USA > Illinois > The era of the Civil War, 1848-1870 > Part 33
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
Peace removed the obstacles to foreign immigration to the United States; and of the throngs that came Illinois received more than her quota-its salubrious climate and rich and extensive prairies attracting the best of the home-seekers from the old world. In 1866 the tide was running strong, but the next year brought almost flood conditions; of the 25,000 immigrants landing at New York during each of the summer months of 1867, one-tenth indicated Illinois as their destina- tion-more foreign emigrants sought homes in Illinois than
19 Chicago Tribune, September 12, 1868, September 24, 1869. A few weeks later he appointed John Jones of Chicago the first colored notary public in Illinois. Rockford Gazette, November 25, 1869; Illinois State Register, March 31, April 4, 5, 6, 13, 1870.
20 Springfield Republican clipped in Chicago Tribune, June 15, 1867.
21 Belleville Democrat, January 4, 1867. It was still suggestive of the youth of the state, however, that the legislature did not show a single native Illinoisian in the senate and only eleven out of eighty-five in the house. Chicago Tribune, February 3, 1865; The (Columbus, Ohio) Crisis, February 15, 1865.
339
POPULATION IN WARTIME
in any of the other states except New York.22 After 1867 the flow of immigration to the United States was less spectacular, but the strong advantage for Illinois continued. In 1868, 34,625 immigrants arriving at New York gave Illinois as their destination, while at the same time 3,852 set out for Indiana. By 1870 there were in Illinois 515, 198 foreign born residents.23
The attractions of the soil and climate, the natural resources of the state, and the relief from heavy taxation that Illinois promised, were now more systematically brought to the atten- tion of prospective emigrants. Even during the years of the war, a Chicago Emigrant Agency prosecuted its activities, promising cheap passage from Ireland and England. With the return of peace an American Emigrant Company, with agencies in Europe and throughout America, appeared in Chicago; it imported skilled labor from Europe and supplied it at reasonable rates to manufacturers, railroad companies, and other employers of labor.24 The Illinois exhibit at the Paris exposition in 1867 called the attention of Europe to the resources of the state, as did the European advertisements of the Illinois Central railroad. The bureau of immigration at Washington, recognizing the popularity of Illinois, secured data from Governor Oglesby for the benefit of the people of Europe. The German Emigrant Aid Society at Chicago con- tinued its work but found its resources so strained by the heavy demand upon its good offices that it urged the state to make provision for direct assistance. Southern Illinois real- ized little or nothing from the immense tide of immigration until zealous citizens of Cairo formed an Emigrant Aid Society to attract settlers to that region.25
22 Chicago Tribune, May 8, July 26, 1867; Illinois State Journal, Aug. 5, 1867. 23 Ibid., February 3, 1869. The decade of the sixties converted Illinois into a populous commonwealth of over two million and a half persons, a gain of nearly fifty per cent. The ratio of increase was lowest for the native American population. The natural increase within the state, however, was slightly above the general average, although there were in 1870 only 1,181,101 native born Illinoisians. The state failed to receive, however, a proportionate share of immigrants from other parts of the United States.
24 Chicago Morning Post, April 1, 1864; Chicago Tribune, September 5, 1865. 25 Illinois State Journal, February 3, 1869; Chicago Tribune, July 11, 1867, July 29, 1869; Cairo Democrat, November 16, 1866; Cairo Evening Bulletin, December 22, 23, 1868, January 9, March 30, July 1, 1869. The Irish of Chicago also moved to establish an organization to provide for newcomers from the Emerald Isle. Chicago Tribune, April 2, 1869.
340
THE ERA OF THE CIVIL WAR
In the decade the German born population of Illinois reached the number of 203,750, exceeding the Irish by over sixty-six per cent. The new German settlers, in contrast with the south German exodus after 1848, came largely from northern Germany. It was the old German centers in Illinois, however, that in large part received this accretion; they con- tinued to be industrious, frugal, and peaceful communities. A new German center developed at Cairo, where a German theater, a school, and a German newspaper were established. The German residents of La Salle increased significantly and included the owners and most of the operatives of the local zinc factory. Their influence was expressed in furthering the cause of education in 1869 when they elected a school director and carried a bond issue of $20,000 for a new schoolhouse. 26
The majority of the Norwegians who formed part of a heavy Scandinavian immigration passed through Illinois to either Wisconsin, Iowa, or Minnesota. Chicago and a Nor- wegian settlement nine miles out of Ottawa, however, received several significant increments during the closing years of the Civil War.27 A Scandinavian Aid Society in Chicago was organized in 1866 to give assistance to bewildered immigrants. The Swedes, numbering 36,000 in 1870, were scattered all over the state, with a sprinkling in the southern counties and a considerable settlement at Paxton; but Rockford was the main objective of those who sought the atmosphere of old Sweden. At that place the Swedish Methodists undertook to publish the Ambassador, a religious paper; at Chicago in 1866 were launched Den Svenska Amerikanaren, a newspaper for the Swedish element of the northwest, and the Skandinaven, a Norwegian-Danish daily. Yet, while they sought papers in their own language, the Swedes of Rockford organized a literary society through which they proposed to acquire a fundamental knowledge of the uses of the English language - an action typical of this hardy, industrious class of settlers who longed to understand their new surroundings.28
26 Cairo Democrat, December 10, 1863, June 14, 17, 1864, March 30, May 25, 1865, November 16, 1866; Ottawa Weekly Republican, August 19, 1869.
27 Ottawa Free Trader, July 2, 1864; Ottawa Weekly Republican, July 2, 1864.
28 Rockford Gazette, January 21, 1869. The Swedish residents of Galesburg
341
POPULATION IN WARTIME
Practically every foreign born element received increases during this decade. The Irish increased some 32,000, reach- ing the total of 120, 162, but no longer competed very seriously with the Germans for the lead among the foreign born elements. The English immigration was light but included a colony of over three hundred families organized as the Durham and Northumberland Farmers' Club of England; their agent, Dr. A. R. Oliver, negotiated in behalf of this group for several thousand acres in Alexander and Pulaski counties. There was a hearty welcome for all; communities even competed with each other in trying to attract foreign settlers. The effort was even made in 1865 to attract to Illinois Polish political refugees from Russian autocracy; the newest contribution, however, to the cosmopolitan life of the state was a colony of six hundred Italian families who in 1866-1867 located a few miles from Pana.29
The foreign vote continued a formidable factor in the politics of the state. The different foreign elements went to the polls more or less as units and were often a decisive factor in an election; it was alleged that a half dozen canny Scots backed by only 75 to 100 Scotch voters controlled the repub- lican vote of Will county, which numbered 3,000. In local contests a foreign group often put one of its nationality into the field and worked harmoniously for his election. The Ger- mans, Scandinavians, French, Scotch, and Portuguese were mainly affiliated with republicans, the Irish adhered to the democratic party, while the Jewish vote seemed to be evenly divided.30
The German vote of Illinois and neighboring states was so powerful in 1860 that without its assistance Lincoln and averaged $4,000 a month in remittances to the old country. Rushville Times, September 30, 1869.
29 Cairo Democrat, November 26, 1867; Illinois State Journal, January 22, 1867.
30 Joliet Signal, April 14, 1868. The French speaking population of Illinois organized a benevolent society which declared itself "in favor of a political union of all our elements to affirm our right and privileges " under the consti- tution; in 1867 they brought out Francis Pasedeloup for alderman of the seventh ward of Chicago. Chicago Evening Post, April 8, 1867. In 1868 the Swedes of Henry county nominated an independent candidate for sheriff. Illinois State Journal, June 24, 1868. Many Jews had not abandoned their democratic con- nections; with democratic aid, others remembered General Grant's order dis- criminating against them.
342
THE ERA OF THE CIVIL WAR
his party would have been decisively defeated; its support in the years that followed made it possible to carry the war to its logical conclusion. Yet the Germans were modest in their claims for a share of the spoils; for several weeks after appli- cations for office began pouring in upon Lincoln not a single German office-seeker presented his claims. The services of even the most prominent Illinois leaders received only slight acknowledgment; Koerner, who had strongly nourished the hope of securing the Berlin mission, was given no recognition at all until he was sent as minister to Spain to succeed Carl Schurz, who preferred active service.31 Theodore Canisius, editor of the Illinois Staats Anzeiger, was sent as consul to Vienna, while George Schneider was appointed consul at Elsi- nore, Denmark.
The German republican voters and their press were from the first firmly opposed to concession or compromise to pre- vent war; when the struggle came they were equally prompt to insist that it bring about the extinction of slavery. They were enthusiastic backers of Fremont's attack upon slavery; in a meeting in Chicago to sustain his proclamation they denounced the administration's attempt " to shirk the true issue of the contest." 32 This was the beginning of an estrange- ment from Lincoln that came to a climax in the campaign of 1864. Fremont had been one of their favorites in 1860, and after the events of the following year they continued to pre- sent his claims until his formal withdrawal in 1864. On the reconstruction issues they stood firmly for thoroughgoing southern adjustment to the consequences of secession and civil war; they, therefore, without hesitation, repudiated President Johnson and followed the radical leadership until the end of the decade.
A growing restiveness on the part of the German repub-
81 Dodd, " Fight for the Northwest," American Historical Review, 16:786, 787, 788; White, Life of Lyman Trumbull, 103; Schneider, "Lincoln and the Anti-Know Nothing Resolutions," McLean County Historical Society, Trans- actions, 3: 90; Selby, " Lincoln and German Patriotism," Deutsch-Amerikanischen Historischen Gesellschaft von Illinois, Jahrbuch, 12: 523; Illinois State Journal, January 7, 1861; Koerner to Trumbull, January 21, February 22, March 13, 19, 1861, Trumbull manuscripts ; Koerner, Memoirs, 2: 114, 212 ff.
82 Theodore Canisius to Trumbull, February 8, 1861, Trumbull manuscripts ; Moore, Rebellion Record, volume 3, document number 142, P. 344-345.
.
.
343
POPULATION IN WARTIME
licans appeared as the slavery issue began to wane. As local elections revived local issues, association in " the party of great moral ideas" with colleagues whose narrow vision precluded a sympathetic understanding of German social customs became distinctly embarrassing. The Puritanism of the Yankee now expended itself on a revival of the old demand for prohibitory liquor regulations and a strict sabbath observance. To the German, the seventh day brought the simple human joys of a jolly procession to the woods where the rifle club might have a shooting match, the singing club a Gesangfest echoed by the children in their frolic, and all a health to cherished memories and to the land of their adoption. To sip a casual social glass or to include in his meal one of the beverages of the fatherland seemed to the German a fundamental personal liberty which a free America could not deny him. To the scan- dalized Yankee the German's bottle of beer meant a drunken debauch and Sunday festivities meant a willingness "to sacri- fice every principle or conviction in politics or morals " " for the precious privilege of getting drunk and carousing on the Sabbath." 33
German leaders took counsel over this "adulteration" of the republican program by New England sectionalism. The democratic party had in its early days shown an ability to appreciate their distinctive traits; now again their old asso- ciates welcomed them with understanding: the Germans "are Liberals in the true sense, in religion, society, and politics. In this respect they are the exact antithesis of what is denomi- nated the puritannical element in our country. The Germans believe in the largest liberty of conscience, of speech and social enjoyment." 34 Henceforward the word " republicanism " lost its magic; that the Teutonic allies did not desert en masse to the democracy was largely due to the strategy of the repub- lican leaders : the policy was adopted of stressing the slavery issue in national and state elections and of answering republican
33 Cairo Democrat, September 19, 1867.
34 Belleville Democrat, September 26, November 7, December 12, 1867. On this crisis see ibid., June 20, August 1, 29, October 3, December 12, 1867; Cairo Democrat, September 26, 1867; Illinois Staats-Zeitung clipped in Carthage Republican, November 21, 1867; Joliet Signal, September 24, 1867; Ottawa Free Trader, September 28, 1867; Illinois State Journal, October 3, 1867.
344
THE ERA OF THE CIVIL WAR
temperance crusaders with independent voting in the municipal contests.35
The Irish numbered forty thousand voters in Illinois in 1860. They controlled the elections in Cairo, Joliet, and other democratic cities and were largely responsible for democratic victories in Chicago. Because the republicans raised the anti- Irish shibboleth in order to enlist the prejudices of the Amer- icans and Germans, the Irish in the main continued contentedly in the democratic fold.36
Most of the Irish were drawn into the ranks of the Fenian movement, probably the most significant national expression of the foreign born in American history. The Fenian brother- hood was a society of freedom-loving Irishmen passionately devoted to the mission of creating a sentiment of nationality among their countrymen, with a view ultimately of redeeming Ireland from English rule. In this brotherhood the most prominent and wealthy Irish citizens joined the laboring masses. Local societies called "circles" under officers designated as "centres" were formed in every Irish community, while the society was knit together by state conventions under "head centres " and by a national organization. In November, 1863, when the first national Fenian convention was held at Chicago, Illinois contained forty circles, and others were rapidly formed under the direction of organizers like A. L. Morrison and Michael Scanlan of Chicago; within a few months an Irish National Fair was held at Chicago, at which generous subscrip- tions to the cause were made by the friends of the Irish of every origin. By 1865, when the national organization had enrolled several hundred thousand members, Chicago had become the life and soul of the movement, regularly forward- ing thousand dollar remittances to the New York office. 37
35 Bruncken, "Political Activity of Wisconsin Germans," Wisconsin His- torical Society, Proceedings, 1901-1902, p. 200. In the election of members of the constitutional convention of 1870 German meetings adopted the policy of refusing to support any candidate who would not pledge himself to work against the introduction of prohibitory liquor regulations. Joliet Signal, February 2, June 15, July 27, 1869.
36 Ibid., April 14, 1868; Joliet Republican, March 7, 1868. Republicans claimed that one Irish republican in fifty was a high estimate. Illinois State Journal, September 15, 1868.
37 P. W. Dunne of Peoria subscribed more money to the Fenian cause than any other man in America. Chicago Tribune, November 2, 1866; Chicago Times, November 4, 1863; Chicago Post, December 20, 1865.
345
POPULATION IN WARTIME
The Fenian brotherhood came to encompass all the activi- ties of the Hibernian population of Illinois. Their social life was shaped by the banquets, balls, and picnics arranged by the organization. Military drill was one of the objects of the society, and early in 1866 this motive became evident when the invasion of Canada under General Thomas W. Sweeney was attempted. A motley Fenian army including many veter- ans of the Civil War was raised, to which Illinois contributed generous quotas. Chicago had the finest regiment in the Fenian army-one thousand strong and nearly all veterans. In a few hours the Irish of the city raised $40,000 for their mobili- zation. Companies from all parts of the state were concen- trated in Chicago, from which they moved eastward without any attempt at interference. Oddly enough there was little criticism of this attempt to accomplish by force, in spite of American neutrality regulations, what might more lawfully have been attempted by political methods. General Sweeney marshaled his forces in the neighborhood of Buffalo and gave orders to strike into Canada. A foray across the international boundary caught the Canadians unprepared and struck terror into the peaceful population. A company of Canadian volun- teers from Chicago was raised by the Canadian society of that city and hurried across the border to assist in repelling the invasion. 38 The problem, however, had taken on an inter- national aspect and forced the intervention of the American government. At this stage the Fenian movement collapsed and the would-be heroes were taken into the custody of the federal authorities.
After the fiasco certain republican papers were ready to confess their "infinite disgust and contempt for this whole Fenian business;" but before the attempted invasion, the only clear-cut opponent of the Fenian brotherhood was Bishop James Duggan of the diocese of Chicago, who placed it under the ban of the church against secret societies.39 So formidable had been this Irish movement that no attempt was made within
38 Finerty, People's History of Ireland, 2:878; Chicago Evening Journal, June 4, 22, 1866; Chicago Tribune, June 22, 1866.
39 Rockford Register, March 16, 1867; Chicago Evening Post, February 23, March 11, 1867; Rockford Gazette, September 19, 1867; Chicago Times, Feb- ruary 3, 8, 19, March 2, 1864.
346
THE ERA OF THE CIVIL WAR
the state to check it. The democrats commended the zeal for liberty displayed by the Fenians and heaped encomiums upon the Irish, while the republicans saw no propriety in opposing it. Governor Yates and the state officers graced with their pres- ence Fenian entertainments in Springfield and noticed invita- tions to other celebrations with letters of regret commending the principles of the organization.
The Fenians had early "disclaimed all notion of identifying themselves with any and all political organizations outside of the objects of the Fenian brotherhood;" 40 yet it was known that the organization served as a powerful auxiliary to the democratic party. A misstep by the Chicago Times in 1865 threatened this unquestioning allegiance; when that journal inadvertently published an article criticizing and ridiculing the types of Irish "squatters" in Chicago, the "United Sons of Erin" under the lead of John Comiskey and various Fenian circles denounced it as "an English spy sheet" "no longer worthy of the patronage of any Irishman." 41 Many Irish- men doubted whether they could go to the ballot box at the next election and vote the "Times' ticket." The republicans eagerly availed themselves of this opening and, with a view of widening the rift, pointed out that by every principle of logic the Fenian advocates of freedom for Ireland ought to rally to the cause of freedom in this country. A recruiting agent for the republican party was found in John Pope Hod- nett, a talented young Irish orator, who had participated in establishing the Irish Republic in Chicago to further both the Fenian cause and the republican party. The anti-democratic reaction became evident in July, 1866, when a meeting of a number of Chicago "centres" declared that thereafter on all occasions they would vote "for that party which finds no excuse in musty laws, in vested rights, and ancient prejudices for degrading and enslaving men." 42 A certain branch of Hibernian voters conceived a strong hatred for President Andrew Johnson, and when he stopped at Chicago on his famous "swing around the circle," Governor Oglesby and other
40 Illinois State Register, April 4, 1865.
41 Chicago Tribune, August 10, 1865; Illinois State Journal, August 21, 24, 1865.
42 Chicago Tribune, July 12, 1866; Joliet Signal, July 17, 1866.
347
POPULATION IN WARTIME
republican moguls made bitter anti-Johnson speeches at a great Fenian picnic at Haas' Park outside the city.43 These latent forces of discontent found expression in an Irish republican vote in 1866, the harbinger of a larger republican following in later years.
Shortly before the election of 1868 came the first significant break in the democratic solidarity of the Irish voters. The continued harping of the republican press upon the "tyranny" to which the Irish tamely submitted in the democratic party - the clever insinuation that a small and corrupt native minority blandly exploited them to get into office- fanned into a blaze the smoldering discontent of the more restive Irishmen. They beheld certain attractions in the republican party with its fetish of freedom for the oppressed and with its anti-British tariff policy. In July, 1868, Hodnett, assisted by Alderman Arthur Dixon and J. F. Scanlan, organized an Irish republican club in Chicago to support the republican national ticket. Such a change in political alignment called forth a vigorous protest from standpat Irish democrats. The hall engaged by the republicans was invaded by members of Irish democratic clubs led by Aldermen Rafferty and Comiskey and a battle royal took place; in the mêlée stones, clubs, torchlights, and sling- shots were freely used and several persons were seriously wounded. When similar republican clubs were organized in other cities they encountered the same hostility from the old- guard Irish. Nevertheless, the rebel movement could not be stayed until a significant minority was detached; on election day in Chicago nearly two thousand Irish voters marched to the polls and broke the chains that held them to the democratic party.44
These Irish republicans were jubilant in their new-found freedom; on July 5 and 6, 1869, an Irish national republican convention was held at Chicago, a nucleus which was expected to grow into a powerful party. It was evident that these Irish republicans looked at all questions from an anti-English stand- point; their platform of principles, though expressing a general
43 Chicago Tribune, August 16, 17, 1866. The Irish republican leaders included L. O. O'Connor, J. F. Scanlan, and others.
44 Illinois State Journal, August 11, September 12, October 30, 1868 ; Chicago Tribune, July 27, August 28, 1868.
348
THE ERA OF THE CIVIL WAR
sympathy for the downtrodden of all lands, specifically urged an anti-British foreign policy, denounced free trade, and insisted on the principle of protection. When they declared that free trade was "a cunning and selfish device of the enslavers of mankind," it was clear that they regarded a high tariff as injurious to British industry and commerce. This was too much even for the Chicago Tribune, which was insisting that tariff rates were already too high and should be reduced; it, therefore, advised the Irish republican politicians to temper their missionary zeal with political discretion, to drop the issues which tend to divide, and to " allow the Irish republican party to grow a little larger by being less vigorous in the restrictions and less crotchetty in the principles required as a test of membership." 45
While Illinois was welcoming to its prairies the incoming emigrant, it was in turn making contributions to the western movement. Attracted by the gold mines of Idaho, the equable climate of Oregon and California, and by the new free lands of Kansas and Minnesota, Illinoisians of both native and for- eign birth bundled their Lares and Penates into a prairie schooner to seek their fortunes on the frontier. In another very different way Illinois felt the influence of the western march of the pioneer; it lay directly across the highways that led to all parts of the northwest. These paths crossed the state at a half dozen places. Jacksonville citizens, for instance, could claim that "a constant tide of movers passed through our streets, going West." 46 Chicago, however, was the usual way station for this human traffic from the east. Hundreds of emigrants arrived daily and as they changed cars stopped to inspect the great metropolis of the west. They found Chicago's ninety-four hotels continually crowded in spite of extortionate rates.47 Many took up residence in " the great Babylon of the West" who had originally sought a destination far beyond. So the city collected tolls in human lives as well as in the trade of a great entrepôt.
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.