History of Milwaukee from its first settlement to the year 1895, Part 15

Author: Conard, Howard Louis, ed. cn
Publication date: 1895
Publisher: Chicago and New York, American Biographical Publishing Co
Number of Pages: 840

USA > Wisconsin > Milwaukee County > Milwaukee > History of Milwaukee from its first settlement to the year 1895 > Part 15

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HISTORY OF MILWAUKEE.

ties revived the supervisor system in the spring of 1842. By the state constitution the legislature was required to establish " but one system of town and county government, which shall be as uniformi as practicable," and soon after Wisconsin's admis- sion to statehood, the south western counties were obliged to reorganize on the supervisor or township plan.

At the spring election in 1838 there were two county tickets in the field. The one supported by the Sentinel was defeated. The other, which was elected, contained the names of William A. Pren- tiss, H. C. Skinner and John Richards for county commissioners; William R. Longstreet for assessor, George D. Dousman for treasurer and Charles Leland¿for coroner. The convention at which the successful candidates for the assembly were nom- inated, adopted a resolution declaring opposition to all secret societies.

On the 12th of June, 1838, Congress passed an act dividing Wisconsin territory, and setting off separately the portion west of the Mississippi river. An entirely new organization of the Legis- lative assembly was ordered. The Legislative as- sembly, in anticipation of the event, had convened on the 11th of June in special session and author- ized the governor to appropriately apportion the members to be elected to the new legislature. The time for the election had been changed from the first Monday in August to the second Monday in September. At a meeting of delegates elected to represent Milwaukee county in nominating a candidate for congress, a resolution was adopted appointing a committee of five "to correspond with other committees of the same character rep- resenting other counties, especially Racine and Brown, and, if they think proper, to meet in gen- eral convention to select such individual from either of said counties as in their estimation will unite the most strength in opposition to George W. Jones." The action of Congressman Jones in standing as a second in the Cilley-Graves duel had aroused public sentiment against him to a high pitch, especially in the eastern part of the state. The convention resulted in the nomination of James Duane Doty. Thomas P. Burnett of Grant county was also a candidate. The Milwaukee and Rock River Canal was an issue in this election, and probably a more influential one than the Cilley-Graves duel. Jones had befriended in con- gress the bill giving a land grant for the canal,

which was bitterly opposed by the champions of the Fox and Wisconsin improvement, a rival en- terprise. Byron Kilbourn and his friends in Mil- waukee who were interested in behalf of the Mil- waukee and Rock River Canal, stood stoutly in de- fence of Jones, but the election resulted in a victory for Doty and the Sentinel faction, the vote in the territory standing one thousand seven hundred and fifty-eight for Doty, one thousand, one hun- dred and seventy-four for Jones, and nine hundred and twenty for Burnett. Doty carried all the eastern counties by large majorities, while in the west the vote was nearly equally divided between Jones and Burnett. Had Burnett staid out of the race, Jones might have been elected. That the cry of "duelist !" succeeded in turning a good many votes against Jones in Milwaukee is proba- ble from the fact that Alanson Sweet, who had been active against the canal in the Legislative as- sembly was, with his running mate George Reed, defeated as a candidate for a seat in the Territorial council, while Daniel Wells, Jr., and William A. Prentiss, the candidates in opposition to Sweet and Reed, were elected. The delegates elected from Milwaukee to the Territorial house of rep- resentatives were Augustus Story, Ezekiel Church- ill, William Shew, Lucius I. Barber and Henry C. Skinner.

The Milwaukee and Rock River Canal was an enterprise that for more than ten years cut a com- manding figure in the politics of Milwaukee and of the territory of Wisconsin. It originated in the fertile brain of Byron Kilbourn, one of the most active and controlling minds ever enlisted in the development of the northwest. Its end was fail- ure. But had the details of the project been car- ried out as he planned them, it might have achieved success in a degree so conspicuous that grateful posterity would have pinnacled his name with that of De Witt Clinton. The object of the canal was to connect the navigable waters of the Milwaukee and Rock rivers, thus providing the be- ginning of a commercial highway from the Great Lakes to the Mississippi. The estimated cost of the improvement was originally three-quarters of a million dollars, and this estimate was afterward cut down to the neighborhood of six hundred thousand dollars. The canal was to be built by a private corporation, aided with the proceeds of a federal land grant held in trust by the territory of Wiscon- sin ; and after assuming statehood, Wisconsin was

EARLY POLITICAL HISTORY.

to have the option of acquiring ownership of the canal upon reimbursing the corporation to the extent of its actual expenditures together with legal interest. The matter came before the Terri- torial legislative assembly at its first session, at Belmont, in 1836, and was discussed in some of its phases at every session of that body until Wiscon- sin became a state, in 1848. The congressional grant was secured in June, 1838, the bill making the appropriation having been introduced by Colonel Jones.

Byron Kilbourn was president of the canal com- pany and I. A. Lapham was chief engineer. Among the members of the board of directors were Solomon Junean, James H. Rogers and Samuel Brown. All that was ever built of the canal was a section about a mile long, extending from a point north of Humboldt avenue to a point south of Cherry street, near the west bank of the Milwaukee river. This afforded a water-power which materially stimulated the establishment of manufactures in Milwaukee, but was unavailable for purposes of transportation. The stockholders of the canal company expended about twenty-five thousand dollars. Out of the moneys derived from the sale of canal lands, the state expended on account of the improvement about thirty-one thousand dollars. But by far the greater part of the proceeds of the land grant was diverted from the purpose for which it was made, and the enterprise started with such glowing promise was never carried to completion.

The bare fact of the land grant would have been sufficient to bring the canal company under the criticism of people whose political principles were opposed to government subsidies. It was only natural that the company should go into politics to protect its interests. It needed friends in Con- gress and in the Legislative assembly. It was not less natural that the people whose interests were not bound up with those of the company should regard with strong distrust the political candi- dates suspected of being put forward as its espec- ial representatives. Moreover, as time wore on, a belief grew up in Milwaukee and Jefferson coun- ties that the enhancement of the price of lands in the canal grant retarded the settlement of the country. The canal grant embraced the al- ternate sections in a strip ten miles wide, extending from Milwaukee to the Rock river. The intervening sections, which were retained by

the government, were withheld from pre-emption and by a provision of the law could not be sold for less than two dollars and fifty cents per acre, al- though the usual price of government land was one dollar and twenty-five cents. Settlers looked at these lands as longingly as in our day other set- tlers have looked at lands in the Cherokee strip. Popular meetings were held, at which the policy of withholding the lands from actual settlers anx- ious to take them and pay the usual ininimum price of government lands was loudly denounced. In Milwaukee there were East-siders who regarded the canal with jealousy, simply because it was an enterprise likely to help Kilbourntown. Such sec- tional feeling was not creditable, but it is to be remembered that it was by no means confined to one side of the river. Did not the Kilbourntown people oppose the building of bridges, because they did not want communication with the East side of the town ? Did they not refuse to land passen- gers on the East side? Did not Kilbourn lay out his streets so that they would be difficult of connection with the streets laid out by Juneau ? Old Milwaukeeans now living say they have no recollection of friends of the Fox and Wis- consin Improvement exerting themselves to foment opposition to the Milwaukee and Rock river canal project. Yet it is worthy of note that the government survey for the Fox and Wiscon- sin Improvement was made in 1839.

The crisis of the Milwaukee and Rock river canal company's fate was reached in a clash be- tween the president of the corporation and John H. Tweedy. Mr. Tweedy held the office of receiver, acting on behalf of the territory as custodian of money which came by reason of its trusteeship. He was appointed by the legislature. To hasten the settlement of the lands along the route of the canal, the territory had adopted the policy of selling them on long credit. The cash payments not producing as much money as the canal company needed for immediate use, the legislature author- ized pledging the credit of the territory for a loan not to exceed one hundred thousand dollars, based on the unsold lands. Mr. Kilbourn, who was appointed by Governor Dodge to act as the agent of the territory for the negotiation of the bonds, made arrangements in Cincinnati and elsewhere for the disposal of several blocks of them, aggre- gating fifty-six thousand dollars. But his ar- rangements were broken in upon by Mr. Tweedy,

HISTORY OF MILWAUKEE.

who warned the Cincinnati people that Mr. Kil- bourn had gone beyond his authority in modify- ing the conditions upon which the bonds were to be sold, and that all who purchased from him under the circumstances would do so at their peril. It was not competent, Mr. Tweedy argued, for the bonds to be sold for anything but specie ; yet Mr. Kilbourn's Cincinnati arrange- ment contemplated their sale for bills or certifi- cates not legal tender and not convertible into money at the place of deposit without serious loss. Furthermore, Mr. Kilbourn's arrangement com- prehended the deposit of the price of the bonds subject to other control than that of the receiver of the canal fund. "The agent had no more authority by the law and the instructions under which he acted to take, keep and expend any of the funds for which the bonds might be negoti- ated than he had to .take, keep or expend any other funds of the territory without leave or license." Kilbourn's contention was that the consideration for which he had undertaken to part with the bonds was currency, the same in character as the currency in which they would be paid, and that as it would not be practica- ble to sell them for anything else, Mr. Tweedy's insistence upon specie was a technicality, obvi- ously resorted to in a spirit of hostility to the completion of the canal. Mr. Kilbourn added that he would sooner have assumed the loan himself on behalf of the company than have permitted it to go into the receiver's hands, and that he held himself ready to account for the faithful expendi- ture of every dollar for the purpose for which the bonds were sold.

The clash between Mr. Tweedy and Mr. Kil- bourn occurred in 1841. The loan had been au- thorized by a Legislative assembly favorable to the canal. A new legislature, in the council of which Mr. Tweedy was a member, had since come into office. Moreover, Governor Dodge, who had favored the canal, and who had appointed Mr. Kilbourn as loan agent, had been superseded by Governor Doty. The new governor revoked the commission of Mr. Kilbourn as loan agent, and published a notification that Mr. Kilbourn was not authorized to sell or otherwise dispose of the canal bonds. Ile also sent a message to the Legis- lative assembly declaring that, in his opinion, it was impracticable to build the canal on the route surveyed, and that the work ought not to be con-

tinued. The council referred this portion of the message to a select committee, of which Mr. Tweedy was a member. Don A. J. Upham, of Milwaukee, Morgan L. Martin, of Green Bay, and Moses M. Strong, of Mineral Point, were also mem- bers of the committee. It reported-Mr. Strong, however, not concurring-that the fifty-five one thousand dollar bonds said to have been nego- tiated by Mr. Kilbourn, had been "illegally" dis- posed of; that the territory was not liable for their redemption, and that a similar objection would be valid as to a bond for one thousand dol- lars which had been issued by Mr. Kilbourn to himself, but " inasmuch as a part at least of its par value has been received by the proper officer of the territory," his act in issuing it might be con- sidered to have been virtually ratified, and its re-

demption ought to be provided for The com- mittee reported resolutions declaring the bonds, with the exception noted, to be null and void. These resolutions, afterward known as the "repu- diating resolutions," were adopted in the council by a vote of ten to one, and in the house by a vote of fourteen to eleven, and approved by Governor Doty. They sounded the knell of the canal pro- ject.

After having stood for more than six years, during which time one of the bonds had been paid and the others surrendered and canceled, ex- cept ten, for one thousand dollars each, which re- mained unpaid and were held as a debt against the territory, the repudiating resolutions were re- scinded by a vote of eleven to two in the council and a unanimous vote in the house. This action was taken in 1848, at the instance of Governor Dodge, who had again been raised to the post of chief executive of the territory, and who in his communication to the Legislative assembly ex- pressed the opinion that the resolutions did great injustice "not only to the creditors, but to the good reputation for honor and integrity of the territory." At the same session, joint resolutions were adopted declaring that all connection of the territory of Wisconsin with the Milwaukee and Rock River Canal Company,ought to be dissolved. By the act of Congress providing for the admis- sion of Wisconsin as a state of the Union, the provisions of the act of June 18, 1838, making the canal grant were altered. Subsequently the nnsold lands were appropriated to the endowment of the school fund.

Geo. Aberk

CHAPTER XVI.

THE EVOLUTION OF POLITICAL PARTIES.

BY JOHN G. GREGORY.

T HE preparations for the partisan division of the political forces in Milwaukee and the rest of the territory were evident in many directions in 1838. The Sentinel, beginning in April of that year, published a series of articles un- der the heading "The Aristocracy of Office," which contained thinly-disguised attacks upon Andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren, and openly and bitterly assailed the administration of General Dodge, asserting that he was unfit to discharge the duties of chief executive of the territory, and that he ought not to be re-appointed, at the expiration of his term in 1839. A local applica- tion was given to these assaults by bringing in Byron Kilbourn and Congressman Jones as objects of censure with Jackson and Dodge. The Adver- tiser responded by warmly defending all the men whom the Sentinel assailed, and lauding the political principles nd policies which they repre- sented. The Sentinel continued its attacks on the Milwaukee and Rock river canal, while the Advertiser extolled the enterprise without stint. Jones contested Doty's seat in Congress, on the ground that his own official lease would not expire till March 3, 1839, as he had been elected in 1836, and was entitled to serve for a full term. Congress seated Doty, but to clear up the cloudi- ness which had given rise to the claim of Jones, the legislature passed a law providing that an election for delegate to Congress should be held on the first Monday in August, 1839, and on the same day in every second year thereafter. There were two nominating conventions, held at Madi- son, one of them placing Doty again in the field and the other nominating Byron Kilbourn. Bur- nett once more ran as an independent. The Sentinel supported Doty, who was elected by a majority over both Kilbourn and Burnett. In Milwaukee county the poll stood three hundred and seventy-nine for Doty, three hundred and sixty-two for Kilbourn and fifty-four for Burnett. The Democratic ticket was generally defeated

and the Democratic-Republicans scored a victory, electing Adam E. Ray, William R. Longstreet, H. N. Wells and William Shew to the Assembly and also carrying in the candidates on their county ticket.

Meanwhile, though partisan politics was becoming more conspicuous, the local jealousies between the East and the West sides had tempor- arily abated to such an extent that a memorial had been sent to the Legislature asking that the two town organizations be consolidated. This was done and the rival towns became the East and West wards of the town of Milwaukee. The first election under the new organization was held May 1, 1839, resulting in the choice of Elisha Starr as president, J. E. Arnold as clerk, and the follow- ing trustees: East ward-Lindsey Ward, John S. Rockwell, William M. Gardner, John Y. Smith. West ward-James H Rogers, I. A. Lapham, Sylvester D. Cowles, Chauncey Peak, William Mayhew.

It was natural that as the eastern counties filled up with settlers from New England, New York and Ohio, Whig sentiment in the territory should acquire more strength and confidence. Yet there were many decided Whigs who for a long time deemed it imprudent to organize their party. A communication signed "A Whig," which ap- peared in the Sentinel of July 30, 1839, said party lines should not be drawn. It went on to argue, however, against the regular Democratic candi- date for Congress, saying that he was a candidate of a partisan convention, whereas Doty and Bur- nett had not been brought forward on party grounds. As late as September, 1840, the Sentinel raised a prudent voice against the holding of a Whig county convention. The issue which should govern the selection of county officers, it argued, was not a party issue, but a local issue-"Whether the county shall continue to be burdened with a project which is destroying her best interests, or whether the canal shall be vigorously prosecuted."

HISTORY OF MILWAUKEE.

But on the 30th of November following, the Senti- nel came out squarely for " Harrison and reform." The organization of an opposition sometimes heals the wounds of faction. Perhaps it was to present a strong front against the Whigs that Byron Kil- bourn and Alanson Sweet became personally and politically reconciled to each other at about this time.

On the 15th of December, 1840, a committee of Milwaukee Whigs sent invivations to Whigs throughout the territory to unite at Milwaukee on the first of the following month in a public celebration of the election of Harrison and Tyler. The affair attracted an attend- ance of fully two thousand people, including leading men from all parts of the terri- tory. The celebration began at one o'clock in the afternoon, when Jonathan E. Arnold, as the orator of the day, delivered an address at the court house. Two hours later at the Milwaukee House, the celebrants sat down to a repast which in the language of the invitations was to be "a plain and substantial dinner," "an ox roasted whole, with plenty of hard cider." Sylvester Pettibone, who had agreed to furnish the piece de resistance, had contributed, it is said, a cow instead of an ox. The carcass was cooked in barbecue style, accord- ing to the pre-arranged plan, but not a morsel of it ever reached the hungry mouths which were waiting for it. While the Whigs were sitting ex- pectant around the board, a horde of Democrats made a successful sortie upon the "ox," which was suspended above a fire in the open air, near what is now the southeast corner of Broadway and Wisconsin streets. The marauders carried their plunder across the river, and made a hearty meal from it in Kilbourntown. But though disap- pointed in this respect, the Whigs had plenty of hard cider and enthusiasm, and did not permit the loss of their roast to rob them of enjoyment. Harrison Reed presided as toastmaster, and elo- quent responses to Whig sentiments were made by John H. Tweedy, Elisha Starr, John F. Potter, and others who were for many years afterward high in the councils of the Whigs and their suc- cessors, the Republicans in Wisconsin. The presi- dent of the day was W. A. Prentiss. John Hustis, who is still living, was one of the com- mittee on toasts.

The Whigs did not neglect the fine opportunity which this large and representative gathering

afforded for preparing to work effectively in future campaigns. After the merry-making an informal meeting was held, which resulted in the appoint- ment of the first territorial central committee ever formed in the interest of a political party in Wisconsin. This committee issued a call for a delegate convention, which met at Madison in February, 1841, elected a standing central com- mittee of five, and named standing committees in every election district throughout the territory. Thus was the Whig party in Wisconsin fully equipped with the machinery of party organiza- tion as an outcome of that New Year's Day bar- becue in Milwaukee. The Milwaukee member of the central committee was W. A. Prentiss.

Within a few days of the organization of the Whigs, the Democrats, meeting at Madison, made arrangements for a similarly thorough organiza- tion of the Democratic party throughout the ter- ritory, which was soon perfected. Not to be behind-hand in a social way, the Milwaukee Dem- ocrats indulged in a Democratic celebration of Washington's Birthday. The affair took the form of a dinner at the Fountain House. The members of the committee of arrangements were Horatio N. Wells, Charles J. Lynde, James Sanderson, Thomas J. Noyes and Daniel H. Richards. Dan- iel Wells, Jr., James H. Rogers, Samuel Brown and George H. Walker were on the list of vice- presidents ; while Hans Crocker was the orator of the day, and Joshua Hathaway, Clinton Wal- worth and B. H. Edgerton served as members of the committee on toasts. Among the speakers at the dinner was Fred W. Horn.

Josiah A. Noonan, who was destined to loom up on the Democratic side in the politics of Mil- waukee, became the owner and editor of the straight-out Democratic newspaper in the last week of March, 1841, superseding D. H. Richards and changing the name of the paper from the Advertiser to the Courier. Mr. Noonan was not an editor whose course could be as easily foreseen as that of his predecessor. He was a law unto himself, and never scrupled to disregard the plans of the other local leaders of his party if it suited him to do so.

Many leading Whigs did not desire Doty's ap- pointment as governor of Wisconsin, and a meet- ing of Whigs held in Milwaukee, at which J. H. Tweedy was one of the speakers, adopted resolu- tions denouncing him as a corrupt defaulter and

THE EVOLUTION OF POLITICAL PARTIES.

no Whig. But President Tyler was not the man to be moved by Whig remonstrances.

The "Democratic-Whigs" and the "Democratic- Republicans" held their territorial conventions in Madison, in July, 1841, to nominate candidates for delegate to Congress. The former nominated Jonathan E. Arnold, of Milwaukee, while the choice of the latter fell upon Henry Dodge, who had been superseded in the governor- ship through President Tyler's appointment of Governor Doty. The campaign of Dodge and Ar- nold was a spirited one throughout the territory, and nowhere more so than in Milwaukee. It was on this occasion that H. N. Wells obtained possession of the Sentinel by foreclosing a chattel mortgage, and surprised its Whig subscribers by turning the paper from the support of Arnold to that of Dodge. From August 3d till October 23d, the Sentinel remained in charge of the "usurpers," and when Dodge was elected, as he was by a ma- jority of only four hundred and ninety-seven in the whole territory, the Sentinel came out with a cut of a clipper ship, beneath which was this sarcastic invitation to its Whig friends : " All Aboard for Salt River." The supporters of Arnold had helped him to the best of their ability by publishing for the campaign a Whig paper called the Journal, with Elisha Starr as editor. When Harrison Reed regained control of the Sentinel, Starr insinuated that he had been in collusion with Wells, and for a time there were Whigs who believed this, though there was no evidence to support the charge.

There were " off-years " in territorial times, the same as now, and 1842 was one of them. The town election of that year turned entirely on local issues, and was remarkable for being the first elec- tion in Milwaukee at which a ticket purporting to be "the Workingmen's ticket " was placed in the field. It was a device of Noonan's, and with a few exceptions its candidates were elected, though by only a bare majority in an unusually light vote. In the fall election this year the Democrats were successful, electing Hans Crocker, Lemuel White and David Newland to the council, and Andrew E. Elmore and George H. Walker, with four other delegates, to the house, besides carrying in the candidates on their county ticket. It was a hot contest, and the Whigs grumbled at the luke- warmness of the support which they received from Harrison Reed. There had been a legisla- tive reapportionment, on the basis of the new cen-

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History of Milwaukee from its first settlement to the year 1895, Part 15

Author: Conard, Howard Louis, ed. cn Publication date: 1895 Publisher: Chicago and New York, American Biographical Publishing Co Number of Pages: 840

Author: Conard, Howard Louis, ed. cn
Publication date: 1895
Publisher: Chicago and New York, American Biographical Publishing Co
Number of Pages: 840