USA > Illinois > Illinois, the story of the prairie state > Part 8
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tained his authority as spiritual and temporal and political leader of an ever-increasing group of people.
But the Mormons were not through with Illinois. There were two young men, law partners in Spring- field, who had seen the evils of polygamy during the Mormon residence in Illinois.1º In 1865 one of them, a representative in Congress, introduced a bill pro- hibiting plural marriages. It passed the house but failed in the senate. Eighteen years later, as senator from Illinois, Cullom introduced the same bill and secured its passage. His former law partner was appointed federal judge in Utah, then a territory governed by Congress, and the law was enforced strictly and fearlessly. The Mormons themselves appreciated the justice and high-mindedness of this Illinoisan, and when Utah was admitted as a state, their vote elected Zane as their chief justice.
A group of Mormon wagons and a herd of live stock crossing The Missouri River at Council Bluffs ferry
XIX
ILLINOIS IN THE MEXICAN WAR
N the very month when the Mormons left, an- 4 other group of men were preparing to start from Illinois, but for a far different reason. The annexa- tion of Texas in May, 1845, was made an excuse for the war with Mexico, and just a year later the presi- dent called for volunteers. Illinois's apportionment was four regiments.
A wave of patriotism swept over the state. Men were enlisting everywhere. The women formed sewing societies to make uniforms, for each soldier provided his own, and was later reimbursed for his outlay. By the middle of June nine regiments were enrolled, but only the four asked for could. be ac- cepted.
The United States had at that time a very small regular army, and the brunt of the war fell on the volunteers. The quickness of their assembling, their prodigious journeys, their splendid esprit de corps, are among the wonderful incidents of the war. They made long marches over mountainous and des-
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olate country, over arid prairies under a tropical sun. They reached the enervating southern climate in the very heat of midsummer. There was an unprece- dented amount of sickness.
"Heat-heat-heat;" wrote home one Illinois sol- dier, "rain-rain-rain; mud-mud-mud, inter- mingled with spots of sand gravel, form the prin- cipal features of the route from Levacca to San Antonio. Loaded wagons, of course, moved slowly over the roads, and our troops were scourged on the route by the mumps and measles."1
The Illinois regiments missed Palo Alto and Monterey, but did arrive in time to fight at Buena Vista, to help invest Vera Cruz, and to storm the last stronghold of the Mexicans at Cerro Gordo.
Special praise they won at Buena Vista, a narrow pass in the mountains, called "a perfect Thermopy- læ." Santa Anna, with a force of twenty thousand men, entered the valley on the twenty-second of Feb- ruary. In honor of the day the American watch- word was "the memory of Washington." The Mex- icans sent Taylor a flag of truce, assuring him he would be cut to pieces and summoning him to sur- render. The answer was, "General Taylor never surrenders," though his force was less than five thousand. That night the Americans bivouacked on the field, without fires, resting on their arms. It was
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IN THE MEXICAN WAR
cold and dreary, with rain and gusts of wind. Santa Anna made a speech to his soldiers, telling in burn- ing words the wrongs heaped on Mexico by the bar- barians from the north, who could plainly hear the vivas greeting him. They could hear the Mexican band playing till late in the night.2
The next morning the battle began, lasting till dark. Because of the deep gullies and gorges, only a limited number of men could fight at one place. And in some of the attacks the Mexicans charged six to one, eight to one, even ten to one. But the Americans stubbornly resisted, no matter how over- whelming the numbers of the enemy. Illinois vol- unteers, never under fire before, made a gallant twenty-minute charge that practically won the day, and during the night Santa Anna withdrew from the field. This was the most stubborn battle of the war, and its turning point.
"The first and second Illinois and the Kentucky regiments," wrote Taylor in his official report, "served immediately under my eye, and I bear a will- ing testimony to their excellent conduct throughout the day. The spirit and gallantry with which the First Illinois and Second Kentucky engaged the en- emy in the morning, restored confidence to that part of the field, while the list of casualties will show how much these three regiments suffered in sustaining the heavy charge of the enemy in the afternoon."3
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In every battle the officers and men of Illinois distinguished themselves. Their daring courage and intrepid valor won honor for themselves and glory for the state. Nobly Illinois acted her part, gain- ing character and standing by the extraordinary ef- forts of her soldiers. Because of the few men en- gaged the victories of Scott and Taylor were the more brilliant. Indeed, it has been said that the only battles in history to be compared with these in the Mexican War are the stories in the Old Tes- tament.
The Illinois troops, enlisted for one year, were mustered out in May, 1847. Two more regiments were sent to Mexico, but they had only skirmishes with guerrillas, and heavy losses from sickness. For the war was practically over, and peace was made early in 1848.
The troops brought home as a trophy a cannon which they captured at Cerro Gordo and turned on the enemy. Charging there on the retreating Mex- icans, they came on the carriage of Santa Anna. Only a few moments before he had escaped on one of the mules, cut from the traces. Among the ef- fects found in the carriage was the general's wooden leg. It was held up to the view of the soldiers, and brought back to Illinois.4 And to this day it is one of the treasures in Memorial Hall in the state house.
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XX
THE CODE OF HONOR
T HE practise of dueling, an inheritance from the French, was never so popular in Illinois as in many other states. But her history tells of some interesting challenges, and she took a leading part in abolishing this custom.
The first duel in Illinois was in 1765, when the British troops came to take possession of Fort Char- tres. Two young officers, one French, the other English, were rival suitors for the hand of a young lady in the neighborhood.1 A quarrel arose which led to a challenge. One Sunday morning they fought with small swords near the fort and the English officer was killed. The Frenchman made haste to go down the Mississippi to New Orleans, showing how the public of that early day felt to- ward dueling.
When the separation of Illinois and Indiana was being excitedly discussed, a personal controversy developed between Rice Jones, a promising young lawyer, and Shadrach Bond. A challenge and ac- ceptance followed. They met on an island near
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Kaskaskia. The weapons were hair-trigger pistols, and Jones's was discharged prematurely. Bond's second claimed that, according to the code, it was now his turn to fire. But Bond, unwilling to take such a murderous advantage of his adversary, cried out, "No, it was an accident!" and refused. To conduct so noble Jones responded, their difficulty was reconciled, and they left the field together. But later the second quarreled with Jones, and assassi- nated him in the street, while he was talking to a lady. The murderer escaped to Texas, but public opinion was aroused. The following year Governor Edwards and the judges adopted a law that a fatal duel was murder. The men aiding the principals were equally guilty.2 Sending or accepting a chal- lenge prevented a man from holding any office of honor or trust. This was an important step in sup- pressing dueling.
In 1819 occurred the first and last fatal duel in the state. At a carousal in Belleville two men quar- reled, and a sham duel was proposed, to provide some rare sport for the crowd. The weapons were to be rifles, loaded with powder only. The com- batants took their places, forty steps apart, and at the signal both fired. One man fell, mortally wounded, and died in a few minutes. His opponent, suspecting a cheat, had secretly slipped a ball into his rifle.
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Arrested, the murderer escaped from jail. Two years later he was discovered in Arkansas, brought back to Belleville by a trick, tried and convicted. Governor Bond was besieged with petitions for his pardon. But the man who had refused twelve years before to take advantage of his foe would not yield in this case and the murderer was hanged. Bond's firmness in insisting on the execution of the law had much to do with making dueling unpopular and discredited.3
A few years later an unusual duel took place in a mining camp near Galena. Two men fell out and agreed to fight a duel with rocks. Two piles of stones, alike in number and size, were arranged ten paces apart by the seconds, and the combatants sta- tioned by them. Stones flew thick and fast for a time, but one man was so strong and so expert in throwing that the other had to flee to save his life. So this duel was of short duration.
During the legislature of 1840 so many "affairs of honor" were threatened among the members that one senator proposed the dueling law should be sus- pended for a fortnight, to give full opportunity for the settling of all personal difficulties. One case, be- tween a youthful member of the house and a su- preme court judge, actually went so far that time and place and weapons had been agreed upon, when a complaint was lodged by the attorney-general of
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. Illinois. A warrant was issued, the judge arrested, and placed under bond to keep the peace.4 This was the end compassed by mutual friends in several of these "affairs."
The most famous duel in Illinois was the one where Shields challenged Lincoln. The state treas- urer and Shields, the auditor, had issued a procla- mation that taxes must be paid in specie, not in paper money. This was the year when the state bank failed, the very worst of the hard times. Lincoln wrote a letter to a Springfield newspaper, dated from "Lost Township," a dialogue between Aunt Rebecca and a neighbor who had
"been tugging ever since harvest getting out wheat and hauling it to the river to raise State Bank paper enough to pay my tax this year and a little school debt I owe; and now, just as I've got it, here I open this infernal EXTRA REGISTER, expect- ing to find it full of 'Glorious Democratic Victories' and 'High Comb'd Cocks,' when, lo and behold! ! I find a set of fellows, calling themselves officers of the State, have forbidden the tax collectors and school commissioners to receive State paper at all; and so here it is dead on my hands."
"Shields is a fool as well as a liar. With him truth is out of the question; and as for getting a good, bright, passable lie out of him, you might as well try to strike fire from a cake of tallow.
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He's a Whig, and no mistake; nobody but a Whig could make such a conceity dunce of himself. And now, Mr. Printer, will you be sure to let us know in your next paper whether this Shields is a Whig or a Democrat? I know well enough how it is already; but I want to convince Jeff. It may do some good to let him, and others like him, know who and what these officers of State are. It may help to send the present hypocritical set to where they belong, and to fill the places they now disgrace with men who will do more work for less pay, and take a fewer airs while they are doing it.
A week later a second letter was published, and then Rebecca sent a third in rhyme. These were written, not by Lincoln, but by two young ladies in Springfield, one of whom he afterward married, while the other became Mrs. Lyman Trumbull. These publications subjected the vain and irascible Irish auditor of Illinois to merriment and ridicule on every side. Instead of laughing at the satire, he demanded of the editor the name of the author who was attacking his "private character and standing as a man."
"Give him my name," said Lincoln, "and say not a word about the young ladies."
Shields demanded a full, positive and absolute retraction and apology for the insults. Lincoln could not in honor say that the second and third letters were written by two estimable ladies. And
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Shields was not satisfied by his saying that in writ- ing the first letter he was concerned only with its political effect and had no thought of anything per- sonal. He was promptly challenged to a duel and accepted.
"I am wholly opposed to dueling, and will do anything to avoid it," he said, "that will not de- grade me in the estimation of myself and friends; but if degradation or a fight are the alternatives, I shall fight.
As the challenged party had the privilege of choosing weapons and position, Lincoln selected cavalry broadswords of the largest size; and stipu- lated that a board should be set up between him and Shields, over which they were to hack away at each other, at a distance of three feet more than the length of the sword. In spite of the length of Lin- coln's arms, this placed them both out of harm's way!
Lincoln insisted that as dueling was against the law in Illinois, the meeting should be in Missouri. The affair went so far that the combatants actually left the state, their seconds provided with the two swords, but mutual friends patched up a reconcilia- tion and the ludicrous duel never came off. Later Shields challenged one of Lincoln's seconds, and a third duel was threatened between two of the "friends"; but these, like the original one, came to
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nothing. And the whole affair, which Lincoln used to call "my scrape with Shields," through ridicule and derision, tended the more to discredit dueling.
Outside the state there were three duels where Illinoisans were involved. Two on the Pacific coast resulted fatally, and E. D. Baker, pronouncing the funeral oration, launched a marvelous philippic against dueling, which stirred the nation. "The code of honor is a delusion and a snare a shield, blazoned with the name of chivalry, to cover the malignity of murder."7
The third was in Washington, during the long discussions before the compromise of 1850 was adopted, when southern congressmen vaunted their chivalry and disparaged northern courage by fre- quent reference to the Mexican War. A Virginian tried to award the whole credit for the battle of Buena Vista to a Mississippi regiment, commanded by Jefferson Davis, then United States senator. Ex- ception was taken by a member from Illinois, Colo- nel Bissell, whose regiment had charged and snatched victory from defeat. His brilliant reply vindicated the courage of the northerners and pricked the vain assumption of the south. Davis at once challenged him-as if a duel could vary the facts of history and move his regiment a mile and a half nearer the scene of action !
All Washington was on the qui vive.
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"Will he accept? Will Bissell stand fire?" they asked.
Daniel Webster came over from the senate to the floor of the house, and asked to be introduced to him. "He will do, the south has mistaken its man," was his comment.
Promptly the challenge was accepted. Bissell selected the common army musket, loaded with a ball and three buckshot, the combatants to be sta- tioned at forty paces, with liberty to advance to ten. This showed his purpose to fight to the death, and the southerners were amazed.
"But an army musket is not the weapon of a gentleman," protested Davis.
"No real gentleman settles a difference by fight- ing a duel," was Bissell's reply.
The meeting was to take place on the last day of February. The evening before, the president, who was the father-in-law of Jefferson Davis, took le- gal steps to stop the duel. But after midnight mu- tual friends effected a reconciliation, the challenge was withdrawn, and the affair ended, a source of no little pride to Illinoisans.8
XXI
REAL IMPROVEMENTS
I LLINOIS found, by bitter experience, that im- provements in transportation could not be wisely and economically made by the state. But the fail- ure of the internal improvement system could not long delay the canal.
A water connection between Lake Michigan and the Illinois River had been suggested by Joliet in 1673. The following year Father Dablon wrote :
"According to the researches and explorations of Joliet, we can easily go to Florida in boats, and by a very good navigation, with slight improvements. There will be but one canal to make-and that by cutting only one-half a league of prairie from the lake of the Illinois (Michigan) into the St. Louis river (the Illinois), which empties into the Missis- sippi. The bark, having entered this river, could easily sail to the Gulf of Mexico."1
La Salle mentions it, then silence until 1795, when the Indians by treaty gave "a free passage by land and by water, as one and the other shall
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be found convenient, through their country, from the mouth of the Chicago to the commencement of the portage between that river and the Illinois, and down the Illinois river to the Mississippi."
From that time on it was frequently discussed, as the link between east and west, important for military and commercial purposes. Governor Ed- wards, urging the construction of the canal, made a treaty with the Indians for a tract of land ten miles wide on either side of the suggested route from the lake to the Illinois River. The red men received "a considerable quantity of merchandise" and a promise of goods to the value of a thousand dollars a year for twelve years-the amount so small because the Indians were assured of the canal's ad- vantages to them: they could ply their canoes on its surface, and seek their game!
Beginning in 1818, with Governor Bond, each governor in his message to the legislature urged the canal. Because the portage was so short it was re- garded as easily accomplished. More than once the state gave money for a survey. An early estimate of the cost was six hundred forty thousand dollars. The legislature in 1826 asked Congress for aid in building the canal. Through the efforts of Daniel P. Cook, one of the Illinois representatives, the fed- eral government gave to the state alternate sections of land on both sides of the canal for five miles.
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This totaled nearly three hundred thousand acres, and included the original site of Chicago.2 People called it "the sheet anchor of the canal."
At one time the plans were abandoned entirely and it was decided to build a railroad instead of the canal, as this would cost only one million in- stead of four. An attempt to have a private corpo- ration build the canal was made and a charter se- cured, but no stock was sold. Finally, when the internal improvement craze was on, the friends of the canal, in the general log-rolling of that session of the legislature, by voting for railroads all over the state, secured votes for their measure, and canal bonds were issued. This expense of a million and a half was not included in the eight millions of in- ternal improvements, for the canal was always kept separate.
Ground was broken on the fourth of July, 1836, and at this time the cost was estimated at nearly nine million dollars-four times the cost of the Erie Canal, but its dimensions were larger. Much of the route lay through marshy lands, flooded in spring and autumn, difficult of access. The first year forty thousand was spent on roads leading to the canal site! The excavating through rock proved enormously expensive. The country bordering the canal was settled scatteringly, and afforded no shel- ter and no provisions for the laborers. All supplies
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had to be brought from abroad. Workmen were paid from twenty to thirty dollars a month, plus board. Potatoes cost in Chicago seventy-five cents a bushel, flour twelve dollars a barrel, and other articles in proportion.3 So the high cost of living in 1836 made the canal an expensive undertaking.
The grand muddle of the state's finances, follow- ing the failure of the banks and the internal im- provement system, involved the canal in temporary difficulties. There were no funds to meet the in- terest on the canal bonds. All work stopped for two or three years. Illinois investments were uni- versally discredited. A Chicago lawyer proposed that the state give the canal in trust to the bond- holders : they to finish it, manage the property, and receive the tolls, in return for taking additional bonds for one million six hundred thousand dollars. The canal to be their property until all the bonds were redeemed. This plan was adopted by the leg- islature, and the day was saved for the canal. For the primary object of the state was to open this ave- nue of commerce for the benefit of the public, not to have the income it might yield.
Finally the canal was completed and the first boat passed through in April, 1848, celebrated with en- thusiastic demonstrations along the entire route. It remained the property of the trustees for the bond-
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holders for twenty-six years and then reverted to the state.
In 1865 sanitary reasons made it imperative to deepen the canal-to turn the pure waters of the lake into the shallow, disease-breeding Chicago River and reverse its current into the Illinois. Since - the opening of the Panama Canal plans are forming to make Illinois's waterway deep enough for ocean vessels, that can then load their grain at Chicago, go down the Mississippi to the gulf, and cross to South America or Europe, or through the isthmus into the Pacific.
The total cost of the canal has been twenty times the original estimate, but the sales of land paid nearly half of this. Contrary to the hopes of its early supporters, its income has failed to pay the expenses of the state government. But, through the leases of water power and land and ice, the sales of clay and stone, and the tolls, it is no longer an expense to Illinois.
But more than the canal Illinois needed railroads to market her surplus products. They must be built by private companies, not by the state. The first railroad in the United States was in use by 1830, and just six years later the first one in Illinois, a road six miles long, to carry coal to the Mississippi River opposite St. Louis. Next a road was planned
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from Chicago to Galena, and a part of it was actu- ally built. The third was one of the internal im- provements, which the state was glad to sell for a tenth of its cost.4
And then came the Illinois Central, called "the most splendid and most magnificent road in Amer- ica"; and to-day Illinois has more miles of railroads than any other state in the Union. In October, 1835, Sidney Breese, in a newspaper letter, called attention to the importance of a railroad connecting the canal with the lower Mississippi, by a route that would never be obstructed by low water or ice. The grand scheme to join Cairo and Chicago was part of the internal improvement craze, and the sum of six hundred thousand dollars was voted for this road. Some work was actually done, but it was abandoned with the collapse of the system.
Various plans were made during the next decade, and a bill introduced in Congress granting land for railroad purposes. This twice passed the senate, but failed in the house, once by two votes. It finally succeeded in 1850, largely through the efforts of Stephen A. Douglas.5 The people and newspapers of the state hailed the news with joyful demonstra- tions. Chicago celebrated with the firing of can- non and a public dinner to Douglas, but he modestly insisted that his colleagues in the house should be included.
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The grant from Congress gave to Illinois a right of way two hundred feet wide from Cairo to the south end of the canal, branching there to Chicago and Galena; and the even numbered sections of land on each side of this right of way for six miles -a total of nearly three million acres. The state chartered the Illinois Central Railroad Company, giving to this corporation the lands granted by Con- gress, with the provision that, instead of taxes, the road should pay seven per cent. of its gross income each year to the state treasurer.
With the land as security, stock and bonds for the new road sold at par, sales of land paid the interest charges and yielded so much more that the road almost paid for itself ! Work began in north and south in 1852 and continued with little inter- ruption. The main line was completed by June of 1855, the branches by September of the follow- ing year, though trains began running as soon as any one portion was finished.
Through the wildest and most sparsely settled sections of the state this road was laid out. Deer and wild game roamed at will. Neither house nor tree was to be seen, frequently, on the boundless prairies. And in the entire route of seven hundred miles it did not pass through a dozen towns large enough to be on the map.6
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