USA > Wisconsin > Milwaukee County > Milwaukee > History of Milwaukee from its first settlement to the year 1895 > Part 20
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Not even the Smith liquor law of 1850 gave rise to a degree of political turmoil equal to that which followed the enactment by the legislature in 1889 of the ill-starred measure known as the Bennett law. Whether or not the Bennett law originated in Milwaukee is a controverted question. It is a matter of record that it was introduced in the Assembly by Michael John Bennett, of Pine Knot, Iowa county, and passed that body and the Senate without encountering much opposition. The offi- cial title of the law was, " An act concerning the education and employment of children." It pro- vided for the compulsory attendance at school for not less than twelve weeks in each year, of all children between the ages of seven and fourteen years, and declared that " no school shall be regarded as a school under this act unless there shall be taught therein, as part of the elementary education of children, reading, writing, arithmetic and United States history in the English language." Some months after the legislature had adjourned the Bennett law began to attract attention. It was asserted that the object of the law was the forcible extinction of the German language in Wisconsin. It was also asserted that its enforee- ment would involve tyrannieal interference with
the parochial schools maintained by the Catho- lics and the Lutherans, and with the right of parents to control the education of their children. These assertions were made by persons inimical to the enforcement of the law. In some quarters the defense of the law was undertaken in a temper not likely to allay the fears of foreign- born citizens, who had begun to look upon it with distrust. Even the friends of the measure admitted that it was imperfect, and that without amendment it could not be enforced. It was made the issue of the city election in Milwaukee, in the spring of 1890, with an effect that was startling beyond precedent. The Democratic anti- Bennett law tieket, with George W. Peck for mayor, received sixteen thousand, four hundred and sixteen votes, against nine thousand four hundred and fifty-one for the Republican ticket, headed by Thomas II. Brown, and five thousand two hundred and sixty-one for the Citizens' or Labor ticket, headed by N. S. Murphey. The Lutherans and Catholics had organized for the purpose of demonstrating their detestation of the Bennett law, and solidly voted the Democratic ticket. Before the raising of the Bennett law issue the Lutherans had almost without exception been politically affiliated with the Republicans.
The Republican State Convention of 1890 de- voted much space to the elucidation of that party's position on the subject of education. It disclaimed any purpose to interfere with private and paro- chial schools. It affirmed the right and duty of the state to enact laws that would guarantee to all children sufficient instruction in the legal language *of the state to enable them to read and write the same. It pronounced " the compulsory education law passed by the last legislature," wise and humane in all its essential purposes and opposed its repeal, but asserted the right of the parent or guardian to select the time of the year and the place, whether public or private, and wherever located, in which his child or ward shall receive instruction, and pledged the party to modify the law to conform to these declarations. The plat- form also declared, " We are nnalterably opposed to any union of church and state, and will resist any attempt upon the part of either to invade the domain of the other."
The Democratic platform declared opposition to the division or diversion of the school fund to sec- tarian nses, asserted that the Democratic party
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had created the public school system of the state and would always jealously guard and maintain it, favored legal compulsion of school attendance by children of school age, and praised the com- pulsory education law which had been in force prior to the Bennett law. It defined the " under- lying principle " of the Bennett law as needless interference with parental rights and liberty of conscience, denounced the law as unnecessary, un- wise, unconstitutional, un-American and un-Demo- cratic, and demanded its repeal.
The candidates for the governorship in this campaign were George W. Peck, on the Demo- cratic ticket and Governor W. D. Hoard, on the Re- publican ticket, Hoard having signed the Bennett law and been one of its conspicuous defenders. The Democratic ticket carried the city by a plurality of five thousand two hundred and ninety-nine, and was victorious in the state by a plurality of twenty-eight thousand three hundred and twenty. The Polish vote, which had been an important factor in Milwaukee elections for many years past, was a marked feature in this election, as it had been in the spring election, when the Fourteenth and Eighteenth wards, which are known as the Polish wards, cast two hundred and ninety-six votes for Brown and one thousand nine hundred and thirty-seven for Peck.
The Republican City Convention, meeting on the 17th of February, 1892, nominated for mayor Paul Bechtner, and adopted resolutions containing the following reference to the Bennett law:
The settlement of the unfortunate question which was made an issue at the last election should be a source of con- gratulation, to all good citizens. The issue was unwarranted by existing conditions, and unwise from whatever standpoint it may be viewed. It gave offense to a large, intelligent and patriotic portion of our people, who, being naturally jealous of their religious liberties and private rights, took alarm at the enactment of a law which they believed to have been aimed at them as a class.
The Democratic ticket was elected by pluralities ranging from four hundred and thirty-five to three thousand two hundred and one. The latter was the plurality for Peter J. Somers, the Democratic candidate for mayor, and was less than half the plurality which had been given to Mayor Peck two years before.
At the Republican State Convention held at Milwaukee, May 5, 1892, the final dirge of the Bennett law issue was sung in the following words :
We regard the educational issue of 1890 as permanently settled in this state, not to be renewed in any of its phases by the Republican party or under its auspices; and, this being true, we deprecate and denounce, upon considerations higher than party, as harmful in tendency, any further agitation of the subject, or any attempt by any one or by any party, for any purpose, to create or foster division among our people by reason of it upon lines of religion, education or nativity.
The Bennett law issue gave the state to the Democrats for four years, Peck being elected gov- ernor on that issue by a plurality of twenty-eight thousand three hundred and twenty in 1890, and by a plurality of seven thousand seven hundred and seven in 1892. The same issue retired Phile- tus Sawyer and John C. Spooner from the United States Senate, replacing them with William F. Vilas and John L. Mitchell. In 1892, for the first time since 1856. the state as a result of that issue, gave a majority for the Democratic presidential electors. But the tide was even then rapidly turning in favor of Republicanism, and in Mil- waukee county the parties were about equally balanced, there being a plurality of fifteen votes for the Republican state ticket. At a special elec- tion for mayor in June, 1893, John C. Koch, who had been the Republican candidate for lieutenant- governor, was chosen by the people, and at the regular spring election in April of the same year the Republican ticket, headed by John C. Koch, was elected over the Democratic ticket, headed by Herman Fehr, by a plurality of five thousand two hundred and thirty-eight. In the fall of 1894, the city's plurality in favor of Upham- Republican candidate for governor against Peck- was six thousand two hundred and thirty-five. The Democratic congressman who had been chosen to serve in place of John L. Mitchell, when the latter was elevated to the Senate was Peter J. Somers. He was not a candi- date in 1894, and the nomination went to Judge David S. Rose. The nominee of the Republicans, Theobald Otjen, was elected by a plurality of five thousand five hundred and twenty votes over Rose, and ten thousand seven hundred and eighty- one over Henry Smith, the candidate of the Labor party. The Tenth and Thirteenth wards, with the towns of Milwaukee and Wauwatosa, and the villages of Wauwatosa and Whitefish Bay, are now joined to Sheboygan, Washington, Waukesha and Ozaukee counties, constituting a congressional district. This district is also represented by a Republican-S. S. Barney. His plurality in the
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Tenth and Thirteenth wards was two thousand four hundred and seventy-one.
Milwaukee has probably suffered less than most other cities of its size from the evils incident to corruption in municipal politics. Yet the realiza- tion that many things which are comparatively good might be made better has spurred some of her public-spirited citizens to put forth efforts in the direction of improvement. Early in 1885, Mayor Wallber and Chief of Police Ries formu- lated a system of examination of applicants for positions on the police force, which largely antici- pated the requirements of the civil service reform measure subsequently enacted by the legislature, under which the police and fire departments have . been taken wholly out of the domain of partisan politics, and placed on a basis of efficiency and good behavior like that which obtains in some of the departments of the Federal government. In March, 1887, another important reform measure passed the legislature, Keogh's election bill, which prohibited under severe penalties any soliciting of votes, and forbade the congregating of people in the vicinity of polling places. The same law con- tained provisions guarding voters against mo- lestation or annoyance while selecting their tick- ets, and tending to insure the secrecy of the ballot. The latest factor making for purer poli- tics in Milwaukee is the organization known as the Municipal League, of which John A. Butler is president. It has been in existence for upward of two years, and has suggested the enactment of important measures to prevent corrupt practices at elections and to still further divorce municipal government from partisan politics. At its sug- gestion the legislature of 1895 passed a law creating a non-partisan City Service Commission, having power over other departments of the city government similar to those exercised by the older commission over the fire and police depart- ments.
Leaving out of account her relative increase in population, Milwaukee's representatives in the legislature seem to have been, as a rule, far less conspicuons and influential since Wisconsin en- tered into statehood than was the case in terri- torial times. During the twelve years from 1836 to 1848 four Milwaukeeans were elevated to the office of Speaker of the House, one of them, George Il. Walker, holding that office during two sessions, while the presidency of the Council was
conferred upon two men from this city. The record is as follows:
President of the Council-Special session of 1840, W. A. Prentiss; regular session of 1847, H. N. Wells; special session, H. N. Wells; 1848, H. N. Wells.
Speaker of the House-Session of 1838, William B. Sheldon; 1843, George HI. Walker; 1845, George H. Walker; 1847, William Shew; special session, Isaac P. Walker.
It will be noticed that at two of these territorial sessions both houses were presided over by men from Milwaukee. During all the years of state- hood, Milwaukee has had the speakership of the assembly only twice-in 1853, when the honor was conferred upon H. L. Palmer, and in 1893, when the office was given to Edward Keogh. The lieutenant-governorship, which carries with it ex-officio the presidency of the Senate, has with- in the same period fallen to the lot of two Mil- waukeeans, Judge Arthur McArthur, 1856 and 1857, and Edward G. Salomon, 1862. The latter had presided over the Senate for less than four months when, by the death of Governor Harvey, he was called to perform the duties of chief executive of the state. The President of the Senate during the unexpired term of Governor Salomon was Gerry W. Hazelton, who has for many years been a resident of Milwaukee, but who at that time hailed from Columbus. General Harrison C. Hobart, who was for a short time identified with Milwaukee in 1846, and who has been a resident of this city for the past thirty years, was speaker in 1849, hav- ing been elected to the Assembly from Sheboygan ; A. M. Thompson, while representing Janesville, was speaker in 1868 and 1869 ; William E. Smith, afterward governor, was a member of the Assem- bly from Dodge county, in 1871, and was chosen to the speakership ; Franklin L. Gilson, afterward judge of the Superior court in this city, was speaker of the Assembly in 1882, being then as- semblyman from Pierce county.
The Milwaukeeans most prominent in the Terri- torial Council were Alanson Sweet, Daniel Wells, Jr., William A. Prentiss, Jonathan E. Arnold, Don A. J. Upham, John HI. Tweedy, Hans Crocker, James Kneeland and Horatio N. Wells. Among those who loomed up in the house were William Shew, Augustus Story, William R. Long- street, HIoratio N. Wells, George II. Walker,
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Byron Kilbourn, W. W. Brown, Isaac P. Walker, James Holliday and Asa Kinney. Perhaps it is not improper to append the names of Charles Durkee and Andrew E. Elmore to this list, though the places in which they respectively lived have long since ceased to belong to Milwaukee county.
Doctor Enoch Chase was a member of the As- sembly from 1849 to 1853. John L. Mitchell served in the Assembly in 1872-3 and 1876-7, and was twice elected to Congress before his elevation to the seat in the United States Senate which he now occupies. Edward Keogh was kept in the legislature by his Third ward constituents as assemblyman and senator for a quarter of a century, but during the period of Wisconsin's statehood it has not been the rule for Mil- waukee districts to give more than one or two terms in the legislature to the same man. This may be the reason why Milwaukee men are on the whole less conspicuous in the legislature than in the early days.
Three Milwaukeeans have been elected to the governorship-Harrison Ludington, William E. Smith and George W. Peck. Leonard J. Farwell, who was elected governor in 1851, had been a Milwaukeean, and Arthur McArthur and Edward Salomon, two Milwaukeeans who were lieutenant- governors, each served for a term as governor. Judge McArthur's term in the governorship was the briefest in the history of the state, lasting only from the 21st to the 25th of March, 1856, during the inter-regnum between the deposition of W. A. Barstow and the accession of Coles Bash- ford.
It may be worth while to devote a few para- graphs to personal references to some of the men who have been signally conspicuous in the politi- cal life of the city. Perhaps the most command- ing figure in the early politics of Milwaukee was a man who was not primarily a politician- Byron Kilbourn. He was a Democrat, though he dissented strongly from his party's intolerant opposition to banks, and helped to defeat the first constitution because of its remarkable anti-bank- ing article. He was an active member of the second constitutional convention. He was in favor of the principle of free soil, and was accept- able to the Whigs as a candidate for the United States senate, in 1849, when they were willing to effect a combination with the Democrats anxious to defeat the re-election of Isaac P. Walker. On
the joint ballot, however, Walker received forty- five votes, to eighteen for Kilbourn and four scattering. In the senatorial contest of 1855 Mr. Kilbourn was the regular Democratic nominee, and received thirty-nine votes, but the election went in favor of Charles Durkee of Kenosha. As a man of affairs, concerned in the manage- ment of vast enterprises more or less dependent upon political support, Mr. Kilbourn frequently deemed it necessary to exert a controlling in- fluence in politics in order to protect his material interests.
Another vast personal influence in Milwaukee politics for many years was Alexander Mitchell. In territorial days, as well as after Wisconsin ar- rived at the dignity of statehood, it was necessary for Mr. Mitchell to be much at Madison during legislative sessions, in order to protect his bank from the aggressions of theoretical extremists. After he became the head of the great railway system which was the monument of his later life, the political work involving the interests of the road was always under his especial charge. The most trying experiences which he encountered in this relation were connected with the temporary triumph of Grangerism in 1873. It is the aver- ment of those in a position to know the inside history of the defeat of Matt H. Carpenter, in 1874, that Alexander Mitchell and Asahel Finch were the men who induced the sixteen bolting Republicans friendly to Washburn, to make the pledge that come what might they would not vote for Carpenter. When it was evident that Washburn could never be elected, Mitchell was the man who got the Democrats in the legislature to vote with the Republican bolters and elect Cameron. In 1879, it is said, Carpenter had made his peace with Mitchell. . Certain it is that Mitchell waged no pitched battle with him that year, and he was elected. Mr. Mitchell served two terms in Congress, securing the confi- dence of moderate men of both parties in the national legislature as a man whose judgment on matters of legislation affecting business, could always be depended upon as sound and safe.
E. D. Holton was for a long term of years a conspicuous factor in the political life of Mil- waukee. His defeat by Alexander W. Randall in 1857, when he was the choice of Milwaukee Re- publicans for the gubernatorial nomination of that party, occasioned not a little chagrin and
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resentment among his admirers. More than once he was talked of in connection with a seat in the United States Senate. When Mr. Holton came out in 1876 in favor of the election of the Democratic presidential ticket, most of those who had been his political comrades for the span of a generation, were free in expressions of astonishment. But before many years had rolled by he was back in the Republican fold.
Henry L. Palmer was one of the most influen- tial men in the politics of Wisconsin on the Demo- cratic side, until he became president of the great life insurance corporation of which he is still the chief officer and moving spirit.
George H. Paul, for a long time editor of the leading Democratic paper of Wisconsin, and chairman of the Democratic State Central Com- mittee in 1872, was a broad, far-seeing politician. He planned the policy by which in 1873, Taylor was elected governor, and he was the leading man in conducting that remarkably successful campaign. As a member of the State Senate, and as president of the Board of Regents of the State university, he was identified with the
development of the university from the rank of an insignificant country college to that of one of the leading educational institutions of the West.
The Republicans of Milwaukee were laid under repeated obligations to the late Edward Sanderson for enthusiastic and effective exertions on behalf of the principles and the candidates of their party. Though long a potent influence in the party, and a member of the national committee, he never held nor sought public office.
Among the men who have figured as party leaders in Wisconsin no two now living, rank higher in point of capacity and achievments than Henry C. Payne among the Republicans, and E. C. Wall among the Democrats. Both have held posi- tions in the Federal service, the former as Post- master and the latter as Internal Revenue Collector at Milwaukee. Both have chosen to devote them- selves to the planning and conducting of political. campaigns rather than to personal candidacy for office. Both have been called Napoleons, not with- out warrant; for both are men of high intellectual powers, magnificent dash and daring, and fine strategic skill.
& A nations.
CHAPTER XXI.
LEGENDARY WARFARE AND EARLY MILITARY HISTORY.
BY J. A. WATROUS.
W HILE history should have fact wholly for its basis, there is an undefined, mysti- fied story, so dim that the letters are almost indistinguishable, of an Indian battle hav- ing been fought where stands, to-day, an im- portant and beautiful section of Milwaukee, and the writer feels warranted in giving attention to that story, and the more readily speaks of it be- cause of the fact that pioneers of the city have often discussed it. It was handed down to them by representatives of the tribes whose braves in the long ago, participated in the battle. There are few, if any, of the men or women now resi- dents of Milwaukee-who resided here fifty or sixty years ago-who cannot recall the stories, then current, of a savage battle between tribes of Indians numerous in what afterward became the territory and state of Wisconsin. If the pioneer is a son or daughter of a soldier who fought in the war of 1812, or a grandson or grand-daugh- ter, or a great-grandson or a great-grand-daugh- ter of a soldier of the Revolution, they, in speak- ing of the battle, have gone so far as to state the force engaged on each side, where they formed,
how they formed, the skirmish and battle lines, what fortifications they threw up, and other battle details which they had heard their fathers or grandfathers, or great-grandfathers talk about concerning other wars. The late Abner Kirby, who came to Milwaukee in 1844, in discussing the legend, if you please to call the story such, which designates Milwaukee as a great battle field, said that for ten years after making this city his home, he made it a point to talk with every Winnebago, Menomonee and Sioux Indian he met, who could understand English, in the hope that he could learn something definite relative to the contest. One Winnebago, known as "Indian John," claimed that the battle was between the tribe that became known as the Menomonees and the Sioux. Mr. Kirby said he had never succeeded in fixing the date, though "Indian John " claimed that it
was before Father Marquette landed at Green Bay, or over two hundred years ago. The late Colonel Elisha Starr was also interested with Mr. Kirby in searching for facts pertaining to the fight, and for confirmation of the dim and sometimes unsatis- factory story. These two observing men, blessed with vast funds of information on nearly all sub- jects, so far satisfied themselves that there had been a battle, as to fix the position occupied by the contending armies, and to reach intelligent conclusions in regard to the day's fighting. Their idea was that the tribe that has since be- come famous as the Sioux, always ready for war, for a long time occupied the ground from the Mil- waukee river to Lake Michigan, stretching from a little south of where the Chicago & Northwestern depot is located, at the foot of Wisconsin Street, up to a point extending from "Leudermann's on the river " to " Leudermann's on the lake;" that is, they had camping grounds on that territory, and had held it so long that they regarded it as exclusively their own, and resented any effort, on the part of other tribes, to locate there. They had been warned that the warriors of other tribes coveted this territory, and the warning had re- sulted in the construction of means of defense. Of course it was before picks and shovels were so common that Indians had them, but the Indians had managed to fell trees and throw dirt into ridges, so that they had a reasonably formidable line of works from Leudermann's on the river to Leudermann's on the lake ; and, for years, that line was protected by the presence of hundreds of warriors whose habitations were located within easy reach of it. A similar line was constructed from about where the Racine street bridge crosses the river, down to a short distance south of Wis- consin street. The line is supposed to have run on the brow of a hill, apparently along Milwaukee street for a distance north from Wisconsin, and then to have turned to the left and run nearly to the river. There is supposed to have been another
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advanced line of the force, such as they have in modern warfare, known as the picket line, close to the river. The East siders, of that early day, did not deem it necessary to extend their line much south of Wisconsin street, because pretty much all of that portion of the Third ward and the lower part of the Fourth, much of the Second, nearly all of the Fifth, Eighth and Twelfth wards were under water, thus making it impracticable for an attacking army, not supplied with a navy, to attack successfully.
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