USA > Illinois > The centennial of the state of Illinois. Report of the Centennial Commission > Part 18
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Therefore, Illinois is pledged and prepared by her history and ideals to fight to the end, even if the war should take from us all that our hundred years have gathered.
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THE PROBLEMS OF THE FUTURE
What are the problems that confront. Illinois as it enters upon its second century, and what are the lessons its past teaches ?
The problems are the old ones of making and keeping a democracy honest and humane in purpose, genuine, intelligent and steadfast in character. The perpetual problem, as Lincoln stated it, is to have a government strong enough to protect the liberties of the people in a crisis, but not too strong for those liberties in times of peace; the problem of keeping justice and liberty equal and fraternal, and of ever guarding and preserving not only the essential principles, but the essential institutions of our free Re- public.
This war has taught us, as no other war in our history has done, that a republic must not only be willing to fight for its liberties, but it must be prepared to fight; that loyalty imposes a constant obligation which will be most cheerfully recognized and met if it is definite and applies to every youth alike.
The utter collapse and disintegration of Russia have taught us-as we needed to be taught-that there can be no justice assured to anyone except under ordered liberty, under a government of justice and law; that a socialistic government, whether resulting in anarchy or oligarchy, is not the government which Washington founded and Lincoln saved. Their goverment was of the whole people, and not of any class, and was founded in rules of right and in permanent institutions of liberty and justice.
Free government no more means a government of the pro- letariat than of the grand dukes; no more of the poor than of the rich; no more of the ignorant than of the learned. It means a government in which all participate, and under which the rights of all are equally protected ; and protected not by the will of the rulers, whether a vast committee or an irresponsible czar, but pro- tected by fundamental principles of justice and by established in- stitutions of freedom.
Illinois has been ever true in conviction, if not always in prac- tice, to the rule that "obedience to law is liberty." The disorders of the Chicago strike of 1591, and the more recent race riots at
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Springfield and Rast St. Louis, are painfal reminders that dangers constantly lurk in a democracy and that neither justice nor liberty can live under mob law. Reverence for law must ever go with devotion to liberty, clse liberty is lost. "Law is the uttered con- science of the state restraining the individual will."
This war should teach us another lesson of the highest value. In England and in America the great crisis has submerged and obliterated for the time the divisions between so-called labor and capital. Both have forgotten their differences-have been ashamed of their differences-in the presence of a danger that threatened to engulf them both. It the war has taught cooperation and mutual confidence and the duty to suppress differences for the good of all, shall we not finally learn that lesson and apply it to all our relations hereafter? For internal class divisions and strife will wreck demceracy as surely as would the success of the German arms.
It is increasingly patent that much remains to be done in order to make every Illinois boy and girl fit in spirit, in hand and in brain for the duties and the devotion of citizenship. This is a problem, not so much of making every citizen of greater eco- nomic worth to the State, but of making every youth, whether alien or native born, a loyal, an honest and an intelligent citizen. A formal naturalization of the immigrants is not enough -- it means very little; it should mean very much. It should mean such knowledge of our language-and there is but one American. language-and of our history and institutions, as will lead them unconsciously to love America with the singleness to which they pledge themselves in their oath of allegiance. Americanism ad- mits of no divided loyalty-least of all between America and an- other nation whosc governmental aims and principles are antagon- istic to ours.
The pitiful exhibition of "international democracy" in Russia the past year should be warning enough to us against every propa- ganda that weaken, in anyway or for any human purpose, complete patriotic devotion to America. All such movements in the name of humanity destroy all the safeguards of essential human rights.
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"God gave all men all carth to love, But since man's heart is small, Ordained for each one spot to be Beloved over all."
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When the heat of summer lies heary upon our land there comes a flower that bursts in white and gold on the sluggish stream, and decks with sweei stars of day the surface of many a murky pool. The Illinois of our pride today is not found in its population or wealth or its material resources. It is, in the soul of our commonwealth. Like a pond lily, it has grown out of the depths of this fecund valley, and, striving upward through all the turbulent and turgid floods of a new industrial and civil life, has been nourished even by the impurities in which it was rooted.
Only as onr buildings and enterprises, our genius for pro- duction and commerce strengthen and uplift the collective soul of our people, are they truly admirable. Every beauty of line in the material edilice of our greatness, every political or commercial achievement that stirs the spirit, is proof of the essential soundness of a civilization that has been and still may be somewhat crude, yet has been always genuine, always aspiring.
Even our largest material accomplishments disclose ideals that have not yet been realized, and that have soared with each attainment ; that have gone like the purpose before a deed, leading to action, but mingling with fulfillment a high discontent that impels to yet higher doing. They are but the symbols of our power, the promise of our future.
It is a brave banner that we uufurl, bearing the record of our hundred years. There you may read the story of Pere Marquette, carrying the cross to the wild tribes of our prairies; of the French coureurs du bois, romantic, brave, enduring; of the frontiersinen, who, like the explorers and fur traders, loved the wilderness, its hardships and adventures, with its free life and isolation, for their own sake, and then as towns and cities grew, they vanished beyond the Mississippi.
You can see there the pioneers -- the lonely log cabin, the little hamlet in the midst of the undulating sea of prairie flowers,
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guarded by the church spire and the school house, rather than by the walls and gates of old. Into the peace and silence come a few harsh notes of strife between savage and settler; splashes of blood stain the lake's yellow sands. Then you can see later the yeomen of the countryside morel ing with their flintlocks against the Indians in the one war that has touched the soil of Illinois.
You can see the beginning. of communities, of an organic life binding communities together ; the self-contained, yet uncon- scious heroes of that simple time, moving with a certain giant strength and childlike directness to control the forces which were then raw and plastic, and to build out of them a puissant and stable state. The pioneers stood as the trees of a forest, together but individual.
"They rise to mastery of wind and snow; They go like soldiers grimly into strife To colonize the plain. They plow and sow, And fertilize the sod with their own life, As did the Indian and the buffalo."
Behold there the simple folk that defended themselves against the red race, now imperiling their liberty and their lives to give freedom to the fleeing clave. These men of the "underground railroad" were the first projectors of North and South railroad lines, and they surpassed all others in having successful operation accompany the preliminary survey!
How that record blazes with the part of Illinois in the great war for Freedom and the Union! Behold the long lines of blue, gathering from farm and shop and store and school, and moving away to martial music, mingled with huzzas and sobs-to meet death or victory, as might be. but to meet either with a smile. The story brightens and darken, as gloom follows gleam until at last, out of hoping and despairing comes victory, and the sad, yet rejoieing return.
Then a shadow falls across the picture-a shadow so deep that it darkens every heart and every home in Illinois. Lincoln, the great Captain, Lincoln the Emancipator of the Slaves. Lincoln the Saviour of the Nation. Lincoln the Martyr, lies dead.
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"When lilacs last in the dooryard bloomed,
And the great star early drooped in the western sky in the night,
I mourned and yet shall mourn with ever-returning spring."
Then we see the interrupted forces rearrange themselves; old enterprises and new endeavors take on a new vitality; we see a city leap into life as by magic, and then more suddenly vanish in flames. Its woe becomes its fortune; its destruction is its upbuild- ing. Enterprise, commercial and industrial, dominates every element of city and country life. Material foundations are laid so broad and so deep that all else seems forgotten. Streets are lifted out of the swamp; notable buildings are raised out of the aslies ; numerical and financial strength increases. Out of them arise the beginnings of an intellectual and aesthetic life.
"Whate'er delight Can make Day's forehead bright Or give down to the wings of Night."
Wealth, philanthrophy and art, schools and universities blossom in the Dream-city of the Exposition, a city built of wave and cloud and sunshine; that opened, when the daylight fadel, like a great night-blooming cereus by the margin of the lake. li glowed with the colors of evening and of dawn, and passed as they pass, leaving only imperishable memories.
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And then the portraits that hang in the hall of our hundred years! Plutarch's men, who lived the
"Life that doth send A challenge to its end ; And when it comes, says Welcome, friend !"
Douglas, the "Little Giant," like a short, swart tower holding guns terrific for destruction and defense; Baker of the silver voice, who joined to the strength of the West and the calmness of
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the North, the warwith and fervor of the South-whose brilliant speech was forgotten in the keener flash of his sword, which, alas! fell with him at Bail's Bluff in the very budding of his powers; and Palmer, who followed bouglas in putting aside his party and its principles for the higher cause of the Nation; and in his old age again standing true to bis convictions and assumning leadership to guard the Nation from financial disaster; and Oglesby, the homeless Kentucky lad, thrice chosen Governor of Illinois, and be- loved leader in war and in peace; Trumbull, slender of stature, but great in intellectual power -- the foremost constitutional lawyer and debater of that time; and Logan of the sable wing, who left the companions of his youth: to lead, as few leaders could, the impetuous legions of the North -- who with a soldier's reckless daring joined a gentle heart, and in the thankfulness that followed war helped to heal its wounds by assisting in the establishment of the Grand Army of the Republic.
And Grant, of the stern, unflinching, untelling face, of a figure and a stature that gave no hint of martial glory or of martial prowess, but which held a spirit that was dogged, indomitable, persistent and resistless in war; that was gentle, self-sacrificing, and more sublimely brave in peace; that made Appomattox a shrine of magnanimity and Mount McGregor an altar of moral heroism.
But above all in our Pantheon is Lincoln, the people's hero, whose greatness is the common possession of mankind: A face so plain it fascinates, so sad it touches the heart ; so illumined that it draws us from all sordidness ; eyes that beacon to the safe harbor of a true soul ; a form builded like the ships of the Vikings. strong to the uttermost, and graceful almost in the perfectness of its strength ; a mind that brought every question to the test of truth, and would not deceive others because it would not deceive itself; a mind ever ruled by a heart which, as Emerson said, was as capacious as the storehouse of the rains, but had no room in it for the memory of a wrong ; a mind and a heart distraught. oppressed, borne down under burdens greater than ever man bore, and shaken by a temperament touched with moodiness and mysticism-they kept their soundness in a philosophy that took the sense of the comic as a preservative of wisdom, and the sense of duty as the
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preservative of honor and endeavor; a spirit so fine that it felt, past all argument, the imminence of Divinity; a life harmonized and made glorious in the conclusion of Darwin ; though a man may not fully know the issue of his life or the nature of God, he can do his duty. And how Lincoln did his duty, maukind will ever love to tell.
But there is another picture, a small part of a great canvas, not yet finished, radiant with a light that brightens every portrait, every painting in that ball. It portrays Illinois summoning her youth by hundreds of thousands to prepare to prove at arms her loyalty to liberty and her gratitude to France, and to defend that government of the people which it is Illinois' chief glory to have helped to save.
There is here none of the pageantry or trappings of an army with banners. Like the rude cabins of the pioneers, multiplied into myriads, are the schools of military instruction going forward with the simple directness and the invincible purpose of a high resolve. Here above the broad prairie the young eagles are trying their wings and their talons, that they may strike to the earth the German vultures that are tearing at the vitals of defenseless mil- lions.
Then we see them again-long lines of khaki brown and glistening steel that go forward and ever forward-some wounded, some dying, all cheerful, all smiling, all determined. And above the lines and before them-yea, and above the lines of France and of England-shining in the upper air, watching, rising, wheeling, striking-and sometimes falling !- are the young eagles of Illinois !
And the light of that picture glows upon all her sons who served with perfect devotion, whether here or there; whether they have returned, or whether France shall keep them lovingly and make their resting places shrines of liberty. And the radiance of that picture is from the sun of universal justice, liberty and kindli- ness that is just rising upon a darkened world.
All this-and how much more ?- glows resplendent on our banner, though it shows but the simple legend, Illinois, the Land of Men.
ESTABLISHING THE AMERICAN COLONIAL SYSTEM IN THE OLD NORTHWEST
BY ELBERT JAY BENTON
The occasion of the Illinois Centennial is an auspicious time to pay tribute to the great achievement in American history during the infaney of the communities which form the group of states of the Old Northwest. That achievement is the establishment of the American Colonial System. It is not intended to raise the ques- tion of the congressional history of the Ordinances which formu- lated it. That phase of the story may rest as it has been recorded.1 The problem now essayed is to trace the actual process of establish- ing the peculiar American mode of dealing with frontier communi- ties. It was one thing for Congress to lay down in a series of Ordinances the outline of a plan of government for the western domain, it was another for officials to carry it out in practice- to overcome the barriers to its application in a geographically re- mote wilderness. It is, indeed, the appearance of these barriers and their overcoming by territorial authorities which constitutes the main problem of this study.
The United States acquired so far as international relations were concerned a title to the Northwest Territory in the treaty which closed the Revolution. The national government still had two rival contestants in the field: some of the oldler states thought their territories swept across the Mississippi Valley in wide belts; and there were the Indian occupants. The former was easily dis- posed of, thanks to eight years of cooperation in a common cause and the conciliatory spirit abroad immediately after the Revolu- tion. The deed of ce-sion of Virginia, March 1. 1184, finally gave the United States title to a large strip north of the Ohio River.
1 Melaughiin, Confr leration and the Constitution, chs. T. S: Chirning. IV, ch. 17: Barrett, Evolution of the Ordinance of 1787. Arch ; R. Hullert. The Records of the Ohio Company, ha given a fresh account of the relation of the Ohio Company to the genesis of the territorial policy.
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New York had yielded a more shadowy claim to the same region tlice years carlier. Deeds of cession by Massachusetts, April 19, 1785, and by Connecticut, May 28. 1186, extended the national jurisdiction until it covered the whole of the Northwest, except Connecticut's western reserve along the south shore of Lake Erie. These cessions were the first price which states with western claims paid for Union.
The other western problem at the outset was to acquire from! the Indian occupants treaties ceding their claims to such portions ar were wanted for immediate colonization. The United States dealt with the Indian as semi-dependent nations. The Congress of the period went about the task quite logically. It began by creating a commission to negotiate with the Indians, and an army to give protection to all concerned. At the conclusion of peace it ordered the Revolutionary army disbanded, except a small guard of 80 men for Fort Pitt and West Point. On June 3, 1781, it instructed the Secretary of War to call 200 men from the militia of Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania for short terms of service in the protection of the Northwest frontier. The dismissal of the last regiment of the Revolutionary army had occurred only the day before, so that the act of Congress was an illustration of the new republic's fear of anything approaching a regular trained army and its faith in the adequacy of short term bodies drawn from the state militia system." Nothing is more characteristically American than this action. Colonel Josiah Har- mar was given command of the western army? In the fall Har- mar's force of state militia. about four hundred in munber, made its way across the Alleghanies into the Indian country north of the Ohio River. The militia of Connecticut and New York had not responded to the call. Some efforts were being made to recruit their quotas, but the frontier had to wait long for their coming.4
2 Journals of Congress, IV. 433. 4:8.
3 Josiah Harmar, hoorn in Philadelphia, 1753. concated at a Quaker School, entered Pennsylvania militi as a captain in 1777, colonel in 1777, commandant of western Army of United States in 1754. Wievet Hurdler- General in IT&T. comander-in-chief of l'autel States Army in 1739, retired from army in 1799. call in Thead Tokia, 1513.
'Harmar to Thomis Mimin. President of Cons: 4. Dec. 3. 1751 Trans- cripts obtained from the State Department by A. T. Goodman in 2×11 and deposited with the Western KHAIVe Historical Society. Cited herefter as Goodman Transcripts. See also Journals of Congress, IV, 874-3, Major Ebenezer Denny, Military Journal, p. 277).
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During the year in which a military force was taking chape for the Northwest, another territorial agency of the Confederation was organized. The first step was taken three days after the United States acquired title to the strip along the north side of the Ohio Valley. Congress appointed five commissioners who were instructed to negotiate with the northern and western Indians for their claims on the western country. A resolution urged the Com- missioners to make haste with their task. They were given power to contract with merchants for supplies of provisions and other gifts for the Indians as well as the necessities of the commission.5 Three of them were present at a conference with the New York Indians at Fort Stanwix, and on October 22, 1781, concluded a treaty which bears the name of the place ot conference." The Governors of New York and Pennsylvania had representatives at the conference and treated separately with the Indians. Such con- fliets of jurisdiction were not the least of the embarassing problems before the national commissioners,7 In the end the commissioners secured from the Six Nations the abandonment of their preten- sions to the region south and southwest of Lake Erie. The com- mission then ordered goods "delivered to the Six Nations for their use and comfort.">
Oliver Wolcott,9 Richard Butler, 10 and Arthur Leen served as Commissioners at the Fort Stanwix conference. Wolcott was replaced by George Rogers Clark" on the Commission which met
Journals of Congress, IV, 345, 252, 446, 484.
6 Journals of Congress, IV. 303; 374, 382, 531 ; American State Papers. Indian Affairs, Vol. J, p. 10.
: The Olden Times. II, 112-120 ; J. A. James, Some Phases of the Thi tery of the Northwest. Ih ports of the Mississippi Valley Historical Society, 1:1 $ Journals of Congress, IV, 591-2.
' Oliver Wolcott, born in Connecticut, 1726, graduated from Yale Colb :.. 1747. hecame colonel of Connecticut Militia, 1775, brigadier general ITY, member Continental Congress 1776-1 and 1788-84, signs of the Delitti ot Independence, major-general, 177", lieutenant-governor of Cont theut. 1756-96, governor 1796, did while governor 1797. 19 Richard Butler, born in In bind 1743, brought to America by pifetts when five years old, setthd in carlisle, Pennsylvania appouded maer .' Penn shania militar in 1776, heutenant colonel 1757, and color . 1 of a Inn- sylvania regiment; appointed major general in St. Clair's army, 1791, kill in battle, 1791.
" Arthur Les, born in Virgins in 1740, educated at Eton Coller !! University of Edinburgh. stu lied las at the Temple in Leiden, and pru in ! low in London, 1770-5, sent by Cultures ap several diplomatie mi-is in Europ, during the Revolution, niep.bor of Comprress, 1752-1, m aber of the Board of the Treasury, 17\4-9, dual in Virginia, 1792.
1. George Tower. Clark, born in Virginia 1:52, lord survevor by pr ó s- sin became ma or in Virginia moliti 17th, Heutewant opel, 1777-22. 11- mending Virginia forces of ratin. against the British in the Northwest lorigadier general in Continental Army, 1781, died in 1818
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the western Indians. Butler kept a journal of the conference which it held with the Wyandot, Delaware, Chippewa and Ottawa Indians at Fort McIntosh during December and January in 1784 and 1685.13 Hle describes a motley throng of Indians, men, wo- men, and children, that assembled during the last days of Novem- ber. The Commissioners doled out from their stores food, kettles, blankets, rum, and powder, and then struggled to keep in control the obstreperons element set off by firewater and emboldened by new supplies for their firearms.14 By a combination of bribery, threats, and coaxing the Indians were brought to sign the so-called treaty of Fort McIntosh. \ line was drawn through the central part of Ohio, east of which the Indians ceded their claims.15 The treaty of Fort McIntosh followed the well worn colonial policy of inducing the Indians to move farther westward. It seemed a great achievement. The Indians had in effect ceded some 30,- 000,000 acres to the United States.16 One or two facts lessened its importance. Various influences caused the Indians to make scraps of paper of their pledges. To begin with, the Shawnee, the most powerful of the western Indians, were not parties to the treaty of Fort McIntosh. But more serious was the fact that the treaties were concluded with only one element of the Indian tribes. At the very time the pacific element was coming to terms with the Commissioners of the United States, warrior bands were raiding white settlements. The political organization of the western In- dians was extremely chaotic. No authority among the Indians could control the situation. And even the peace element which assented to the treaties had little interest in peace with the United States for its own sake, and an absorbing hunger for the goods which the commissioners were doling out. Such treaties backed by ineffective military forces were little less than futile absurdities. although the motives behind them were of the highest.
No one recognized the incompleteness of the work more clear- ly than the commissioners." Early in 1985 they summoned the
1] Fort McIntosh was a crude wooden fort near the mouth of the Dig Beaver.
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