USA > Illinois > The era of the Civil War, 1848-1870 > Part 25
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The general body of Lincoln's supporters rallied to the task of preserving the union from the storm that was gathering upon the horizon. It devolved upon them to prove that the republican party was the party of the union. They reminded each other of the wisdom of restraint in the flush of victory, in order to convince the people of the south by their words and acts that they were not half so fierce and ravenous as represented, that they could be gracefully generous to a van- quished foe. The enforcement of the fugitive slave law was conceded as one of the rights to the enjoyment of which the south was justly entitled. At the same time they insisted on being "true to the North-true to themselves -true to the
3 Rockford Register, December 8, 1860, March 16, 1861; A. W. Metcalf to Trumbull, December 18, 1860, Trumbull manuscripts.
+ Belleville Weekly Advocate, December 14, 1860; Ottawa Free Trader, March 2, 1861. After the outbreak of the war Bassett delivered a sermon in the courthouse at Ottawa, which was later published, in which he again advocated the right of secession, and declared that "our country is at present engaged in an unjust and unholy war." Ibid., September 28, 1861.
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great interest of free labor -true to Republican principles." 5 If, then, the southern states insisted upon a disruption of the union in violation of the fundamental laws upon which the con- stitutional superstructure of the nation had been built, repub- licans would plant themselves upon Andrew Jackson ground and exhaust every resource for the enforcement of the laws. They made it clear that they understood that the constitution did not and could not operate directly upon the states; "it has to do with the people-with individuals." " "The Union, it must be preserved-execute the laws," was the republican rally cry.
In their rejection of compromise and concession these republicans were prepared for a test of arms. "I am in favor of 20 years of war," wrote one of Trumbull's correspondents, "rather than the loss of one inch of territory or the surrender of any principal [sic] that concedes the right of secession, which is the disruption of the government." "Petitions are circulating rapidly for a reorganization of the militia and everybody is signing them " announced Horace White. "We live in revolutionary times, and I say God bless the revolu- tion ! " 7
Republican leaders held council as to the course of action required of them by the crisis. President-elect Lincoln took up quarters at the governor's office in the statehouse and held conferences in which were shaped the policy of constitutional rights for the south without compromise. The Illinois delega- tion at Washington promptly after the opening of the session assembled and unanimously resolved that " the Union must and shall be preserved." 8 Governor Yates, knowing that, as the governor of Lincoln's state, his views would have a special significance in the public mind, took counsel with men of wider political experiences as to the content of the inaugural address.
5 Illinois State Journal, December 15, 1860; Chicago Tribune, November 8, 1860.
6 Ibid., December 20, 22, 29, 31, 1860. Gustave Koerner drew up an elabo- rate article to prove that there could be no constitutional right of secession ; this was sent to the Missouri Democrat and widely circulated in the Illinois press and in pamphlet form. Koerner, Memoirs, 2: 108; Koerner to Trumbull, December 10, 1860, Trumbull manuscripts.
7 W. H. Hanna to Trumbull, December 19, 1860, Horace White to Trumbull, December 30, 1860, ibid.
8 Chicago Tribune, December 19, 1860.
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Entering on his duties as governor January 14, 1861, he insisted in a lengthy address upon the perpetuity of the union and declared that "the whole material of the government, moral, political, and physical, if need be-must be employed to preserve, protect and defend the constitution of the United States." Democrats and republicans, alike could not but believe that the document, produced under the nose of the president- elect, had a special significance in forecasting the policy that would obtain with Lincoln's inauguration.9
Compromise and concession found so few supporters in republican circles that the ranks of the party were thrown into consternation when news came from Washington that early in January William Kellogg, member of congress from the Peoria district, had introduced a compromise measure, involving amendment of the constitution. Kellogg's lead was bitterly denounced in public and in private by the controlling element in the republican ranks; and his followers, indignantly repudiating the proposition, assembled in convention to read him out of the party. To such republicans the word "com- promise " soon became an "accursed" term which they re- gretted had never been eliminated from the English language.10
Although democrats were naturally more hospitable to the idea of preserving the union by compromise, yet on January 16, when a state convention met at Springfield to settle upon a policy for the party to pursue, it was revealed that party leaders were divided between advocates of strong union ground, fol- lowers of Congressmen John A. McClernand and Isaac N. Morris, and secession sympathizers like General James W. Singleton. Six of the latter were given places on the resolutions committee ; the convention, however, agreed upon a platform advocating any plan of conciliation and compromise by which harmony might be restored, denying the constitutional right of
9 Yates to Trumbull, December 21, 1860, Trumbull manuscripts; House Journal, 1861, p. 102; Joliet Signal, January 22, 1861.
10 Peoria Transcript, February 9, 1861; Joliet Signal, February 26, 1861 ; Aurora Beacon, February 7, 1861; Illinois State Journal, June 24, 1861; J. H. Smith to Trumbull, January 7, 1861; A. P. Bartlett to Trumbull, February 9, 1861, J. H. Gallatin to Trumbull, February 11, 1861, Trumbull manuscripts. President Sturtevant of Illinois College held that rather than sacrifice principle to the union, it would be better that "the Union should be dissolved than made such a Union as the South intends to make it." J. M. Sturtevant to Trumbull January 30, 1861, ibid.
[From photograph in possession of Mr. Richard Yates, Springfield, Illinois]
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secession, and urging the limitation of military authority to the assistance of the civil authorities in the execution of the law. Republicans interpreted this as "an echo of the false and detestable position of southern traitors." Democrats, however, declared that it followed their illustrious leader, Stephen A. Douglas, in offering to concede and sacrifice everything to save the union.11
Senator Douglas, who had promptly joined the ranks of the union men after the news of Lincoln's success and his defeat, was laboring energetically to end the national crisis by an appeal to the spirit of compromise; he urged all loyal Americans to discard party lines and unite to save the country from impending disasters. As member of the joint committee of thirteen appointed to prepare measures of adjustment, he not only supported the Crittenden compromise and all other propositions based on the principle of mutual concession but submitted a plan of his own applying the doctrine of non- intervention and popular sovereignty. The republicans, on the one hand, however, persisted in their firm adherence to the Chicago platform while the secessionists, on the other, showed a disposition to reject even the opportunity to dictate all the terms that would enable them to continue within the union.
A mass of secession problems came before the general assembly when it convened on January 7. The state of Vir- ginia had proposed the appointment of commissioners by the several states to meet in convention at Washington to consult about a peaceable settlement of the difficulties between the states. Leading republicans held a series of caucuses to delib- erate on this matter; Lincoln, who stood firm against any con- cessions to the south, advised against any action by Illinois which would suggest that the state desired any constitutional changes. Even after Governor Yates was asked by the gover- nors of Ohio and Indiana whether Illinois would appoint com- missioners, Lincoln urged no action. "Lincoln said that he would rather be hung by the neck till he was dead on the steps
11 Illinois State Register, January 17, 1861; Chicago Tribune, January 19, 1861; Rockford Register, January 26, 1861; Joliet Signal, January 22, 1861; Koerner to Trumbull, January 21, 1861, Trumbull manuscripts.
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of the Capitol before he would beg or buy a peaceful inaugura- tion." 12 Finally it became evident that provision for sending commissioners was a matter of political necessity "because if we had not united to do so, some of our knock kneed brethren would have united with the democracy, and would have given them sufficient strength to have carried the resolutions appoint- ing by the General Assembly." Lincoln and Yates both opposed the step but, once taken, Yates gave the appoint- ments, mostly of persons named by Lincoln, to ex-Gov- ernor John Wood of Quincy, Judge Stephen T. Logan of Springfield, Gustave Koerner of Belleville, and Congress- man B. C. Cook of Ottawa and Thomas Turner of Free- port.13
Another proposition growing out of the disunion crisis was the organization of the state militia. Governor Wood, the successor to the unexpired term of Governor Bissell who had died in office in March of 1860, called attention to this need before turning the reins of office over to Governor Yates. The state could not then boast any efficient militia organization; a people loaded with the bounties and blessings of long continued peace had seen no occasion for diverting energy into either martial spirit or organization. Not more than thirty com- panies existed with any regular organization under the state law for the supply of arms to militia companies. Their occa- sional drills were "held more for exercise and amusement than from any sense of duty to the State." The young men who, during the campaign of 1860, had swelled the ranks of the Wide Awakes, the Douglas Invincibles, and other organi- zations of a political character had received a more valuable training than the military companies.14
In the face of a general demand that now arose for the reorganization of the militia and the full arming of the state, many democrats assumed a hostile attitude. "As Democrats,
12 W. Jayne to Trumbull, January 21, 28, 31, 1861; W. H. Herndon to Trumbull, January 27, 1861, Trumbull manuscripts.
13 E. Peck to Trumbull, February 2, 1861, W. Jayne to Trumbull, February 1, 1861, ibid. Joseph Gillespie of Edwardsville led the fight for compromise within the republican ranks. N. B. Judd to Trumbull, January 17, 1861, ibid .; Ottawa Free Trader, January 26, 1861 ; Koerner, Memoirs, 2: 113.
14 " Annual Report of the Adjutant General, January 1, 1863," Reports General Assembly, 1863, 1:467; Chicago Tribune, January 3, 1861.
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we claim exemption from service in this Black Republican war," declared the Joliet Signal, January 15, 1861. "Let the Black Republicans of Illinois do the training, and fighting if necessary, for it was their party that brought the calamity upon the country. We trust that the Democratic members of our Legislature will vote against arming and drilling our people to prepare for murdering and butchering their Southern breth- ren." As a result of this democratic opposition, combined with the prevailing uncertainty, no effective legislative action was taken by the general assembly.
The legislature set to work upon arrangements for the constitutional convention ordered by the people at the last election and for the reapportionment of legislative districts which also required attention. The republicans hoped to per- petuate through reapportionment the supremacy won in the legislative victory of 1860 but were not nearly as enthusiastic as the democrats about a new constitution which might disturb the fruits of that victory. The two propositions, therefore, went through together as mutually counteractive, the democrats choosing to believe, after protracted filibustering, that, how- ever infamous the apportionment bill might be, there would never be an election under it.15 The assembly also formally ratified the decision of the people in favor of the reelection of Trumbull to his seat in the United States senate, and the docket was cleared for the new problems that might arise when the republican president-elect should take his seat.
On a brisk bright day, March 4, 1861, Abraham Lincoln, the first Illinoisian to enter the White House at Washington, was inducted into the presidential office. Lincoln's inaugural address was an emphatic declaration of the duty of the presi- dent to maintain the supremacy of the laws against all resis- tance, in the same spirit in which "Old Hickory" had met the nullifiers in 1832. Douglas promptly designated it as a declaration of war and prepared to lead a factious opposition to the new administration.16 Less than six weeks later, how- ever, the secessionists at Charleston challenged the federal mili- tary authority at Fort Sumter and, in compelling the garrison
15 Ottawa Free Trader, January 26, 1861.
16 Koerner, Memoirs, 2: 118.
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to haul down the flag, precipitated the bloody civil struggle which had been so long impending.
The day of compromise was now clearly over; here was evidence that all the labors of the peacemakers had gone for nought. President Lincoln sent out a clarion call for defenders of the union that ended much of the futile discussion and wran- gling between the leaders of the two parties in the north. Senator Douglas was one of the first to respond to the leader- ship of his lifelong rival; with Lincoln's call for seventy-five thousand troops came the announcement that Douglas had for- mally agreed "to sustain the President in the exercise of all his Constitutional functions, to preserve the Union, maintain the government, and defend the Federal capital." 17 Personal pol- icy was subordinated to the public safety; with obligations to his country paramount to those of his party, the partisan had been sunk in the patriot. Having rallied a large band of prominent "war democrats" around the administration, he confronted a serious defection in the southern counties of his own state and hurried off with Lincoln's blessing to secure the loyalty of this stronghold of democracy.
Early in February signs had pointed to the danger that traitors might become numerous in southern Illinois. Republi- can leaders, therefore, advised against the establishment of a federal court at Cairo, where the union forces would not have sufficient strength and influence to convict the most flagrant' disloyalist.18 The governor was informed of the growing strength of the disunion feeling. Secret meetings were held at various points ; Pope county held an open mass meeting and declared the right of secession, while a meeting at Marion, Williamson county, on April 15, pledged itself to perform the task of effecting a division of the state and to attach Egypt to the southern confederacy. These resolutions were under- stood to have received the approval of Congressman John A. Logan, who was opposed to the coercion of the southern states; a speech in which he compared the secessionists with our forefathers struggling for liberty, was widely circulated. It was generally believed in Egypt that W. H. Green, A. J.
17 Arnold, Life of Abraham Lincoln, 200-201.
18 James C. Conklin to Trumbull, February 12, 1861, Trumbull manuscripts.
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Kuykendall, and other leading democrats were advocating a secession of Egypt if matters developed as they predicted. Ex-Governor John Reynolds sympathized strongly with the confederate cause and was willing to pronounce before "God and man, that the revolution in the South is the greatest demon- stration of human greatness and grandeur that was ever performed on the globe." 19
To end this situation Douglas directed all his energies. Arriving at Springfield on April 25 he poured forth an elo- quence which swept not only the assembled audience but pene- trated to the farthest confines of the state. Frankly confessing that his own mistakes had been made "in leaning too far to the Southern section of the Union," he was in a position to warn his old following against continuing to commit the same errors.2ยบ Thus was he arousing the people of Illinois to the defense of the government and of the flag, when a fatal illness seized him and permanently silenced his eloquent pleas for the union on the third of June, 1861.
By this time the response of the people evidenced itself in the military preparations that were under way. Mass assem- blages received with applause Lincoln's call for troops. A countless number of recruits immediately offered their services to the government, so that within a fortnight the governor became " greatly embarrassed by the number of volunteers." 21 Governor Yates had replied to the fall of Sumter by issuing a proclamation convening the legislature in special session. This began on April 23 and in the following ten days its work was rushed through. The drafts of new legislation had been pre-
19 Illinois State Journal, June 10, 11, 18, 20, 1861; Cairo Democrat, Sep- tember 25, October 2, 1866; Shawneetown Mercury and Harrisburg Chronicle clipped in Chicago Tribune, June 17, 1861; ibid., September 18, 1861; Central Illinois Gazette, June 19, 1861; Illinois State Register, June 19, 1861. Logan wrote to the editor of the Register, June 18, 1861, branding as a "lie" the charge that he had brought forward and openly advocated a plan "to effect the separation of southern Illinois from the remainder of the state and attach it to the southern confederacy;" ibid., June 21, 1861. See also Jonesboro Gazette, March 14, 1863; Congressional Globe, 36 congress, 2 session, 178-181; S. E. Flannigan to Trumbull, April 9, 1861, Trumbull manuscripts; Belleville Advocate, August 28, 1863.
20 Johnson, Stephen A. Douglas, 483-485.
21 Trumbull to J. R. Doolittle, April 27, 1861, Illinois State Historical Society, Journal, 2:44. "Three regiments too many have already assembled and thirteen regiments are pressing to get into service."
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pared in the executive office with the advice of republican leaders like Gustave Koerner and Senator Trumbull, the latter having hurried home from Washington. A bond issue of two millions was authorized to provide a war fund; the old obsolete militia system was replaced by a new militia law which provided for an elaborate organization; additional regiments were authorized for state defense.
The forces raised in the state were distributed between the district opposite St. Louis, with encampments at Alton and Caseyville outside Illinoistown, and at Camp Defiance at Cairo. A main purpose was to curb the spread of secession activities throughout Egypt. Recruits from the southern counties were joining the confederate forces and in some instances receiving encouragement from democratic leaders who considered the possibility of taking part in person in the raising of com- panies.22 The name of John A. Logan, who bitterly denounced Douglas for the betrayal of the democracy, was used in the interest of southern recruiting as late as June, 1861 ; but, finally confronted by the alternative of committing political suicide or of clearing up his position, he proceeded to Camp Yates to discourse eloquently on "the duty of all patriots to sustain the Government in its efforts to vindicate the Constitution." 23 Logan followed this up by joining the volunteer army; and though secession activity continued in Egypt, the effect of his leadership and that of McClernand, who had been a union democrat from the start, was seen in the heavy enlistments that in the summer of 1861 began through the southern counties.
From the military point of view, the chief danger lay in the uncertainty of the situation at St. Louis. Cairo, to be sure, was the one point directly exposed to attack by the secession forces; but a strong military force was stationed there under Brigadier General Prentiss.24 The secessionists, on the other hand, were organizing in St. Louis and the danger was that
22 Joseph Medill to Trumbull, April 16, 1861, Trumbull manuscripts. James D. Pulley, a member of the legislature was arrested on the charge of enlisting men for the southern army. Illinois State Journal, June 5, 1861.
23 Ibid., June 18, 20, 1861; Illinois State Register, June 19, 1861; Koerner, Memoirs, 2 : 124, 134.
24 Trumbull to J. R. Doolittle, May 10, 16, 1861, Illinois State Historical Society, Journal, 2:45-48.
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Missouri would be forced into secession by their armed strength; with that state out of the union the problem of defending Illinois would be doubled. Illinois was almost devoid of military equipment; but the federal arsenal at St. Louis had an extensive supply, liable on account of inadequate protection to fall into rebel hands. For that reason 21,000 stands of arms and supplies were stealthily transferred one night to the possession of the state authorities of Illi- nois. 25
Illinois cooperated in the western governors conference at Cleveland early in May which memorialized the president to create a department of the west, to establish rules for the stop- ping of supplies to the south, and to emphasize military oper- ations on the Ohio and Mississippi. Soon after the creation of the western department, it was enlarged to include Illinois, Indiana, and a part of Kentucky; as a result Illinois troops were soon scattered over Missouri fighting to control that state for the union. The Illinois authorities were next success- ful in having General Harney, who though a union man was a Virginia slaveholder, replaced in the command of the federal forces at St. Louis by General Fremont.
By the summer of 1861 Illinois had a powerful force of 20,000 men in the field in addition to its heavy German enlist- ment in Missouri regiments; with the Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin regiments drawn off for service in the east and those of Indiana and Ohio in West Virginia, Illinois troops promised to be the dominating factor in the reconquest of the Mississippi valley.26 This situation stimulated the ambitions of various Illinoisians to secure commands over the state troops. Lincoln had been so busy dispensing patronage to party leaders in gen- eral that his own state had received little consideration. The state administration, therefore, brought pressure to bear upon Washington as a result of which John Pope, Grant, Hurlbut, Prentiss, and McClernand received brigadier generalships. The name of John M. Palmer was at first passed over, al- though he received the recommendations of the state officials
25 Koerner to Trumbull, May 31, 1861, Trumbull manuscripts; Koerner Memoirs, 2: 130-133.
26 John Pope to Trumbull, July 6, 1861, Trumbull manuscripts.
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and of the congressional delegation; Senator Trumbull con- sidered Palmer "one of the bravest & in my opinion the cool- est, most sagacious & ablest of them all." 27
From the start there was a good deal of the impatience for results in the republican ranks, which as time went on made for a serious misunderstanding between Illinois republican leaders and President Lincoln. In particular there was sharp criticism of the administration of the war department under Secretary of War Cameron. Cameron, a Pennsylvania repub- lican politician who had been a rival of Lincoln for the republican presidential nomination, had been appointed to the cabinet much against Lincoln's best judgment; Illinois leaders had resented the appointment of Cameron as "a man who could not obtain the votes of ten decent, sober, moral Repub- licans for any office whatever." 28 The supposed inactivity of the war department caused great disgust especially in view of the situation in Missouri. The State Journal voicing this impatience declared: "Our people venerate LAW next to GOD, but they are restive under the restraining operations of red tape. The idea of waiting for orders from Washington to defend ourselves or protect our outraged Union brothers in Missouri may not much longer be brooked." 29 Even the disaster at Bull Run, resulting from the general popular demand for action, did little to cool this ardor.
Another source of republican dissatisfaction in Illinois grew out of the treatment received by General Fremont from the national administration. Illinois was concentrating its atten- tion upon the situation in the Mississippi valley and in par- ticular upon Missouri where General Fremont had set to work to organize an efficient army. Fremont, however, from the outset was not given proper support by the administration; and, with limitations in the shape of a strong personal ambition and a tendency to make important assignments to irresponsible and dishonest subordinates, he rapidly widened the gap between
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