USA > Illinois > Peoria County > Peoria > Peoria city and county, Illinois; a record of settlement, organization, progress and achievement, Vol. I > Part 59
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).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72
I have no recollection of ever having seen Halsey O. Merriman. He was a very popular lawyer and had been attorney for the town of Peoria when it obtained its charter as a city, which was largely the work of his hands.
Ezra G. Sanger was a young man of talent and considerable prominence. He had been a member of the legislature in 1848, and one of the presidential electors in 1852. With Judge Purple as a partner, he was fast attaining to an
1
Hon Abram Lincoln Peaux Sepet 28/54
Understanding Strat Cheage Douglas is Effected to address our citizens on the 150 text Aconta in the fermales of the Achaska Rankad Bill thisfeeling That n har hu may them advance should not be entered to pay without Rentable notice. the Undersigned, on behalf of terschied auf the Thing, 1. Perna are efecanfly de crowd that not too great a taxian Tim time strange you will concent to be present and take a com. moment opportunity. after the 1 pred of Quale 2. to reply to it, and que us your own were up com the Subject: Permit us when here that we are not unmindful of the good termen you have heretopon repeatedly, venderetut. Mor Insensible gehat the already, and you on that account= But this to Gather Que : - sauvages us to Robert Hook for a reversal ofthe famous
Hoping you may find it comment to responde pournily To sin much, And that at mi distant das ichuan la inn our power to testify our life there of ofereciation of your patootie tefficient publie sement. The Remain mein hul Brou prendi feilon- citizens=
e + 14 Igneau.
·WWW Etablen
Thomas Pizzamit
-
1. Hurverzi A mileoy
11
Mi Amolel
Edward Duhanoen
Hugh W. Reynolds,
LETTER FROM PEORIAN CITIZENS TO ABRAHAM LINCOLN
369
HISTORY OF PEORIA COUNTY
eminent position at the bar, when the dreaded consumption also claimed him as a victim.
The old court house had, in 1836, been replaced by a two-story brick one, with a cupola and a portico ornamented with four round sandstone columns. It was considered an elegant building for the times, and continued to be the seat of justice for about forty years. Here also many political battles were fought, for it was the only public hall in town and for years all political conventions and political meetings were held in it. Its walls on many occasions resounded with the eloquence of such men as Abraham Lincoln, Stephen A. Douglas, Owen Lovejoy, Wendell Phillips, Joshua R. Giddings, Josiah Quincy, Jr., and other men of note.
An incident of the times, which strongly impressed itself upon my memory, was the great debate between Lincoln and Douglas on October 16, 1854. The cir- cumstances which brought these two political giants together at that time I did not know, but in some way an arrangement was made that Senator Douglas was to have three hours for his opening speech, Mr. Lincoln was to have the same time for reply, and Douglas was to have one hour to close the debate. I was then a young man, and not much inclined to political life, but having been brought up a democrat, I was disposed to side with Senator Douglas. I lis- tened with much interest to his speech in defense of the repeal of the "Missouri Compromise," but was not altogether satisfied with it. When he had closed. Mr. Lincoln arose and spoke about as follows: "My Fellow Citizens: I would like to make a bargain with you. Judge Douglas has occupied all the time allotted to him for his opening speech. It is now late in the afternoon, and if I begin my speech now, I will not be able to finish it until the time you will want to go to your suppers, and, as I would not like to have my speech cut in two, I would suggest that we adjourn this meeting now and come together again promptly at seven o'clock. I can then finish my speech by ten, and Judge Douglas can finish his by eleven, which is not an unusually late hour at this season of the year. What do you say?" Immediately a cheer went up from his friends all over the vast audience, accompanied by throwing of hats in the air, and other demonstrations of approval. So the meeting was adjourned until seven o'clock, which gave Mr. Lincoln the advantage of a much larger night audience, and an opportunity of arranging his thoughts beforehand. When the evening came Mr. Lincoln proceeded with his speech, during the progress of which he drove Mr. Douglas into some very close quarters. When the latter arose to reply, he manifested strong symptoms of anger, and continued to speak in that strain until the close of his hour. This debate took place on a small platform, erected on the portico at the south corner of the court house, and the speakers and officers of the meeting came upon it through a window, in one of the offices. It is said upon good authority that Mr. Lincoln expected to again debate with Senator Douglas on the following day in an adjoining county, but upon the solicitations of the latter, on the ground that his was a controversy with a wing of his own party and not with the opposing party, Mr. Lincoln decided to return home.
I never saw Mr. Lincoln afterward, except on one occasion when he was in attendance at the circuit court of Woodford county, then being held in a yet smaller court house in the town of Metamora. Judge David Davis, clad in a gray and apparently homespun suit, with heavy-soled boots on his feet, one leg thrown over the low desk in front of him, his steel-gray hair cropped short, was presid- ing. Mr. Lincoln sat among the lawyers, with his chair thrown back and his hands clasped behind his head. I was struck with the largeness of all his features, especially his ears, which seemed out of all proportion. No one would have suspected then that either of these two men would ever attain to the world- wide reputation to which they afterward succeeded. It may be mentioned in this connection that this little town of Metamora, now abandoned as a county seat, was the place where Adlai Stevenson, late vice president of the United Vol. 1-24
370
HISTORY OF PEORIA COUNTY
States, commenced practice as a youthful attorney, and the place where Simeon l'. Shope, an eminent justice of our supreme court, spent his boyhood days. Here also, at court times, were accustomed to assemble many other distinguished attorneys from neighboring counties, amongst whom may be mentioned the late Asahel Gridley. Lawrence Weldon, now of the court of claims at Washington, and Robert E. Williams, of Bloomington ; Benjamin S. Prettyman and Samuel WV. Fuller, of Pekin; T. Lyle Dickey, of Ottawa; Samuel L. Richmond, John Burns, Thomas M. Shaw and George Barnes, of Lacon; Henry Grove, Henry B. Hopkins, E. C. and R. G. Ingersoll and Sabin D. Puterbaugh, of Peoria.
Although the old court house at Peoria had on many occasions been made to resound with the eloquence of the distinguished statesmen already named, yet their eloquence did not by any means eclipse that of some of our home talent. I well remember a murder case tried in the early days of Judge Peter's incumb- ency, in which Elbridge G. Johnson and Judge Norman H. Purple were counsel for the prosecution, and Judge William Kellogg and Julius Manning for the defense. This was indeed a battle of the giants. In all my experience at the bar I have never heard, in any one case, four addresses to the jury of such uniform eloquence and power as those presented on this occasion.
Mr. Johnson was a native of New Hampshire, but afterward located in the state of Vermont, where he read law with the distinguished Judge Redfield, and was there admitted to the bar at the early age of twenty years. He practiced his profession in the state of Vermont until the year 1850, when he located in Peoria and there continued in active practice until the time of his death, January 26, 1885. It has been truthfully said of Mr. Johnson that he did not attain to that distinction to which his eminent talent entitled him. He was extremely sensitive, so much so as to almost revolt at the idea of putting himself forward as a candi- date for any public position. I had occasion at one time to be a witness of his great diffidence, when attending the supreme court at Ottawa. As is well known to those who attended that court, the chairs in the great court room, for some inexplicable reason, were arranged about its outer walls, so that every attorney who wished to address the court was obliged, as it were, to run the gauntlet of the entire bar in attendance. Mr. Johnson had a motion to present, but was scarcely able to summon courage necessary for the occasion, remarking at the time that he would as lief stand up to be shot at as to go forward to present his motion.
The following points in his character are taken from an able address delivered by his former partner, Hon. H. B. Hopkins, on the occasion of his death: "He was a man of dignified and imposing personal appearance, with nature's emphatic stamp of superiority. He was all his life under the dominion of strong powers, both mentally and physically. His intellect belonged to the type of the colossal. * * Although he did not attain all that distinction which his early life seemed to indicate, in the judgment of his contemporaries, yet he always had in himself all the qualities of greatness and power which justified that promise, and he needed only the occasion and sufficient force of impulse to have quite realized it.
*
*
*
Upright and honest, he had no patience with tricks or duplicity. His
opinions upon social, moral, religious, political and personal topics were most
independent. * * Behind the shelter of an external indifference was a nature so sensitive and delicate that almost everything either hurt him or consoled him. A bundle of nerves, a tissue of sensibilities, a battery of forces, pain and pleasure were the ever vibrating tides of his emotions. * *
* In the early
part of Mr. Johnson's residence here he held the office of state's attorney for one term, and later served one term in the state legislature, as a member of the house of representatives, and soon after the enactment by congress of the old bankrupt law he was appointed register in bankruptcy for this congressional district, and held the office until the law was repealed. He discharged the duties of these various offices with unquestionable ability and faithfulness."
William Kellogg had been a member of the lower house of the state legisla-
371
HISTORY OF PEORIA COUNTY
ture, after which he was elected judge of the tenth circuit, which then included Peoria and Stark counties. This office he held with distinction from February, 1850, to November, 1852. After leaving the bench he resigned the practice of law until 1856, when he was elected to congress, and continued to be a member of that body until March 4, 1863, during which time he took a prominent part in the legislation of that critical period of our country's history.
judge Kellogg was a fine orator and displayed his eloquence with great power, both at the bar and in the halls of legislation. In person he was of medium height, somewhat inclined to corpulency, had a high forehead and was of fair complexion. His face was full and his voice clear and distinct, his gestures graceful, and his whole manner that of a finished orator. After leaving congress he came to Peoria to reside and remained in the practice of the law at this place until the time of his death. His public career belongs rather to the state and nation than to the local bar of Peoria.
Of Julius Manning I cannot speak too highly. He was one of my preceptors, and for the last year of his life it was my great privilege to be his partner. He was a native of Canada, his birthplace having been near the Vermont line, and he received his education at Middlebury College in that state, where he also studied law. He came to Illinois in 1837 and at once took a leading position at the bar, as well as in political matters. Before coming to Peoria he had for some years lived and practiced law in Knox county, from which county he had been elected to the lower house of the general assembly for two successive terms, and in 1848 he was elected a member of the electoral college in the presidential contest of that year. His practice had been extensive, covering several counties, including Peoria. In the year 1854, soon after the death of Halsey O. Merri- man, he came to Peoria and formed a partnership with Amos L. Merriman, which firm continued until June, 1861, when Mr. Merriman was elected to the office of circuit judge of the sixteenth circuit. It was at that time that I became a partner of Mr. Manning. In the autumn of that year Mr. Manning and Judge Purple were, by almost common consent, elected to represent the counties of Peoria and Stark in the constitutional convention. In January, 1862, he left the office to attend that convention and remained at Springfield until the time of its adjourn- ment. Upon his return home his health was very much impaired, and he deemed a trip to Canada, where he had once lived, advisable for rest and recuperation ; but when his preparations had all been made, and while paying a visit to his old home in Knoxville, he suddenly expired on July 4, 1862, at the early age of forty- eight years.
In political faith Mr. Manning was a democrat, and although in the constitu- tional convention, he went with his party in a course which seemed somewhat questionable, yet he was always loyal to the country. I well remember when the rebellion first broke out and excited crowds were filling our streets it became the earnest desire of many good citizens to know the standing of Julius Manning on the all important questions then agitating the country. Accordingly, when called upon to address the multitude assembled in front of his office, he appeared on the balcony and commenced something in this wise: "My Fellow Citizens: I belong to the north, I was born in the north, I married my wife in the north, my children were born in the north, my interests lie in the north, and in this fight I am for the north." He then went on to show that when sections are at war with each other, there can be no middle ground, but every man must be on one side or on the other. As for himself, whatsoever others might do or be, he was for the north. This speech produced a profound impression upon the community and had much to do with placing many wavering democrats on the right side.
His forecasting of political events was shown by a remark made by him at the time of Abraham Lincoln's first nomination. A few of us, mostly democrats, were in his office awaiting the results of the balloting in Chicago. When the news of Lincoln's nomination came, there was manifested a considerable degree of merriment over the choice of the convention, which was checked by Mr.
372
HISTORY OF PEORIA COUNTY
Manning, who said: "Boys, don't laugh; Abe Lincoln is the hardest man to beat the republicans could have nominated." This was before the split in the demo- cratic party. After that event occurred Mr. Manning threw his influence in favor of Douglas, in the presidential campaign of that year.
Mr. Manning was slightly above medium height, portly in person, erect in carriage, dignified in appearance, fair in complexion and in the color of his hair, his features heavy and prominent but pleasing in expression. He dressed well, wore a silk hat and carried a gold-headed cane. His presence commanded respect wherever he appeared.
As an orator Julius Manning had few equals and no recognized superiors. His voice was musical and clear as a bell, his enunciation was perfect, his ges- tures elegant, his expression earnest and his whole manner most persuasive. He was a student of rhetoric. Although his speeches seemed, to a listening audience, to be entirely extemporaneous, yet on all important occasions, when time was at his command, they were studiously prepared. Some of his skele- tons, still extant, observe the rhetorical division of exordium, argument and peroration, and the line of thought assigned to each was scrupulously followed in delivery.
As a lawyer he was perhaps not so methodical nor so exact in the prepara- tion of his cases as was Judge Purple, but in point of native talent and the in- tuitive grasping of the principles of the law he was generally regarded as the latter's superior. With the jury he was almost invincible and many a man owed his life or his liberty to the eloquence of Julius Manning, when in less able hands he might have been condemned to punishment.
The estimate in which he was held by his brethren of the profession is best expressed by the resolutions adopted by the Peoria bar on the occasion of his death, one of which reads as follows :
"Resolved, That in the death of Mr. Manning the bar of this county and state has lost one of its brightest ornaments, the state one of its most distin- guished citizens, and society one of its noblest and worthiest members. En- dowed by nature with a mind of the finest texture and of the most enlarged ca- pacity, enriched and strengthened by cultivation, he grasped with remarkable ease and clearness the whole science of law, and successfully applied it in practice with a rare combination of eloquence and logic. He had thoroughly mastered the elementary principles of his noble profession, and his mind was a vast store house, in which memory had carefully garnered up and stored away inexhaustible treasures of legal lore. He was thus always provided and ready for any professional emergency, whether on the circuit or at home. He was no less conspicuous for his modesty. Always unconscious of his own merits and preferring the quiet of home rather than the pleasures of the social circle, he sedulously shunned the turmoil and eclat of public life. He entered the political arena but seldom, and with reluctance, in obedience to the urgent and unsolicited demands of his numerous friends. In his deportment, whether in public life or in professional or social intercourse, he was always courteous. No barbed shaft ever found place in his full quiver. His heart was as expansive as his mind. Kindness exhaled from him as an atmosphere and shed its benefi- cence upon all alike who came into his presence."
In religious matters, during most of his life, Julius Manning was a liberal thinker. While entertaining a very high regard for the person, character and teachings of Jesus Christ as a man, he could not yield his assent to what is known as orthodox teaching; but in the last few months of his life he became a thorough convert to the Evangelical faith and to all appearances was a devout Christian.
Norman H. Purple's proper place in history is with the bar of the state at large, rather than with the local bar at Peoria. But, having spent the best years of his life with us, we claim him as one of our own. After retiring from the supreme bench he removed to Peoria and resumed the practice of the law,
373
HISTORY OF PEORIA COUNTY
which soon became extensive and lucrative. The great contest in the Military Tract between patent titles and tax titles was then at its height. By an act of congress, in 1812, two million acres of land in Illinois, northwest of the Illinois river, had been set apart for soldiers' bounties. These lands, having been patented directly to the soldiers had become taxable, and many of them had been sold for taxes. These tax titles were the only ones upon which many of the actual settlers held their farms. As lands became valuable the country was scoured from Maine to Texas by speculators in lands, in search of the patentees or their heirs. When they, or some other persons of like names, were found, suits would be commenced in their names, or in those of their grantees, for the possession. In many instances, when the occupant had bought up the apparent patent title of one set of heirs, another, and possibly a third, set would turn up claiming the same land. Many of these suits were brought in the federal courts, and many of them in the courts of the state. In this great controversy many of the members of the bar in the Military Tract came to be recognized as the leading land lawyers in the country. Among these may be mentioned Archibald Williams, Orville H. Browning, Charles B. Lawrence, of Quincy ; Robert S. Blackwell, author of Blackwell on Tax Titles, of Macomb; Hezekiah M. Wead, William Kellogg, William C. Goudy and S. Corning Judd, of Fulton county ; Joseph Knox, of Knox county ; and Norman H. Purple, Julius Man- ning, Onslow Peters, Elihu N. Powell, William F. Bryan and others of Peoria county. In this contest the law relating to tax titles and the statutes of limita- tion became practically settled for all time.
Another fruitful source of litigation in those days consisted of the French claims in Peoria. During the War of 1812 one Captain Craig, acting under orders of the territorial governor, had come to the French village at Peoria lake and, erroneously supposing the inhabitants to be acting in league with the hostile Indians, burned their village and carried the inhabitants away to more southern counties. To atone for this act of injustice congress, in 1823, had granted to these settlers the lots on which they had resided, with their adjacent outlots. The quarter section on which the county seat was afterward located, and the tracts now known as Bigelow and Underhill's Addition and Ballance's Addition, were all patented subject to these rights of the French, but the claims were not surveyed out for several years after the grant. Charles Ballance, the attorney already mentioned, had become the owner of a large tract of land upon which he had laid out an addition, besides being the owner of other lots covered by the French claims. He, therefore, became champion of the parties in possession, while one Robert Forsyth, of St. Louis, championed the cause of the French, he being one of the heirs. The controversy hinged upon the statute of limitation, and the points to be determined were : First. Did the statutes run against these grants? Second. Were the defendants within the provisions of any of those statutes? These questions being finally resolved in favor of the occupants, this vexatious litigation which had lasted for twenty years came to an end. In these contests Judge Purple and Julius Manning had frequent occasion to measure intellectual swords with each other.
Judge Purple was a forcible rather than an elegant speaker. Unfortunately he had somewhat of a nasal enunciation, which, with those not accustomed to hear him, detracted not a little from the elegance of his diction. In appear- ance he was tall, erect and dignified, in physique he was well proportioned, in gesture not graceful, but the earnestness of his delivery made up for all the other defects and gave his speeches great weight. In the use of sarcasm he was cutting, and, when occasion demanded repartee, he was quick and pointed.
As a practitioner at the bar Judge Purple was exact as well as exacting. He never presented a matter in court without due preparation. Keeping him- self within the rules of the court, he expected the same of others. He wrote a bold and very legible hand, and although his penmanship was not elegant, yet his court papers were always prepared with scrupulous neatness. In 1857 Judge
374
HISTORY OF PEORIA COUNTY
Purple compiled and published an edition of all the laws of the state then in force, and before that had published a compilation of the real-estate statutes, which are known as Purple's Statutes and Purple's Real-Estate Statutes.
Hezekiah M. Wead was a member of the convention which framed the con- stitution of 1848, and was the successor of William Kellogg as judge of the tenth circuit. After retiring from the bench he came to Peoria and spent the remaining years of his life in the practice of the law, during which time he was associated at different times with Marion Williamson, Elihu N. Powell, William Jack and Lawrence W. James. He was a talented lawyer, an able and upright judge, a forcible speaker, a man of fine physical development and of strong will power. His career in Peoria was a successful one.
His position upon the questions of the day is shown by the following extract from a paper of the opposite party in politics, relative to an oration delivered by him July 4, 1862: "It was one of the best and most appropriate addresses of the kind we have ever listened to. * * At the close the speaker alluded to the war progressing for the integrity of our country and the supremacy of the constitution under which we have made such glorious progress in all that can make a people great and happy. He was not among those who looked despondingly at the future, or had fears as to the result. 'The result,' said the Judge, 'will be the total overthrow of treason and rebellion, and before another Fourth of July dawns, the reestablishment of the national authority over every foot of the soil of these United States.'"
Henry Grove was a diamond in the rough. Born in Pennsylvania, he had in early life been taken by his parents to the state of Ohio, where he spent his youth and early manhood. Having there become accustomed to the hardy life of the pioneer backwoodsman, he retained many of its characteristics dur- ing life. In fact, he prided himself upon, and obtained much of his popularity by, keeping closely in touch with the sons of toil. He was a man of most decided native ability, but lacked that culture derived from early education, which many of his associates possessed. On this account some of them were inclined to deride him somewhat when he first came to the Peoria bar, but he proved himself a fair match for the ablest of them, not so much by the force of pure logic as by the force of that vast amount of wit, humor and ridicule which he was able, as occasion required, to throw into his speeches. I remember one occasion, when being hard pressed by his opposing counsel he found it necessary to divert the attention of the jury from the case itself, by turning upon his opponents. Making a terriffic assault upon them for their alleged duplicity, and seizing the old worn Bible on the clerk's desk, quick as a flash he turned to the proper passage, and, pointing alternately to the two opposing counsel, read in the most sonorous voice he could command, "I say unto you the publicans and harlots go into the kingdom of God before you!" The effect was magical and brought the crimson to the faces of his opponents.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.