Effingham County, Illinois - Biographical sketches, 1883 (part 12 of 13)

Present Condition Of The Northwest

Preceding chapters have brought us to the close of the Black Hawk war, and we now turn to the contemplation of tlie growth and prosperity of the northwest under the smile of pea^'e and the blessings of our civilization. The pioneers of this region date events back to the deep snow of 1S31, no one arriving here since tliat date taking first honors. The inciting cause of the immigration which overflowed the prairies early in tlie '30s was the reports of the marvelous beauty and fertility of tlie region distributed through the East by tliose who had participated in the Black Hawk campaign with Gen. Scott. Cliicago and Milwaukee then had a few hundred inliabitants, and Gurdou S. Hubbard's trail from the former city to Kaskaskia led ahnost tiirough a wilderness. Vegetables and clothing were largely distributed through the regions adjoining the lakes by steamers from the Ohio towns. There are men now living in Illinois who came to the State when barely an acre was in cultivation, and a man now prominent in the business circles of Chicago looked over the swampy, cheerless site of that metropolis in 1818 and went southward into civilization. Emigrants from Pennsylvania in 1830 left behind them but one small railway in the coal regions thirty miles in length, and made their way to the Northwest mostly with ox teams, finding in iSTortheru Illinois petty settlements scores of miles apart, although the southern portion of the state was fairly dotted with farms. The water courses of the lakes and rivers furnished transjiortation to the second great army of immigrants, and about 1850 railroads were pushed to that extent that the crisis of 1S37 was precipitated upon us, from the effects of which the Western country had not fully I'ecovered at the outbreak of the war. Hostilities found the colonists of tiie prairies fully alive to the demands of the occasion, and the honor of recruiting the vast armies of the Union fell largely to Gov. Yates, of Illinois, and Gov. Morton, of Indiana. To recount the share of the glories of the campaign won by our Western troops is a needless task, except to mention the fact that Illinois gave to tlie nation the President who saved it, and sent out at the head of one of its regiments the general who led its armies to the final victory at Appomattox. The struggle, on the whole, had a marked effect for the better on the new Northwest, giving it an impetus which twenty years of peace would not have produced. In a large degree this prosperity was an inflated one, and with the rest of tiie Union we have since been compelled to atone therefor. Agriculture, still the leading feature in our industries, has been quite prosperous through all these years, and the farmers have cleared away many incumbrances resting over them from the period of fictitious values. The population has steadily increased, the arts and sciences are gaining a stronger foothold, the trade area of the region is becoming daily more extended, and wi have been largely exempt from the financial calamities.

At the present period there are no great schemes broached for the Northwest, no propositions for government subsidies or national works of improvement, but the capital of the world is attracted hither for the purchase of our products or the expansion of our capacity for serving the nation at lartre. A new era is dawninsj as to transportation, and we bid fair to deal almost exclusively with the increasin,^ and expanding lines of steel rail running through every few miles of territory on the prairies. The lake marine will no doubt continue to be useful in the warmer season, and to serve as a regulator of freight rates; but experienced navigators forecast tlie decay of the system in moving to the seaboard the enormous crops of the West. Witliin the past few years it has become quite common to see direct shipments to Europe and tlie West Indies going through from the second-class towns along the Mississippi and Missouri.

Our public men continue to wield tlie full share of influence pertaining to their rank in the national autonomy, and seem not to forget that for the past sixteen years the}' and their constituents have dictated the principles which should govern the country.

In a work like this, destined to lie on the shelves of the Hbrary for generations, and not doomed to daily destruction like a newspaper, one can not indulge in the same glowing predictions, the sanguine statements of actualities that till the columns of ephemeral publications. Time may bring grief to the pet projects of a writer, and explode castles erected on a pedestal of facts. Yet thei-e are un m istakable indications before us of the same radical change in our great Xorthwest which cluiracterizes its history for the past thirty years. Our domain has a sort of natural geographical border, save where it melts away to the southward in the cattle raising districts of the Southwest.

Our prime interest will for some j-ears doubtless be the growth of the food of the world, in which branch it has already outstripped all competitors, and our great rival in this duty will naturally be the fertile plains of Kansas, Nebraska and Colorado, to say nothing of the new empire so rapidly growing up in Texas. Over these regions thei'e is a continued progress in agriculture and in railway building, and we must look to our laurels. Intelligent observers of events are fully aware of the strides made in the way of shipments of fresh meats to Europe, many of these ocean earo-oes being actually slaughtered in the AVest and transported on ice to the wharves of the seaboard cities. That this new enterprise will continue there is no reason to doubt. There are in Chicago several factories for the canning of prepared meats for European consumption, and the orders for this class of goods are already immense. English capital is becoming daily more and more and more dissatisfied with railway loans and investments, and is gradually seeking mammoth outlays in lands and live stock. The stock yards in Chicago, Indianapolis and East St. Louis are yearly increasing their facilities, and their plant steadily grows more valuable. Importations of blooded animals from the progressive countries of Europe are destined to greatly improve the quality of our beef and mutton. Nowhere is there to be seen a more enticing

To attempt to give statistics of our grain production would be useless, so far have we surpassed ourselves in tlie quantity and quality of our product. "We are too liable to forget that we are giving the world its first article of necessity - its food supply. An opportunit}' to learn this fact so it never can be forgotten was afforded at Chicago at the outbreak of the great panic of 1873, when Canadian purchasers, fearing the prostration of business might bring about an anarchical condition of affairs, went to that city with coin in bulk and foreign drafts to secure their supplies in their own currency at tirst hands. It may be justly claimed by the agricultural community that their combined efforts gave the nation its first impecus toward a restoration of its crippled industries, and their labor brought the gold premium to a lower depth tliau the government was able to reach by its most intense efforts of legislation and com]Milsiun. The hundreds of millions about to be disbursed for farm jn-oducts have already, by the anticipation common to ail commercial nations, set the wheels in motion, and will relieve ns from the ]wriis so long siiadowing our efforts to return to a healthy tone.

Manufacturing has attained in the chief cities a footludd which bids fair to render the Northwest inde])endent of the outside world. Xearly our whole region has a distribution of coal measures whicli will in time support the manufactures necessary to our comfort and prosperity. As to transportation, the chief fector in the production of all articles except food, no section is so magnificently endowed, and our facilities

The period from a central point of the war to the outbreak of the panic was marked by a tremendous growth in ouirailway lines, but the depression of tlie times caused almost a total suspension of operations. Now that jirosperity is returning to our stricken country we witness its anticipation by tlie railroad interest in a series of projects, extensions, and leases wiiich bid fair to largely inci'ease our transportation facilities. Tlie process of foreclosure and sale of incumbered lines is another matter to be considered. In the case of the Illinois Central road, which formerly transferred to other lines at Cairo the vast burden of freight destined for the Gulf region, we now see the incorporation of the tracts connecting through to New Orleans, every mile co-operating in turning toward the northwestern metropolis the weight of the interstate commerce of a thousand miles or more of fertile plantations. Three competing routes to Texas have established in Chicago their general freight and passenger agencies. Four or five lines compete for all Pacific freights to a ])oint as far as the interior of Nebraska. Half a dozen or more splendid bridge structures have been thrown across the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers by the railways. The Chicago and Northwestern line has become an aggregation of over two thousand miles of rail, and the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul is its close rival in extent and importance. The three lines running to Cairo via Vincennes form a through route for all traffic with the States to the southward. The trunk lines being mainly in operation, the progi-ess made in the way of shortening tracks, making airline branches, and running extensions does not show to the advantage it deserves, as this process is constantly adding new facilities to the established order of things. The panic reduced the price of steel to a point where the railways could hardly afford to use iron rails, and all our northwestern lines report large relays of Bessemer track. Tlie immense crops now being moved have given a great rise to the value of railway stocks, and their transportation must result in heavy pecuniary advantages.

Few are aware of the importance of the wholesale and jobbing trade of Chicago. In boots and shoes and in clothing, twenty or more great firms from the East have placed here their distributing agents or their factories ; and in groceries Chicago supplies the entire Northwest at rates

Chicago has stepped iu between Nevyf York and the rural banks as a financial center, and scarcely a banking institution in the grain or cattle regions but keeps its reserve funds in the vaults of our commercial institutions. Accumulating here throughout the spring and summer months, they are summoned home at pleasure to move tlie products of the prairies. This process greatly strengthens the northwest iu its financial operations, leaving home capital to supplement local operations on behalf of home interests.

It is impossible to forecast the destiny of this grand and growing section of the Union. Figures and predictions made at this date might seeni ten years hence so ludicrously small as to excite only derision.

Early History Of Illinois

The name of this l)cantifiil Prairie State is derived from lUuii, a Delaware word signifying Superior Men. It has a French termination, and is a symbol of how the two races - the French and the Indians - were intermixed during the early liistory of the country.

The appellation was no doubt well applied to the primitive inhabitants of the soil whose prowess in savage warfare long withstood the combined attacks of the fierce Iroquois on the one side, and the no less savage and relentless Sacs and Foxes on the other. The Illinois were once a powerful confederacy, occupj'ing the most beautiful and fertile region in the great Valley of the Mississippi, which their enemies coveted, and struggled long and liard to wrest from them. By the fortunes of war, they were diminished in numbers, and linally destroyed. "Starved Hock," on the Illinois Iliver, according to tradition, conimemorates their last tragedy, whei'e, it is said, the entire tribe starved rather than surrender.

Eaely Discoveries

The first European discoveries in Illinois date back over two hundred years. They are a part of that movement which, irom the beginning to the middle of the seventeenth century, brought the French

Canadian missionaries and fur traders into the "Valley of the Mississippi, and which at a later period established the civil and ecclesiastical authority of France, from tiie Gulf of St. Lawrence to tlie Gulf of Mexico, and from the foot-hills of the Alleghenies to the Rocky Mountains.

The great river of the West had been discovered by De Soto, the Spanish conqueror of Florida, three quarters of a century before tlie French founded Quebec in 1608, but the Spanisli left tlie country a wilderness, without further exploration or settlement within its borders, in which condition it remained until the Mississipjii was discovered by the agents of the F^rench Canadian government, Joliet and Marquette, in 1673. These renowned explorers were not the first white visitors to Illinois In 1671 - two years in advance of them - came Nicholas Perrot to Chicago. He Lad been sent by Talon as an agent of the Canadian government to call a great peace convention of "Western Indians at Green Bay, preparatory to the movement for the discovery of the Mississippi. It was deemed a good stroke of policy to secure, as far as possible, the friendship and co-operation of the Indians, far and near, before venturing upon an enterprise which their hostility might render disastrous, and which their friendship and assistance would do so much to make successful; and to this end Perrot was sent to call together in council, the tribes throughout the Northwest, and to promise them the commerce and protection of the French government. He accordingly arrived at Green Bay in 1671, and procuring an escort of Pottawatomies, proceeded in a bark canoe upon a visit to the Miamis, at Chicago. Perrot was therefore tlie first European to set foot upon the soil of Illinois.

Still there were others before Marquette. In 1672, the Jesuit missionaries, Fathers Claude Allouez and Claude Dablon, bore the standard of the Cross from their mission at Green Bay through western Wisconsin and northern Illinois, visiting the Foxes on Fox River, and the Masquotines and Kickapoos at the mouth of the Milwaukee. These missionaries penetrated on the route afterwards followed by Marquette as far as the Kickapoo village at the head of Lake "Winnebago, wliere Marquette, in bis journey, secured guides aorcss the portage to the Wisconsin.

The oft repeated story of Marquette and Joliet is well known. They were the agents employed by the Canadian government to discover the Mississippi. Marquette was a native of France, born in 1637, a Jesuit priest by education, and a man of simple faith and of great zeal and devotion in exteTiding the Poman Catholic religion among the Indians. Arriving in Canada in 1666, he was sent as a missionary to the far Nortliwest, and, in 1668, founded a mission at Sault Ste. Marie. The following year he moved to La Pointe, in Lake Superior, where he instructed a branch of the Ilurons till 1670, when he removed south and founded the mission at St. Ignace, on the Straits of Mackinaw. Here he remained, devoting a portion of his time to the study of the Illinois language under a native teacher who had accompanied him to the mission from La Pointe, till he was joined by Joliet in the spring of 1673. By the way of Green Hay and the Fox and Wisconsin Pivers, they entered the Mississippi, which they explored to the mouth of the Arkansas, and returned by the way of the Illinois and Chicago Pi vers to Lake Michigan.

On his way up the Illinois, Marquette visited the great village of the Kaskaskias, near what is now Utica, in the county of La Salle. The following year he returned and established among them the mission of the Immaculate Virgin Mary, which was the first Jesuit mission founded in Illinois and in tlie Mississippi Valley. The intervening winter he had spent in a hut which his companions erected on the Cliicao-o River, a few leagues from its mouth. The founding of this mission was the last act of Marquette's life. He died in Michigan, on his way back to Green Bay, May 18, 1675.

First French Occupatiox

The first French occupation of the territory now embraced in Illinois was effected by La Salle in 1680, seven years, after the time of Marquette and Joliet. La Salle, having constructed a vessel, the "Griffin," above the falls of Niagara, which he sailed to Green Bay, and having passed thence in canoes to the mouth of the St. Joseph River, by which and the Kankakee he reached the Illinois, in January, 1680, erected Fort Crcvecceiir, at the lower end of Peoria Lake, where the city of Peoria is now situated. The place wliere tliis ancient fort stood may still be seen just below the outlet of Peoria Lake. It was destined, however, to a teinporar}' existence. From this point, La Salle determined to descend the Mississippi to its mouth, but did not accomplish this purpose till two years later - in 1682. Returnini^ to Fort Frontenac for the purpose of getting materials with which to rig his vessel, he left the fort in charge of Tonti, his lieutenant, who during his absence was di-iven off b}"^ the Irorpiois Indiaus. Tliese savages had made a raid upon tlie settlement of the Illinois, and had left nothing in their track but ruin and desolation. Mr. Davidson, in his History of Illinois, gives the following graphic account of the picture that met the eyes of La Salle and his companions on their return:

"At the great town of the Illinois they were appalled at the scene which opened to their view. No hunter appeared to break its death-like silence with a salutatory whoop of welcome. The plain on which the town had stood was now strewed with charred fragments of lodges, which had so recently swarmed with savage life and hilarity. To render more hideous the picture of desolation, large numbers of skulls had been placed on the upper extremities of lodge-poles which had escaped the devouring flames. lu the midst of these horrors was the rude fort of the spoilers, rendered frightful by the same ghastly relics. A near approach showed that the graves had been robbed of their bodies, and swarms of buzzards were discovered glutting their loathsome stomachs on the reeking corruption. To complete the work of destruction, the growing corn of the village had been 3ut do\vn and burned, while the pits containing the products of previous years, had been rifled and their contents scattered with wanton waste. It was evident the suspected blow of the Iroquois had fallen with relentless fury."

Tonti had escaped. La Salle knew not whither. Passing down the lake in search of him and his men, La Salle discovered that the fort had been destroyed, but the vessel which he had partly constructed was still on the stocks, and but slightly _injured. After furtiier fruitless search, tailing to And Tonti, he fastened to a tree a painting representing himself and party sitting in a canoe and bearing a pipe of peace, and to the painting attaciied a letter addressed to Tonti.

Tonti had escaped, and after untold privations, taken shelter among the Pottawattomies near Green Bay, These were friendly to the French. One of their old chiefs used to say, "There were but three great captains in the world, himself, Tonti and La Salle."

Genius Of La Salle

We must now return to La Salle, whose exploits stand out in such bold relief. He was born in Rouen, France, in 1643. His father was wealthy but he renounced his patrimony on entering a college of the Jesuits, from which he separated and came to Canada a ])oor man in 1666. Tlie jiriests of St. Sulpice, among whom he had a brother, were then the proprietors of Montreal, the nucleus of which was a seminary or convent founded by that order. The Superior granted to La Salle a large tract of land at La Chine, where he established himself in the fur trade. He was a man of daring genius, and outstripped all his competitors in exploits of travel and commerce with tiie Imliaus. In 1(569, he visited the head(piarters of tlie great Iroquois confederacy, at Onondaga, in tlie heart of New York, and obtaining guides, explored the Ohio River to the falls at Louisville.

In order to understand the genius of La Salle, it must be remembered that for many years prior to his time the missionaries and traders were obliged to make their way to the Northwest by the Ottawa River (of Canada) on account of the fierce liostility of the Iroquois along the lower lakes and Niagara River, which entirely closed this latter route to the UpperLakes. They carried on their commerce chiefly by canoes, paddling them through the Ottawa to Lake Nipissing, carrying them across the portage to French River, and descending that to Lake Huron. This being the route by which they reached the Northwest accounts for the fact that all the earliest Jesuit missions were established in the neighborhood of the Upper Lakes. La Salle conceived tlie grand idea of opening the route by Niagara River and the Lower Lakes to Canadian commerce by sail vessels connecting it with the navigation of the Mississippi, and thus ojiening a magnificent water communication from the Gulf of St. Lawrence to the Gulf of Mexico. This truly grand and comprehensive purpose seems to have animated him in all his wonderful achievements and the matchless difficulties and hardships he surmounted. As the first step in the accomplishment of tills object he established himself on Lake Ontario, and built and garrisoned Fort Frontenac, the site of the present city of Kingston, Canada. Here he obtained a grant of land from the French crown, and a body of troops by which he beat back the invading Iro(^uois and cleared the passage to Niagara Fails. Having by this mnsterly stroke made it safe to attempt a hitherto untried expedition, his next step, as we have seen, was to advance to the Falls with all his outfit for building a ship with which to sail the lakes. He was successful in this nndertaking, though his nltimate purpose was defeated by a strange combination of untoward circumstances. The Jesuits evidently hated La Salle and plotted against him, because he had abandoned them and co-operated with a rival order. The fur traders were also jealous of his superior success in opening new channels of commerce. At La Chine he had taken the trade of Lake Ontario, which but for his presence there would have gone to Quebec. While they were plodding with tlieir bark canoes through the Ottawa he was constructing sailine vessels to command the trade of the lakes and the Mississipjii. These great plans excited the jealousy and envy of the small traders, introduced ti-eason and revolt into the ranks of his own companions, and finally led to the foul assassination by which his great achievements were prematurely ended.

In 16S2, La Salle, iiaving completed his vessel at Peoria, descended the Mississippi to its confluence with the Gulf of Mexico. Erecting a standard on which he inscribed the arms of France, he took formal possession of the whole valley of the mighty river, in the name of Louis XIY, then reigning, in honor of whom he named the country' Louisiana.

plaiitiiiiT a colony in Illinois. They arrived in due time in the Gulf of Mexico, but failing to find the mouth of the Mississip|>i, lip which La Salle intended to sail, his sn]iply ship, with the immigrants, was driven ashore and wrecked on Matagorda Bay. With the fragments of the vessel he constructed a stockade and rude huts on the shore for the ]irotection of the immigrants, calling the ))()st Fort St. Louis. He then made a trip into New Mexico, in search of silver mines, but, meeting with disappointment, returned to find his little colony reduced to forty souls. He then resolved to travel on foot to Illinois, and, starting with his companions, had reached the valley of the Colorado, near the moutli of Trinity river, when he was shot by one of his men. This occurred on the 19th of March, 16S7.

Dr. J. W. Foster remarks of him : " Thus fell, not fiir from the lianks of the Trinity, Tlobert Cavalier de la Salle, one of the grandest characters that ever figured in Anierican history - a man capable of originatiug the vastest schemes, and endowed with a will and a judgment capable of carrying them to sncccssful results. Had am]ile facilities been placed by the King of Franco at his disposal, tiie result of the colonizatioti of this continent might have been far diti'ereiit frt)m what we now behold."

A temporary settlement was made at Fort St. Louis, or the old Kaskaskia village, on the Illinois Uiver, in what is now La Salle County, in 1682. In 1C90, this was removed, with the mission connected with it, to Kaskaskia, on the river of that name.

emptying into the lower Mississipjii in St. Clair County. Caliokia was settled about the same time, or at least, both of these settlements began in the year 1690, though it is now pretty well settled that Cahokia is the older ]>lace, and ranks as the oldest permanent settlement in Illinois, as well as in tiie Mississippi Valley. The reason for the removal of the old Kaskaskia settlement and mission, was probably because the dangerous and difficult route by Lake Michigan and the Chicago portage had been almost abandoned, and travelers and traders passed down and up the Mississippi by the Fox and AVisconsin River route. They removed to the vicinity of the Mississippi in order to be in the line of travel from Canada to Louisiana, that is, the lower part of it, for it was all Louisiana then south of the lakes.

During the period of French rule in Louisiana, the population probably never exceeded ten thousand, including whites and blacks. Within that portion of it now included in Indiana, trading posts were established at the j)rincipal Miami villages which stood on the head waters of the Maumee, the Wea villages situated at Ouiatenon, on the Wabash, and the Piankeshaw villages at Post Vincennes; all of which were probably visited by French traders and missionaries before the close of the seventeenth century.

In the vast territory claimed by the French, many settlements of considerable importance liad sprung up. Biloxi, on Mobile Bay, had been founded by D'lberville, in 1699; Antoine de Lamotte Cadillac had founded Detroit in 1701; and New Orleans had been founded by Bienville, under the auspices of the Mississippi Com- paiiy, in 1718. In Illinois also, considerable settlements had been made, so that in 1730 they embraced one hundred and forty- French families, about six hundred "converted Indians," and many traders and voyageurs. In that portion of tlie country, on the east side of the Mississippi, there were five distinct settlements, with their respective villages, viz.: Cahokia, near the mouth of Cahokia Creek and about five miles below the present city of St. Louis; St. Philip, about forty-five miles below Cahokia, and four miles above Fort Chartres; Fort Chartres, twelve miles above Kaskaskia; Kaskaskia, situated on the Kaskaskia Kiver, five miles above its confluence with the Mississippi; and Prairie du Kocher, near Fort Chartres. To these must be added St. Genevieve and St. Louis, on the west side of the Mississippi. These with the exception of St. Louis, are among the oldest French towns in the Mississippi Yalley. Kaskaskia, in its best days, was a town of some two or three thousand inhabitants. After it passed from the crown of France its population for many years did not exceed fifteen hundred. Under British rule, in 1773, the population had decreased to four hundred and fifty. As early as 1721 the Jesuits had established a college and a monastery in Kaskaskia.

Fort Chartres was first built under the direction of the Mississippi Company, in 1718, by M. deBoisbraint, a military officer, under command of Bienville. It stood on the east bank of the Mississippi, about eighteen miles below Kaskaskia, and was for some time the headquarters of the military commandants of the district of Illinois.

In 1682 Illinois became a possession of the French crown, a dependency of Canada, and a part of Louisiana. In 1765 the English flag was run up on old Fort Chartres, and Illinois was counted among the treasures of Great Britain.

In 1779 it was taken from the English by Col. George Kogers Clark. This man was resolute in nature, wise in council, prudent in policy, bold in action, and heroic in danger. Few men who have figured in the history of America are more deserving than this colonel. Nothing short of firstclass ability could have rescued Yinccnnes and all Illinois from the English. And it is not possible to over-estimate the influence of this achievement upon the republic. In 1779 Illinois became a part of Virginia. It was soon known as Illinois County. In 1781 Virginia ceded all this territory to the general government, to be cut into States, to be republican in form, with " the same right of sovereignty, freedom, and independence as the other States."

In 1787 it was the object of the wisest and ablest legislation found in any merely human records. No man can study the secret history of ,__ and not feel that Providence was guiding with sleepless eye these unborn States. The ordinance that on July 13, 17S7, finally became the incorporating act, has a most marvelous history. Jefterson had vainly tried to secure a system of government for the northwestern territory. lie was an omiincipationist of that day, and favored the exclusion of slavery from the territory A'irsinia had ceded to the general government; hut the South voted him down as often as it came np. In 1787, as late as July 10th, an organizing act without the anti-slavery clause was pending. This concession to the South was expected to carry it. Congress was in session in New York City. On July 5th, Rev. Dr. Mannasseh Cutler, oi Massachusetts, came into Xew York to lobby on the northwestern territory. Everytliiiig seemed to fiill into his hands. Events were ripe.

The state of the public credit, the growing of Southern prejudice, the basis of his mission, his personal character, all combined to complete one of those sudden and marvelous revolutions of public sentiment that once in five or ten centuries are seen to sweep over a country like the breath of the Almighty. Cutler was a graduate of Yale - received his A. M. from Harvard, and his D. D. from Yale. lie had studied and taken degrees in the three learned professions, medicine, law, and divinity. He had thus America's best indorsement. lie had published a scientific examination of the plants of New England. His name stood second only to that of Franklin as a scientist in America. He was a courtly gentleman of the old style, a man of commanding presence, and of inviting face. The Southern members said the3- had never seen such a gentleman in the North. He came representing a company that desired to purchase a tract of land now included in Ohio, for the inirpose of planting a colon3'. It was a speculation. Government money was wortli eighteen cents on the dollar. This Massachusetts company had collected enough to purchase 1,. 500, 000 acres of lanti. Other siiecnlators in New

York made Dr. Cutler their agent (lobbyist). On the 12th he represented a demand for 5,500,000 acres. This would reduce the national debt. Jefferson and Virginia were regarded as authority concerning the land Virginia had just ceded. Jefferson's policy wanted to provide for the public credit, and this was a good opportunity to do something.

]\Iassachusetts then owned the Territory of Maine, which she was crowding on the market. She was opposed to opening the northwestern region. This fired the zeal of Virginia. The South caught the inspiration, and all exalted Dr. Cutler. The English minister invited him to dine witii some of the Southern gentlemen. He was the center of interest.

The entire South rallied round him, Massachusetts could not vote against him, because many of the constituents of her members were interested personally in the western speculation. Thus Cutler, making friends with tiie South, and, doubtless, usina- all the arts of the lobby, was enabled to command the situation. True to deeper convictions, he dictated one of the most compact and finislied documents of wise statesmanship that has ever adorned any human law book. He borrowed from Jefferson the term "Articles of Com])act," which, preceding the Federal constitution, rose into the most sacred chai-acter. F[e then followed very closely the constitution of Massachusetts, adopted three years before. Its most marked points wei'e:

Be it forever remembered that tliis compact declared that " Religion, murality and knowledge being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall always be encouraged."

Di'. Cutler planted himself on this platform and would not yield. Giving his imqualitied declaration that it was that or nothing - that unless they could make the land desirable they did not want it - he took his horse and buggy, and started for the constitutional convention in Philadelphia. On July 13, 1787, the bill was put upon its passage, and was unanimously adopted, every Southern member voting for it, and only one man, Mr. Yates, of New York, voting against it. But as the States voted as States, Yates lost his vote, and the com])act was put beyond repeal.

Thus the great States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and AVisconsin - a vast empire, the heart of the great valley - were consecrated to freedom, intelligence and honesty. Thus the great heart of the nation was prepared for a year and a day and an hour. In the light of these eightj'-nine years I affirm that this act was the salvation of the republic and the destruction of slavery. Soon the South saw their great blunder, and tried to repeal the compact. In 1803, Congress referred it to a committee of which John Bandolph was chairman, lie reported that this ordinance was a compact, and opposed repeal. Thus it stood a

Witli all this timely aid, it was, after all, a most desperate and protracted struggle to keep the soil of Illinois sacred to freedom. It was the natural battle-field for the irrepressible conflict. In the southern end of the State, slavery preceded the compact. It existed among the old French settlers, and was hard to eradicate. The southern part of the State was settled from the slave States, and this population brought their laws, customs and institutions with them. A stream of population from the North poured into the northern part of the State. These sections misunderstood and hated each other perfectly. The Southerners regarded the Yankees as a skinning, tricky, penurious race of peddlers, filling the country with tinware, brass clocks and wooden nutmegs. The Northerner thought of the Southerner as a lean, lank, lazy creature, burrowing in a hut, and rioting in whisky, dirt and ignorance. These causes aided in making the struggle long and bitter. So strong was the sympathy with slaver}', that in spite of the ordinance of 1787, and in spite of the deed of cession, it was determined to allow the old French settlers to retain their slaves. Planters from the slave States might bring their slaves, if they would nfive them a chance to choose freedom or years of service and bondage for their children till they should become thirty years of age. If they chose freedom they must leave the State in sixty days or be sold as fugitives. Servants were whipped for offenses for which white men are fined. Each lash paid forty cents of the fine. A negro ten miles from home without a pass was whipped. Those famous laws were imported from the slave States just as they imported laws for the inspection of flax and wool when there was neither in the State.

These Black Laws are now wi])ed out. A vigorous eflbrt was made to protect slavery in the State Constitution of 1817. It barely failed. It was renewed in 1825, when a convention was asked to make a new constitution. After a hard flght the convention was defeated. But slaves did not disappear fi'om the census of the State until 1S50. There were mobs and murders in the interest of slavery. Lovejoy was added to the list of martyrs - a sort of flrst fruits of that long life of immortal heroes who saw freedom as the one supreme desire of their souls, and were so enamored of her, that they ])referred to die i-athor than survive her.

The population of 12,282 that occupied t!ie Territory in A. D. ISOO, increased to 45.000 in A. D. 1818, when the State Constitution was adopted, and Illinois took her place in tlie Union, with a star on the flag and two votes in the Senate.

The simple economy in those days is seen in the fact the entire bill for stationery for the first Legislature was only $13.50. Yet this simple body actually enacted a very superior code.

There was no money in the Territory before the war of 1812. Deer skins and coon skins were the circulating medium. In 1821, the Legislature ordained a State Bank on the credit of the State. It issued notes in the likeness of bank bills. These notes were made a legal tender for every thing, and the bank was ordered to loan to the people $100 on personal security, and more on mortgages. They actually passed a resolution requesting the Secretar}' of the Treasury of the United States to receive these notes for land. The old French Lieutenant Governor, Col. Menard, put the resolution as follows: "Gentlemen of the Senate: It is moved and seconded dai da notes of dis hank be made land oflice money. AH in favor of dat motion say aye; all against it say no. It is decided in de afflrmative. Now, gentlemen, I bet you one hundred dollar he never be land-oflice money!" Hard sense, like hard money, is always above par.

This old Frenchman presents a flne figure up against the dark background of most of his nation. They made no progress. They clung to their earliest and simplest implements. They never wore hats or caps. They pulled their blankets over their heads in the winter like the Indians, with whom they freely intermingled.

Dcmagogism had an early development. One John Grammar (only in name), elected to the Territorial and State Legislatures of 1816 and 18o6, invented the policy of opposing every new thing, saying, "If it succeeds, no one will ask who voted against it. If it proves a failure, he could quote its record." In sliarp contrast witli Grammar was the character of D. P. Cook, after whom the county containing Chicago was named. Such was his transparent integrity and remarkable ability that his will was almost the law of the State. In Congi-ess, a voung man, and from a poor State, he was made Chairman of the AVaj'S and Means Committee. He was pre-eminent for standing by his committee, regardless of consequences. It was his integrity that elected John Quincy Adams to the Presidency. There were fonr candidates in 1821, Jackson, Clay, Crawford, and John Quincy Adams. There being no choice by the people, the election was thrown into the House. It was so balanced that it turned on his vote, and that he cast for Adams, electing him ; then went home to face the wrath of the Jackson party in Illinois. It cost htm all but character and greatness. It is a suggestive comment on the times, that there was no legal interest till 1830. It often reached 150 per cent., usually 50 percent. Then it was reduced to 12, and now to 10 per cent.

Physical Features Of The Pbaibie State

In area the State has 55,410 square miles of territory. It is about 150 miles wide and 400 miles long, stretching in latitude from Maine to North Carolina. It embraces wide variety of climate. It is tempered on tlie north by the great inland, saltless, tideless sea, which keeps the tliermometer from either extreme. Being a table land, from COO to 1,200 feet above the level of the sea, one is prepared to find on the health maps, prepared by the general government, an almost clean and perfect record. In freedom from fever and malarial diseases and consumptions, the three deadly enemies of the American Saxon, Illinois, as a State, stands without a superior. She furnishes one of the essential conditions of a great people - sound bodies. I suspect that this fact lies back of that old Delaware word, Illini, superior men.

The great battles of history that have been determinative of dynasties and destinies have been strategical battles, chiefly the question of position. Thermopylfe has been the war-cry of freemen for twenty-four centuries. It only tells how much there may be in position. All this advantage belongs to Illinois. It is in the heart of the greatest valley in the world, the vast region between the mountains - a valley that could feed mankind for one thousand years. It is well on toward the center of the continent. It is in the great temperate belt, in which have been found nearly all the aggressive civilizations of history. It has sixty-five miles of frontage on the head of the lake. With the Mississippi forming the western and southern boundary, with the Ohio running along the southeastern line, with the Illinois river and canal dividing the State diagonally from the lake to the lower INIississippi, and with the Rock and Wabash rivers, furnishing altogether 2,000 miles of water front, connecting with, and running through, in all about 12,000 miles of navigable water.

But this is not all. These waters are made most available hj the fact that the lake and the State lie on the ridije runnino: into the great valley from the east. Within cannon-shot of the lake, the water runs awa}' from the lake to the gulf. The lake now empties at both ends, one into the Atlantic and one into the gulf of Mexico. The lake thus seems to hang over the land. This makes the dockage most serviceable; there are no steep banks to damage it. Both lake and river are made for use.

tlian lialfadozen exceptions. It produces everj great nutriment of the world except bananas and rice. It is hardly too much to say that it is the most productive spot known to civilization. With tiie soil full of bread and the earth full of minerals; with an upper surface of food and an under layer of fuel; with ])erfect natural drainage, and abundant springs and streams and navigable rivers; halfway between the forests of the north and the fruits of the south ; within a da^^'s ride of the great deposits of iron, coal, copper, lead and zinc; containing and controlling the great grain, cattle, pork and lumber markets of the world, it is not strange that Illinois has the advantage of position.

This advantage has been supplemented by the character of the jiopulation. In the early days when Illinois was first admitted to the union, her jiopulation were chiefly from Kentucky and Virginia. But, in the conflict of ideas concerning slavery, a strong tide of emigration came in from the East, and soon changed this composition. In 1870 her non-native population were from colder soils. New York furnished 133,290; Ohio gave 162,G23; Pennsylvania sent on 98,."«.72; the entire South gave us only 206,73-t. In all her cities, and in all her German and Scandinavian and other foreign colonies, Illinois has only about one-fifth of her people of foreign birth.

One of the greatest elements in the earlj' development of Illinois is the Illinois and Michigan Canal, connecting the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers with the lakes. It was of the utmost importance to the State. It was rfco amended by Gov.

Bond, the first governor, in his first message. In 1821, the Legislature appro])riated $10,000 for surveying the route. Two bright young engineers surveyed it, and estimated the cost at $600,000 or $700,000. It finally cost $8,000,000. In 1825, a law was passed to incorporate the Canal Comjiany, but no stock was sold. In 1826, upon the solicitation of Cook, Congress gave 800,000 acres of land on the line of the work. In 1828, another law - commissioners appointed, and work commenced with new survey and new estimates. In 1834-35, George Farquhar made an able report on the whole matter. This was, doubtless, the ablest report ever made to a western legislature, and it became the model for subsequent reports and action. From this, the work went on till it was finished in 18-1:8. It cost the State a large amount of money; but it gave to the industries of the State an impetus tliat pushed it up into the first rank of greatness. It was not built as a speculation any more than a doctor is employed on a speculation. But it has paid into the treasury of the State an average annual net sum of over $111,000.

Pending the construction of the canal, the land and town-lot fever broke out in the State, in 1834-35. It took on the malignant type in Chicago, lifting the town up into a cit\^ The disease spread over the entire State and adjoining States. It was epidemic. It cut up men's farms without regard to locality, and cut up the purses of the purchasers without regard to consequences. It is estimated that building lots enough were sold in Indiana alone to accommodate every citizen then in the TTnited States.

Towns and cities were exported to the Eastern market by the ship-load. There was no lack of buyers. Every up-sliip came freighted with speculators and their money.

This distempter seized upon the Legislature in 1836-37, and left not one to tell the tale. They enacted a system of internal improvement without a parallel in the grandeur of its conception. They ordered the construction of 1,300 miles of railroad, crossing the State in all directions. This was surpassed by the river and canal improvements. There were a few counties not touched by either railroad or river or canal, and those were to be comforted and compensated by the free distribution of $200,000 among them. To inflate this balloon beyond credence, it was ordered that work should be commenced on both ends of each of these railroads and rivers, and at each river crossing, all at the same time. The appropriations for these vast improvements were over $12,000,000, and commissioners were appointed to borrow the money on the credit of the State. Eemember that all this was in the early days of railroading, when railroads were luxuries; that the State had whole counties with scarcely a cabin; and that the population of the State was less than 400,000, and you can form some idea of the vigor with which these brave men undertook tho work of making a great State. In the light of history I am compelled to say that this was only a premature throb of the power that actually slumbered in the soil of the State. It was Hercules in the cradle.

In 1840, all hope seemed gone. A population of 480,000 were loaded with a debt of $14,000,000. It had only six small cities, really only towns, namely: Chicago, Alton, Springfield, Quincy, Galena, Nauvoo. This debt was to be cared for when there was not a dollar in the treasury, and when the State had borrowed itself out of all credit, and when there was not good money enough in the hands of all the peo- ])le to pay the interest of the debt for a single year. Yet, in the presence of all these difliculties, the young State steadily refused to repudiate. Gov. Ford took hold of the problem and solved it, bringing the State through in triumph.

Having touched lightly upon some of the more distinctive points in the history of the development of Illinois, let us next briefly consider the

Material Eesotjrces Of The State

It is a garden four hundred miles long and one hundred and fifty miles wide. Its soil is chiefly a black sandy loam, from six inches to sixty feet thick. On the American bottoms it has been cultivated for one hundred and fifty years without renewal.

About the old French towns it has yielded corn for a century and a half without rest or help. It produces nearly everything green in the temperate and tropical zones. Slie leads all other States in the number of acres actually under plow. Her products from 25,000,000 of acres are incalculable. Her mineral wealth is scarcely second to her agricultural power. She has coal, iron, lead, copper, zinc, many varieties of buildiuor stone, fire clay, cuma clay, common brick clay, sand of all kinds, gravel, mineral paint - everything needed for a liigli civilization. Left to herself, she has the elements of all greatness. The single item of coal is too vast for an appreciative handling in figures. We can handle it in general terms like algebraical signs, but long before we get up into the millions and billions the human mind drops down from comi)reliensioa to mere symbolic apprehension.

When I tell you that nearly four-fifths of the entire State is underlaid with a deposit of coal more than forty feet thick on the average (now estimated by recent surveys, at seventy feet thick), you can get some idea of its amount, as you do of the amount of the national debt. There it is! 41,000 square miles - one vast mine into which you could put any of the States; in which you could bury scores of European and ancient empires, and have room all round to work without knowing that they had been sepulchered there.

Put this vast coal-bed down by the other great coal deposits of the world, and its importance becomes manifest. Great Britain has 12,000 square miles of coal; Spain, 3,000; France, 1719; Belgium, 578; Illinois about twice as many square miles as all combined. Virginia has 20,000 square miles; Pennsylvania, 10,000; Oliio, 12,000. Illinois has 41,000 square miles. Oneseventh of all the known coal on this continent is in Illinois.

Could we sell the coal in this single State for one-seventh of one cent a ton, it would pay the national debt. Converted into power, even with the wastage in our common engines, it would do more work than could be done by the entire race, beginning at Adam's wedding and working ten hours a day through all the centuries till the present time, and right on into the future at the same rate for the next 600,000 years.

Great Britain uses enough mechanical power to-day to give to each man, woman, and child in the kingdom, the help and service of nineteen untiring servants. No wonder she has leisure and luxuries. No wonder the home of the common artisan has in it more luxuries than could be found in the palace of good old King Arthur. Think if you can conceive of it, of the vast army of servants that slumber in the soil of Illinois, impatient!}' awaiting the call of Genius to come forth to minister to our comfort.

At the present rate of consumption England's coal supply will be exhausted in 250 years. When this is gone she must transfer her dominion either to the Indies, or to British America, which I would not resist; or to some other people, which I would regret as a loss to civilization.

Coal Is King

At the same rate of consumption (which far exceeds our own), the deposit of coal in Illinois will last 120,000 years. And her kingdom shall be an everlasting kingdom.

Let us turn now from this reserve power to the annual prodvcts of the State. AVe shall not be humiliated in this field. Here we strike the secret of our national credit. Nature provides a market in the constant appetite of the race. Men must eat, and if we can furnish the provisions we can command the treasure. All tliat a man hath will he jrive for his life.

According to tlie last census Illinois produced 3U,000,000 of bushels of wheat. That is more wheat than was raised by any other State in the union. She raised in 1875, 130,000,000 of bushels of corn - twice as much as any otlier State, and one-sixth of all the corn raised in the United States. She harvested 2,7J-7,000 tons of hay, nearly one-tenth of all the hay in the republic. It is not generally appreciated, but it is true that the hay crop of the country is worth more than the cotton crop. The hay of Illinois equals tiie cotton of Louisiana. Go to Charleston, S. C, and see them peddling handfuls of hay or grass, almost as a curiosity, as we regard Chinese gods or the cryolite of Greenland; drink your coftee and condensed milk; and walk back from the coast for many a league through the sand and burs till you get up into the better atmosphere of the mountains, without seeing a waving meadow or a grazing iierd; then you will begin to appreciate the meadows of the Prairie State, where the grass often grows sixteen feet high.

The value of her farm implements is $311,000,000, and the value of her live stock is only second to the great State of New York. In 1875 she had 25,000,000 hogs, and packed 2,113,8i5, about one-half of all that were packed in the United States. This is no insignificant item. Pork is a growing demand of the old world. .Since the laborers of Europe have gotten a taste of our bacon, and we have learned how to pack it drj' in boxes, like dry goods, the world has become the market.

The hog is on the march into the future. His nose is ordained to uncover the secrets of dominion, and his feet shall be guided by the star of empire.

Depth and richness of soil; per cent, of good ground; acres of improved land; large farms - some farms contain from 40,000 to 60,000 acres of cultivated land, 40,000 acres of corn on a single farm; number of farmers; amount of wheat, corn, oats and honey produced; value of animals for slaughter; number of hogs; amount of pork; number of horses - three times as many as Kentucky, the horse State.

Illinois excels all other States in miles of railroads and in miles of postal service, and in money orders sold per annum, and in tlie amount of lumber sold in her markets.

Illinois is only second in many important matters. This sample list comprises a few of the more important: Permanent school fund (good for a young State); total income for educational purposes; number of publishers of books, maps, papers, etc.; value of farm products and implements, and of live stock; in tons of coal mined.

Tiie shipping of Illinois is only second to New York. Out of one port during the business hours of the season of navigation she sends forth a vessel every ten minutes. This does not include canal boats, which go one ewery five minutes. No wonder she is only second in number of bankers and brokers or in physicians and surgeons.

She is fifth in value of real and personal property, in theological seminaries and colleges exclusively for women, in milk sold, and in boots and shoes manufactured, and in book-binding.

She is only seventh in the production of wood, while she is the twelfth in area. Surely that is well done for the Prairie State. She now has much more wood and o-rowinff timber than she had tliirtv years ago.

A few leading industries will justify emphasis. Slie manufactures $205,000,000 worth of goods, which places her well np toward New York and Pennsylvania. The number of her manufacturing establishments increased from 1860 to 1870, 300 percent.; capital employed increased 350 per cent., and tlie amount of product increased 400 per cent. She issued 5,500,000 copies of commercial and financial newspapers - only second to New York. She has 6,759 miles of railroad, thus leading all other States, worth $636,458,000, using 3.245 engines, and 67,712 cars, making a train long enough to cover one- tenth of the entire roads of the State. Her stations are only five miles apart. More than twotliirds of lier land is within five miles of a I'ailroad, and less than two per cent is more than fifteen miles away.

The State lias a large financial interest in the Illinois Central railroad. The road was incorporated in 1850, and the State gave each alternate section for six miles on each side, and doubled the price of tlie remaining land, so keeping herself good. The road received 2,595,000 acres of land, and pays to the State one-seventh of the gross receipts. Add to this the annual receipts from the canal, $111,000, and a large per cent, of the State tax is provided for.

The Religion And Morals

of the State keep step with her productions and growth. She was born of the missionary spirit. It was a minister who secured for her the ordinance of 1787, by whicii she has been saved from slavery, ignorance, and dishonesty. liev. Mr. AViley, pastor of a Scotcli congregation in Randolph County, petitioned tlio Constitutional Convention of 1818 to recognize Jesus Christ as king, and tlie scriptures as the only necessary guide and book of law. The convention did not act in the case, and the old covenanters refused to accept citizenship. They never voted until 1824, when the slavery question was submitted to the people; then they all voted against it and cast the determining votes. Conscience has predominated whenever a great moral question has been ^submitted to the people.

But little mob violence has ever been felt in the State. In 1817 regulators disposed of a band of horse-thieves that infested the Territory. The Mormon indignities finally awoke the same spirit. Alton was also the scene of a pro-slavery mob, in wliich Lovejoy was added to the list of martyrs. The moral sense of the people makes the law supreme, and gives to the State unruffled peace.

With $22,300,000 in church property, and 4,298 church organizations, the State has that divine police, the sleepless patrol of moral ideas, that alone is able to secui-e perfect safety. Conscience takes the knife from tlie assassin's hand and tlie bludgeon from the grasp of the highwayman. We sleep in safety, not because we are behind bolts and bars - these only fence against the innocent; not because a lone officer drowses on a distant corner of a street; not because a sheriff may call his posse from a remote part of the county; but because conscience guards the very portals of the air and stirs in tlie deepest recesses of the public mind. This spirit issues within tlie State 9,500,000 copies of religious papers annually, and receives still more from without. Thus the crime of the State is only one fourth that of New York and one half that of Pennsylvania.

Illinois never had but one duel between lier own citizens. In Belleville, in 1820, Alphonso Stewart and AVilliam Bennett arranged to vindicate injured honor. The seconds agreed to make it a sham, and make them shoot blanks. Stewart was in the secret. Bennett mistrusted something, and nnobserved, slipped a bullet into liis gun and killed Stewart. He then fled the State. After two years he was caught, tried, convicted, and, in spite of friends and political aid, was hung. This fixed the code of honor on a Christian basis, and terminated its use in Illinois.

The early preachers were ignorant men, who were accounted eloquent according to the strength of their voices. But they set the style for all public speakers. Lawyers and political speakers followed this rule. Gov. Ford says: "Nevertheless, these first preachers were of incalculable benefit to the country. They inculcated justice and morality. To them are we indebted for the first Christian character of the Protestant portion of the people."

In education Illinois surpasses her material resources. The oi'dinance of 1787 consecrated one thirtj'-sixth of her soil to common schools, and the law of 1818, the first law that went upon her statutes, gave three per cent of all the rest to

Education

The old compact secures this interest forever, and by its yoking morality and intelligence it precludes the legal interference with the Bible in the pultlic schools. With such a start it is natural that we should have 11,050 schools, and that our illiteracy should be less than New York or Pennsylvania, and only about one half of Massachusetts. We are not to blame for not having more than one half as many idiots as the great States. These public schools soon made colleges inevitable. The first college, still flourishing, was started in Lebanon in 1828, by the M. E. church, and named after Bishop McKendree. Illinois College, at Jacksonville, supported by the Presbyterians, followed in 1830. In 1832 the Baptists built Shurtleff College, at Alton. Then the Presbyterians built Knox College, at Galesburg, in 1838, and the Episcopalians built Jubilee College, at Peoria, in 1847. After these early years, colleges have rained down. A settler could hardly encamp on the prairie but a college would spring up by his wagon. The State now has one very well endowed and equipped university, namely, the Northwestern University, at Evanston, with six colleges, ninety instructors, over 1,000 students, and §1,500,000 endowment.

1820. and left his impress on the State. Before 18)3" only part3- papers were published, but Mr. Peck published a Gazetteer of Illinois. Soon after John Russell, of Bluft'dal?, published essays and tales showinw genius. Judge James Hall published The Illinois Monthly Magazin& with great ability, a^id an annual called The Western 8onvenh\ which gave him an enviable fame all over the United States. From these beginnings, Illinois has gone on till she has more volumes in pulil'c libraries even than Massachusetts, and of the 44-,- 500,000 volumes in all the public libraries of the United States, she has one thirteenth. In newspapers she stands fourth. Iler increase is marvelous.

The War Kecord Of Illinois

I hardly know where to begin, or how to advance, or what to say. I can at best give you only a broken synojisis of her deeds, and you must put them in the order ot glory for yourself. Her sons have always been foremost on fields of danger. In 1832-33, at the call of Gov. Reynolds, her sons drove Blackhawk over tlic Mississipjii.

When the Mexican war came, in May, 184G, 8,370 men offered themselves when only 3,720 could be accepted. The fields of Buena Vista and Vera Cruz, and the storming of Cerro Gordo, will carry the glory of Illinois soldiers long after the causes that led to that war have been forgotten. But it was reserved till our day for iier sons to find a field and cause and foemen that could fitly illustrate their spirit and lieroism. Illinois put into her own regiments for the United States government

256,000 men, and into the army tlimugh other States enough to swell the nuuiber to 290,000. This far exceeds all the soldiers of the Federal government in all the war of the Revolution. Her total years of service were over 600,000. She enrolled men from eigliteen to forty-five years of age when the law of Congress in 18(11 - the test time - only asked for those from twenty to forty-five. Her enrollment was otherwise excessive. Her people wanted to go, and did not take the pains to correct the enrollment. Thus the basis of fixing the quota was too great, and tlien the quota itself, at least in the trying time, was tar above an}' other State.

Thus the demand on some counties, as Monroe, for example, took every able-bodied man in the county, and then did not have enough to fill the quota. Moreover, Illinois sent 20,811 men for ninety or one hundred days, for whom no credit was asked. When Mr. Lincoln's attention was called to the inequality of the cpiota compared with other States, he re]ilied : "The country needs the sacrifice. We must put the whip on the free horse." In spite of all these disadvantages Illinois gave to the country 73,000 years of service above all calls. With one thirteenth of the population of the loyal States, she sent regularly one tenth of all the soldiers, and in the peril of the closing calls, when patriots were few and weary, she then sent one eighth of all that were called for by her loved and honored son in the White House. Her mothers and daughters went into the fields to raise the grain and kecq) the children together, while the fathers and older sons went to the harvest fields of the world. I knew a father and four S(>ns who agreed that one of them must stay at home ; and they pnlled straws from a stack to see wlio miffht so. The father was left. The next day he came into the cainp, saying : " Mother says she can get tlie crops iu, and I am going, too." 1 know large Methodist churches from which every male member went to the army. Do you want to know what these heroes from Illinois did in the field ? Ask any soldier with a good record of his own, who is able to judge, and he will tell you that the Illinois men went in to win. It is common history that the greater victories were won in the AVest. "When everything else looked dark Illinois was gaining victories all down the river, and dividing the Confederacy. Sherman took with him on his great march fortyfive regiments of Illinois infantry, three companies of artillery, and one company of cavalry. He could not avoid

Going To The Sea

If he had been killed, I doubt not the men would have gone right on. Lincoln answered all rumors of Sherman's defeat with, "It is impossible; there is a mighty sight of fight in 100,000 Western men." Illinois soldiers brought home 300 battleflags. The first United States flag that floated over Richmond, was an Illinois flag. She sent messengers and nurses to every field and hospital, to care for her sick and wounded sons. She said, " these suffering ones are my sons, and I will care for them."

AVhen individuals had given all, then cities and towns came forward with their credit to the extent of many millions, to aid these men and their families.

One other name from Illinois comes up in all minds, embalmed in all hearts, that must have the supreme place in this story of our glory and of our nation's honor; that name is Abraham Lincoln, of Illinois.

In this age we look with admiration at his uncompromising honesty. And well we may, for this saved us. Thousands throughout the length and breadth of our country, who knew him only as "Honest Old Abe," voted for him on that account; and wisely did they choose, for no other man could have carried us through the fearful night of the war. When his plans were too vast for our comprehension, and his faith in the cause too sublime for our participation; when it was all night about us, and all dread before us, and all sad and desolate behind us; when not one ray shone upon our cause; when traitors wei-e haughty and e.xultant at the South, and tierce and blasphemous at the JS'orth; when the loyal men here seemed almost in the minority'; when the stoutest heart quailed, the bravest cheek paled, when generals were defeating each other for place, and contractors were leeching out the very heart's blood of the prostrate republic; when every thing else had failed us, we looked at this calm, patient man, standing like a rock in the storm, and said: "Mr. Lincoln is honest, and we can trust him still." Holding to this single point with the energy of faith and despair we held together, and, under God, he brought us through to victory.

wonder of all lands. ^Yitll such certainty did M\: Lincoln follow causes to their ultimate eflects, that his foresight of contingencies seemed almost prophetic.

He is radiant with all the great virtues, and his memory shall shed a glory upon this age, that shall till the eyes of men as tiiey look into history. Other men have excelled him in some point, but, taken at all points, all in all, he stands head and shoulders above every other man of 6,000 years. An administrator, lie saved the nation in the perils of unparalleled civil war. A statesman, lie justified his measures by their success. A philanthropist, he gave liberty to one race and salvation toanotiier. A moralist, he bowed from the summit of liuman power to the foot of the Cross, and became a Christian. A mediator, he exercised mercy under the most absolute abeyance to law. A leader, he was no partisan. A commander, he was untainted with blood. A ruler in desperate times, he M-as unsullied with crime. A man, he has left no word of passion, no tiiought of malice, no trick of craft, no act of jealousy, no pui"- pose of selfish ambition. Thus perfected, without a model and without a peer, he was dropped into these troubled years to adorn and embellish all that is good and all that is great in our humanity, and to present to all coming time the representative of the divine idea of free government.

It is iwt too much to say that away down in the future, when the republic has fallen from its niche in the wall of time; when the great war itself shall have faded out in the distance like a mist on the horizon; when the Anglo Saxon language shall be spoken only by the tongue of the stranger; then the generations looking this way

It is impossible in our brief space to give more than a meager sketch of such a city as Chicago, which is in itself the greatest marvel of the Prairie State. This mj'sterious, majestic, migiity city, born first of water, and next of fire; sown in weakness, and raised in power; planted among the willows of the marsh, and crowned with' the glory of the mountains, sleeping on the bosom of the prairie, and rocked on the bosom of the sea; the youngest city of the world, and still the eye of the prairie, as Damascus, the oldest city of the world, is the eye of the de'sert. With a commerce far exceeding that of Corinth on her isthmus, in the highway to the East; with the defenses of a continent piled around her by the thousand miles, making her far safer than Home on the banks of the Tiber; with schools eclipsing Alexandria and Athens; with liberties more conspicuous than those of the old republics; with a heroism equal to the first Carthage, and with a sanctity scarcely second to that of Jerusalem - set your thoughts on all this, lifted into the eyes of all men by the miracle of its gi-owth, illuminated by the flame of its fall, and transfii'ured by tiie divinity of its resurrection, and you will feel, as I do, the utter impossibility of compassing this subject as it deserves. Some impression of her importance is received from the shock her burning gave to the civilized world.

"When the doubt of her calamity was removed, and the horrid fact was accepted, there went a shudder over all cities, and a quiver over all lands. There was scarcely a town in the civilized world that did not shake on the brink of this opening chasm. The flames of onr homes reddened all skies. The city was set upon a hill, and coiiid not be hid. All eyes were turned upon it. To have strugorled and suffered amid the scenes of its fall is as distinguishing as to have fought at Thermopylae, or Salamis, or Hastings, or Waterloo, or Bunker Hill.

The early history of the city is full of interest, just as the early history of such a man as Washington or Lincoln becomes public property, and is cherished by every patriot.

Starting with 560 acres in 1S33, it embraced and occupied 23,000 acres in 1869, and having now a population of more than 600,000, it commands general attention.

The first settler - Jean Baptiste Pointe au Sable, a mulatto from the AVest Indies - - came and began trade with the Indians in 1796. John Kinzie became his successor in 1804, m which year Fort Dearborn was erected.

A mere trading-post was kept here from that time till about the time of the Blackhawk war, in 1832. It was not the city. It was merely a cock crowing at midnight. The morning was not yet. In 1833 the settlement about the fort was incorporated as a town. The voters were divided on the propriety of such corporation, twelve voting for it and one against it. Four years later it was incorporated as a city, and embraced 560 acres.

1837. The first exportation by way of experiment was in 1839. Exports exceeded imports first in 1842. The Board of Trade was organized in 18-18, but it was so weak that it needed nursing till 1855. Grain was purchased l>y the wagon-load in the street.

I remember sitting with my father on a load of wheat, in the long line of wagons along Lake street, while the buyers came and untied the bags, and exaniinnd the grain, and made their bids. That manner of business had to cease with the day of small things. One tenth of all the wheat ill the United States is handled in Chicago. Even as long ago as 1853 the receipts of grain in Chicago exceeded those of the goodly city of St. Louis, and in 1851 the exports of grain from Chicago exceeded those of New York and doubled those of St. Petersburg, Archangel, or Odessa, the largest grain markets in Euroj^e.

The manufacturing interests of the city are not contemptible. In 1873 manufactories employed 45,000 operatives; in 1876, 60,000. The manufactured product in 1875 was worth §177,000,000.

No estimate of the size and power of Chicago would be adequate that did not put large emphasis on the railroads. Before they came thundering along our streets, canals were the hope of our country. But who ever thinks now of traveling by canal packets? In June, 1852, there were only forty miles of railroad connected with the city. The old Galena division of the Northwestern ran out to Elgin. But now, who can count the trains and measure the roads that seek a terminus or connection in this city? The lake stretches away to the north, gathering into this center all the harvests that might otherwise pass to the north of us. If you will take a map and look at the adjustment of railroads, yon will see, first, that Chicago is the great railroad center of the world, as New York is the commercial city of this continent; and, second, that the railroad lines form the iron spokes of a great wheel whose hub is this city. The lake furnishes the only break in the spokes, and this seems simply to have pushed a few spokes together on each shore. See the eighteen trunk lines, exclusive of eastern connections.

Pass round the circle, and view their numbers and extent. There is tlie g-reat Nortliwestern, with all its branches, one branch creeping along the lake shore, and so reaching to the north, into the Lake Superior regions, away to the right, and on to the Northern Pacific on the left, swinging around Green Bay for iron and copper and silver, twelve months in the year, and reaching out for the wealth of the great agricultural belt and isothermal line traversed by the Northern Pacific. Another branch, not so far north, feeling for the lieart of the Badger State. Another pushing lower down the Mississippi - all these make many connections, and tapping all the vast wheat regions of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, and all the regions this side of sunset. There is that elegant road, the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, running out a goodly number of branches, and reaping the great fields this side of the Missouri River. I can only mention the Chicngo, Alton & St. Louis, our Illinois Central, described elsewhere, and the Chicago & Pock Island. Further around we come to the lines connecting us with all the Eastern cities. The Chicago, Indianapolis & St. Louis, the Pittsburg, Fort "Wayne & Chicago, the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern, and the Michigan Central and Great Western, give us many liiirhwavs to the seaboard. Thus we reach the Mississippi at five points, from St. Paul to Cairo and the Gulf itself by two routes. AVe also reach Cincinnati and Baltimore, and Pittsburg and Philadelphia, and New York. North and south run the water courses of the lakes and the rivers, broken just enough at this point to make a pass. Through this, from east to west, run the long lines that stretch from ocean to ocean.

This is the neck of the glass, and the golden sands of commerce must pass into our hands. Altogether we have more than 10,000 miles of railroad, directly tributary to this city, seeking to unload their wealth in our coffers. All these roads have come themselves by the infallible instinct of capital. Not a dollar was ever given by the city to secui'e one of them, and only a small per cent, of stock taken originally by her citizens, and that taken simply as an investment. Coming in the natural order of e%'ents, they will not be easily diverted.

There is still another showing to all this. The connection between New York and San Francisco is by the middle route. This passes inevitably through Chicago. St. Louis wants the Southern Pacific or Kansas Pacific, and pushes it out through Denver, and so on up to Cheyenne. But before the road is fairly under way, the Chicago roads shove out to Kansas City, making even the Kansas Pacific a feeder, and actually leaving St. Louis out in the cold. It is not too mucli to expect that Dakota, Montana, and Washington Territorv will find their irronf-. market in Chicago.

But these are not all. Perhaps I had better notice here the ten or filteen new roads tliat have just entered, or are just entering, our city. Their names are all that is necessary to give. Chicago & St. Paul, looking up the Red Eiver country to the British possessions ; the Chicago, Atlantic & Pacific ; the Chicago, Decatur & State line ; the Baltimore & Ohio ; the Chicago, Danville & Yincennes ; the Chicago & La Salle Railroad ; the Chicago, Pittsburgh & Cincinnati ; the Chicago and Canada Southern ; the Chicago and Illinois River Railroad. These, with their connections, and with the new connections of the old roads, already in process of erection, give to Chicago not less than 10,000 miles of new tributaries from the richest land on tlie continent. Thus there will be added to the reserve power, to the capital within reach of this city, not less than $1,000,000,- 000.

Add to all this transporting power the ships that sail one every nine minutes of the business hours of the season of navigation; add, also, the canal boats that leave one every five minutes during the same time - and you will see something of the business of the city.

The Commerce Of This Citt

has been leaping along to keep pace with the growth of the country around us. In 1852, our commerce readied the hopeful sum of $20,000,000. In 1S70 it reached $-100,000,000. In 1871 it was pushed up above $150,000,000, and in 1875 it touched nearly double that.

to employ a semi-weekly line of steamers of 3,000 tons capacity. This branch is not likely to be greatly' developed. Even after the great Welland Canal is completed we shall have only fourteen feet of water. The great ocean vessels will continue to control the trade.

The schools of Chicago are unsurpassed in America. Out of a population of 300,- 000, there were only 186 persons between the ages of six and twenty-one unable to read. This is the best known record.

In 1831 tlie mail system was condensed into a half-breed, who went on foot to Niles, Mich., once in two weeks, and brought back what papers and news he could find. As late as 1816 there was often only one mail a week. A post-ofiice was established in Cliicago in 1833, and the post-master nailed up old boot-legs on one side of his shop to serve as boxes for the nabobs and literary men.

The improvements that have characterized the city are as startling as the city itself. In 1831, Mark Beanbien established a ferry over the river, and jiut himself under bonds to carry all tlie citizens free for the privilege of charging strangers. ]Xow there are twenty-four large bridges and two tunnels.

In 1833 the government expended $30,. 000 on the harboi*. Tlien commenced that series of maneuvers with the river that has made it one of the world's curiosities. It used to wind around in the lower end of the town, and make its wa}' rippling over the sand into the lake at the foot of Madison street. They took it up and put it down where it now is. It was a narrow stream, so narrow that even moderately small crafts had to go up through the wil-

In lS4i the quagmires in the streets were first pontooned b}* plank roads, which acted in wet weather as public squirt-guns. Keeping you out of the mud, they com- ])romised by squirting the mad over you. The wooden-block pavements came to Chica<ro in 1857. In 18-10 water was delivered by peddlers in carts or by hand. Then a twentj-'five horse-power enijine pushed it through hollow or bored logs along the streets till 1854, when it was introduced into the houses by new works. The first fire-engine was used in 1835, and the first steam tire-engine in 1859. Gas was utilized for lighting the city in 1850. The Young Men's Christian Association was organized in 1858, and horse railroads carried them to their work in 1859. The alarm telegraph adopted in ISGi. The opera-house built in 18G5. The city grew from 560 acres in 1833 to 23,000 in 1869. In 1834. the taxes amounted to $48.90, and the trustees of the town borrowed $60 more for o]iening and improving streets. In 1835, the Legislature authorized a loan of $2,000, and the treasurer and street commissioners resigned rather than jilnnge the town into such a gulf.

One third of the city has been raised up an average of eight feet, giving good pitch to the 263 miles of sewerage. The water of the city is above all competition. It is received through two tunnels extending to a crib in the lake two miles from shore. The first tunnel is five feet two inches in diameter and two miles long, and can deliver 50,000,000 of n^alluiis iicr dav. The second tunnel is seven feet in diameter and six miles long, running four miles under the city, and can deliver 100,000,000 of gallons per da}'. This water is distributed through 410 miles of watermains.

The three grand engineering exploits of the city are : First, lifting the city up on jack-screws, whole squares at a time, without interrupting the business, thus giving us good drainage ; second, running the tunnels under the lake, giving us the best water in the world ; and third, the turning the current of the river in its own channel, delivering us from the old abominations, and making decency possible. They redound about equally to the credit of the engineering, to the energy of the people, and to the health of the city.

That which really constitutes the city, its indescribable spirit, its soul, the way it lights up in every feature in the hour of action, has not been touched. In meeting strangers, one is often surprised how some homeh' women marry so well. Their forms are bad, their gait uneven and awkward, their complexion is dull, their features are misshapen and mismatched, and when we see them there is no beauty that we should desire them. But when once they are aroused on some subject, they put on new proportions. They light up into great power. The real person comes out from its unseemly amijush, and captures us at will. They have power. They have ability to cause things to come to pass. We no longer wonder why they are in such high demand. So it is with our city.

There is no grand scenery except the two seas, one of water, the other of pi-airie. Nevertheless, there is a sjiirit about it, a pu^ii, a brer.dth, a power, that fonn nuikes it a place never to be forsaken. One soon ceases to believe in impossibilities. Balaams are the only prophets that are disappointed. The bottom that has been on the point of falling out has been there so long that it has grown fast. It can not fall out. It has all the capital of the world itching to get inside the corporation.

The two great laws that govern the growth and size of cities are, first, the amount of territoi-y for which they are the distributing and receiving points ; second, the number of medium or moderate dealers that do tills distributing. Monopolists build up themselves, not the cities. They neither eat, wear, nor live in proportion to their business. Eotli tliese laws help Chicago.

The tide of trade is eastward - not up or down the maj), but across the map. The lake runs up a wingdam for 500 miles to in the business. Commerce can not ferry up there for seven months in the year and the facilities for seven months can do the work for twelve. Then tiie great region west of us is nearly all good, productive land. Dropping south into the trail of St. Louis, you fall into vast deserts and rocky districts, useful in holding the world together. St. Louis and Cincinnati, instead of -rivaling and hurting Chicago, are her greatest sureties of dominion. They are far enough away to give sea-room - farther ofl' than Paris is from London - and yet they are near enough to prevent the springing np of any other great city between them.

St. Louis will be helped by the opening of the Mississippi, but also hurt. Tiiat will put JSTew Orleans on lier ieet, and with a railroad running- over into Tc.\as and so

AVest, she will tap the streams that now crawl up the Texas and Missouri road. Tlio current is East, not N"orth,aud a seaport at New Orleans can not permanently help St. Louis.

Chicago is in the field almost alone, to handle the wealth of one fourth of the territory of this great repul)lic. This strip of seacoast divides its margins between Portland, Boston, New York, Philadelpliia, Baltimoi-e and Savannah or some other great ])ort to be created for the South in the next decade. But Chicago has a dozen empires casting their treasures into her lap. On a bed of coal that can run all the machinery of the world for 500 centuries; in a garden feed the race by the thousand years; at the head of the lakes that give her a temperature as a summer resort equaled by no great city in the land; with a climate that insures the liealth of her citizens; surrounded bj' all tiie great deposits of natural wealth in uiines and forests and herds, Chicago is the wonder of to-day, and will be the city of the future.

Massacre At Fort Dearborn

During the war of 1S13, Fort Dearborn became the theater of stirrinor events. The garrison consisted of fifty-four men under command of Captain Nathan Ileald, assisted by Lieutenant Helm (son-in-law of Mrs. Kinzie) and Ensign Eonan. Dr. Yoorhees was surgeon. The only residents at the post at that time were the wives of Captain Ileald and Lieutenant Helm, and a few of the soldiers, Mr. Kinzie and his family, and a few Canadian voyageui's, with their wives and children. The soldiers and ]\Ir. Kinzie wereon most friendl}' terms with the Pottawatomics and Win-

One evening in April, 1S12, ilr. Ivinzie sat playing on his violin and his ciiiklren were dancing to the music, when Mrs. Kinzie came rushing into the house pale with terror, and exclaiming: "The Indians! tlie Indians!" "What? wliere?" eagerly in- (^uired ilr. Kinzie. " Up at Lee's, killing and scalping," answered the frightened mother, who, when the alarm was given, was attending Mrs. Barnes (just conhned) living not far oft". Mr. Kinzie and his family crossed the river and took refuge in the fort, to which place Mrs. Barnes and lier infant not a day oW, were safely conveved. The rest of the inhabitants took shelter in the fort. This alarm was caused by a scalping party of Winnebagoes, who hovered about the fort several daj^s, when they disappeared, and for several weeks the inhabitants were undisturbed.

On the 7th of August, 1812, General Hull, at Detroit, sent orders to Captain Ileald to evacuate Fort Dearborn, and to distribute all the United States property to the Indians in the neighborhood - a most insane order. The Pottawatomie chief wliii brought the dispatch had more wisdom than the commanding general. He advised Captain Ileald not to make the distribution. Said he: ''Leave the fort and stores as they are, and let tJie Indians make distribution for themselves; and while they are engaged in the business, the white people may escajic to Fort Wayne."

informed that treachery was designed - that the Indians intended to murder the white people in the council, and tlieu destroy those in the fort. Captain Ileald, however, took the precaution to open a port-hole displaying a cannon pointing directly upon the council, and hy that means saved his life.

Mr. Kinzie, who knew the Indians well, begged Captain Ileald not to confide in their promises, nor distribute the arms and munitions among them, for it would only put power into their hands to destroy the whites. Acting upon this advice, Ileald resolved to withhold the munitions of war; and on the night of the 13th after the distribution of the other ]iruperty had been made, the powder, ball and liquors were thrown into the river, the muskets broken u]) and destroyed.

Black Partridge, a friendly chief, came to Captain Ileald and said: "Linden birds have been singing in my ears to-day; be careful on the march you are going to take." On that night vigilant Indians had crept near the fort and discovered the destruction of their promised bootj' going on within. The next morning the powder was seen floating on the surface of the river. The savages were exasperated and made loud complaints and threats.

On the following day when prcjiarations were making to leave the fort, and all the inmates were deeply impressed with a sense of imjiending danger, Capt. Wells, an uncle of Mrs. Ileald, was discovered ujion the Indian trail among the sand Iiills on the borders of the lake, not far distant, with a band of mounted Miainis, of whose tribe he was chief, having been ado])ted by the famous Miami warrior, IJttle Turtle.

"When news of Hull's surrender reached Fort Wayne, he had started with this force to assist Heald in defendinsr Fort Dearborn. He was too late. Every means for its defense had been destroyed the night before, and arrangements were made for leaving the fort on the morning of the 15th.

It was a warm, bright morning in the middle of August. Indications were positive that the savages intended to murder the white people; and when they moved out of the southern gate of the fort, the march was like a funeral procession. The hand, feeling the solemnity of the occasion, struck up the Dead March in Saul.

Capt. Wells, who had blackened his face with gun-powder in token of his fate, took the lead with his band of Miamis, followed Vjy Captain Heald with his wife by his side on horseback. Mr. Kinzie hoped by his personal influence to avert the impending blow, and therefore accompanied them, leaving his family in a boat in charge of a friendly Indian, to be taken to his trading station at the site of Niles, Michigan, in the event of his death.

The procession moved slowly along the lake shore till they reached the sand hills between the prairie and the beach, when the Pottawatomie escort, under the leadership of Blackbird, flled to the right, placing those hills between them and the wdiite people. AVells, with his Miamis, had kept in the advance. They suddenly came rushing back, Wells exclaiming, "They are about to attack us; form instantly." These words were quickly followed by a storm of bullets which came whistling over the little hills which the treacherous savages had made the covert for their murderous attack. The white troops charged upon the Indians, drove them back to the prairie, and then the battle was waged between fifty-four soldiers, twelve civilians and three or four women (the cowardly Miamis having fled at the outset) against five hundred Indian warriors. The white people, hopeless, resolved to sell their lives as dearly as possible. Ensign Ronan wielded his weapon vigorously, even after falling upon his knees weak from the loss of blood. Capt. Wells, who was by the side of his niece, Mrs. Heald, when the conflict began, behaved with the greatest coolness and courage. He said to her, "We have not the slightest chance for life. We must part to meet no more in- this woi'ld. God bless you." And then he dashed forward. Seeing a young wari'ior, painted like a demon, climb into a wagon in w'hich were twelve children, and tomahawk them all, he ci'ied out, uiiuiindful of his personal danger, " If that is 3'our game, butchering women and children, I will kill too." He spurred his horse towards the Indian camp, where they had left their squaws and papooses, hotly pursued by swift-footed young warriors, who sent bullets whistling after him. One of tiiese killed his horse and wounded him severely in the leg. With a yell the young braves rnshed to niake him their prisoner and reserve him for torture. He resolved not to be made a captive, and by tlie use of the most provoking epithets tried to induce them to kill him instantly. He called a fiery young chief a squaw, when the enraged warrior killed Wells instantly with his tomahawk, jumped upon his body, cut out his heart, and ate a portion of the warm morsel with savage delight !