aheadof his time. His convictions were deep-seated, but his course was needlessly irritating and offensive to his fellow citizens. In pursuing. his end he lost sight of the best means for its attainment.
Because it concerned slavery, the Alton riot caused immense excitement throughout the country.7 It was discussed at public meetings and in the press and pulpit. Some papers came out in mourning. Ministers preached on Lovejoy as a martyr. The voice of condemnation was almost universal. Love- joy had found his grave, it was said, in the bosom of a free state, and his death would kindle a flame which years could not extinguish. Indeed, it took a costly civil war to wipe out the stain.
But Lovejoy was not a member of the abolition party. He was fighting for the freedom of the press and for free speech.
Besides the accounts in the various histories, you will be interested in the Memoir of Lovejoy, writ- ten by his two brothers.
XVIII
RELIGION MIXED WITH POLITICS
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N 1839 there came to Illinois a group of settlers whose career is one of the most unusual in his- tory, whose few years in our state make one of its most unique stories. These people were the Mor- mons, or, as they called themselves, "the Latter-Day Saints," and their leader was Joseph Smith.
Some years before he had started a church in western New York, preaching from the Bible, and, like Mahomet, adding to it. His Book of Mor- mon gives a long account of the lost ten tribes of Israel and tells how they settled in America. By means of two crystal stones Smith translated this from the gold plates he discovered, where it was i written in peculiar characters. His church had power over the consciences and spiritual affairs of its members, and also over their persons and prop- erty. The Jesuit organization was not more com- plete.1
From New York the group moved to Ohio and then to Missouri, their numbers constantly increas- ing. Organized as a community, they said that the
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Lord had given them all that country, as they were His Saints. They refused to acknowledge the au- thority of the state of Missouri, plundered near-by towns, and at last the militia was called out against them. The Mormons surrendered, were ordered to leave the state, and sought refuge in Illinois.
Though it was known that they had left Ohio be- cause of the questionable failure of Smith's bank, though Missouri had found them such undesirable citizens, they were welcomed in Illinois. Several counties vied with one another in their offers of hos- pitality, and tried to get the strangers to settle with- in their boundaries. The Mormons told a romantic story of the cruel treatment of their enemies, of their escape through perils of field and flood. They made themselves out as the weaker, persecuted party. And the good people of Illinois expressed much sympathy for these men who suffered in the cause of their religion.2 After wandering about for some time, they selected a place on the Mississippi River in Hancock County, and started a town which they called Nauvoo, meaning peaceable or pleasant.
Here they planned to build a great city and tem- ple, as the place for the gathering to Zion. In two years they had put up more than two thousand houses, and Nauvoo, with sixteen thousand people, was the largest town in the state. Into the county people poured, from every part of the world. The
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discontented from all other sects, men who loved the new and the mysterious, men who saw in Mor- monism a stepping stone to power and wealth; vi- sionary, enthusiast, scoundrel, dupe, made up the members, all fanatical followers of the prophet, Joe Smith.8
The great temple is said to have cost a million dol- lars in money and labor. The people worked on it, every tenth day, or gave money to pay a mason or carpenter. Placed on the river bluff in a command- ing position, it overlooked the country in Illinois and Iowa for twenty miles. It was not planned after any order of architecture, unless we call it Mormonic. Indeed, the Saints themselves said it was begun without a plan, and from day to day the master builder received directions directly from Heaven.
"And really," says a contemporary writer, "it looks as if it was the result of such frequent change as would be produced by a daily accession of new ideas. It has been said that the church architecture of a sect indicates the genius and spirit of a reli- gion." He goes on to describe the characteristic Catholic and Methodist and Presbyterian church, and concludes, "If the genius of Mormonism were tried by this test, as exhibited in the temple, we could only pronounce that it was a piece of patch- work, variable, strange, and incongruous."4
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NAUVOE, Illinois.
The Mormon city of Nauvoe. Crowning the hill stood the temple
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But interesting as the Mormons were, had they remained an unobtrusive religious community, their place in Illinois history would be no more important than any other group of settlers, far less than the English colony in Edwards County. But the Mor- mons almost immediately mixed in Illinois politics, and became an important factor for the years they lived in the state. At that time party feeling ran high, and the contest between Whigs and Democrats was close and bitter. Both sides wanted the Mor- mon vote, which Smith seemed to hold in the hollow of his hand. He announced that his people should vote for this man or that, with the same assurance as when he told of an angel's message about the Book of Mormon. And, like a Jesuit leader's, his power was absolute.
From the legislature the Mormons asked a char- ter for the town of Nauvoo. Both parties, flattered with the hope of Mormon votes, hurried its passage. In the senate, the ayes and noes were not called for; in the house it was read only by title. It was rushed through, at the opening of the session, even before the "poetry bill," which provided for the members' salaries !
And such powers as this charter gave Nauvoo!5 A government within a government-a city council with power to pass ordinances contrary to the laws of the state ; a court sitting in all cases arising under
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the city laws; a military force, called the Nauvoo Legion, governed by its own ordinances, supplied with arms by the state, but subject only to the gov- ernor. The legislature granted another charter for a great tavern, the Nauvoo House, where the prophet and his heirs were to have a suite of rooms forever.
Smith was, at one and the same time, prophet, priest, merchant, president, elder, editor, general of the Nauvoo Legion, mayor, legislator in the council, judge in one court and chief justice in another, real estate agent for the town, and tavern keeper.6 He was a fugitive from justice in Missouri, but repeated warrants issued for his arrest were not served. The council of Nauvoo passed a law making it illegal to serve a warrant in that city, unless it had been ap- proved by the mayor-Smith himself. And another ordinance made it lawful to arrest any man who comes "to arrest Joseph Smith with process growing out of the Missouri difficulties."
It was impossible to serve writs in Hancock County. The Mormons became more and more ar- rogant and insolent. They petitioned Congress to establish a separate government for them in Nau- VOO. Smith announced himself as a candidate for the presidency of the United States. The people became embittered against the Saints, saying that
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they voted in a body and thus held the balance of power, for no election was possible in the county without their influence and ballots. It was said that they were about to set up a government of their own; that they made counterfeit money; that be- lieving they were entitled to all the goodly farms in the country, it was no moral offense to anticipate God's putting them in possession by stealing when opportunity offered; that Nauvoo sheltered outlaws and murderers and thieves, making religion a cloak for crime; and that under the name of "spiritual wives" Smith encouraged polygamy and immoral- ity.7
So it is not surprising that when a schism oc- curred in the church, led by a man named Law, num- bers of outsiders joined his group against the des- potic prophet. Law started a newspaper, to put his cause before the people, to expose Smith's iniquities and fight his doctrine of polygamy. But only one number was published, when the Mormons scattered the press to the four winds and expelled Law and his friends from the church. Warrants against Smith were discharged in his court. An appeal was then sent to Governor Ford, asking him to send the mili- tia to arrest the offenders. The assailing of the lib- erty of the press was of course a powerful argu- ment.
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When troops were called out to serve as a con- stable's posse, Smith assembled the Nauvoo Legion and declared martial law. The governor himself went up to Carthage. The prophet and his brother surrendered at his request, and were locked up in jail on a charge of riot. The Legion gave up their arms. Now Ford knew that the troops were only waiting for some excuse to attack the Mormons. When he learned of a plan to fire on the soldiers and accuse the Saints of the deed, he promptly disbanded all the militia except a guard for the Carthage jail.
Going over to Nauvoo, the governor addressed the Mormons, explaining the situation and receiving their pledge to abide by the laws, even against the orders of their church. This would probably have postponed any collision, but while the governor was absent on this mission, an armed mob was taking charge of affairs in Carthage. And this mob was none other than some of the disbanded soldiers of the state !
"About two hundred of these men," says Ford's account of this event, "many of them disguised by blacking their faces with powder and mud, hastened immediately to Carthage. There they encamped, at some distance from the village, and soon learned that one of the companies left as a guard had dis- banded and returned to their homes; the other com- pany, the Carthage Greys, was stationed by the cap- tain in the public square, a hundred and fifty yards
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from the jail. Whilst eight men were detailed to guard the prisoners.
"A communication was soon established between the conspirators and the company; and it was ar- ranged that the guard should have their guns charged with blank cartridges and fire at the assail- ants when they attempted to enter the jail. The conspirators came up, jumped the slight fence around the jail, were fired upon by the guard, which, according to arrangement, was overpowered imme- diately, and the assailants entered the prison, to the door of the room where the two prisoners were con- fined, with two of their friends, who voluntarily bore them company.
"An attempt was made to break open the door; but Joe Smith, being armed with a six-barreled pis- tol, furnished by his friends, fired several times as the door was bursted open, and wounded three of the assailants. At the same time several shots were fired into the room, and Hiram Smith was instantly killed. Joe Smith now attempted to es- cape by jumping out of the second-story window; but the fall so stunned him that he was unable to rise ; and being placed in a sitting posture by the con- spirators below, they dispatched him with four balls shot through his body. Thus fell Joe Smith, the most successful impostor in modern times."8
But his death, instead of ending the sect, gave the Mormons a new confidence in their faith, an in- creased fanaticism, and many more members. Their vote was sought by both parties in the presidential
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election of 1844. The anti-Mormon group grew more and more bitter. In spite of the governor's resolution to have the assassins of the two Smiths punished with the utmost rigor of the law, it was im- possible to convict them; for the anti-Mormons had a jury of their friends. Neither was it possible to convict the men guilty of destroying the printing press, for the Mormons were tried before a Mormon jury.
"No leading man on either side could be arrested without the aid of an army. . No one would be convicted of any crime in Hancock; and this put an end to the administration of civil law in that dis- tracted county. Government was at an end there, and the whole community were delivered up to the dominion of a frightful anarchy." There was little but riot and warfare. In the autumn of 1845 the Mormons in one village were told to leave, but re- fused. A mob burned their houses, and the inmates in utter destitution fled to Nauvoo. The Mormon sheriff there promptly raised a posse, drove the anti- Mormons out of the county, and burned their homes, plundering and laying waste with fire and sword.
The soldiers were called out again. The Mormon elders, convinced by now that they could not remain longer in the state, bargained that they would leave in the spring, if they were not molested during the
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winter. A small garrison stayed in Nauvoo. Meet- ings of more than four men were prohibited. The strictest military order was kept and peace main- tained.
All the houses in Nauvoo, even the great temple, were transformed into workshops. By spring more than twelve thousand wagons had been made, to carry the people and their goods to the Pacific coast.9 In February, while the river was covered with ice and the ground with deep snow, the twelve apostles and a few followers started-the story is, to avoid arrest for counterfeiting. And in May about six- teen thousand Mormons set out together, but a diffi- cult journey they had to their promised land.
Forcibly ejected from Missouri, they had to make a roundabout trip through Iowa. They spent the winter near Council Bluffs, where they had cholera and fever. The Indians hovered about, ready to plunder them. Not till July did they reach the val- ley of the Great Salt Lake, where they remained. In that desert country there was, for a long time, no anti-Mormon party, and the Latter-Day Saints pros- pered greatly.
Thus into Illinois and out of the state passed this sect, based on delusion and imposture, led by a man of so little education that he read indifferently and wrote and spelled badly, who nevertheless main-
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