USA > Illinois > The era of the Civil War, 1848-1870 > Part 37
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22 Illinois State Journal, June 21, 1865; Illinois State Register, September 25, 1865; J. D. Ward to Trumbull, September 19, 1865, Trumbull manuscripts. 23 Illinois State Register, July 6, October 4, November 17, 1865; Chicago Evening Journal, December 18, 1865, March 8, 1866; Prairie Farmer, April 27, 1867; Ottawa Free Trader, January 4, 1868; Champaign County Union and Gazette, November 24, 1869.
24 Fite, Social and Industrial Conditions in the North during the Civil War, 5.
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farmers, while southern Illinois sent the Negro "contrabands" into the harvest fields. At an early day, too, women and chil- dren took their places as farm hands, and a grown man at work in the fields came to be pronounced "a rare sight." 25
Invisible labor units were added by the installation of agri- cultural machinery, which saved many of the western crops; 26 even conservative farmers were forced to replace and supple- ment man power by machines. Oxen were found to be too slow for the hauling of expensive farm implements; and, in spite of the scarcity and high price of horses, the former were steadily discarded. The reduction of the number of oxen in the state in 1870 to about one-fifth of the 1860 figure offers peculiar testimony to the extensive introduction of farm machinery in the Civil War decade.
Illinois had prepared in the previous decade for this devel- opment in the use of farm machinery. In 1861 Illinoisians took out eighty patents, or over one-seventh of the patents for such machines granted by the government; seventeen for cul- tivators, fifteen for harvester machines, eleven for ploughs, and ten for corn planters.27 In the decade the value of farm implements doubled, giving the state third instead of fifth rank among the states of the union. The prairie regions particu- larly came to be exploited by farm machinery : the value of farm machinery in Champaign county, for instance, increased from $25,000 in 1850 to more than $600,000 in 1870.
In 1860 the size of the average Illinois farm was 1 58 acres ; in 1870 it had dropped to 127 acres, although there was still a gain in the amount of improved land. Against this general tendency on the part of farm units to decrease in size, many large farms held their own. Farms of several thousand acres were scattered over the state. M. L. Sullivant, who lived on an inclosed estate of twenty-three thousand acres called "Broadlands," eight miles south of Homer in Champaign county, was reputed to own "the largest farm in the United
25 Carthage Republican, June 9, 1864.
26 Scientific American, 9:9.
27 U. S. Patent Office, Report, 1861, p. 637-648. In 1867 the first patent for a disc plow was granted to M. A. and J. M. Cravath of Bloomington. Hales, His- tory of Agriculture, July 1, 1915, p. 47. Gang-plows had already begun to come into use as an important labor saving device. Prairie Farmer, June 4, 1864.
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States, and probably in the world." He had an aggregate of 80,000 acres of land; one piece in Piatt county was a tract of 45,000 acres. At the same time John T. Alexander, a mil- lionaire farmer of Morgan county, was said to own a tract of 80,000 acres without an acre of waste or poor land; 32,000 head of cattle fed in his pastures and 16,000 acres were put in corn for the 15,000 head of hogs that he was raising. In 1866 Alexander purchased "Broadlands" and established himself in Champaign county.28
In the Civil War era a new sense of professional pride in agricultural pursuits evidenced itself in a tendency toward more extensive organization. Farmers' clubs began to appear in all parts of the state for weekly neighborhood meetings and informal discussions, especially during the winter months. The county and state agricultural societies continued along established lines, although war conditions interfered consider- ably with their fairs and caused the omission of the 1862 state fair. The fairs and horse shows were assuming a more prac- tical bearing; and important steps were taken toward the introduction of new breeds and the improvement of livestock in general. Moreover, the state society found new opportu- nities for practical service, in directing the adjustments in farm economy to war conditions and in conducting the discussion of problems connected with the establishment of an industrial university under the Morrill land grant act. In 1867 a very successful Illinois exhibit was made at the Paris exposition under the direction of John P. Reynolds, who was selected by the State Agricultural Society and commissioned by the gov- ernor to represent the state; in the awards the Illinois collection received several medals.29
The return of peace in 1865 terminated the advantage that the farmer had derived from war conditions. As war time markets were closed and prices on agricultural products dropped, although manufactured goods held their own, a rest-
28 Homer Journal clipped in Central Illinois Gazette, June 22, 1866; ibid., February 2, 1866; Canton Weekly Register, May 7, 1866; Homer Journal clipped in Illinois State Register, November 8, 1866.
29 Illinois State Agricultural Society, Transactions, 7:616-708; Ottawa Weekly Republican, July 18, 1867; Chicago Tribune, July 29, August 1, 1867; Illinois State Journal, February 3, 1869.
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lessness developed among the producing classes that threatened to break out into a serious farmers' revolt. The farmer had certain grievances growing directly out of the marketing of his products. First of all he confronted the difficulty of secur- ing a fair price for his crops; then, with a growing dependence upon the railroads, he wrestled with the transportation prob- lem. High rail rates and elevator charges conspired to rob him of what he regarded as a fair return upon his labor. The news of railroad consolidations and rumors of combinations between the railroad interests and the warehouses, followed by advanced rates of storage and transportation, acquired a new significance when it was found by that heavy stock sub- scriptions the railroads were controlling the grain elevators.30
Something of a crisis came in the winter of 1865-1866 when in parts of Illinois the price of corn fell to ten cents a bushel and was cheaper than wood for fuel purposes. At the same time railroad rates were so exorbitant as to cause cattle raisers to consider it more economical to drive their cattle to the Chicago market. Complaint became widespread among the pro- ducing classes ; the cry of " monopoly " arose, " the people hav- ing become alarmed at the designs and usurpations of the East- ern oligarchs, who now own and control Congress " 31-the issue was regarded by many as "eastern capital v. western labor." Then began a struggle between the agriculturist's and the "monopolists " preliminary to the granger movement of the seventies. In 1862 an Industrial League had been formed by the farmers of La Salle county as the preliminary to this farmers' movement.32 On October 22, 1865, a con- vention of over two thousand farmers of the sixth congressional district met at Grundy in the interest of cheap transportation; among other things it requested the executive board of the State Agricultural Society to call together a state farmers' mass convention at Bloomington on December 15. This was done; when the convention assembled it recommended an elaborate
80 Prairie Farmer, April 2, May 7, August 13, 1864.
31 Galena Gazette and Monmouth Review clipped in The (Columbus, Ohio) Crisis, January 10, 17, 1866; Whiteside Sentinel clipped in Chicago Evening Journal, November 20, 1865.
32 Illinois State Journal, December 18, 1862; Ottawa Weekly Republican, January 24, 1863.
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scheme of internal waterways and adopted a resolution "That it is expedient at this time to form a League of Illinois, with branch associations throughout the State, whose object it shall be, by legislative action, or, if necessary by constitutional pro- vision, to restrict railroad, express, and warehouse charges within reasonable limits." 33 A similar mass convention was held at Bloomington June 29, 1866.
At the same time sentiment was developing against the so-called "live stock 'ring'" of Chicago. In the legislature of 1865 the Union Stock Yard and Transit Company had been incorporated with authority to manage a cattle yard, a series of branch railroads, a bank, and a hotel; many leading stock men had opposed it as a monopoly without knowing that $925,- 000 out of the capital of $1,000,000 was subscribed to by nine of the principal western railroads. In 1866 a group of com- mission men, calling themselves "The Board of Live Stock Commission Men," undertook to convert this largest and most important livestock market in the world into a secret exchange by suppressing the reports of sales of cattle in the daily news- papers. Though blocked by the local press, they were able at times to buy hogs at five or six cents live weight and sell pork, ham, and lard at more than double that price. In 1868 after wheat had been " cornered " three times, corn and barley twice, and rye and oats once, a corner on pork forced up the price of pork products to prices that aroused the wrath of the deluded farmer.34
Here was a hydra headed monster that must be slain. The people of the northwest were gradually awakened to the importance of legislative action to prevent these "moneyed monopolies from swallowing up the entire earnings of the producing classes, and reducing the country to poverty, that they may declare large dividends." 35 When new elevator companies found themselves unable to compete with estab-
33 Aurora Beacon, November 20, 1865; Chicago Evening Journal, November 23, 27, 1865; Illinois State Register, November 29, December 23, 1865; Jackson- ville Journal, June 1, 1866.
34 Illinois State Register, January 29, 1865; Chicago Post, December 27, 1865; National Live Stock Journal, September, 1870, p. 29; Chicago Tribune, October 31, November 5, 1866; December 19, 1868; Canton Weekly Register, November 26, 1866; Illinois Democrat, September 11, 1868.
35 Paxton Record, December 16, 1865.
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lished concerns on account of railroad discrimination, the ware- house act of 1867 was passed in spite of the opposition of the warehouse men backed by the railroad lobbyists. This law established a set of regulations for warehouses, opened them to public inspection, fixed a penalty for "gambling contracts," and required the railroads to deliver grain to the warehouses to which it was consigned.36 Members of the Chicago Board of Trade were arrested shortly for violating the clause prohibit- ing "gambling contracts;" their prosecution, however, was held up and the provision languished in innocuous desuetude until the next legislature restored trading in " futures." Re- peated efforts at railway legislation resulted in the railroad law of 1869. Although no results followed the farmers' attack upon " the slaughter-house and cattle yard monopoly," repeated efforts at railway legislation bore fruit in the railroad law of 1869.
Thus did the farmers without adequate organization or direction show their strength in the politics of the state. But already the missionaries of a new order were preparing the soil for a more aggressive program of self-defense; in another decade under the more efficient organization of the Patrons of Husbandry Illinois agriculturalists were to take their part in a great revolt by the farmers of the northwest.37
36 I Laws of 1867, p. 177-182; Chicago Tribune, August 17, 1867, February 13, 1868; Ottawa Weekly Republican, August 22, 1867.
37 Prairie Farmer, November 13, 1869, March 26, April 30, 1870; Kelley, Patrons of Husbandry, 245 ff.
XVIII. RECONSTRUCTION AND THE MILITARY POLITICIAN
T HE brilliant military exploits of the autumn of 1864 were continued into the winter months. First General Sher- man presented Savannah as a Christmas gift to the union and then, with scarcely enough opposition to relieve the tedium of the march, moved his unconquerable forces northward through the heart of Dixie; meanwhile Grant hammered away at the defenses of Richmond. This combination against the confed- eracy was enough to forecast its prompt suppression.
In January, 1865, General Richard J. Oglesby, the distin- guished veteran of Donelson and Corinth, was called to the gubernatorial chair from the field of battle. His election and inauguration, therefore, forecast the transition that the na- tion was soon to experience when camp and battlefield were giving up their hosts and yielding to the constructive tasks of civil life. Governor Yates made his farewell in a message surveying the history of his administration and the war record of Illinois at such length as to break all records for state execu- tive documents; Oglesby in his inaugural devoted himself largely to the national outlook-to problems which were in the large to assume greater importance than state politics dur- ing his administration. Like his predecessor he recommended the repeal of all laws bearing unequally upon Negroes and declared them entitled to the rights and privileges of the whites. The time was indeed ripe for reaping the harvest that republic- anism had for a decade been preparing.
While awaiting the complete triumph of the federal arms the republicans undertook to make a final disposition of the slavery question by adopting a constitutional provision for abolition. Governor Yates had formally petitioned congress to take this step in January, 1864. An attempt was made
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early in the following June, but the proposition failed in the house of representatives where the Illinois democratic delega- tion voted solidly for its defeat.1 The republicans, however, now interpreted their sweeping victory of 1864 as a mandate for abolition and insisted that five of the Illinois democratic congressmen had been instructed by the votes of their constit- uents to support the proposed amendment. The new legisla- ture undertook to make these instructions formal in a set of joint resolutions, but before this action could be completed news reached Springfield of the passage of the amendment.2 The Illinois congressional delegation, however, had again di- vided along party lines and voted against the amendment. On February 1, 1865, immediately upon the arrival of the news of congressional action, the Illinois legislature adopted a resolution of ratification, thereby winning the honor of being the first state to ratify the thirteenth amendment.3
As a very proper corollary to this signal step toward free- dom for the Negro the Illinois legislature acted to repeal the " black laws" by which a free state had placed serious limita- tions upon the freedom of the Negroes within its limits. The republican assembly of 1861, to the disappointment of all rad- ical antislavery leaders, had failed to eliminate these laws on account of the sectional crisis; then, having been driven from control by the democrats, the republicans had found their hands tied until the victory of 1864. Now, however, on February 7, 1865, the "infamous " legislation which the champions of free- dom had so bitterly attacked but which had survived under democratic rule was wiped from the statute books. Next, con- firming the prophecies of democratic critics, the "Negro equal- ity" party began a discussion of the logic of Negro suffrage;
1 The Illinois vote was five (all union men) for the measure and eight (all democrats) against it, with Anthony L. Knapp not voting; Rockford Regis- ter, July 2, 9, 1864; Congressional Globe, 38 congress, I session, 145, 522, 694, 2995; Illinois State Register, February 4, 1864.
2 Chicago Tribune, November 20, 1864, January 24, 26, February 3, 1865; Illinois State Journal, February 1, 2, 1865; Rockford Democrat, February 2, 1865; House Journal, 38 congress, 2 session, 264-265. The most surprising vote against the amendment was that of John T. Stuart of the Springfield district, President Lincoln's former instructor and partner in law; Stuart like Lincoln had previously been a whig of the Henry Clay school, but while he now indig- nantly rejected any imputation of proslavery views, he could not reconcile himself to the political consequences of emancipation.
3 Laws of 1865, p. 135.
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inasmuch as this suggested a new source of continued power, republicans promptly organized a campaign to attain that goal. To the end of reenforcing republican ascendancy in state poli- tics the legislature enacted a voters' registration law and a soldiers' voting law, and considered a new congressional appor- tionment measure; although each had its merits in a nonparti- san sense, they all involved some peculiar party advantage, represented most clearly in the gerrymandering provision of the apportionment bill which sliced out the fifth ward of Chi- cago to attach it to a group of republican counties south of the city.4
Under the constitutional provision limiting the session to twenty-five days the last hours were characterized by hurry, confusion, and carelessness. Members of "the third house" or "lobbyists" busily plied their trade, especially the repre- sentatives of insurance companies of which seventy-one were incorporated. Party newspapers on both sides delicately hinted and then boldly charged fraud, bribery, and other corrupt prac- tices, amid which 899 bills were passed, often without any knowledge of their provisions. These were mostly private or local bills, many of which were enacted as parts of omnibus measures which were jammed through by logrolling tactics. Everyone seemed to breathe a sigh of relief when the announce- ment of adjournment was made.5
On April 3, shortly after the legislative excitement sub- sided, the tidings reached Illinois of the occupation of Rich- mond by the union forces. The appearance of this dispatch in "extras" upon the streets caused the citizens to gather in wildest enthusiasm; flags were raised, church and fire bells began to ring, and cannon salutes reverberated upon the air. That night, brass bands and rockets summoned the people to further celebration; bonfires lit the sky with their glare and the intoxication of victory continued to a late hour.6 Grant's and Lincoln's names were on everyone's lips. Citizens proudly
4 Chicago Times, January 23, 1865.
5 The Tribune considered it as welcome as the coincident announcement of the victory of an American horse on the French turf. Chicago Tribune, February 17, 24, 28, 1865; Chicago Times, February 18, March 4, 14, 1865; Joliet Signal, February 21, 28, 1865.
6 Illinois State Journal, April 4, 1865; Chicago Tribune, April 4, 1865; Carthage Republican, April 6, 1865.
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rejoiced that Illinois had contributed not only the largest quotas of men but two loyal sons who as civil magistate and as military leader had conducted the union cause to victory.
A week later public rejoicing was renewed upon the an- nouncement of the surrender of General Lee's army. The people were happy in the belief that peace, with the beneficent blessings that follow in its train, was about to return to the republic. "There was a smile on every face-happiness in every heart. Booming guns, clanging bells, streaming banners, and the tumultuous cheers of a happy populace told the public joy and proclaimed it to the world. But in a few short hours all this was changed. The people went about the streets mourn- fully, the bells tolled, the flag of the Republic was hung at half mast, and the hope of immediate Peace, which made the coun- try glad, vanished like a beautiful vision of the night-for ABRAHAM LINCOLN, who in the days of his triumph had become the champion of the pacification of the South by con- ciliation, had fallen under the hand of an assassin, just as he was about to accomplish the grandest and most solemn problem of statesmanship in the history of the world." 7
Abraham Lincoln had been accorded a martyr's crown; friend and foe alike bore their tribute to his feet. "The great stateman, the pure man, the humane adversary of a wicked rebellion, the true christian, is assassinated," sorrowed the Paxton Record.8. "A man upon whom, through four years of diversified: hopes and fears, of doubtings and prayers, had at last centered the confidence and love of a nation, was stricken down in the hour of his triumph and vindication," eulogized the editor of the Carthage Republican, a political antagonist.ยบ The Chicago Times, convinced that the presidential mantle had fallen upon the shoulders of a man in whom nobody felt confi- dence, proclaimed the sincere sorrow of all northern democrats : "Widely as they have differed with Mr. Lincoln, - greatly as their confidence in him has been shaken, - they yet saw in the indications of the last few days of his life that he might com-
7 Cairo Morning News, April 20, 1865.
8 Paxton Record, April 20, 1865.
9 Carthage Republican, April 20, 1865.
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mand their support in the close of the war, as he did in the beginning.10
No finer homage, perhaps, can be found than that paid by the Cairo Democrat which within a twelvemonth had pro- claimed Lincoln as a "usurper and tyrant who is only fit to split rails;" it now commented: "Illinois claims Abraham Lincoln as her gift to the nation; and receives back his lifeless body, marred by traitors, weeping, like Niobe, and refusing to be comforted. Many of us have been active opponents of his administration -have warred against him with the determina- tion of earnest enemies. In the past, we believed him to be pursuing the wrong path of public policy, and we told the world so, using language the strength of which was prompted by the passions of the passing moment; but when the end drew nigh, . . we saw this man whom we had condemned, rise above party, and disregarding his private anger, if he had any, become the great conciliator." 11
The sincerity of democratic mourning was attested by the approval which had just been extended to Lincoln's policy in the matter of reconstruction. Indeed, the conciliatory meas- ures projected by him for the restoration of the insurgent states received a warmer welcome from the opposition press than they were accorded by a large number of vindictive repub- lican organs. In the last few weeks of his life his clemency and magnanimity toward the vanquished south had, in the minds of many democrats, absolved him from the trammels of party; with his martyrdom he attained an indisputable title to nationality.12
Democrats and republicans alike were skeptical of the qual- ifications of Andrew Johnson for the chief magistracy. The rumor had spread broadcast that on the occasion of his inau- guration as vice president he had taken his oath of office and made his inaugural address in a state of intoxication; the Chi- cago Tribune undertook to verify the report and proclaimed Johnson's conduct a national disgrace. It demanded his resig- nation, declaring: "In the event of the President's death the
10 Chicago Times, April 17, 1865.
11 Cairo Weekly Democrat, May 11, 1865; cf. ibid., July 14, 1864.
12 Chicago Times, April 18, 22, 26, 1865; Joliet Signal, April 25, 1865.
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Vice-President succeeds to his place. Who can measure the calamities that would befall the country if the Presidential chair were filled by a person who becomes grossly intoxicated on the gravest public occasion? Such a contingency may well appall us." 13 This opinion was shared by other republican journals of Illinois, while the democrats took pleasure in tracing Johnson's condition to "the license and corruption of his party." 14
When, however, Johnson did become Lincoln's successor, his position was studied from a new angle. In him democrats saw an advocate of vindictive reconstruction who, from impo- tence as presiding officer of the senate, had advanced to the nation's highest seat of authority. Their horror at this turn of events was matched only by the satisfaction of radicals who had grown disgusted with the increasing soft-heartedness of Abraham Lincoln. From them came an outburst of applause at the very first announcement of the new president that he would be careful " not to pursue any policy which would pre- vent the government from visiting punishment on the guilty leaders who caused the rebellion." The Chicago Tribune opened its arms to Andrew Johnson. "That's the talk," it declared. "Johnson's little finger will prove thicker than were Abraham Lincoln's loins. While he whipped them gently with cords, his successor will scourge them with a whip of scorpions. He knows who they are and what they are. He hates slavery and has little affection for its high priests. There will be thorough work made of those who hatched and led the rebel- lion." 15 "The loyal heart of the people," explained the Rock- ford Register, April 22, 1865, " since the surrender and parol- ing of Lee's army, has been fearful that our late President was too full of the 'milk of human kindness' to enable him to deal justly with traitors. However this might have been, all the evidence we can gather as to Andrew Johnson's sentiments, points to the assurance that no such fears need be entertained regarding him."
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