Cass County, Illinois - Chapter 12: Political Representation, 1915

Chapter 12: Political Representation

THE TENTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY - REPRESENTATIVES AND SENATORS FROM MORGAN COUNTY - DISTINGUISHED PUBLIC MEN - CREATION OF CASS COUNTY - SPECIAL ELECTION FOR REPRESENTATIVE - CAPTAIN THOMAS WILBOURN - SECOND SESSION TENTH ASSEMBLY - RETURNS OF BEARDSTOWN ELECTION REFERRED TO COMMITTEE ON ELECTIONS - SHIELD'S REPORT - CHALLENGES ABRAHAM LINCOLN - WILBOURN REJECTED - ELECTION OF 183S - WHIGS IN CONTROL IN CASS COUNTY - DEMOCRATS ELECT CARLIN GOVERNOR - JOHN T. STUART BEATS STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS FOR CONGRESS - WILLIAM HOLMES ELECTED REPRESENTATIVE FROM CASS - CAMPAIGN OF 1S8S40 - CAPTAIN CHARLES BEGGS - BIOGRAPHY OF A USEFUL LEGISLATOR - COUNTY COMMISSIONERS ADOPT PRICE SCHEDULE - DEMOCRATS CARRY STATE FOR VAN BUREN - ELECTION OF 1S42 - coUNTY SEAT LOCATED - ELECTION OF 1S844 - aA CASS COUNTY PATRIOT - CONSTITUTIONAL =CONVENTION - MORMON TROUBLE - GOVERNOR FORD'S CALL FOR MILITIA - ABRAHAM LINCOLN DEFEATS PETER CARTWRIGHT FOR CONGRESS - CONSTITUTION OF 184S - BIOGRAPHY OF JUDGE HENRY E. DUMMER,

The Tenth General Assembly

1836, and adjourned March 6, 1837. bers of the assembly were elected at the regular election for state officers on the first Monday of August, 1836. Morgan County then included the present county of Scott and the present county of Cass, and was represented in the legislature by William Thomas, William Weatherford and William O°Rear in the senate, and Newton Cloud, Stephen A. Douglas, Richard 8. Walker, W. W. Happy, John J. Hardin, Joseph Morton, and John Wyatt in the house. Mr. Wyatt succeeded Stephen A. Douglas, who had resigned after the first session. This was a larger delegation than any county had in the state, except Sangamon County, which had an equal representation with Morgan County. The members representing Morgan County were able men, capable of looking after the interests of their constituents, and the general welfare of the state. Four of them became distinguished later in the affairs of the state and nation. William Thomas became a cireuit judge and held court several terms in Cass County. Newton Cloud was elected a delegate to the State Constitutional Convention of 1848, and was chosen as its permanent president. John J. Hardin was elected to the Twentieth Congress in 1843. and also became distinguished in the military service in the Mexican war, as colonel of the First Ilinois Volunteer Infantry. He was killed at the battle of Buena Vista, February 23. 1847. Prior to his entering upon his service in the Mexican war. he had been a brigadier general in charge of state troops in the Mormon war. when the rendezvous of the army Was at Beardstown. Stephen A. Douglas became of such national importance that no extended mention of him is necessary in this place.

Party lines had been pretty sharply drawn in the general election for president, and for memlers of congress. DPresident Jackson was just closing his second term of office. and on account of bis attitude towards the National Bank, and his frequent use of the veto power, had brougbt the Democratie party into considerable unpopularity. so that although the party carried the state for Martin Van Buren over the Whig candidate. it was by a majority of less than 5.00), On account of the agitation on the part of a number of citizens of the northern part of Morgan County for the creation of a new county to be cut off from that part of Morgan County, considerable interest had been manifested in the election of members of the Tenth Genera: Assembly, which it was hoped would take up that question on petitions presented for that purpose. Many important questions came before that session of the legislature, not least among them being that of the removal of the state eapital from Vandalia. Notwithstanding the any and varied questions presented and acted upon, that legislature three days before adjournnment, did pass an act for the creation of a new county to which was given the name Cass, but its boundaries as prescribed by the bill were not satisfactory to its promoters. The proposition had yet to be yoted upon by the people of Morgan County before the county could be established, but the vote was taken and the measure carried. Several sections of the act creating the new county were ambiguous, especially those concerning the location of the county seat. and the one relative to representation in the state legislature. Citizens of Beardstown, believing that under the act passed and ratified, Cass County was entitled to a representative, immediately called an_ election, which was held July 1, 1837, which resulted in the election of Capt. Thomas Wilbourn, of Beardstown.

A second session of the Tenth assembly, conyened July 10, 1837. at which time the return and poll books of the Beardstown election were presented by Hon. Richard S. Walker. a representative from Morgan County, who moved to lay them on the table. The Hon. William A. Richardson of Schuyler County, a friend of Captain Wilbourn, and of the new county of Cass. came to the rescue and moved that the poll hook and return he referred to the committee on elections, which was done. No record of this election can he found except in the House journal under date of July 12. 1837, in which appears the following:

"Mr. Shields from the committee on elections to which had been referred the poll book and return of an election for representative in the lezislature from the county of Cass reported, that the county of Cass was formed out of the county of Morgan by an act passed during the last session of the general assembly, and organized according to the provisions of the same; that at an election held at Beardstown. in said county, on the first day of July last. Thomas Wilbourn was elected to represent said county in the legislature of this state. By referring to the seventh section of the act above mentioned, the only section bearing directly upon the subject, we find the following provisions: 'In case said county of Cass shall be created under the provisions of this act, then, until the next apportionment of senators and representatives in the general assembly, the said county shall be entitled to one representative to the general as sembly, and shall at the next election vote with the county of Morgan for one senator, and the county of Morgan shall be entitled to five representatives and two senators.' By the last apportionment the county of Morgan was entitled to six representatives and three senators, and it is clear that whatever disposition its citizens may choose to make of their county, and into whatever number of distinct counties they may choose to partition its territory they cannot expect to increase their proportion of representation until the next general apportionment, whatever quantum therefore of representation is given to Cass must be deducted from Morgan. It then remains to consider, whether the new county was entitled to elect its own representative at the time above stated, and then supply the place of the member of the Morgan delegation who had previously resigned. The act above referred to was approved the third of March last, and provides that Cass shall be entitled to one representative, and shall at the next election vote with the county of Morgan for one senator. This evidently means the next general election; that contemplated by the second article of our state constitution, and could bear no reference to a special election for a specific purpose, such as that which has lately occurred in Morgan County to fill the vacancy occasioned by the resignation of one of its members, Stephen A. Douglas. This appears still more obvious if we consider that had no vacancy occurred this question could not have arisen and the representative who had been elected to fill such vacancy stands upon the same ground occupied by his precedessor previous to his resignation. Besides, the members of the present delegation from the county of Morgan were not elected by the present county of Morgan, but by the counties of Morgan and Cass; thus the citizens of the new county of Cass cannot justly complain that they are left unrepresented. Your committee, therefore, unanimously conclude that the new county of Cass is not entitled to a separate representative, and that the elec-

Challenges Abraham Lincoln

General Shields, who made the above report, which is little less ambiguous than the act of the legislature which it purports to construe, was the member from Randolph County, and afterwards became distinguished as a soldier in the Mexican war. He was commissioned by President Polk, a brigadier general of volunteers. Prior to his appointment, Mr. Shields in 1842, challenged Abraham Lincoln to fight a duel. While the whole matter was ludicrous and farcical in the extreme, yet the affair went so far that both parties and their seconds went to Alton, Ill., and from there by small row boats across to an island in the Mississippi River, where, before the actual fighting began, mutual friends arrived and the difficulty was amicably adjusted. General Shields had the unique distinction of being elected United States senator from three different states. First from Illinois, being elected in 1849, defeating Senator Sidney Breese ; then in 1855, having moved in the interval to Minnesota, he was there elected for a year to fill a vacancy. His third election was by the legislature of Missouri, to which he had gone during the Civil war, after having resigned a generalship, and retired from the military service. In 1878 he was elected to fill the unexpired term of Senator Bogy, deceased.

Until the year 1837, there had been no convention system for the nomination of candidates for public office, and even then it was thought to be necessary to have a nominating convention for state officers only. The election in the county of Cass for its first county officers, was not conducted on party lines, and the men elected to office were about equally divided politically between the two parties, Democratic and Whig. In December, 1837, the Democrats of Illinois held their first state convention at Vandalia, the state capital, and Col. James W. Stephenson of Galena, was nominated for governor; John S. Hacker for lieutenant-governor, but on it being discovered later that Colonel Stephenson was a defaulter of moneys as receiver of the land office, the same delegates again met at Vandalia the next June, and substituted Thomas Carlin for governor in place of Stephenson, and Stinson H. Anderson in place of Hacker for lieutenant-governor. It was generally conceded that Cyrus

Edwards would be the logical candidate of the Whigs for governor, and so became, so that party held no convention, and William H. Davidson was made the candidate for lieutenant-governor without any preliminary opposition. The first general election in Cass County was held August 6, 1838, the Whigs proving to be in the majority. The state at large, however, elected Thomas Carlin governor. although his vote in Cass County was only 188 to 335 for Edwards. John T. Stuart, a Whig, defeated Stephen A. Douglas for Congress by only fourteen votes. Stuart lived at Springfield, in Sangamon County, and as Cass County was associated with Sangamon County as a part of the Third Congressional District, he was known to many here. The election for state senator was also very close, but William Thomas, a Whig. was elected by a small majority. William Holines, also a Whig, was elected as the representative to the legislature from Cass County. having the distinction of being the first representative of this county. Had the convention system been in vogue at that time, and the Democrats nominated one candidate only, he would probably have been beaten, as the combined vote of Thomas Beard and Henry McKean, his two opponents, both Democratic, was 312 to 208 for Holmes.

Biography Of A Useful Legislator

William Holmes was thirty-seven years old when elected to the legislature, and had been for twelve years a resident of that part of Morgan County which was eventually made over into Cass County. He was born in Dutchess County, N. Y.. February 7. 1799. His parents, John and Phoebe (Dougherty) Holmes, were natives of Connecticut, but had removed soon after their marriage, a few miles over the state line into New York, where they engaged in an attempt to farm, but scarcely a living could be extracted from the poor soil on which they had settled, and there was nothing in that rural life to attract their boy, William, or induce him to remain at that sort of employment. He attained the rudiments of an education in the district schools of his native county and then started for a full course at the Poughkeepsie Academy, but after a few terms found he was without funds to proceed. He then left home and went into New Jersey where he taught several terms of school, and with the money thus earned and saved, he made his way into the West, landing in Posey County, Ind. There he taught school for a short time, but that country falling far short of the western paradise he had heard so much of before leaving his native state, and learning there of the famous Sangamon country in Illinois, he resolved to move once more farther west. He crossed the Wabash River, and followed the "Movers' Trail" through Illinois, until he reached the northern part of Morgan County. There he found a few settlers, among them being Archibald Job and Henry Hopkins. Mr. Holmes engaged board at the Hopkins home, and took up a claim adjoining that of Mr. Hopkins on the west. That same year, 1826, Joseph McDonald arrived in the neighborhood from Kentucky. He also took up a claim, but did not wait long until he went to the land office at Springfield and entered his land from the government. The state auditor's certificate of land entries in the recorder's office shows that June 5, 1826, Joseph McDonald entered the east one-half of the northwest one quarter of section 11, township 17, north, range 9 west, eighty acres, and that on September 15, 1826, William Holmes entered the southwest onequarter of section 5, township 17, north, range 9 west. Later he sold the one eighty acres to Mr. Hopkins, it being the claim on which Mr. Hopkins had settled. Mr. Holmes married Mary McDonald, daughter of Joseph McDonald on December 7, 1827, in the new brick house which Mr. McDonald had built on the land entered the previous year. This house is said to have been the first brick house erected between Beardstown and Springfield. It was a small house, but well built, from brick burned on the premises, and is still standing and in excellent condition. Two years after his marriage, Mr. Holmes entered the west one-half of the southeast one-quarter of section 81, township 1S, ~ north, range 9 west, upon which he built a substantial frame house, and removed to it. There he and his wife lived the remainder of their lives. Mr. Holmes died at the old homestead. January 18, 1878, aged seventy-eight years. eleven months and eleven days. His wife had died seven years before, on June 19, 1871, at the age of sixty-nine years. He was above the average in intelligence, and, coupled with a good education it is not surprising that the Whigs in seeking a candidate to represent them in the legislature, should select Mr. Holmes. He had. the year previous to his election, proven himself sufficiently popular to beat his opponent for county surveyor, William Clark, by sixty-seven votes. Mr. Holmes served but one term in the legislature, but during that term many lMeasures of importance to the people of Illinois were presented and acted upon, and those which appealed to him as being beneficial to the people he sustained with his vote. Mr. Holmes introduced and succeeded in getting passed the act, mentioned and set forth in a previous chapter, concerning the location of the county seat of Cass County at Virginia, reciting in a preamble that Beardstown had failed to comply with either the provisions of the original act, creating the county, or the subsequent act extending to it the time of payment of the $10,000 required to be donated in case the county seat should be located at Beardstown. The ambiguous legislation concerning the county seat of Cass County has had as much to do, as has the natural rivalry of the two towns, Beardstown and Virginia. in engendering and continuing the hostile feeling and bitterness that has entered into the elections on the question of the permanent location of the county seat; and which has been manifested ever since the organization of the county in nearly every election for county officers.

As at that time each city, town and Village, had to look to the legislature for everything pertaining to its organization and corporate status, citizens of Virginia and Beardstown strove to keep a member in the legislature who would be alert to their particular interests. Party lines were often wholly disregarded in the efforts of each rival section of the county, but it was not until Beardstown had. by reason of the large packing industries established there, which brought in a great many laborers and their families and thus increased the population and voting strength very rapidly. that it was able to elect a local representative to the assembly. Amos 8. West, who had entered and lived upon a fine tract of land adjoining the Dr. Hall land in township 17. north, range 10, west, upon which was laid out the town of Virginia, was nominated for member of the legislature in 1840, and was carried into office on the ticket with "Old Tippecanoe and Tyler too" in the excitable campaign of that year. General Harrison had in Cass County. or what in a few years thereafter becaine a part of Cass County. a strong supporter in the person of Captain Charles Beggs, of VPrineeton,. who had com- manded a company of cavalry in the famous battle of Tippecanoe, while he was a resident of Clark County, Ind. He had made the acquaintance of General Harrison when he was a delegate to the convention called to meet at Vincenhes to form a constitution for the new territory of Indiana organized in 1800. <A close, personal friendship grew up between the two which lasted unbroken during the nearly thirty in their ages, and. although Captain Beggs had, for himseif, long passed the age of political ambition, yet it was but natural he should join heartily in the "log cabin and hard cider" campaign for his old friend, General Harrison. The cumpaign was conducted in Cass County with that same degree of enthusiasm and hilarity as it was elsewhere. The great feature in rallies Was the carrying of miniature log cabins by four men; or hauling a large cabin on a wagon drawn by four or more horses or teams of oxen. These cabins were decorated with coon skins tacked up on the sides. or upon the door, The drivers of the teams were usually dressed in homespun, and wore caps made of coon skins. If the cabin Was borne on a wagon there was also. generally, a barrel of hard cider alongside of it. with a gourd dipper to drink from. It was a noisy campaign, the rallies were largely attended. and the parades and processions were joined in by hundreds: of men, carrying their long squirrel rifles, or whatever style of cun they happened to own. Along with the cabins in the procession were also a number of canoes, decorated in similar fashion. It was just the kind of a campaign that would excite and enlist the enthusiasm of the inhabitants of Cass County. most of whom had been backwoodsmen all their lives. The opportunity of shouting and ultimately voting for someone Who had started in life in the same humble manner as they was hailed with delight. Ilowever, with all their demonstrations. and the great popularity of their candidate. the Whigs were hot able to carry the state, The state officers he elected that year. the members for Congress, and also the county officers. were to he voted for in August. while the presidential election did not take place until November. Cass County elected John C. Seott and Marcus Chandler, two Whigs, county commissioners, and assisted in electing Col. John T. Stuart again to Congress. In November they lost the state to Van Buren by a majority of

1,939, and the legislature was Democratic in both branches. Though grievously disappointed at their failure in the state, the Whigs were consoled by the fact that Van Buren had been defeated in the national election, and the detested policies of his predecessor, Jackson, repudiated. At the political rallies it was not always as peaceable as at religious gatherings of subsequent years. Many personal encounters 0occurred; and it is said that these were the result of the drinking of something stronger than hard cider.

County Commissioners Adopt Price Schedule

Whiskey and brandy were not expensive articles at that time, but were very common merchandise. although the prices for the same were fixed by the county board of commissioners. The year previous to this election, at the March term of the County Commissioners Court of Cass County, the following schedule of prices was adopted: For taverns, each meal of victuals, 8014 cents; each night's lodging 25 cents; keeping horses over night, 50 cents; feed for one horse 25 cents; one-half pint of whiskey, 12% cents; one-half point of brandy, 25 cents; one-half pint of gin, 25 cents; one-half pint of wines, cordials. etc., 25 cents. At the same time rates of charges for the Beard ferry across the Illinois River were also established, and were as follows: Horse and carriage. 3714 cents: two-horse wagon, 50 cents; four-horse wagon, 75 cents; six-horse wagon, $1.00; man and horse, 25 cents; loose cattle, 644 cents; hogs, goats and sheep, 3 cents; each footman, the same as loose cattle. There is no doubt this high cost of living entered into the campaign, and was. by the Whigs, charged against the Van Buren administration. Lawyers, at least, might have had some legitimate grounds for complaint, when the fees received by them at that time are compared with fees paid lawyers of the present day. The County Commissioners' Court records show that at that term of their court which fixed the foregoing rates, they paid Hon. Stephen T. Logan $10 for appearing as counsel in three cases in the Circuit court.

Nothing of importance affecting Cass County occurred in the legislature elected in 1840. A petition was presented asking for the detaching of the "three-mile strip" from Morgan County and attaching it to Cass County, but little attention was given to it by the assembly. Col.

West was not a candidate for re-election, and at the next election, which occurred in August, 1842, the Whigs were again successful, but by a greatly reduced majority. Henry E. Dummer, an excellent lawyer and a high class citizen, residing at Beardstown, was a candidate for state senator, but, although he beat his opponent in this county, was defeated in the district. John W. Pratt was elected to the legislature, and John Savage was elected as sheriff. W. H. H. Carpenter was elected to take the place of John W. Pratt as clerk of the County Commissioners' Court, the latter having been clerk of that body since the organization of Cass County. Robert Leeper, grandfather of Senator A. A. Leeper of Virginia, was elected county commissioner, beating his opponent, Marcus Chandler, by only four votes. The prize of political offering of that year most sought after appears to have been that of probate justice. There were five candidates. Dr. Harvey Tate had arrived in Cass County in the spring of 1841, and haying finally settled down in Virginia, concluded he would like to add something to his income as a country physician, and gain the distinction conferred by the position of probate justice, and so entered himself in the race, but found a sturdy opponent in the person of Alexander Huffman, a pioneer farmer of Monroe Precinct. They were both Democrats, and as the Whigs had a full ticket otherwise, Robert G. Gaines, a Whig, became a candidate. Beardstown, seeing three candidates from the eastern part of the county, thought it a good time to get in, and so Ezra Dutch, of that town, who had been a sea captain for twenty-five years, sailed into the political sea, hoping to exchange his title of captain for that of probate judge. Then came John Richardson, last, and as it proved, least, in point of votes. He was a nondescript as far as his politics were concerned. At least his party affiliation is not known. These five patriotic men made a lively campaign which resulted in the farmer candidate, Alexander Huffman, being elected by a majority of eighty-two votes over the next nearest, who was Mr. Gaines. Dr. Tate was close after Mr. Gaines, there being only five votes difference between them. Captain Dutch received thirty-seven votes, and Mr. Richardson twenty-eight votes. The entire Democratic state ticket was elected by large majorities. Thomas Ford beat Governor Duncan, the Whig candidate, by nearly 8,000 votes. There were no congressmen elected at that election. By an act of the assembly, March 1, 1843, the state was reapportioned and divided into seven districts. The population of the state had reached 476,183, and that of Cass County had increased to 2,981, according to the census of 1840. Stephen A. Douglas had moved from Jacksonville to Quincy, and being placed in the fifth district, while Cass County was in the seventh, the people of this county had no further opportunity to vote for Mr. Douglas until 1860, when he ran against Mr. Lincoln for president.

In the meanwhile Mr. Pratt took his seat in the legislature and there found a friend and neighbor, David Epler, who had been elected as a representative from Morgan County, but who resided on his farm in the three-mile strip. At the next term they received reinforcements in the person of Francis Arenz, who also lived in the "strip" at Arenzville, an unincorporated yillage of his own making. That term brought success to their labors, and the county of Cass rejoiced then and ever after, that a great source of wealth was added to the county in the shape of eighty square miles of as fine land as is to be met with in all of Illinois.

Political affairs were attracting attention from the voters throughout the whole country. The Whigs had not redeemed their pre-election pledges; hard times had not disappeared as rapidly as had been promised, and the middle of the Tyler administration found the people as dissatisfied as ever. President Taylor had died within a short time after his inauguration, and the vice president, succeeding, had not carried out the policies of his predecessor. John J. Hardin of Jacksonville was the candidate of the Whigs for Congress in the seventh district under the new apportionment, and Cass County was a part of that district. The election was held in August, 1843, and Hardin was the only Whig elected of the entire congressional delegation from the state. It was a noticeable fact that for several years the seventh district was the only one that could succeed in electing a Whig to Congress. Colonel Hardin served but one term, when the distinguished Edward D. Baker succeeded him. Baker was a Whig, and although the Whigs were opposed to the policy of the Democratic administration which, as they charged, unnecessarily brought on the war with Mexico, yet, when war was declared, Baker resigned from Congress, went home and raised a regiment and was commissioned its colonel. After the Mexican war, he moved to Galena, Ill., from which place he was sent to Congress. Later he moved to California, and then on up into Oregon, where he was again made a member of the national legislative body, this time being sent as a senator from the state of Oregon. While he was holding that position, the Civil war broke out, and he again resigned, raised a regiment and was again commissioned a colonel. He immediately went to the front, but was killed at Ball's Bluff, October 20, 1861. Colonel Baker was well and favorably known to many Cass County people, who held him in high esteem. He was a member of the state legislature in 1887, which passed the act creating the county of Cass.

In the meantime, however, a question of local interest was absorbing the attention of the voters of Cass County. An election had been called for September 4, 1848, in accordance with an act passed by the legislature for that purpose, to vote upon the question of whether the county seat should or should not be moved to Beardstown. At that time, under the law, the recorder of deeds was elected as a separate and independent officer, and at the regular election held August 7, of that year, Dr. M. H. L. Schooley of Virginia had beaten C. H. C. Havekluft, a young lawyer of Beardstown, for that office. This encouraged the citizens who were favorable to Virginia in the belief that they would be successful in the election on the county seat question, but in this they were greatly mistaken, for when the vote was taken, they found that Virginia had lost by a vote of 4538 for removal to 28S against removal. This was a serious blow to Virginia, but it was not felt immediately, as Beardstown did not get ready to remove the records for some time. A courthouse had to be built, which was done by Beardstown without cost to the county, in accordance with the promise of the Beardstown adherents made before the election, and in accordance with the provisions of the act calling the election. At the March term of the Commissioners' Court, 1845, the deed to the county was presented, showing the acquisition of the lots, and a certificate showing the completion of the jail and courthouse; and the records and archives of the county were removed to Beardstown, not to be returned to Virginia until 1S75.

Paris A. Brandon

A period of general business depression followed in Virginia, and real estate values depreciated materially. Many merchants followed the seat of government to Beardstown, others went elsewhere, believing that Virginia had little prospect for future growth or prosperity. Dr. Schooley would not follow the recorder's office to Beardstown, as it was of little value to him financially, so he resigned, and the place was filled by Eli Wood, elected to fill the vacancy in 1845, who continued as the recorder until the constitution of 1848 abolished the office, and made the circuit clerk ex-officio recorder.

Mormon Trouble

Another event in 1845 which brought some distinction to Beardstown, or, as the popular phrasing would express it, made it visible on the map, was the gathering there as a rendezvous of the state army under Brigadier General John J. Hardin, to march into Hancock County to quell the Mormon disturbance, designated in some histories as the Mormon war. Thomas Ford was then governor of the state, and felt, in his patriotic zeal, that duty called him to the front. He marched with a company of infantry and some artillery from Springfield to Beardstown, passing through Virginia, where he halted with his soldiers for the night. The infantry camped on the public square and the artillery on the brow of the hill a little east of the present site of the Christian church. The governor made the Dr. Pothicary tavern his headquarters, and the next day he and bis soldiers moved on to the rendezvous at Beardstown. The Mormon disturbance did not last long enough to merit the name of war. A mob had attacked the jail at Carthage, in Hancock County, where Joseph Smith, the Mormon prophet, had been placed, he having surrendered himself to the authorities to escape the citizens who had become incensed against him, largely on account of polygamous views held by the sect. Smith was killed, and the mob continued its attack upon his despised followers until the Mormons were driven out. Very few if any Mormons came into Cass County at that time. Some itinerant disseminators of the gospel of the Book of Mormon as interpreted by the Urim and Thummin occasionally found their way into Cass County, but an invitation to move on from the hardy orthodox pioneers was generally sufficient, and they "traveled" without taking any converts with them. Sylvester Emmons, a lawyer of Beardstown, finding the practice of the law not as remunerative as his needs in life required, concluded to engage in the newspaper business. For that purpose he went to Nauyoo, the Mormon stronghold, in the summer of 1845, and started an anti-Mormon weekly paper. He, however, published but one issue, when he precipitantly retired from that particular journalistic field, and returned to Beardstown. The Mormon troubles were the legitimate fruits of political pandering to a religious sect by the two dominant parties for its vote. Without any special provisions in the constitution, and without restriction upon the legislature in that respect, cities, villages or towns were granted charters with almost unlimited powers. Nor was it necessary, under our first constitution, that the subject of an act should be expressed in the title. The Twelfth General Assembly, that met in 1840, composed of Democrats and Whigs, passed with shameless unanimity an act granting to Nauyoo, or in reality, to Joseph Smith, a charter for the incorporation of Nauvoo as a city. The charter conferred power upon the mayor and city council to establish their own courts and militia, and to enable them to organize a government that would make them wholly independent of the state government. The driving out of the Mormons from Nauvoo, and the agitation of the subject of Mormonism, destroyed the influence of that sect in politics at least for years thereafter. It also caused a division in the church itself. A large body of the members who believed in polygamy went, under the leadership of Brigham Young, to Utah territory, and established Salt Lake City, while another, but much smaller body, went to Iowa, under the lead of Joseph Smith, a son of Joseph Smith killed at Nauvoo, and maintained the church organization of Latter Day Saints. They claimed to have abandoned polygamy. Joseph Smith, who claimed to be the organizer and head of the Reorganized Church of Latter Day Saints, died at Independence, Mo., December 12, 1914. A few representatives of that church reside at Beardstown.

Abraham

elected in 1844. He was an able representative, carefully attending to all the interests of his constituents, but his chief distinction was his securing for Cass County the three-mile strip. While his colleagues, David Epler and Francis Arenz, were exceptionally efficient as legislators, particularly in their assistance to Cass County, they were never really representatives of Cass, both being elected from Morgan County, and their terms expired before the election which gave Cass County its first representative after its enlargement. The Hon. Edward W. Turner was the first representative from Cass County after its present boundaries were fixed. Francis Arenz, who had been elected in 1844 as a Whig, was again nominated by that party in opposition to Mr. Turner, who was a Democrat. The previous general election, that of 1844, was a serious disappointment to the Whigs, the idol of that party. Henry Clay, having been defented by James Ix. Polk on the issue of the annexation of Texas. In that year the small cloud which had appeared in the east during the election of 1840. in the form of the Free Soil party, or the Liberal party, was growing portentous. It had nominated James G. Birney for the second time for the presidency, and although that party never succeeded in electing a state or congressional officer, or secured a single electoral vote for its candidates for the presidency. yet it was recruiting to the abolition or anti-slavery cause so rapidly from the Whig ranks that it foreshadowed the ultimate extinction of that party. There was, however, a full state and county Whig ticket arrayed against a full Democratic ticket in Cass County in 1846. Upon that ticket were some persons Well known then. who afterwards became distinguished. On the Democratic ticket appeared the name of Augustus C. French for governor, and the eccentric and famous politician-preacher, Rev. Peter Cartwright. as a candidate for Congress. The candidates for the county offices were: sheriff, W. J. De Haven; coroner, Harvey Springer; county commissioner, Thomas Plaster's. On the Whig ticket. for governor was Thomas M. Wilpatrick of Scott County, who had served three successive terms in the state senate; and for Congress was Abraham Lincoln. On the county ticket were: sheriff, John Savage; coroner, James Logan: county commissioner, Henry Me- Henry. Cass County gave a majority for the Whig candidates, but the Democrats elected their candidate for governor and member of the legislature. Notwithstanding the popularity and wide acquaintance of Rey. Peter Cartwright, he was beaten for Congress by Abraham Lincoln. They had both been in the legislature from Sangamon County. and this was the first venture of either in national politics, except that Mr. Lincoln had been a candidate for presidential elector in 1844. on the ticket with Henry Clay, and been defeated. The elections during all of the time under the first constitution were without ballots, each voter stepping up to the polls and announcing how or for whom he wished to vote, and the election officers recorded the vote then and there. It was no secret, of course. how anyone voted, and at the election of 1846, William Holmes, who had been the first representative from Cass County, and a lifelong Whig, voted for Cartwright, the Democrat, against Lincoln, on the Whig ticket. For this act of party treason, he was roundly abused by the leaders of the Whigs in Cass County. Miz. Holmes justified his vote on the grounds that he did not personally like Mr. Lincoln. and the Rev. Cartwright was a personal friend and a freyuent visitor at his home when on _ his preaching itinerary. Mr. Lincoln, however, was elected to Congress, and Cass County residents will always look upon it as a distinctive honor that they were represented in the national Congress by him. On the same day that Cass County was created'a county by the legislature of this state. March 3. 1887, Abraham Lincoln, a melmber of that legislature, filed his protest against slavery. by resolutions. and had them spread upon the records of the House of Representatives. Cass County people feel that this is another tie binding them with Illinois' most illustrious and best man.

The entire county Whig ticket was elected, but TFrancis A. Arenz, the Whig candidate for the legislature. was defeated by Edward YW. Turner. a Democrat.

At the election the question as to whether or not a constitutional convention should be called was put hefore the people. The proposition to hold the convention carried by a large majority. The next spring, Judge Henry E. Summer, of Beardstown, was elected a delegate to that convention, which met June 7. 1847, and concluded its labors August 31, 1847. The new constitution was submitted to the people and ratified by them at a special election held March G, 1848, and it went into effect April 1 of that

Biography Of Judge Henry E. Dummer

Judge Henry E. Dummer was the only delegate from Cass County to any of the constitutional conventions held in this state. He was horn at Hallowell, Me., April 9, 1808, and attended and was graduated from Bowdoin College. later took a law course at the Cambridge Law School. and was admitted to the bar and practiced for two years in his native state before he came to Springfield, Ill.. where he formed a partnership with John T, Stuart. in 1838 he dissolved the partnership. and moved to Beardstown, where he remained until 1864, serving the city as an alderman. was also probate justice for Cass County, and served in the state senate for four years, having been elected during the trying period of 1860. Formerly a Whig, he became a Republican, and was a staunch supporter of Governor Richard Yates, the great "war governor" of Illinois. In 1864 he was made a delegate at large for the state to the Baltimore convention that renominated President Lincoln. An excellent lawyer and honorable man, he was a highly respected citizen of Cass County. In 1864 he removed to Jacksonville, where he continued in practice of his profession. but his health failing in 1878, he went to Mackinac, Mich. The change of climate did not avail, however, and he died at that place August 12, 1878, aged seventy years three months and three days.

Chapter Niii

AFTER THE MEXICAN WAR - GENERAL TAYLOR A PUBLIC HERO - NOMINATED AND ELECTED PRESIDENT - GEN. LEWIS CASS THE DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATE - VIGOROUS WHIG CAMPAIGN IN 184S - QUESTION OF SLAVERY COMES TO THE FRONT - CAMPAIGN OF 1852 - ELECTION OF FRANKLIN PIERCE - DISAPPEARANCE OF WHIG PARTY - A

In The Legislature

STRINGENT LIQUOR LAW - STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS RE-ELECTED TO THE SENATE - THE KANSAS-NEBRASKA BILL UNPOPULAR IN CASS - BILLS PASSED IN THE LEGISLATURE THROUGH THE ACTIVITY OF DR. SAMUEL CHRISTY - PERSONAL BIOGRAPHY - NOMINATION OF LINCOLN AND DOUGLAS FOR THE UNITED STATES SENATE - GREAT JOINT DEBATE OF CANDIDATES - INTERESTING DETAILS - -NEWSPAPER REPORTS - RE-ELECTION OF MR. DOUGLAS IN 1859 - CAMPAIGN OF 1$60 - a VERY INTERESTING BIT OF LOCAL HISTORY - HENRY CLAY'S OWN STORY - GOVERNOR YATES PROROGUES THE LEGISLATURE - KNIGHTS OF THE GOLDEN CIRCLE - RETURN OF PEACE - FURTHER CONSTITUTIONAL REVISION - A POLITICAL SIDE LIGHT - CAMPAIGNS OF ISSS AND 1$02 - GRANDPA'A HAT - FREE SILVER CAMPAIGN - CASS COUNTY IN CONGRESS - REPRESENTATIVES IN THE LEGISLATURE.

After The Mexican War

The citizens of Cass County soon adjusted themselves to the changes in political affairs with the adoption of the second constitution of the state. which went into force and effect April 1, 1848. The Whigs had been in the ascendancy, but the margin was growing dangerously small, and the opposition to the Mexican war manifested by the Whigs as a party had not added anything to the popularity of it, especially as the war had been prosecuted to a _ successful conclusion in a yery short period. One result from the war was wholly unlooked for by the Whigs. Gen. Zachary Taylor, who had become the most conspicuous figure in that war, was the popular public hero at the close of the conflict, and was, by the Whigs, taken as their candidate for the presidency. The administration in power at Washington was Democratic, under the leadership of President Polk, who had beaten Henry Clay, the Whig idol, in 1844, and this administration made every effort to create a Democratic hero out of the participants in the Mexican war so that the party might be ready with a suitable candidate to succeed President Polk, who had given his word that he would not be a candidate for re-election. The people could not be deceived as to who was the real hero of the war, and adhered in their devotion and popular admiration for General Taylor, "old Rough and Ready," as the soldiers serving under him called him. Thus, in spite of the fact that Gen. Taylor was not favorably received by the leaders of the Whig party who looked upon themselves as the only simonpure statesmen, he was nominated by that party, with Millard Fillmore for vice president, as the standard bearer in the presidential contest of 1848. The Democrats nominated Gen. Lewis Cass of Michigan for president, and William O. Butler of Kentucky for vice president. Gen. Cass, a man of high character, had been governor of Michigan territory, five years secretary of war, under President Jackson, and had been minister to France. He had served creditably in the war of 1812, but was not regarded highly as a military man, and his friends and the party newspapers supporting the administration tried the absurd expedient of making him out a military hero to offset the great popularity of General Taylor, but this movement, of course, resulted in a flat failure. Cass was badly beaten, even in Cass County, that had been uamed for him, he there receiving 724 votes to 761 for Taylor.

Vigorous Campaign In 15848

The presidential campaign of 1848 was vigorously conducted. There were but two papers then published in the county, the Gazette, of Beardstown, and the Observer, of Virginia, the former a Whig organ, and the latter a Democratic one. Sylvester Emmons conducted the Gazette, and, being a very able writer, made an irresistible onslaught on General Cass and the Democratic measures, especially the tariff. The greater number of the county officers elected in Cass County that fall were of the Whig party. Richard S. Thomas, a distinguished resident of Virginia, was elected to the General Assembly, being the first representative of the new district formed under the new constitution, comprising Cass and Menard counties. Thomas L. Harris, a Democrat, residing at Petersburg, beat Stephen T. Logan, a Whig and an able lawyer, for Congress by a majority of six in Cass County. At that same election, Jesse Crews, of Oregon Precinct, was elected coroner on the Whig ticket, without opposition. He was the father of Thomas M., John and Jess Crews of Oregon Precinct, and grandfather of Charles Crews, who, aS a young man, clerked for W. B. Payne in the dry goods store on the south side of the public square, in Virginia, and is now a wealthy merchant of Pueblo, Colo. James Shaw was elected county judge, being the first under the new arrangement provided in the constitution of 1548, and he was succeeded by John A. Arenz, also a Whig, in 1852. Judge Arenz was a brother of Francis Arenz, born in Blankenburg, Province of the Rhine, Prussia, October 28, 1810. He was a highly educated man, a graduate of the seminary at Bruhl, near Cologne, and came to America in 1835, locating at Beardstown. He first engaged with his brother, Francis A. Arenz, subsequently in various lines of business, and held office as justice of the peace, notary public and mayor of Beardstown. During the campaign of 1844 he lived at Springfield, Ill., and conducted a newspaper in the German language, in the interest of Henry Clay for the presidency. Judge Arenz was returned to the county judgeship in 1865, having in March of that year been admitted to the bar as an attorney-at-law. He lived to be eighty-seven years and ten months old, and died at his home in Beardstown, highly respected by men of every party and faith.

Political events crowded on rapidly. The question of slavery forged to the front, precipitated by the efforts of California to be admitted as a free state in 1850, and also by the proposition to create two new territories out of the acquisitioned land resulting from the war with Mexico. The compromise measure presented by Clay, and called by its opponents in derision the "Omnibus Bill," which provided that California should be admitted as a free state; that the new territories of Utah and New Mexico should be formed without any provision concerning slavery ; that $10,000,000 should be paid to Texas to yield its claim to New Mexico; that the slave trade should be abolished in the District of Columbia, and that a fugitive slave law should be enacted, was, after bitter debate, finally adopted. The anti-slavery party would not accept the compromise and began to form a new political party to which they invited all anti- Slavery voters. The Democrats and Whigs in their party assembly each declared they stood by the compromise, and selected their candidates for the presidency for the campaign of 1852. The Democrats presented Franklin Pierce, and the Whigs. Gen. W. 8S. Scott, while the Free Soilers nominated John P. Hale of New Hampshire. The election was practically one-sided, Pierce carrying all but four of the states, and the Whig party disappeared forever from the political arena.

A Stringent Liquor Law

Erected by the Inmates of the Soldiers' and Sailors' Home in memory of General Charles KE. Lippincott and wife of Chandlerville. the First Governor and Matron of the Home.

any section of the country; they had ably debated every phase and element of the compromise, at the crossroads store and upon the street corners, and in every convenient and inconvenient place; and each side had carried off the trophies of victory, and were now willing to lay the matter aside and devote their attention to matters of more local concern. Rey. Cyrus Wright, a "regular" Baptist preacher, had been elected to represent the two counties of the Twenty-fifth district, Cass and Menard, in the Eighteenth General Assembly. The previous legislature, in which Cass County did not have a local representative, had passed a stringent liquor law, prohibiting the sale of liquor in less quantities than one quart. The Eighteenth assembly repealed the law, the Rey. Mr. Wright voting for the repeal, he having in the pre-election campaign warned his constituents that he would so vote. It is affirmed that he said, though, that while he was in favor of the repeal of the law, he did not see why, if a person wanted liquor at all, he should want less than a quart. That legislature also passed the famous Black laws, and two other important acts, one for the incorporation of the State Agricultural Society, and one providing for the e:ection of a state superintendent of public instruction. That legislature in the senate was composed of twenty Democrats and five Whigs; in the house, fifty-nine Democrats, sixteen Whigs and one Free Soiler. Hon. Stephen A. Douglas was re-elected to the United States Senate. He had no sooner been apprised of his election than he sprung upon an unsuspecting public his "IXansas-Nebraska Bill," which, by the doctrine it embodied upon the slavery question, and which Mr. Douglas denominated "squatter sovereignty," abolished the Missouri Compromise of 1820, and the more recent compromise of 1850. The anti-slavery people had peacefully retired at night resting in the belief that slavery had been placed, by the last compromise, where it was in the course of ultimate extinction, and arose to find that the senator from Illinois, described by an able Democratic writer of the time as the "most consummate demagogue of the age," had, by the introduction of his wholly uncalled for measure, shattered all their hopes of peace and quiet over this most irritating and dangerous question; and had again aroused the people from one end of the country to the other to the highest pitch of personal friends in Cass County, but a number of them parted from him politically on this question, while others stood by him loyally. The bill was debated with energy and great rancor, both in and out of Congress, and was delayed for several months before it came up for final action. In the meantime the people of Cass County had troubles of their own. Representative Wright had secured the passage of an act for the submission of a vote upon the question of the removal of the county seat from Beardstown to Virginia, at an election to be held the first Monday of November, 1853. The vote was taken as provided, and resulted in favor of leaving the county seat at Beardstown, by a very decided majority.

The Kansas-Nebraska Bill

On May 380, 1854, the Kansas-Nebraska Bill reached a final vote in the national Congress, and was passed, and the "irrepressible conflict" was on. More than forty Democrats from the North defied party discipline and voted against the bill. Senator Douglas by his masterly intellect and great force of character had won the sobriquet of "Little Giant,' and Samson-like, he had thrown open flood-gates which he could not close. He came home to Illinois to defend his position, which was apparently defenseless; the people of Chicago practically denied him a hearing. He traveled over the state, speaking in every congressional district, and then it was that Abraham Lincoln, who had been in retirement politically, since his return from Congress, was now called out to discuss the all-absorbing question. The campaign that fall was but the forerunner of the great debate which occurred two years later.

Cass County had no representative in the General Assembly which convened in January of 1855, the nomination in this district having gone to Menard County, which selected S. D. ofasters, an anti-Nebraska Democrat. The unpopularity of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill was evidenced by the fact that the legislature, which at the previous session was more than twothirds Democratic, now was in control of the anti-slavery forces, and succeeded in electing Hon. Lyman Trumbull, an anti-Nebraska Demoerat, tosthe United States Senate. The next year the Republican party was organized and nominated a full state ticket, which was successful at the polls in November, but its candi- date for the presidency was defeated by James Buchanan, the Democratic candidate. Dr. Samuel Christy, of Lancaster Precinct, Cass County, was elected to the General Assembly. The legislature convened January 5, 1857, and adjourned February 19, 1857. Although the state administration was Republican, with Gov. W. H. Bissell at its head, the legislature was Democratic in both branches. Dr. Christy was a Democrat of the most pronounced type, and was an active member of the assembly. During the short session he secured the passage of bills in which Cass County was directly interested, as follows: ;

To extend the jurisdiction of justices of the peace and police magistrates in Cass County; to incorporate the Virginia Cemetery in Cass County; to amend the charter of the upper and lower Mississippi Railroad Company; to amend the act to construct a railroad from Jacksonville, in Morgan County, to La Salle, in La Salle County; to incorporate the Virginia TFemale Seminary of Providence Presbyterian Church of Cass County ; to incorporate the Cass County Fair Ground Association; for the relocation of the county seat of Cass County; to incorporate the town of Virginia, in Cass County.

Personal Biography

Dr. Christy was born at Greenville, Mercer County, Pa., May 6, 1818. He secured such an education as he could in the country schools of his native county, and when he arrived at manhood, began to teach in the schools in the country regions. He later attended Jefferson College, Philadelphia, Pa., as a medical student, and received a diploma from that institution in the spring of 1836. He settled at Lexington, Mo., in 1838, but remained there but a few years, when he removed to Fulton County, Ill., and practiced his profession for about nine years. In 1849 he came to Beardstown and bought a drug store, but in 1851, tiring of the confinement, he purchased a farm in the eastern part of Cass County, to which place he moved in 1852. It was the farm for many years known as the William Mains farm, about one mile east of the hamlet of Philadelphia, and was then about the center of Lancaster Precinct. There the Doctor acquired a fairly good practice, and might have made an exceptional success of his profession, had he not branched off into state politics. The sum total of his success in the latter line was one term in the legislature. Dr. Christy was a strong man physically and mentally, and a fairly good physician, but his unnecessary espousal of the southern cause and his disloyal utterances so estranged him from his neighbors, who had always held him in high esteem as a man and physician, that at the close of the Civil war, he found the neighborhood no longer congenial, and having tired of the drudgery of thé practice of a country physician. he resolved to remove to Iowa, purchase a farm and abandon the medical profession. This he did, selling his Cass County farm to William Mains, and removing with his family in the fall of 1865, to Mills County, Iowa, where he purchased a farm and followed agriculture. He lived there until the morning of his seventyfourth birthday, May 6, 1887, when he expired very suddenly.

As 1857 was an off year in national and state politics, and all other excitements having been allayed, the people of Cass County again indulged in the. interesting pastime of holding a eounty seat election. The vote this year was taken at an election held for this purpose on the Tuesday after the first Monday of November, 1857. .There was also submitted to the voters that year, two other propositions, one, which was voted upon in August. was whether or not the county should subseribe for $50,000 of bonds of the Keokuk & Warsaw Railroad Company, and the other, which was voted upon in November, was as to whether or not the county should adopt township organization. The result of the vote was the defeat of all three propositions, Beardstown still retaining the county seat. The election also disclosed the most wonderful increase in population in the town of Beardstown ever known in any town, village or city. The entire vote of the county one year previously, at the presidential election, was but 1665, while the vote of Beardstown on the question of the removal of the county seat at this special election was nearly double what it was the year previous. This naturally led to charges of fraud, but no one saw fit to contest the election.

Nomination Of Lincoln And Douglas

as they lined up for the campaign of that year, when a legislature was to be elected which should return a United States senator to succeed Senator Douglas. Cass County had no candidate for the assembly on either ticket, but each party had a full county ticket. Douglas and Lincoln were each nominated in convention of their respective parties as candidates for the United States senate. although there could be. under the law at that time. no direct vote for the candidates for senator. Each candidate had made a number of speeches in various parts of the state. and a series of joint debates had heen arranged to begin at Ottawa. In the interim. each candidate had his time to himself to speak at such points as he or his political managers might think most important. Cass County was not favored with one of the joint debates, but it had the next thing to it: both candidates spoke in the county before the first joint debate. 'Beardstown 1858, the most important point in the county, and was also a leading business locality for a large territory, railroads being few in number in the country, and there were none in Cass County. Its situation on the river. making it easily accessible by steamer, was a considerable factor in determining its prominence. Both Mr. Lincoln and Senator Douglas concluded to hold meetings at Beardstown. The date selected by the Douglas party was August 11, 1858, and August 12, 1858, by the Republicans. There is no doubt that both these meetings were great successes; that they were attended by thousands of people, for by that time the greatest excitement had been worked up: the whole United States was looking on and the metropolitan newspapers were giving considerable attention and space to the coming debates.

Interesting Details

Concerning the meetings articles appeared in the Springfield. I1l.. papers, the Register and the Journal. but. being partisan, each praised the one meeting and belittled the other. The speeches of neither Lincoln nor Douglas are found in either paper. The Register. speaking of the Douglas meeting. says there were 5.000 people present; that it was one of the largest and most enthusiastic meetings ever held in central Illinois; that hundreds and thousands came from the neighboring counties: and it meant that at the November election the Demo- crats would carry the county by at least 500 majority. The meeting was covered by a reporter who was evidently an expert, one who was following Douglas in the interests of the Democratic party. He says, in his report, that after noon the delegation came in from Virginia, and with it were two wagons joined together filled with young ladies dressed in white representing the States of the Union; that one of the banners carried by the Virginia delegation had a picture of a lion standing squarely on four feet, with head up proudly, and the left hind foot reaching back and pressing to the ground the squirming form of a mangy cur. In speaking of the Lincoln meeting, which occurred the following day, a very contemptuous attitude is seen, characterizing it as a flat failure, and a very insignificant crowd, and hardly worthy of any consideration. On the other hand, the Sangamon Journal speaks of the Lincoln meeting as a very enthusiastic gathering at which 3,000 people were present, and states that Mr. Lincoln came in from Naples and Meredosia on the steamer, Sam Gatty; that there was a great parade headed by two military companies of Beardstown, the "Independents," and the "City Guards," that J. McClean was marshal of the day. Mr. Lincoln and the committee stopped at the National Hotel, and after dinner came the speaking at the park. On the speaker's stand were Dr. Pothicary, William Cole. Jacob Bergen, Edward Collins. Horace Billings, William Chase, I. C. Sacket and Charles Rich. Mr. Rich introduced Mr. Lincoln, as he was a representative man, a member of the large mercantile firm of Rich, Chase & Co., of Beardstown. The paper further says Mr. Lincoln made an able and vigorous speech which was received with great enthusiasm. In speaking of the Douglas meeting, the Journal says it was a failure; that one of the wagons in the parade broke down and everybody became disgusted ; that there was little or no enthusiasm except that produced by the liquor dealt out. It further says that Douglas was greatly disgruntled and disappointed, and that he had to seek his boat on foot and alone when he left the next morning. While at Beardstown. Mr. Lincoln was induced to have a photograph made. Felix Kesler was the photographer, and made the negative. A reproduction of that picture appears on 4nother page of this work, and it is very interesting to this section historically from the fact that it was taken in Cass County. The cam- paign of these great leaders will not be followed further, interesting as it was, and productive of very important results. Suffice to say, that it was conducted with great enthusiasm and excitement throughout the length and breadth of the state, and when the election was held it was found that the Democrats had elected a majority of their candidates to the legislature and upon joint ballot on January 6, 1859, Mr. Douglas was again elected to the United States senate. The popular vote, however, showed the Republicans to be in the majority. Cass County elected the Democratic candidates to the local offices by about the same narrow majority they had at the election in 1856.

The campaign of 1860 was, if anything, more exciting than that of 1858, and in Cass as much so as anywhere else. Henry E. Dummer, a distinguished lawyer of Beardstown, was nominated by the Whigs for state senator, and Henry Phillips, who, in later years, became county judge and master-in-chancery of the county, made his first appearance in politics. At the Democratie county convention in June of that year, he was nominated for circuit clerk over Knowlton H. Chandler. Judge Phillips was an able speaker, and made an active canvass, not only for himself, but for the Douglas Democratic ticket. Phillips was elected and in 1864 succeeded himself, holding the office until 1868. Judge Phillips is still living at Beardstown, and is now the master-in-chancery of the city court of that city and of the Circuit Court of Cass County. Judge Dummer was elected as a Republican to the senate for a four year term, ending in 1864. A biographical notice of Judge Dummer is given elsewhere in this work. The presidential vote shows that the Douglas Demoerats received 1308 votes, and the Republican ticket received 1039 in Cass County. The election was held November 6, 1860. The Demoerats continued to have a majority in the county, and elected their local ticket until 1872, when a division arose between the east and west end of the county over the county seat question when George Volkmer of Beardstown was elected sheriff, and Albert F. Arenz of the west part of the county was elected circuit clerk, both on the Republican ticket.

During the first five years following 1860, local matters were largely absorbed in the interest and excitement attendant upon the Civil war, which broke upon the nation with the firing upon Fort Sumter on April 14, 1861. Public excitement was at fever heat. Patriotism was aroused as it had never been before; party lines were broken down, and with few exceptions the people were actuated by a common sentiment of patriotism. Cass County residents at once began the formation of companies of soldiers and tendered them for service in defense of the Union. All of this military history is given elsewhere.

Interesting Bit Of Local History

An incident arose in 1863 which merits consideration. The constitution of 1848 had an article which had been submitted to the voters as a separate provision, providing that the General Assembly should, at its first session under the amended constitution, pass such laws as would effectually prohibit free persons of color from emigrating to and settling in this state, and to prevent owners of slaves from bringing them into the state for the purpose of setting them free. Cass County voted in favor of that article, but not by as large a majority as for the constitution itself. The legislature did not, however, pass such laws at the first session thereafter, but it did enact a law on the subject as has been stated. in 1853. This law provided that if any persons brought into this state a negro or mulatto slave, whether set free or not, should be liable to indictment and fine of not less than $100, nor more than §500, and be imprisoned in the county jail for one year; and further provided, in a subsequent section, that if any negro or mulatto, bond or free, should hereafter come into the state and remain more than ten days, with the evident intention of residing in same, should be fined upon conviction before a justice of the peace, $50, but the negro had the right of appeal to the Circuit court on giving bond with security, in double the amount of the fine, and costs, ete., with provisions for the manner of collecting the fines, and for second offenses, ete. Cass County has never had any negro population to speak of, seven being the highest number of colored persons ever reported by the census. that was for 1840. Therefore little attention was here paid to the Black laws as they were called.

In July, 1862. the Seventy-first Illinois Volunteer Infantry was mustered into service as a three-months regiment. William H. Weaver, of Beardstown, was elected captain of Company G, and Thomas B. Collins of Virginia, was made lieutenant of the same company. Quite a numnber of Cass County men were enlisted in this company, whose names appear in the roster given elsewhere. This regiment was sent to Cairo, Ill., and to points in Kentucky, and after serving its time out, returned to Chicago and Was mustered out. While in the South, a negro boy, named Henry Clay, became attached to Captain Weaver as a servant, and with him and Lieutenant Collins went to Chicago. When Collins was about to return home, the boy begged to be taken along. Lieutenant Collins, who, perhaps in his country home, in Cass County, where there were no negroes, had never heard of the law against negroes coming into the county or state, and being a very kindhearted man, took the homeless black boy with him. He had not been at home long before a few of that class of citizens who may well be suspected of not being courageous enough to have gone into the South to assist their southern friends in the prosecution of the Rebellion, nor loyal enough to enlist in the Union army for the suppression of that rebellion, and heartily disliked any who did so, soon noised it abroad that a negro had been brought into the state against the law; that Lieutenant Collins was the guilty violator of the law. So a complaint was procured, and the boy was charged with violating the state law above mentioned; Henry Clay, on December 11, 1862, was arrested at the home of Mr. Collins and brought to trial at Beardstown, and convicted, but appealed to the Circuit court.

At the March term of the Circuit court of Cass County, held at Beardstown, in March, 1863, the grand jury found an indictment against Thomas Byron Collins, for a violation of another one of the Black laws passed in 1845, which forbids the harboring of negroes or black persons, Judge Harriett being on the bench. He fixed the bail bond at $100. The writ for the arrest of Collins was not issued for some time, as he was away at the front, in the service of his country, and when he returned home, the boy was gone and no further attention was paid to the case, and was, when brought up at court, dismissed. Several versions of the story of the prosecution of the boy. Henry Clay, and the sequel have been printed, even the metrooplitan press getting hold of it and publishing an account. These accounts do not differ very materially, for, of course, the foundation for them all is the record on file in the clerk's office in Cass County, but through the efforts of Hon, J. N. Gridley, of Pomona, Cal., while he Was yet a citizen of Cass County, the boy, Henry Clay, was traced and found to be in the Soldiers' Home at Danville, Il. From him, through the assistance of the secretary of the governor of the home, an account of the affair was obtained which Mr. Gridley published in his historical sketches of Cass County, along with the accounts of the same affair by others, who were more or less cognizant of the facts. The account by Henry Clay himself, which appears to be unbiased and unprejudiced, and withal a simple, pathetic story of the life of one whose sole crime or misdemeanor was that of having a black skin, and having been born in slavery, is given as follows:

Says Henry Clay: "I was born in Moscow, Ky., on the 3rd day of March, 1839, and belonged as a slave to a family by the name of Tichworth, and was employed about the place as a house boy. I lived in Moscow until the breaking out of the Civil war, when I ran away and became a servant for officers of the Tenth Illinois Infantry. I was taken with a number of men of that regiment as a prisoner and the Confederate troops put me to work building breastworks, ete. I later got away and then became a servant for Capt. William H. Weaver and Lieut. Thomas B. Collins of Company G, Seventy-first Illinois Infantry. I remained with these officers and accompanied the regiment to Chicago where it was mustered out in the fall of 1862. Being without a home [ requested Lieut. Collins, who had been very kind to me, to take me home with him. This he did and I remained with him and his family for some time, working about the place for which work he paid me. Some time during that winter the sheriff accompanied by two men came to the Collins home and placed me under arrest. The sheriff remained at the Collins home over night and the next morning we started to Beardstown accompanied, as I now remember, by Mr. Collins, his wife, his sister, Miss Emma Collins. Dr. Pothicary amd some others, whose names I cannot now recall. At one point in the road the sheriff and Dr. Pothicary had some discussion as to the proper way to go. my friends thinking that some harm might come to me by going in the direction the sheriff desired to take me. The sheriff finally consented and we went the way Dr. Pothicary suggested. When we arrived at Beardstown it was quite late and I was kept in the sheriff's house all night. The trial was held before a justice of the peace and Judge Dummer defended me. I do not remember the results of the trial further than that I was turned over to the care of Dr. Pothicary who gave bond or did something to get me out, and I returned to the Collins home and continued working about the place during the remainder of the winter. Some time during the spring of the year, I cannot tell just what time, but the corn was about 18 to 20 inches high, a mob came to the Collins place and tried to take me away. Mrs. Collins and her daughter hid me out from the house in a field and I remained there until the mob left. Dr. Pothicary then took me to Springfield and put me in the care of a family by the name of Donnegan. These people were from Kentucky. I worked at odd jobs until the Twenty-ninth regiment of colored troops was organized, when J went to Quincy and enlisted in D company of that regiment on the 12th day of January, 1864, and served until the end of the war. I was twice wounded, once at Petersburg and once at Danville, Va. After being mustered out I returned to Illinois and went to Jacksonville, where I drove a 'bus for awhile and later purchased a team and 'bus of my own and engaged in business for myself. I remained at Jacksonville until 1885, when I sold out there and moved to Chicago and engaged in the livery business. I remained in that business until about the first of January, 1904, at which time I was compelled to close out my business on account of ill health and I came to the National Soldiers' Home, at Danville."

Governor Yates Prorogue Of The Legislature

The legislature of 1861 had passed a new apportionment act providing for twenty-five senatorial districts, and eighty-five representative districts. and placed Cass County and Brown County together to form the Twenty-fifth District, and having one representative. The change made by the apportionment of 1854 had left Cass and Menard counties together as one district, having changed the number to that of thirty-four. The original number was twentyfive. This act of 1861 changed us back to number twenty-five but placed us with Brown instead of Menard, and this was the only time

Cass and Menard have not been associated in the same representative district, prior to or since that time. At an election in 1862, James M. Epler, a lawyer of Beardstown, was chosen to represent this district in the lower house. Both houses of that legislature were Democratic and elected William A. Richardson, a Democrat, to fill the vacancy in the United States senate caused by the death of Stephen A. Douglas. But little else was done. This was the legislature whose wrangle over political resolutions and disagreement over the time of adjournment brought on the famous action of Governor Yates in proroguing the legislature. The ordinary appropriations were not made by that legislature, and the state government had to depend upon banks and capitalists to advance the necessary funds for current expenses.

Knights Of The Golden Circle

In the fall of 1863, a little incident occurred which interested Cass County people, especially the "copperhead" element, as it was called. The Iwnights of the Golden Circle, a society formed in certain of the central western states for the purpose, as alleged, of resisting the draft, but, in fact, for the purpose of harrassing the government and all loyal people in any manner possible. There were at least two bands of the society in Cass County. The government made diligent efforts to obtain the secrets of the order, and succeeded so that at no time was the society very dangerous to the welfare of the state or national government. It was claimed that a man of Meredosia had, after joining the order, gone to Springfield and revealed the secrets of the society. A resident of Beardstown Precinct, who had at one time been a constable, and was also a "Knight," after 'having heard of the so-called treachery of the Meredosia man, was one day standing on the depot platform of the Wabash Railroad, at Jacksonville, when a westbound train came in. He noticed the Meredosia man sitting by an open window, and waiting until the train started he attempted to jerk the "traitor" as he regarded him, out of the window. He did not succeed and the other returned to his home at Meredosia, and had a warrant issued for his assailant who was arrested and taken to Jacksonville for trial. In the meanwhile, in order to stir up an excitement, the "Knights" circulated the report that the Cass County man was to be dragged off by the military authorities and tried by court martial at Springfield, or some other place, away from the scene of the offense. Nothing of the kind was thought of by the authorities, but a large number of the "Ixnights" gathered, and with arms, such as old rusty muskets, rifles, shot guns, etc. proceeded to Jacksonville, but they took great care to conceal their weapons in the outskirts of the city before entering. The excitement caused by the various stories circulated, naturally drew a great many people to Jacksonville, who were in no Way connected with the "Knights" order, but, like poor old dog Tray, being in bad company. their names got mingled with those who were actually members of the so-called traitorous order. This fact has been used to give some little respectability to this order, by citing that some very responsible persons were among the "raiders." As a matter of fact the so-called "raid" was a fiasco, and was not mentioned except casually for many years, and in later times when the odium attached to the order had somewhat disappeared, it was only referred to in derision or jest. The case was called and heard in the regular way, the defendant waiving examination, gave bond for his appearance at the Circuit court, but no bill was ever found against him. and the case was dismissed.

Return Of Peace

James M. Epler was not elected to the next assembly which was the twenty-fourth, but in 1866, was again chosen from Cass County. Two years later he was elected to the state senate Morgan County. having removed from Beardstown to Jacksonville. Judge Dummer had moved from Beardstown to Jacksonville two years previously, and Garland Pollard had removed from Beardstown to St. Louis. The war over, matters began to assume a peaceful and quiet aspect in Cass County. Population had greatly increased in the central and eastern parts of the county. while it appeared that Beardstown was retrograding. River traffic had been largely displaced by the numerous railroads built through the country, none of which had yet reached Beardstown, although strenuous efforts had been made in that direction. Financial matters were in a chaotic condition. the Leanard Bank. the only one at Beardstown, had made a disastrous failure. and altogether the future of the capital city of Cass County was not yery promising.

adherents, taking advantage of the conditions, again sought a vote upon the removal of the county seat. An act of the legislature had been procured, passed February 14, 1867, which provided for a vote to be taken on the second Tuesday of April of that year. A history of this interesting contest is given elsewhere in this work, which finally culminated in the removal of the capital to Virginia.

Further Constitutional Revision

The legislature of 1859 had submitted a proposition to the people calling a third constitutional convention. The proposition was endorsed by vote of the people at the election of 1860, and in November, 1861, an election for choosing delegates was held. By this time excitement was intense over the war, and many of the state's best and ablest men were at the front and little attention was given to the selection of delegates to the constitutional convention which assembled January 7, 1862, but a majority of the delegates refused to take the oath prescribed by the act creating the body, that they would support the state constitution. They attempted to assume absolute control over the affairs of the state. demanding certain information of the governor wholly foreign to their rights and duties pertaining to the purpose for which they were elected. Their conduct so incensed the people, that although the draft of a new constitution eontained many excellent provisions, yet, when submitted to the people for ratification, at an election held June 17, 1862. it was rejected by a large majority. No further attempt to revise the constitution of 1548 was made for nearly ten years. The war had closed, two amendments had heen made to the federal constitution and the legislature of 1867 again submitted a proposition to the people. and a constitutional convention was called. but it was by the extremely narrow vote of 704 majority. The convention was held and the draft of the constitution as adopted hy the convention. was submitted to a vote of the people and ratified at an election held July 6. 1870. and it went into force August 8, following. There was a new apportionment and redistricting of the state under the provisions of the new constitution. Cass and Menard counties were again placed together to form one district. and numbered fifty-four. At the election in November of that year. William W. Easley. of Virginia, was elected as the first representative from Cass under the new constitution. A number of changes have since been made by the various legislatures in arranging districts under various apportionments, mostly actuated by a desire to gain some political advantage in the reformation of districts. Cass County has fared no worse, and certainly no better, than other counties in that regard. Under the new constitution a general law was enacted relating to the removal of county seats, and Cass County finally, as before stated, secured the removal of its county seat to Virginia as a result of the last election, held in 1872. Virginia did not become the metropolis that it was expected by the more sanguine it would be, and Beardstown did not sink beneath the sand dunes on the river bank. The county seat has become a beautiful little city with excellent business houses and paved streets, while Beardstown has grown at a rapid rate. now having over 7,000 inhabitants with flourishing industries, banks, churches, schools, water works, electric lights and paved streets that make it a city worthy of the efforts of the citizens who have made it what it is. Both places ean well afford to forget all about the early exasperating contests over that which has proven not to have been of great value to either.

A Political Sidelight

Cass County, politically, has been Democratic most of the years since the Civil war, now and then electing a Republican to some local office, and has had, for the greater part of the time since 1870, a representative in the General Assembly, either in the senate or in the house. In 1885, the county was represented in the lower house by Hon. J. Henry Shaw, as a member of the Thirty-fourth General Assembly. the county then being in the Thirty-fourth Senatorial District. That legislature witnessed the most dramatic political contest in the history of the state. The senate was composed of twenty-six Republicans, twenty-four Democrats, and one Greenback-Democrat. The house had seventysix Republicans. seventy-six Democrats, and Elijah Haines, an independent. who had been elected speaker after a somewhat prolonged contest. A successor to Senator John A. Logan was to he elected. and he had been made the caucus nominee of the Republican party without opposition; and the distinguished representative in Congress, William R. Morrison was the Demo- cratic nominee. On the first joint ballot, which was taken Iebruary 1S, 1885, Senator Logan received 101 votes; W. R. Morrison, ninety-four votes; Mr. Haines, four wotes, and there were four scattering votes. Ballots were taken on two subsequent days without any material change and then, during the rest of February, March and April, either one side or the other refrained from voting, the purpose being to prevent a quorum. On February 26, Robert E. Logan, a Republican of the Nineteenth District died. and on March 20, Senator Frank M. Bridges, a Democrat of the Thirty-seventh District died. At the special election called to fill these vacancies, a Republican and Democrat, respectively, were elected, thus preserving the political parity. On April 18, Hon. J. Henry Shaw, of Beardstown, representative of the Thirty-fourth District, died very suddenly at his hotel at Springfield. Mr. Shaw was a Democrat, in a district that was a Democratic stronghold. At the time Mr. Shaw was elected to the asselnbly, Hon. Grover Cleveland carried the district for president by 2.060 majority. It was assumed that a Democrat would be elected to succeed Mr. Shaw. The special election was called for May G. At that time the Australian ballot law was not in force, and nominations lawyer of Virginia, who had been state's attorney for Cass County. The Republicans held no convention and apparently were letting the election go by default. The Democratic conyention was held at Virginia. and on the same evening a few Republican leaders casually met and it was whispered among them that it might be possible to organize a "still hunt' and elect a Republican and thus end the deadlock at Springfield. In a few days James B. Black, Capt. Reuben Lancaster, Dr. S. M. Colady and one or two others went to Springfield and a consultation was held in the old Leland Hotel, where assembled a few of the most intimate and trusted friends of Gen, Logan and a plan was developed and decision made that Capt. William H. Weaver should be put up as the candidate. He was well known, as he was born in Cass County and had lived there until after the Civil war. and had then lived for a time in Mason County. and was then living at Petersburg, Menard County. A few only of the most eareful Republicans in each county of the dis- trict were let into the secret. It was arranged that Welles Cory, a newspaper man of Mason City should look after the printing of the tickets. He closed his office at the usual time in the evening after his weekly paper was sent out, and then, with curtains down he went to work at the tickets. To facilitate press work he set up several tickets in one form and then cut them into strips of six tickets on each for delivery, and the handlers of the tickets were to separate them. The plan was that information should not be given out until the morning of election, and then trusted lieutenants were to go into every voting district and distribute the tickets and quietly pass the word, the voters were not to go to the polls until about four o'clock in the afternoon. Election day came on with little attention being paid to it by the Democrats, who thought there was no contest. The Republicans went about their work as usual, but when four o'clock came they began to pour into the polls in full force. They came in such great numbers and with such enthusiasm that the Democrats realized at once that something was being done, and, discovering the true situation, made every effort to counteract the movement, but it was too late, their forces could not be rallied. and the result was that Captain Weaver was elected. and on May 19, 1885, Gen. Logan was, with the ryote of Captain Weaver, re-elected to the United States senate. An amusing incident is related relative to one Republican, who came in from the field where he had been plowing. and getting hold of one of the slips containing the six tickets, in his excitement and hurry. instead of tearing one off. he yoted the entire six, thus destroying his yote. The plan being successfully carried out, many persons arose at once to claim credit for it as is usual in such cases. However. the plan was not a new one. In the special election held in Sangamon County in 1855, to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Abraham Lincoln from the legislature. the Democratic leaders successfully invoked the same tactics and elected a successor to Lincoln when nearly everyone in the county assumed his successor would be a Whig. The real credit belongs to the Republicans of the district who had the good judgment to keep the secret; had they not done that, the plan would have failed utterly, and as it was, the majority of Weaver was only 336 votes. As a matter of fact the whole plan was conceived and laid before Senator Logan by the gentlemen mentioned above as having visited the senator at Springfield, and was adopted without much delay. It appeared to be the only chance and they took it. Mr. Leeper was criticised by a number of the Democrats, even some of the papers which should have known better, cast the blame upon him, but he was in no sense at fault. The district was so overwhelmingly Democratic that had he undertaken an active campaign it would have only subjected him to ridicule, and it is not at all likely any greater vote would have been polled. The sensible members of the party did not charge that up to Mr. Leeper, but vindicated him in a _ substantial manner from the aspersions of others, by nominating him for state senator of his district in 1888, and retained him in the senate for three successive terms. Mr. Leeper was an excellent lawyer, and made a very creditable senator. For years, however, in this county, the ''Weaver steal" as it was called was used as the bugaboo to scare Democrats to the polls. The "Heelers" however, cried "wolf so often that it finally wore out and was only laughed at as a good "stunt" which any party would have pulled off had opportunity offered.

Little excitement attended the political campaign locally until 1888, when Hon. Grover Cleveland was renominated, and Gov. Benjamin Harrison, a grandson of "Old Tippecanoe," William Henry Harrison, was nominated by the Republicans. Harrison was no sooner before the people than the Democratic newspapers began a campaign of ridicule by charging the candidate with attempting to wear "Grandpa's hat.' This was caught up at once by the Republicans, and it was made the emblem of the campaign. The old campaign of 1840 with log cabins in the procession was re-enacted. It was a lively and interesting campaign and conducted with great vigor, with the best of humor prevailing. Harrison was elected, but the Democrats carried Cass County as usual. In 1892 Harrison was renominated by the Republican convention which that year met at Minneapolis, Minn... and the Democratic party nominated Cleveland for the third time, with the result that he defeated Harrison, but the administration was unfortunate and a financial panic ensued in 1893, causing a great many business failures. Laborers were thrown out of employment and it was all charged up to the administration as a consequence. The elections in the fall of 1894 were disastrous to the Democratic party. In Illinois there was but one Democratic congressman elected and that was Finis E. Downing, of Virginia, Cass County, which was then a part of the Sixteenth District, which had always been so largely Democratic that it was deemed useless to put up a candidate in opposition to the Democratic nominee, but in 1894 the general conditions that prevailed made the outlook for the Republicans unusually bright, and Gen. John I. Rinaker, of Carlinville, was placed on the Republican ticket. Downing's majority was so small on the face of the returns that a contest Was instituted which resulted in Congress declaring that Rinaker was elected, and Cass County lost its first and only representative in Congress. In Cass County the normal majority of the Democratic party of 700 had been reduced to forty for Mr. Downing, while two Republicans, L. W. Pilger, candidate for sheriff,

Free Silver Campaign

Two years later came the famous "free silver' campaign. The deplorable financial condition and the business failures of the country were. by financiers of the "Coin Harvey" type and school, attributed to the insufficiency of money. The Hon. William J. Bryan, who had formerly lived at Jacksonville, in Morgan County, and began the practice of law in that city, had moved to Nebraska. While visiting at his old home at Jacksonville, in June, 1896, he made an appointment to speak in the opera house at Virginia, on some of the populistic ideas he had absorbed in late years. He spoke to very limited audiences. No one had then the slightest idea that Mr. Bryan would within a month be the candidate of the Democratic party for president. and it may be that he had not the remotest hope of such an honor himself. His able oratorical effort at the Chicago convention landed him the prize and one of the most noted political campaigns ensued. Everybody hecame a potential financier and with the aid of Col. Harvey's book was able to discuss the subject with great force. Street corner and soap box debates were the order of the day and night, and had the election occurred within two months of the nominations there is little doubt but that Mr. Bryan would have been elected, but, by the middle of September, the tide had changed and by November the people had pretty thoroughly made up their minds on the money question. Hon. William McKinley, the Republican candidate, was elected by a large majority in the electoral college. Cass County elected the full Democratic local ticket and gave Mr. Bryan a handsome majority. There is nothing so uncertain as public sentiment and in the next presidential election, in 1900, the political pendulum had swung back to its normal beat, and Cass County gave Mr. Bryan, who was again the Democratic nominee, a majority of 780, the yote standing 2626 for Bryan, and 1846 for Mc- IXinley. In four years more the change in public sentiment was such that we had, in Cass County, when Mr. Parker was the Democratic candidate for president against Mr. Roosevelt, the astonishing result' of only seventy-nine plurality for Parker. the vote standing: Parker 1906, Roosevelt 1827. It may be interesting to give also the yote of 1908. with Taft and Sherman 1828: Bryan and Kern 2434. In 1912 the vote stood: Wilson and Marshall, 2223; Taft and Sherman 719; Roosevelt and Johnson 1086.

Hon, Finis E. Downing, elected in 1894, took his seat in 1895, but upon the termination of the contest instituted, Mr. Downing retired, and Gen, Rinaker of Carlinville took the seat.

The following persons have represented Cass County in the General Assembly. In this list are included those who were living in the territory known as the "three-mile strip."