Jersey County, Illinois - Chapter 8: Illinois As a State, 1919

Chapter 8: Illinois As a State

THE ENABLING ACT - CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION - FIRST GENERAL AS¬ SEMBLY - NATHANIEL POPE - SHADRACII BOND - GREENE COUNTY - CAPI¬ TAL REMOVED - BLACK LAWS - SLAVERY LEGISLATION - TEST OF THE BLACK

Law - Edward Coles - Attitude Of Presidents The Enabling Act

Congress passed the Enabling Act, authorizing the territory of Illinois to form a constitution, to be submitted to that body for the ad¬ mission of Illinois into the Union as a state, April 18, 1818. Under this act, the election of delegates to the Constitutional Convention was fixed for the first Monday of July of that year.

Constitutional Convention

Thirty-three delegates were elected to this convention. Jesse B. Thomas was elected its president, and William C. Greenup, who had been secretary of the first territorial assembly, was made secretary. The con¬ stitution was adopted by the convention August 26, but not submitted to a vote of the people. The election for governor, lieutenant governor and members of the General Assembly was fixed by the constitution for the third Thursday in September, 1818, and the two succeeding days. Shadrach Bond was elected governor, and Pierre Menard, lieutenant governor with no opposition. Their terms of office were for four years. All of the other state officers, and judges of the courts were to be elected by the legislature. Slavery and involuntary servitude were prohibited, in the same language as that of the Act of 1787 organizing Northwestern Territory. Salaries were fixed as follows: governor, $1,000.00; secretary of state, $600.00 ; and judges of the Supreme Court, $1,000.00. Said judges could be removed by request of two-thirds of both branches of the General Assembly.

First General Assembly

The first General Assembly met October 5, 1818. There were fourteen senators and twenty-nine representatives. Pierre Menard, lieutenant gov¬ ernor presided in the senate, and William C. Greenup, secretary pre¬ sided over the house. John Messenger was elected speaker of the house, and Thomas Reynolds was elected clerk. The full state government was organized October 6, 1818, with Shadrach Bond, governor ; Pierre Menard, lieutenant governor ; Elisha Kent Kane, secretary of state ; Elijah C. Berry, auditor ; John Thomas, treasurer ; Daniel P. Cook, attorney general. Ninian Edwards and Jesse B. Thomas were elected United States senators. This first session of the General Assembly adjourned October 13, to meet the first Monday in January, 1819, for the obvious reason that Illinois was not yet admitted to the Union as a state. The constitution was duly submitted to Congress, and the act for approving the constitution and the admission of Illinois as a state, was adopted by Congress December 3, 1818, which is the real beginning of Illinois' state¬ hood.

Nathaniel Pope

Nathaniel Pope was the delegate in Congress to whom the petition for admission was sent, and it was to his indefatigable labor and ability, and his watchful care, that success is attributable. He was territorial secretary from 1809 to 1816, when he was elected delegate to Congress. An able lawyer, he was thoroughly familiar with all of the conditions in the territory, and no doubt was elected to Congress with the purpose in view of securing the admission of Illinois as a state. He was faithful to all of his trusts, and later was appointed United States District Judge, which office he held until his death at Springfield, Ill., in 1S50.

Shadrach Bond

Shadrach Bond was born in Maryland, in 1773, and came to Illinois in 1794. He was elected a delegate to Congress in 1812, and it is said that he and his wife rode from Kaskaskia to Washington, D. C., on horse¬ back. In 1814 he was appointed receiver of the land office at Kaskaskia. From 1818 to 1822 he was governor of Illinois. He died at Kaskaskia April 11, 1830, having attained to a peaceful old age. It was under his administration that Greene County was established.

When Greene County was established in 1821, Morgan and Macoupin counties were attached to Greene for judicial purposes. Morgan County at that time included Scott County, and they were all taken from terri¬ tory on the north side of, and previously a part of Madison County. The county seat of Greene was placed at Carrollton, named for Charles Carroll, of Carrollton, a signer of the Declaration of Independence.

Capital Removed

In 1820 the capital was removed from Kaskaskia to Vandalia, in Fayette County, and remained there until under the Act of 1837, it was removed to Springfield.

Black Laws

At the session of 1819, the General Assembly re-enacted the "black laws," under which no free negro or mulatto could come into the state, except he had a certificate under seal of a court of record showing that he was free, and no person was permitted to manumit or set free any such colored person without entering bond of $1,000.00, that such colored person was so given his freedom, should not become a public charge, under penalty of $200.00 for each person so set free, with provisions against employing, harboring or dealing with colored persons, with penalties of fine, sale, whipping, etc., much the same as those in force in the slave states at that time.

Slavery Legislation

In his inaugural address to the Legislature of 1822, Governor Coles took strong grounds in favor of the enforcement of the provision of the constitution prohibiting slavery in the state, and for the enactment and enforcement of laws for carrying this provision of the constitution into effect. The General Assembly was strongly pro-slavery in both branches, and proceeded to pass a resolution for submitting to a vote of the people an amendment to the constitution making of Illinois a slave state. The resolution passed the senate, but in the house it lacked one vote of having a two-thirds majority, which was required for the passage of the resolu¬ tion. In the early part of the session there was a contest from Pike

County between Nicholas Hawson and John Shaw for representative, and December 9, 1822, the contest was decided in favor of Hawson, and he was given his seat. When it was found that the pro-slavery men lacked one vote to carry their resolution, a motion was made by Alexander P. Fields, of Union County, January 23, 1823, that the original motion to seat Hawson be reconsidered, which was carried, the contest case was re-opened, and the original decision reversed, and Shaw was seated in place of Hawson who had held his seat almost two months, but this action gave the pro-slavery advocates their two-thirds majority. The resolution was submitted to the people at the election on the first Monday in August, 1824, about eighteen months after the adoption of the reso¬ lution. It was thought by the pro-slavery leaders that they would have an easy victory at the polls, and they started their campaign with vitu¬ perative abuse, intolerance, calumny and attempted intimidation of their opponents. This aroused the antagonistic spirit of the anti-slavery people, and under the able leadership of Governor Coles, who freely contributed his salary for his term as governor, $4,000.00, to the cause, and those of Rev. J. M. Peek, Dr. T. R. Lippincott, George Churchill, Judge Lockwood, David Blackwell, secretary of state, and an army of ministers and laymen of the several churches, the organization of anti-slavery societies, the establishment of newspapers, public speeches, handbills, etc., such a contest was waged as has never been witnessed before or since in this state. The pro-slavery men followed the same tactics, and were led by Elisha Kent Kane, Judge Reynolds, Smith McRoberts, Jesse B. Thomas, John McLean, ex-Governor Bond, and many others. The result of the election was the defeat of the resolution. The vote was 4,950 for and 6,822 against, giving the anti-slavery forces a majority of 1,872, and this forever ended all attempts to make of Illinois a slave state.

A Test Of The Black Law

During the heat and virulence engendered in this campaign, a suit was instituted in the Circuit Court of Madison County against Governor Coles for $2,000.00 penalty, under the "black laws" for neglect to exe¬ cute the bond required upon the emancipation of ten negro slaves. A verdict was rendered by the jury for the $2,000,00 penalty, and the case was taken under advisement. It was continued to the September term, 1825, on a motion for a new trial. In January, 1825, the Legislature re¬ pealed the law giving the penalty sued for, and at the September term, the defendant plead this statute a bar to a judgment upon the verdict.

A demurrer was sustained to this plea, and judgment was rendered against the defendant for $2,000.00, which was taken on writ of error to the Supreme Court, when it was held that Madison County had no vested interest in the penalty, and the repeal of the statute, prior to the entry of judgment, was a bar to the pending suit, and reversed the judgment. This was the end of the suit, and Governor Coles escaped the penalty. Chief Justice Wilson wrote the opinion in the case, which is very clear, and has been sustained by the courts of this state! from that time to this. The case was entitled Edward Coles vs. the County of Madison, reported in Breese Illinois Reports, page 154. These black laws were later re-enacted with some modifications, and remained in force for many years. There were a number of cases involving the laws concerning indentured slaves and their children, taken to the Supreme Court since that of Governor Coles, but as these indentures expired by lapse of time more than seventy years ago, no reference will be made to them here.

Edward Coles

Edward Coles, second governor of Illinois, was born in Albemarle County, Va., December 15, 1786. Iiis father was a planter, owning many slaves. Upon his father's death, Edward Coles inherited 1,000 acres of land and twenty-five slaves. He was graduated from William and Mary College. At his father's home he met and made the acquaintance of many of the leading statesmen of those days, and on the inauguration of James Madison as president, Edward Coles became his secretary. In 1816, he was sent on a special mission to Russia, as the bearer of im¬ portant dispatches to the American minister at St. Petersburg. After his return, he determined to remove to Illinois, which he did, in the spring of 1819, bringing with him ten slaves, which he emancipated, giving each head of a family 160 acres of land near Edwardsville, Madi¬ son County. He aided them with money and exercised a paternal care over them for several years. This was the basis of the suit above men¬ tioned. He was appointed receiver of the land office at Edwardsville. During the period between 1822 and 1836, he was governor of Illinois. In 1833, he removed to Philadelphia, Pa., where he was married to Miss Sallie Logan Roberts, by whom he had one daughter and two sons. He died at Philadelphia, July 4, 1868, in his eighty-second year. While living at Edwardsville, he boarded with James Mason, whose wife, Sarah Von Phul Mason, wras a sister of Henry Von Phul, a leading merchant of St. Louis, Mo. The V on Phuls were natives of Phila¬ delphia, and will be mentioned further on in this history, in con¬ nection with Grafton and Jersey County.

Attitude Of Presidents

In this connection it may be noted that all of the presidents of the United States, from Washington to Harrison (1840), with the exception of Jackson, were opposed to the extension of slavery to Northwestern Territory, and that the secretaries of state of these administrations, to wit: Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, John Quincy Adams and Martin Van Buren, all succeeded to the presidency. The last named was the final secretary of state to be so honored.