USA > Wisconsin > A political history of Wisconsin > Part 2
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Judge Doty was active in getting Wisconsin organized as a territory, and it was natural that he should be an applicant for the office of governor, when the time came for the President to make the appointment. He certainly had superior qualifications for the office. He was the first federal judge: he had resided in the terri- tory for over twelve years; he had traveled over the most of it; knew its people and its resources better than any other man. and, unlike most territorial appointees, he intended to make Wiscon- sin his permanent home. Here began the quarrel between Doty and Dodge that lasted all their lives. Doty was beaten in the first round. and knocked out by Henry Dodge. When the appointment of territorial officers was made. Andrew Jackson was President of the United States. He was one of the fathers of the
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A POLITIC.IL. HISTORY OF WISCONSIN.
Democratic party, a stout believer in the doctrine that "to the victors belong the spoils." and he at once applied that rule in set- ting the wheels of the government of the new territory in motion. The man who invented civil service roform had not then been born.
President Jackson placed none but Democrats on guard. In this he had two objects in view, both of which had their inspira- tion in partisanship. The first object was to reward his own sup- porters in the territory and select good officers, and in the second place, to strengthen the administration at Washington by securing two new United States Senators whenever the new State was admitted into the Union. History records the fact that, as a rule, seldom departed from, the first Senators chosen to represent a new State have been the men who have been governors or other territorial officers, appointed by the President. This practice held good in the case of Wisconsin.
President Jackson selected for the first Governor of Wiscon- sin Henry Dodge, who took the oath of office July 4. 1836. The appointment gave general satisfaction. Gen. Dodge had long been a resident of the territory and had won distinction as an Indian fighter. His military career had some strong points of resem- blance to that of Gen. Jackson himself, and he was all the more popular on that account among the pioneer settlers. He had taken the ferocious Indian chief. Black Hawk, a prisoner, and had exter- minated the remnant of his tribe.
"Henry Dodge," says Reuben G. Thwaites, in his Story of Wis- consin, "had been one of the leading spirits in the lead mines for years, and was in command of the Michigan militia west of Lake Michigan during the Red Bird uprising and the Black Hawk war. A man of fine physical appearance. prompt action and pompous manner, he won the reputation of being a brave and dashing par- tisan leader, instilling fear into the breasts of the Winnebagos, over whom he was fond of domineering. and fostering emulation among the picturesque band of free rangers whom he led to scout - ing service along the threatened frontier. Dodge was deficient in early education and was greatly overestimated by the majority of his contemporaries; nevertheless he discharged his various duties, military and civil, in a creditable manner."
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Philus Saryper
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A POLITIC. IL HISTORY OF WISCONSIN.
The other appointments were John S. Horner of Virginia. secretary: Charles Dann of Illinois, Chief Justice: David Irvin of Virginia, and William C. Frazer of Pennsylvania, associate judges: W. W. Chapman, attorney, and Francis Gehon, marshal-the two latter being residents of what is now the State of Iowa .. Of these judges an carly historian testifies as follows: "The people of Wis- consin, in territorial times, were particularly fortunate in that the judges who administered the law were educated. intelligent. learned in the law, of undoubted integrity, and diligent and faithful to their trusts." Of these Judge Dunn was the most prominent, his public service outliving territorial times and extend- ing far into the life of the State itself. He was one of the framers of the present constitution and he acted for a while as the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. He has left the impress of his genius and professional learning upon the statutes of the com- monwealth.
A census was taken by the sheriffs in August, 1836, and the population of the territory was found to be 22,218-about one hali of whom resided in what is now Iowa. On the 9th of Septem- ber, Governor Dodge issued his proclamation apportioning the members of the Council and House of Representatives, and con- vening the Legislature to meet in Belmont, Iowa county, on Octo- ber 25. for the purpose of organizing the first session of the Legis- lature. The proclamation also directed that at the same time a delegate to the Congress should be elected for two years. As . there had been no political lines drawn in the territory up to this date, the election of members of the Legislature was conducted upon personal and local grounds, and men were generally chosen with regard to personal fitness rather than because they were Whigs or Democrats. George W. Jones was elected as a dele- gate to Congress at this election, his opponent being Moses Meeker, and the issue was made upon the alleged preference of Col. Jones for the permanent location of the seat of government for the new territory.
The Legislature consisted of thirteen members of the Council. and twenty-six members of the House of Representatives. The . Council organized by electing Henry S. Baird president, Edward
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A POLITIC.IL. HISTORY OF WISCONSIN.
McSherry secretary, and William Henry sergeant-at-arms. In the House of Representatives. Peter Hill Engle was elected speaker. Warren Lewis chief clerk, and Jessie M. Harrison ser- geant-at-arms. In some respects it was a peculiar assemblage of men. They came chiefly from Lake Michigan on the east, and the lead mines and vicinity on the west. The representatives from both regions were typical of the population. The men from the eastern and southern portion of the territory were natives of New . England and. Middle States, Pennsylvania contributing nearly one fourth of the members of the House. The lead mines sent a delegation whose members had, for the most part. been born in the slave States, hence the prevalence of the pro-slavery sentiment among them. Of the twenty-six members of the popular branch of the Legislature, twelve were born in the South. It is easy to see that there were no Abolitionists among them. In both branches there were only three foreign-born citizens, and they were all Irish- . men. Not a member was born in Germany, or in any other province where the German language was spoken. The Council .purged itself of any suspicion of nativism by electing an Irishman. Henry S. Baird, to preside over its deliberations. Political differ- ences were not in evidence, and the choice often turned upon some local question, such as the division of a county, the location of a county seat, and sometimes, perhaps, upon the fitness of the candi- date for the business of legislation. National politics cut no figure, although men calling themselves Democrats were largely in the majority, that being the brand of politics most popular in the terri- tory at the time, and all appointees, both by the President and the Governor, belonged to that party. "The great and paramount question of the session," says Moses M. Strong. "was the location of the seat of government. To this all others were subordinate and made subservient." For four weeks the contest was kept up among the advocates of the different towns before a choice was finally made, the points voted for being Madison, Fond du Lac. Dubuque. Portage, Helena, Milwaukee, Racine, Belmont, Green Bay, Koshkonong, and other places, but it was settled at last in favor of Madison by a majority of one in the Council and six in the House of Representatives. "Madison town lots in large num-
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bers," says Strong's history of the territory, "were freely distrib- uted among members, their friends, and others who were supposed to have influence with them." The town plat of Madison was then owned by James Duane Doty, who was afterwards conspicuous in political life, first as a delegate in Congress and governor of the territory, and as a member of Congress, after the State was admit- ted. Without passing judgment upon the methods adopted by Judge Doty to secure the location of the capital upon his ground, it can be asserted without fear of contradiction that a more beauti- ful location could not have been selected.
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CHAPTER II.
DRAWING PARTY LINES.
- The first official term of Governor Dodge was not character- ized by any political excitement. All the federal officers felt secure in their places and there was no effort made to displace them. That sublime old scriptural poet. Job, probably had the contented and well-paid officeholder in his mind's eye when he made the sarcastic inquiry: "Doth the wild ass bray when he hath grass? or loweth the ox over his fodder?" If these questions had been asked during Dodge's first term, they would have been answered in the negative. Men's minds were too much engrossed in those days with business cares, the improvement of farms, the division of counties, the location of county seats, and the laying out of wagon roads, to care much for office. They were busy organizing new townships, carving out new school districts, breaking prairie, building houses, bridging rivers, and doing all the necessary work in developing a new empire. The people were fully alive to the necessity of improvement of rivers and harbors by the general gov- ernment, although the dominant sentiment in the territory was Democratic, and it was well known that the national Democratic party at that time was decidedly opposed to such a system. Gov- ernor Dodge, however, warmly endorsed the policy of internal improvements in his first message to the first territorial Legisla- ture, and acting upon his recommendation. it petitioned Congress for large sums of money to improve the harbors of Lake Michigan. The Governor's views on this important subject are expressed in the subjoined extract :
: "The improvement of the navigation of Rock river I consider a subject of vital importance to the future prosperity of this terri- tory. This river waters a large extent of fertile country and a small appropriation by Congress would be sufficient to remove
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Ar Reyes
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A POLITIC.IL HISTORY OF WISCONSIN.
obstructions in its navigation. It is known that from the outlet of the Four Lakes, that discharges itself into the Rock, the dis- tance to the Rock river does not exceed twelve miles. by land, and from the Fourth Lake it is not more than sixteen miles to the Wisconsin river. The great advantage of this inland communica- tion must be apparent."
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The reader will probably smile at the enthusiasm of the Gov- ernor over the prospect of making the streams which he names navigable: but he simply gave expression to the confidence of the people generally at that time in the ultimate accomplishment of all the proposed enterprises. Every candidate for delegate to Congress had to pledge himself unreservedly to try to secure large appropriations for such improvements, and the elections hinged on that issue. . The Fox and Wisconsin river improvement had many friends, and the lake shore interests at Racine, Kenosha. Milwaukee. Sheboygan and Manitowoc became alarmed and jealous lest those harbors would be neglected, and too much atten- tion be paid to the rivers, and it was the lake shore influence that . elected Isaac P. Walker to the United States Senate.
The members of the first territorial Legislature had quite as enlarged views of the wants and future possibilities of Wisconsin's internal navigation as their Governor entertained. for they not only wanted all the rivers in the interior and harbors on the lake improved at national cost, but they struck out boldly for a grant vi Land for a railroad across the State from Lake Michigan to the Mississippi river. "It is a subject of great interest to the citizens "' this territory," said the Governor, "and has strong claims on the . jaatt nage of the government." But it was fifteen years later. in 1551. before Holton. Kilbourn, Brodhead, Tweedy, and their avoriates, directors and promoters of the Milwaukee & Wauke- .ha Railroad, ran their first train of cars into the latter village.
At that session three banks were chartered. They were reck- 'e», enterprises. They all failed in a few months, and the loss sustained by the community by the failure of the Mineral Point Bank alone, was over $200,000. No wonder that the men who framed the first constitution were uncompromisingly opposed to Mate banks, after the sad and costly experience they had had with (3)
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A POLITICAL HISTORY OF WISCONSIN.
wildeat banks, and the losses that the people had sustained by their failure.
At the regular session of the Legislature in 1837, the follow- ing important acts were passed: .
The act abolishing imprisonment for debt.
The act establishing the University of Wisconsin.
The act incorporating the Milwaukee and Rock River Canal Company.
The political excitement in the year 1838 centered in the elec- tion of delegate to Congress, and by reason of the unusual number of candidates in the field, considerable interest was manifested. George W. Jones, who had disgraced himself and Wisconsin by acting as second in the Cilley-Graves duel, announced himself as a candidate, after being nominated by public meetings held in Milwaukee and Mineral Point. Morgan L. Martin was nom- inated at several meetings held in Brown county, but he declined to be a candidate. At a territorial convention held in Madison, August 29, at which several counties were represented by dele- gates, James Duane Doty was nominated. Thomas J. Burnett . had already announced himself as an independent candidate early in July, and stumped the territory in his own favor. All three of the candidates claimed to be Democrats. The returns showed the following result: Doty, 1.758; Jones, 1,174; Burnett, 920. Bur- nett died shortly after. He was a talented man, and had he lived he would have taken high rank among the noted men of the State. Jones emigrated to Iowa soon after, became United States Sena- tor from that State, often voted with the slaveholders while in Congress, and, during the late Civil war, he was sent to Fort Lafayette for disloyalty to the government.
The legislative Assembly which convened at Madison Decem- ber 2, 1839, was a notable assemblage ou many accounts. There was not a foreign-born citizen in it. The Council consisted of the unlucky number, thirteen, and it contained the names of ser- eral gentlemen who were afterwards prominent in political affairs in the Territory and the State for many years. James Collins, a Whig, who had presided over the previous Council, was reelected president on the nineteenth ballot, the contest having been pro-
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tracted for four days. Among the Councilmen were to be found the stalwart Morgan 1 .. Martin. conspicuous in territorial trans- actions, and the friend and partner of Solomon Juneau in the settlement of Milwaukee: Charles C. B. Arndt, who was shot and killed by James R. Vineyard in the Council chamber at that ses- sion (sce Note at end of Chapter); John H. Rountree, who had been active with General Dodge, in defeating Black Hawk, the noted Indian chief and warrior, and in making a treaty of peace with the hostile Sacs: James R. Vineyard, who killed Arndt; James Collins, twice president of the Council and afterwards the Whig candidate for Congress for his district: Levi Sterling, for many years an active politician and legislator from Iowa county; a farmer, born in Kentucky; William A. Prentiss of Milwaukee. where he settled in 1836. and was prominent as its mayor and in city affairs, and Daniel Wells, Jr., afterwards a representative in Congress from the Milwaukee district from 1853 to 1857. About one third of the Councilmen were natives of slave States. In the House of Representatives were to be found such well-known .gentlemen as Charles C. Sholes, who, with his brother, C. Latham Sholes, was among the first newspaper men in the territory. Both were prominent in the State, first as Democrats and then as Free Soilers and Republicans. C. L .- Sholes was one of the greatest inventors of the age. Then there was Nelson Dewey, who served two terms as Governor of Wisconsin: Horatio N. Wells, a well- known lawyer and judge in Milwaukee, and Edward V. Whiton. afterwards the eminent Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Of the twenty-six members of the House fifteen were farmers. .
As the Democrats held all the territorial offices that depended upon the appointment of the President and the Governor, and as a majority of the leading men belonged to the same party, they were satisfied to accept all the loaves and fishes without drawing party lines, or making national politics an issue. The choice of members of the Territorial Legislature usually turned on per- sonal fitness, the choice generally falling to a Democrat, that party being usually in evidence, though many prominent Whigs were chosen to represent their respective districts. It was not until 1839 that the first Democratic meeting was held at Mineral
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Point on April 13. which recommended to their "Fellow Demo- crats" in the several counties that they appoint delegates to a territorial convention to meet in Madison on the first Monday in June, and in a few days a call was issued for a convention to be held at the capitol June 18. A convention met June 3, and the delegates from four counties organized a "Democratic" conven- tion. On the 18th day of June, another set of delegates, repre- - senting six counties, met in Madison and organized a "territorial convention," which seems to have been packed in the interest of James D. Doty as the delegate to Congress. At any rate, Mr. Doty was nominated unanimously. The Democratic convention which had assembled June 3 and adjourned to the 19th, reas- sembled on that date. The informal ballot showed that Byron Kilbourn was greatly in the lead, with Morgan L. Martin, John P. Sheldon and George W. Jones following after. Mr. Kilbourn was nominated on the first formal ballot. As some of the active delegates in attendance claimed to be members of the Whig party, the question arose as to the orthodoxy and legitimacy of the con- vention, and its political complexion was finally settled by a reso- lution as follows:
"Resolved, That this be considered a Democratic convention, and that we are in favor of drawing the party lines"
This was done in order to head off the Doty convention, and not allow it to be said that Kilbourn had been nominated by a mongrel convention, and that their candidate for delegate had been sent out without the proper party trade-mark upon him. The figlit between the two candidates, Doty and Kilbourn, now began in earnest, and was kept up with great vigor until the polls were closed. The contest was carried on chiefly upon local issues, Mr." Doty being handicapped by having to excuse himself from attacks relating to some of his official acts. While Judge Doty was defending himself from "the fire in the rear," Mr. Kilbourn issued a very elaborate address in which he pledged himself to do what he could, if elected. to get congressional aid for a system of internal improvements that would be of incalculable benefit to the people of the new territory. The harbors on Lake Michigan were to be improved, and the Fox, Wisconsin and Rock rivers-
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even the little Peckatonica was to be made navigable-and there was to be a union of the great lakes and the Father of Waters. The address continues: "Suitable aist for this and the Peckatonica improvement -- either in land or money, ought to be sedulously sought for by our representative; and I would not seek the sup- port nor ask the confidence of my fellow citizens, if I could not freely and frankly pledge myself to the active support of these essential measures.2 li the distinguished advocate of this grand system of internal improvements were alive to-day, and should take notice of what has been done for these "essential measures," he would probably be amused at his own speculations of fifty years ago. Notwithstanding all these fair promises on the part of Mr. Kilbourn, his more skillful and wily opponent won the election by nearly 1.000 majority, and the virgin waters of the picturesque Peckatonica and the majestic Rock are still unvexed by the bur- den of internal commerce. A catfish drawing three inches of water would have found it difficult to ascend, in a dry time, some of the rivers which our territorial statesman petitioned Congress to have improved at Uncle Sam's expense.
The spasmodic efforts of the Democrats in 1839 and in 1840. to draw the party lines and perfect a thorough organization of the Democracy, met with only partial success, as an organized opposition was lacking to make such a movement interesting, and there must be two parties to every contest. The Whigs of the territory, having been excluded from all the federal and local offices up to that date, did not organize until January 1. 1841. after the election of William Henry Harrison and John Tyler as President and Vice-President of the United States. Every one expected that, according to the usual custom, a change in the administration at Washington meant a change in the federal and territorial officers. There were plenty of men in the Whig party, in those days, who believed in the orthodoxy of the Jacksonian shibboleth that "to the victors belong the spoils." and they were early in the field as candidates. Accordingly, on the first day . "of January, 184t, in pursuance of a notice previously published, a large and enthusiastic meeting was held in Milwaukee to cele- brate the "brilliant victory achieved by the hardy yeomanry of our country in the late presidential contest."
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This meeting was described by one of the Whig organs as "large, jubilant, and enthusiastic." and many representative men from all parts of the territory participated in it. It was addressed in an able and eloquent manner by J. E. Arnold. John H. Tweedy, John F. Potter and others, and the festivities wound up with a splendid banquet at the Milwaukee House, Harrison Reed acting as toastmaster. It was at this meeting that the thorough organiza- tion of the Whig party" was resolved upon, and in a few days the Central Committee, then and there appointed, issued the follow- ing call for the first territorial Whig convention :
"The undersigned, members of the Whig Central Committee in this territory, in pursuance of a resolution passed at a meet- ing of the Whigs, in attendance at the celebration held in Milwau- kee on the first day of January, 1841, hereby give notice that a convention of the Whigs of the territory will be held at Madison. in the county of Dane, on the 4th day of February next, to take into consideration the expediency of an efficient organization of the Whig party throughout the territory, and to transact such other business as may be thought proper. The Whigs in the several counties are requested to send delegates equal to the number of representatives to which they are entitled in both branches of the Legislature. (Signed) A. BRUNSON, -
WILLIAM A. PRENTISS,
E. CHILDS.
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JOHN H. ROUNTREE, EDWARD V. WHITON, GILBERT KNAPP."
This first convention of Whig delegates met in Madison Feb- ruary 4, 1841, pursuant to the call of the Central Committee, and the Committee on Credentials found sixty-one persons entitled to seats, representing eleven counties. As there were a large number of prominent Whigs in attendance as outsiders who had gathered at the capitol to witness the formal launching of the new party. about twenty of them were invited to take seats in the conven- tion and participate in its deliberations. A thorough organiza- tion was then perfected by the appointment of local committees in the several counties, and thus the Whig party of Wisconsin
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A POLITICAL HISTORY OF WISCONSIN.
was put on a war footing for the first time for any future can- paigns against the common enemy. The Whigs expected that President Harrison would make a clean sweep and put his friends in office, and the Democrats, having been feeding at the public crib ever since the territory had been formed in 1836, cheerfully accepted the inevitable, and made preparations to vacate the places that they had so long occupied and enjoyed. But the sudden death of President Harrison in one short month after his inaug- uration, and the recreancy of John Tyler, the Vice-President, who succeeded to the executive chair, frustrated all plans, and although many changes were made, the Whigs were not recog- nzed in the new deal. As Tom Corwin expressed it, "they were " not permitted to feed upon the fly-blown remnants that fell from the table of executive favor." Tyler used all the official patronage at his command, as his illustrious predecessor had done, and appointed men to office whom he supposed to be favorable to his administration, which was not then in harmony with the principles and policy of the Whig party.
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