The biographical encyclopedia of Illinois of the nineteenth century, Part 36

Author: Robson, Charles, ed
Publication date: 1875
Publisher: Philadelphia, Galaxy
Number of Pages: 770

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oppose a motion for an injunction brought by the proprietors | in their very midst, and to suppress the open fellowship of the Times, who were represented by Messrs. Joy, Dexter, which the supporters of the Confederacy had constantly, from the commencement of the war, exhibited. It was a remarkable effort, not only for its vigorous denunciation, but for its searching scrutiny of that political action whose culmination was treason. His address to the Chicago Bar, in introducing the resolutions relating to the death of President Lincoln, was an eulogy of no common degree of merit. Throughout its brief and pointed sentences it breathed the sentiment of the loyal heart of the nation, plunged into grief by the blow of an assassin. He said : " May it please your honor, I have a motion to make of a mournful character. I have been designated as the hon- ored instrument of my brethren of the bar to ask your honor to make a public record of their proceedings on the occasion of the death of the late President of these United States. And I pray God that it may be the last time that such a motion, and under such circumstances of pain and horror, may ever be submitted to this tribunal. Abraham Lincoln, the loving husband and father, the just and good man, the profound lawyer, the eminent statesman, the executive head of the nation, has fallen in death by the hand of a dastardly assassin. There is a sameness in the language of grief, as there is uniformity in the habiliments of woe. The great heart of the nation has been stricken, and the sobbings of anguish are heard, mingled with the deep-toned curses of aroused indignation. Men whisper with white lips the tale of horror. The nation is draped in the emblems of sorrow, and mourners go about the streets, for a father has fallen among his people. Abraham Lincoln belonged to us, my brethren of the bar, as a friend and a brother, and a shining ornament to the ranks of our profession. As such we loved him; but he belonged more emphatically to the nation and the world. Thrown into life unaided by the adventitious surroundings of a family and fortune, by the energizing force of his own high purpose and intellect he has secured to himself an immortality of fame as the saviour of his country, as was Washington its father, and an equal place by his side in the love and affection of his countrymen, and in the admiration of the civilized world. In the noble school of a noble profession, rendered illustrious for three centuries as the bulwark of liberty, Abraham Lincoln learned to prize above rubies the blessings of law and order, and constitutional freedom, and the rights of man. It made him an early advocate of the rights and interests of the toiling millions, and the con- firmed foe of oppression in every form. His keen sagacity, his high moral sense, and his logical precision (almost antedating his cotemporaries) detected the designs and dangers of Southern slavery, and made him its inflexible opponent. He saw in it a growing evil that was over- spreading the land in necessary antagonism to republican institutions and the civilization of the age. It had corrupted the fountains of morality and humanity ; it had corrupted and Arrington. Before his argument, which he had prepared with great skill and care, was submitted, however, President Lincoln countermanded the order of General Burnside suppressing the paper. In the spring of 1863 he conducted the defence of Rev. E. W. Ilager, an Episcopal minister, rector of the Church of the Holy Communion, against whom charges had been preferred. His associate in this case was Joseph B. Clarkson, brother of Bishop Clarkson. The concluding argument for the defence, which lasted thirteen and a half hours in its delivery, was a master-piece of logic, and was one of the most distinguished efforts ever made by Mr. Goodwin. Rev. Mr. Hager was acquitted, and the verdict gave general satisfaction. There is, per- haps, no lawyer in the Northwest who has a greater or more varied experience in all branches of the legal profession than that possessed by Mr. Goodwin ; none, certainly, have ever conducted a greater number of leading cases in all the various civil and criminal courts, whether State or Federal. His practice embraces, in addition, ecclesiastical and patent law, and in both these branches, not only as an advising counsel, but as an advocate at the bar, he has attained emi- nence. He is by nature a student, and has continued his researches into the science of law ever since his admission to practice, at all times commendably desirous that there should be, in any department, no detail of method, or knowledge of principle, with which he should not be famil- iarly acquainted. His keen, analytical mind is at all times conspicuous in involved cases, particularly in those within the range of the laws of patent right. His forensic efforts are not only impressive in their eloquence, which discards mere euphony, but convincing from the clearness and force of his faultless processes of reasoning which compel belief. He is irreproachable in character, courteous in demeanor, culti- vated in his tastes, and generous in his actions, and has at- tained not only a leading position as a jurist, but an emi- nence in public respect which few men secure. He is a member of the Chicago Bar Association, and takes a deep interest in all efforts to elevate the standard of the pro- fession, and advance the social and material prosperity of the community in which he makes his home. He was married in 1835 to Miss Frances Dibble, and has three children. One of his sons has been already admitted to the bar. He is seventh in line of descent, on the paternal side, from Ozias Goodwin, and seventh in descent, on the maternal side, from John Collins. Up to the breaking out of the war he was a Democrat, but since that event has always acted with the Republican party. He was an earnest supporter of all measures for the vigorous suppres- sion of the rebellion. His speech at Bryan Hall, October 2Ist, 1862, was a scathing philippic against the rebel sym- pathizers, in which he reviewed their conduct, and depicted their treasonable purpose, did much to bring the people of the North to an appreciative sense of the danger they had, the fountains of religion and virtue; it had corrupted the

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fountains of justice ; and he saw that unless the judgment of the fathers and of Christendom were to be reversed, it must be arrested in its aggressive and unconstitutional strides to universal dominion. His immediate reward was the undying hate of the advocates of African slavery, both at the South and at the North. Borne into the office of Presi- dent upon the wave of an approving public sentiment, the South sprang to arms for the mastery of the nation, and the supremacy of slavery over the laws and constitution of the country. And nobly then did Lincoln redeem the pledge of his manhood. Amidst detraction and hate, he was denounced as a usurper; amidst weakness and treachery, and timidity and disaster, with the nation reeling and staggering like a giant half wakened from the stupefying slumber, through the long dark night of the Rebellion, with an ever patient wisdom, and firmness and forbearance, and an unfaltering trust in God, did he watch and pray for the dawning of that day which finally broke upon him in all its refulgent splendor. In the hour of that sublime tri- umph he fell, the last sacrifice to the hate of slavery and treason : in the last desperate spring of the insatiate demon in the pangs of approaching dissolution. He fell bearing aloft the flag of his country at the head of its triumphant legions, as a banner symbolizing a nation one and indivis- ible, with power to suppress domestic insurrection as well as to repel foreign aggression, and a people altogether free; for that had been spoken to the nations of the earth in the thunders of the victorious battle, had been written upon the hacked and broken armor of treason and rebellion. Hence- forth the dear old flag will be a thousand times more dear to every loyal American heart-dear for what it has cost us ; its every star is radiant with the renewed glories of regener- ated America ; its very stripe has deepened its crimson in the life-blood of tens of thousands of martyred heroes in the war of freedom, and received in the life of the last illus- trious victim a deeper-dyed baptism of blood. This last great crime, at which humanity shudders and the world stands aghast, is the very inspiration of slavery and a part of its long-familiar teachings. It is the spirit that murdered Lovejoy; that struck down Sumner in the Senate chamber ; that launched this fiery rebellion upon the country, with its unnumbered barbarities and atrocities. The cup of its abom- ination is full, and the blood of the murdered Lincoln cries out against it from the ground for retributive justice. Let the chalice be pressed back to the lips of the authors and leaders in this stupendous crime, until they drink to the dregs the bitter punishment called for by the insulted majesty of the law, by the righteous indignation of an injured peo- ple, and a security and example for all coming time, remem- bering that mercy to the individual may be cruelty to the State. The blood of ' the noble army of martyrs ' has been the seed of the Christian church, and the blood of the mur- dered Lincoln and his patriot soldiers slain shall cement the fast foundations of our magnificent temple of constitutional liberty. But, I thank God, Al raham Lincoln did not pass

from earth to heaven until he had fulfilled his mission ; had secured the salvation of his country, and filled the measure of his own glory in his signature to the great edict of the century, that shall forever wipe out the shame of slavery from the land ; that shall lift up labor from its degradation, and shall rescue popular freedom from the domination and control of a pretentious, arrogant and malignant oligarchy. This is the brightest jewel in his crown; the topmost stone in the triumphal arch of his fame."

EMPSTEAD, HON. CHARLES S., Lawyer, first Mayor of Galena, Illinois, was born at Hebron, Tolland county, Connecticut, September 10th, 1794. His father, Stephen Hempstead, was a native of New London, Connecticut, and be- longed to a family of the earliest settlers of that State; on the outbreak of the Revolution he joined the patriot army, and was with the first troops which assembled at Boston after the battle of Lexington, April 19th, 1775. He was with Washington, and arrived at New York in July, 1776, when the Declaration of Independence was read to the troops ; he witnessed the pulling down of the royal insignia when the words " free, sovereign and independent States " were repeated and acclaimed. In the same year he was one of the forlorn hope sent on a perilous expedi- tion in the fireships, which later attackcd the British frigates in North river. He was the cherished friend of Captain Nathan Hale, the " martyr spy," and was his companion on the fatal mission. In 1811 he removed to St. Louis, Missouri, where three of his sons had preceded him, and settled on a farm situated a few miles from the present city. Charles S. in 1809, then in his fifteenth year, accompanied by his brother Thomas, left New London in order to join the oldest brother, then residing at St. Louis, Louisiana. In the latter part of August they departed in a schooner for Alexandria, whence they travelled, via Winchester and Romney, Harrison county, to Clarksburg, in Western Vir- ginia. They then took a canoe at Marietta, and, properly equipped, started for Shawnectown, Illinois, where they finally arrived in the latter part of October ; from that point they walked to Kaskaskia, traversing the breadth of what is now the State of Illinois. February 3d, 1809, the date of the organization of this State as a Territory, Kaskaskia was selected as the seat of the government, and Judge Nathaniel Pope appointed one of the territorial judges. Arriving at St. Louis in October, 1809, lie immediately cn- tcred the office of his brother as a law student, the popula- tion of the town at that period consisting of but about fifteen hundred people, of whom not more than sixty families were English-speaking. After completing his allotted course of studies in the office of Edward Hempstead, he was admitted to practise law in the Territory of Missouri, by a license

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dated St. Charles, Missouri, September 13th, 1814, signed by Alexander Stewart and John B. C. Lucas, Judges of the Supreme Court of Missouri Territory. At about the same time he was admitted to practise law also in the Territory of Illinois, by a license signed by J. B. Thomas and Stanley Griswold, Judges of the Territorial District Court. After remaining in St. Louis about one year after his admission to the bar, he removed to St. Genevieve, and entered upon the practice of his profession, and the discharge of the duties of Attorney-General of the Southern Circuit of Missouri, a position to which he had been appointed by the then Gov- ernor of the Territory. St. Genevieve, then purely a French settlement, was comparatively an important point, and the residence of many notable men of the earlier days ; among such were General Dodge, subsequently Governor of Wis- consin Territory, and first United States Senator from Wisconsin, and Dr. Linn, then a young physician. He there remained until 1817, when he returned to St. Louis, in order to take charge of the legal business of his deceased brother, and also to conduct the settlement of his estate. In 1818-19 he was elected to fill a vacancy in the Missouri Territorial Legislature, which was the only legislative posi- tion he ever held : " this not from want of opportunity and repeated solicitation, but from a decided aversion to political life." From that time until the spring of 1829 he continued to practise law in Missouri, and during his residence there was the valued associate of many of the distinguished men of his time, Colonel Benton, the Barton brothers, Josiah Spalding, Edward Bates, and others. The year 1829 wit- nessed a considerable emigration to the Fevre river lead mines, and Galena, whose name signifies lcad-ore, became the point of attraction for a vast influx of population. It was then that he removed from St. Louis to enter on his profession in a new and untried field, but one which to a man of his ability, character and energy, offered sufficient encouragement. In the winter of 1830-31 he visited Washington, and was a witness in the impeachment case of James H. Peck, United States District Judge for the State of Missouri, a trial which excited the highest degree of public interest ; while there he was a listener to the memorable speeches of Hon. James Buchanan, afterward President of the United States, Hon. George McDuffie, Hon. William Wirt, and others. While then sojourning at the capital, he was present also during the famous discussion on Foot's resolution, when Webster and Hayne spoke, also a dozen others only less celebrated. From Washington he went to Richmond, Virginia, and there saw in session the immortal Virginia Constitutional Convention, composed of the greatest men of the Old Dominion, men of genius and unrivalled learning, whose discussions have been a storehouse of in- formation in political science, and a manual of reference of similar bodics in the United States since that time. Prior to this, in the summer and fall of 1829, he was the Secretary of the Commission, composed of General John McNeil,

at Prairie du Chien, then in Michigan Territory, with the - Pottawatomie and Winnebago Indians for their lands, now comprised in northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin. He was appointed, also in 1829, by Lewis Cass, then Governor of Michigan Territory, District Attorney for the Eleventh District of said Territory; in 1834 he was again appointed to the same office by Stevens T. Mason, then Acting Gov- ernor of Michigan Territory, but declined the appointment. He was present at Chicago in 1833 when the treaty was made by Governor Porter, of Michigan, with the Pottawat- omie Indians, upon which important occasion there were several thousands of Indians assembled at the treaty grounds, on the north side of the river, near the old Lake House. In 1840 he was the oldest member of the Galena bar, and possessed a very extensive and varied practice; " with a repu- tation for unswerving honesty and fidelity, foreign clients intrusted him with their collections through that whole sec- tion of the country. IIe had more cases on the calendar at that time than all the members of the bar had twenty years afterwards." In the fall of 1840, being troubled with a par- tial paralysis of the fingers of his right hand, which prevented him from writing with ease and comfort, he secured the ser- vices as assistant of a young lawyer known then to a few simply as Elihu B. Washburne, known now to all as the Hon. E. B. Washburne, United States Minister to France. That assistant was associated with him until I841-the date of the incorporation of Galena as a 'city, and his election as first Mayor-then left him to engage alone in the practice of his profession. In 1845 he connected himself in partner- ship with E. B. Washburne, and this unity of professional interests continued for some time after the latter was elected to Congress in 1852. " He was regarded as an able lawyer, a man of sound legal judgment and the highest professional honor. He was not a fluent speaker, but his addresses to the jury were always effective, for his high and dignified character added to his forcible presentation of his case. .. . He was never a fomenter of litigation; never made the court of justice an engine of oppression." He was always a prime mover and liberal contributor whenever an enter- prise affecting favorably the public welfare was under dis- cussion ; and was one of the most prominent men in that memorable pioneer enterprise, the Galena & Chicago Union Railroad, of which he was a Director in the first Board, serving ably in that capacity for many years. Soon after the outbreak of the Southern Rebellion he accepted the office of Assistant Paymaster of the army, voluntarily ten- dered him by Abraham Lincoln, and " no officer ever served more faithfully and satisfactorily than he did up to the close of the war." Early closely associated with the Presbyterian Church, he was during his entire life " an example of the highest type of the Christian gentleman," and he was as widely known for his generosity and refinement as for his natural talents and brilliant acquirements. He died at Galena, Joe Daviess county, Illinois, December 10th, 1874, Caleb Otwater and Colonel Pierre Menard, which treated |ripe in years, in learning and in experience ; and as exceed-

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ing honor had attended him throughout a long and useful life, so did universal regret accompany him in his journey to the tomb.

WIGHT, SAMUEL L., Lawyer, was born at Mount Vernon, Jefferson county, Illinois, March 15th, 1841. Ile is the son of Lewis Dwight and Ma- hala P. (Casey) Dwight, a daughter of Governor Casey of Illinois. ITis common school education was received in his native place, and later lic prosecuted a higher course of studies in the McKendrec College, at Lebanon. At the termination of his student life he decided to embrace the legal profession, and commenced the study of law in the office of Tanner & Casey, at Mount Vernon. IIe continued thus occupied until the spring of 1864, when he entered the service of the United States as a private in the 60th regiment of Illinois Volunteers. In December of the same year he was promoted to a First Lieutenancy, and in April, 1865, to the Captaincy of Com- pany I. He had, in the meantime, participated actively in the memorable battles at Ringgold, Dalton, Resaca, Rome, Dallas, New Hope Church, Kenisaw Mountains, Jonesboro', Averysboro', and Bentonville, and his promotions were conferred for bravery while in action and general merito- rious service. During a portion of the time he was attached to the staff of General Vandever. In July, 1865, he was mustered out of the service, and returned to his home in Mount Vernon, resuming his study of law. In the early part of 1866 he moved to Centralia, and there, passing the required examination, was admitted to the bar in Novem- ber of the same year. IIe then associated himself in a partnership connection with Hon. Lewis F. Casey, and at once entered upon the active practice of his profession. In 1870 he was elected to the lower house of the Legislature from Marion county, serving one term. The firm of Casey & Dwight enjoys an extensive and a remunerative prac- tice, and the partners arc justifiably proud of their reputation as learned and honorable practitioners. He was married in the fall of 1872 to M. Irenc Noleman of Centralia.

souri, and graduated therefrom in 1849. He had settled at Louisville in 1847, and upon receiving his diploma re- turned to his former residence and there entered upon the active practice of his profession. During the ensuing ten years he remained in that place, and built up a very exten- sive and remunerative practice. The field, however, being limited, he removed to Centralia, where he is now estab- lished, ranking as a leading physician of the town. As an obstetrician he has no superior in southern Illinois, and he has been remarkably successful in his management of pecu- liar and aggravated cases requiring the most careful and skilful treatment. He holds the position of Surgeon of the Illinois Central Railroad, treating all cases of injuries re- ceived on the road, and officiates also as Examining Sur- geon of United States Pensioners for his district, his ap- pointment for the latter position being one of the first issued to any practitioner in the State. In politics he was formerly an old-line Whig, and at the disruption of that party es- poused Republican principles and platforms, to which he has since uniformly given his support. He has always been identified with all associations and corporations in which the more prominent and active citizens of Centralia have interested themselves, and is esteemed as a most use- ful, cultured and upright member of society. He was mar- ried in 1850 to Miss Green, of Louisville, who died in IS56, leaving issue of two children; in 1866 he was again married, to Mrs. Sarah A. Doyle of Centralia. One of his children, Dr. W. L. IIallam, is also a skilful physician, and relicves him in a great measure from many of the cares con- sequent on his practice.

ARROT, VITAL, Lawyer, President of the Last St. Louis Bank, was born in St. Clair county, Illi -. mois, September 10th, ISO5. His parents were French. Ilis father moved to Illinois in 1792, and was there married to a resident of the French settlement, who is still living at the age of ninety- five. IIe was educated at the Georgetown College, District of Columbia, and graduated from that institution in IS23. On leaving school he began the study of law with Judge Pope, under whose instruction he remained two years, at the expiration of which time he was admitted to the bar. Upon attaining his majority, however, he decided to rclin- quish the further prosecution of his legal studies, disliking a professional career, and turned his attention to farming and agricultural pursuits. IIe was thus occupied until IS33, when he became an active participant in the " Black Hawk War," filling the position of Adjutant-General of the Illi- nois troops, and serving on the staff of Governor Reynolds until the close of the conflict. In the course of the ensuing year he went to Santa Fé, New Mexico, and there engaged in trading. In IS35, after a year's stay in that place, he returned to Illinois, and again devoted himself to farming,

ALLAM, JOHN L., M. D., by birth an English- man, was born February 17th, IS19. ITis parents, who cmigrated from England to the United States in IS27, settled in Edwards county, Illinois, and engaged in farming and agricultural pursuits. IIc was educated at McKendree College, Lebanon, and graduated from that institution in 1843. After leaving college he taught school for a period of two years, and then began the study of medicine, which he prosecuted unaided and alone. After acquiring a well-based and elementary knowledge of the profession he purposed to embrace, he entered the Medical Department of the University of Mis- | at which he continued until 1849. In 1833 he was elected

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to the Illinois Legislature from St. Clair county, serving | has accepted in order to contribute his quota to the general one term. In 1849, the " Gold Fever " then attacking the good and prosperity. For twenty years he has been a valued member of the Presbyterian Church, has filled va- rious offices in it, and has assisted materially in the erection of its buildings, and the advancement of its interests. The order of Odd Fellows, which flourishes in Centralia, has always been to him an object of warm and generous interest, and at different times he has been an occupant of all its va- rious offices. IIe was married in September, 1846, to Minetta E. Avery, of Wisconsin. entire country, he removed to California, and remained on the Pacific slope during the following three years. IIe then again returned to his farm, and in 1856 was elected to the Legislature, re-elected to the same position in 1858, and again in 1860, each time as a Republican, which places him among the original supporters of this party. In 1865 he received from Abraham Lincoln an appointment as Com- missioner to the Sioux Indians, for the purpose of securing amicable relations with that tribe. His attendant duties kept him among the natives subsequently for eighteen months, and his labors in behalf of peace were crowned with success. On his return he settled in East St. Louis, which is now his home, engaging in the lumber trade. In addition to his interests in that business, he is also Presi- dent of the East St. Louis Bank, and President of the East St. Louis Co-operative Rail Mill Company.

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The biographical encyclopedia of Illinois of the nineteenth century, Part 36

Author: Robson, Charles, ed Publication date: 1875 Publisher: Philadelphia, Galaxy Number of Pages: 770

Author: Robson, Charles, ed
Publication date: 1875
Publisher: Philadelphia, Galaxy
Number of Pages: 770