Kane County, Illinois - Chapter with an unread heading (no. 16 of those read), 1908

Political

The political complexion of the county of Kane for many years from the date of its organization was democratic. At the first presidential election, in 1836, the county polled 334 votes, of which the democrats cast 235 and the whigs 93. At the general election of August 6, 1838, Thomas Cralin, democrat, received 511 votes for governor, and Cyrus Edwards, whig, 323. B. F. Fridley was elected sheriff on the same ticket by a clear majority of 301 over both his whig opponents, Leonard Howard and William L. Church, and two out of the three commissioners were also democrats. The tide was turned in 1840. when the exciting Harrison campaign brought out a vote of 1,584, the whigs carrying the county by a majority of 36. The lead was reversed in August, 1842, when out of a total vote of 1,240 Thomas Ford, democratic candidate for governor, received 750; Joseph Duncan, whig, 457, and Charles W. Hunter, the first candidate of the liberty party, 32. Of the liberty votes 13 were cast in St. Charles and 6 in Elgin. This was the beginning of the wonderful action against slavery and its ills, which was brought to full fruition by the ever memorable Emancipation Proclamation in 1863. To be an abolitionist in those days meant far more than a casual glance at the printed word today could possibly reveal, an abolitionist then being considered no more favorably than is a socialist now.

In August, 1843, John Wentworth, democrat, beat Giles Spring, whig, 247 votes for congress in Kane county. In 1844, at the presidential election, the fight was hot, and resulted in the democrats polling 1,046 votes, the whigs 748. and the liberal party 299. In March, 1848, the county cast 1,108 votes for the new constitution and 348 against; and upon the question of a two-mills tax, for the support of schools, the 221 persons who in their blindness voted against it were overwhelmed by the 1,176 who were wiser and voted for it. At the general election in August following, B. C. Yates, whig, was elected sheriff, but John F. Farnsworth, liberty candidate for state senator, was defeated by William B. Plato, democrat. John Wentworth was reelected to congress, his competitors being J. Young Scammon, whig, and Owen Lovejov, liberty candidate. The latter received 418 votes, which showed that the little seed sown in 1S42 was growing. Aside from the three regular tickets there were two others in the I'leld, a "people's" ticket and the "barn-burners" or Van Buren nominations. Mr. Yates was elected upon the people's ticket, as was also Charles B. Wells, for circuit clerk. Wentworth's majority for congress in the county was 368, which was only exceeded by Lake, LaSalle and DeKalb. The district (fourth) was then composed of the counties of Cook, Lake, McHenry, Boone, DuPage, Kane, DeKalb, Kendall, Will, Grundy, LaSalle, Bureau, Livingston, Champaign, McLean, Vermilion and Iroquois - seventeen in all. Among the candidates for circuit judge were Theophilus L. Dickey of Ottawa, and Onslow Peters, of Peoria. The latter withdrew and Mr. Dickey was elected. The death of this estimable gentleman and able judge occurred July 22, 1885. At the presidential election in 1848 the heaviest vote was polled which up to that time the county had given - 2,858.

In 1849 the democratic ticket was again successful in the county. By 1850 the whig party had gained such strength that it began to make itself heard and felt. At a whig meeting held at Geneva, August 10, 1850, Leonard Howard was chairman and T. C. Moore, secretary. Other prominent whigs, whose names appear in the record of this meeting, were B. C. Yates, M. V. Hall, Ira H. Fitch, Wm. Debit, Charles Clark, Thomas H. Thompson, C. F. Buck, A. C. Gibson, Peter Sears, L. A. Norton and Dr. Tyler. Resolutions were adopted opposing the extension of slavery in any manner; endorsing Daniel Webster's remarks on the subject of slavery; approving Senator Seward's course on the slave question; lauding the dead president, Zachary Taylor (died July 9, 1850), for his manly and judicious course; and expressing confidence in the then president, Millard Fillmore ; also favoring a free banking system in Illinois, "in which the interests of the bill holder shall be under all circumstances fully and completely secured."

The people of Kane county condemned in strong language the fugitive slave act, passed by congress in 1850. Mass meetings were held and resolutions adopted opposing the act, and asserting that "the doctrine of property in man is directly opposed to the principles of our government, at war with Christianity, and repugnant to the common sense of mankind." The previous heavy democratic majorities in the county were so reduced in 1850 that the greatest was but no, which William B. Plato received for state senator over T. C. Moore. A portion of the whig ticket was elected. For the legislature, Augustus Adams, whig, and B. F. Hall, democrat, were chosen. B. C. Yates had ninety-six votes majority over James Hotchkiss, for sheriff, and J. P. Bartlett, for coroner, defeated Seth Marvin by 100. For congressman the Kane county vote stood : Richard S. Molony, democrat, 978 ; Churchill Coffing, whig, 938; James H. Collins, free soil, 237. The district elected Molony.

The intense feeling upon the slavery question brought out the warmest advocates for either side of the controversy, and on more than one occasion serious trouble was threatened. The pro-slavery men were bitter in their denunciation of the action of their anti-slavery opponents, but the latter manfully stood their ground through all the stormy years, until the terrible war of the Rebellion forever settled the question and saw the star of their hope arise and lead all the world to the contemplation of a land whose people were free - where the fetters were stricken from four milHon human beings, whose days had been previously passed in !)ondagc. At one time a series of aboHtion lectures was delivered at the courthouse in Geneva, by Ichabod Codding, and the bitter pro-slavery men threatened to mob the speaker. John F. Farnsworth, of St. Charles, and Isaac Preston, of Aurora, paroled the ante-room of the courthouse with slugshots in their sleeves, made of chunks of lead encased in old stockings, ready to give the rioters a warm reception should they attempt to carry out their threats and interrupt Mr. Codding's speeches. Such episodes as these led to the tremendous revulsion of feeling which finally overthrew the old order of things, and established a new one from which the county has never since departed. It is true that in certain years, and on purely home issues, the question of politics has scarcely entered into the fight, but on all matters of national importance the voice of Kane county has been distinctly heard upon the platform where it became anchored in the great presidential campaign of 1856 - that of the republican party. The men who so zealously advocated the abolition of slavery went out in the dark years of 1861-65 and fought for the principles in which they believed. The political struggle through which the nation passed during the decade preceding the Civil war was shared in most earnestly by the people of this county; and none were readier than they to advance to the country's aid in time of trouble.

The assertion has been made by more than one person that the republican party was organized in Kane county, but a few dates will dispel that illusion :

On the 22d of February, 1854, a free-soil or free-tlemocratic convention was held at Jackson, Michigan, a mass convention at Kalamazoo, on the 21st of June following, and a grand mass convention at Jackson on the 6th of July. All of these were prior to anything held in Kane county, or, so far as know n, in any other part of this or any state. A republican platform was adopted. At Madison, Wisconsin, a republican state convention met and adopted a sterling platform on the 18th of July, 1854. August 4, of the same year, a call was circulated in Kane county for a republican county convention, to be held at Geneva, on the 19th of the same month. This call was signed by George S. Bangs, William McMicken, William A. Tanner, William McMicken, Jr., I. W. Phillips, A. Woodworth, A. Huntington, P. A. Allaire, A. R. Bartlett, F. A. Munson, R. G. Montony, I. A. W. Buck, I. T. Bevier, J. H. Thompson, A. D. Warner, Holmes Miller, Ira Fox, A. Hard, C. Osborn, Rev. Lewis Benedict. Austin Mann. E. K. Isbell, C. S. Roe, Burr Winton, L. D. Brady, S. Hoyles, Z. Church, and many other well-known citizens of the county. The convention was temporarily presided over by Hon. A. C. Gibson, of Aurora, and Rev. A. J. Joslyn, of Elgin, was secretary. The permanent organization had E. W. Brewster, as president; L. A. Winslow, A. H. Baird, J. P. Bartlett, and T. H. Thompson, vice presidents; H. T. Kingsbury, of Aurora, and E. W. Vining, of Elgin, secretaries. Prominent delegates made rousing speeches, and emphatic resolutions were adopted.

The republican congressional convention was held September 20, 1854, in the Congregational church at Aurora. The first republican ticket contained the names of the following candidates: For congress, J. H. Woodworth, of Chicago; for senator, Augustus Adams; for members of assembly, Benjamin Hackney, of Aurora, and William Patten, of Sandwich; for sheriff, Edward Alexander, of Geneva; for coroner, J. P. Bartlett, of Campton. The entire ticket was elected with the exception of Alexander, who was beaten for sheriff by L. P. Barker, democrat, of Batavia.

A claim made that the party was organized in LaSalle county must be set aside in the light of the foregoing facts, for the first republican county convention in that county was held in Ottawa, on the 30th of August, 1854, eleven days after the one at Geneva. But it cannot be denied that the great movement was stirring the entire region at one and the same time, and the stupendous republican party was finally fully organized and united at the national convention held at Philadelphia in 1856.

In 1873 the farmers' movement gained footing in Kane county, and numerous local organizations of the Patrons of Husbandry, known as Grangers, were formed; the first of these was at St. Charles. Mark H. Bisby, of the township, was county deputy and organizer, and most of the prominent farmers in the county were engaged in the movement. Several candidates upon the county ticket were elected by the Grangers in 1873, but as a political card the order did not continue long in importance, and the star of the institution finally set.

From the days of the early settlements a strong temperance feeling has existed among the people, and we find that, in Aurora at least, a temperance organization existed as early as 1837, presided over by Elias D. Terry. Various societies have been formed in the different towns and villages, most of which are now out of existence. Their places have been largely filled by the Woman's Christian Temperance Unions, the Young Woman's Christian Temperance Unions, the Young Men's Christian Association and prohibition party. The work these bodies are doing is of almost incalculable magnitude, and its influence for the good of the race is undisputed.

In 1884 there were four presidential candidates, viz.: Blaine, republican; Cleveland, democratic; St. John, prohibition, and Butler, independent greenback. At the election this year( 1908) the candidates of seven different parties will have a place on the ticket, which will be nearly three feet wide and two feet in length.

The most important political change in the past fifty years has been the passing of the new primary election law. which practically destroys the influence of the county convention in the nomination of candidates for office. Two primary laws were declared unconstitutional. The present one is yet to be tested. Its pnictical effect has been on its first trial, to aft'ord the \oter a choice of from three to six candidates for each, where under the old system the voters elected the delegates and they chose the candidates. On tlje first trial for direct nominations the voters apparently used good judgment, for the list of nominees is made up of men apparently capable of filling the positions for which they seek election.

Since the convention of 1854 Kane county has continued republican by a large majority, the present plurality being six to one. Democrats have, however, been elected to tlie cminty judgeship three times, owing to local con-