Madison County, Illinois - Chapter 27: Affairs of Honor, 1912

Cause of Shields-Lincoln Duel, the "Rebecca Article" - Matter Satisfactorily Set¬ tled - Two Other Duels "Fall Through" - Another Madison County "Affair of Honor."

The celebrated "Fincoln-Shields duel" of 1842, of which much has been written and which caused great excitement at the time in Alton and in which two of her citizens bore the part of peace makers, deserves mention in the annals of Madison county. In the summer of 1842, at about the worst period of the hard times when the state banking system had col¬ lapsed and the people were unable to pay their taxes, the collectors being instructed by the state officials to receive nothing but specie in payment of taxes and the citizens having noth¬ ing wherewith to pay except the depreciated script of the banks, were in much distress. Thereupon the officers of the state suspended the collection of taxes of 1842, which action was held to be beyond their province.

James Shields was then auditor of the state, and his ruling in first ordering the collection of taxes in specie and then suspending the col¬ lection altogether was severely criticised by Mr. Lincoln in an article dated "Lost town¬ ship," signed "Rebecca," and published in the Sangamon Journal of September 2, 1842. It was written in jesting style but gave Shields great offense, as it held him up to ridicule. The mercurial blood of the Milesian gentle¬ man rose to the top of the tube. He de¬ manded of the editor of the Journal the name of the author of the "Rebecca letter" and was given that of Mr. Lincoln. That gentleman was then at Tremont in Tazewell county, and thither Shields repaired accompanied by his friend, Gen. John B. Whiteside. Arriving at Tremont he immediately sent a note to Mr. Lincoln demanding an apology. Mr. Lincoln replied to the note, refusing to make any ex¬ planation on account of the menacing charac¬ ter of Shields' demand. Other correspond¬ ence followed, culminating in a note from Shields naming General Whiteside as his friend, to which Mr. Lincoln replied, naming a Dr. E. H. Merriman as his friend. These two "friends" now secretly pledged their honor to each other to agree upon some amicable terms of settlement and compel their princi¬ pals to accept them, and to procrastinate the matter adjourned further proceedings to Springfield.

Arriving at Springfield Monday night, Sep¬ tember 19th, Lincoln left early the next morn¬ ing for Jacksonville, to escape arrest, dueling being against the state law. He was accom¬ panied by William Butler, leaving instructions with his second, Dr. Merriman, in which he avowed the authorship of the "Lost Town¬ ship" letter; said it was written for political effect and was not intended to reflect on Shields' private character as a man or a gen¬ tleman, and concluded by saying that if the explanation was not satisfactory "the prelimi¬ naries of the fight are to be :

"Second - Position: A plank ten feet long and from nine to twelve inches broad, to be firmly fixed on edge on the ground, as the line betwixt us which neither is to pass on forfeit of his life. Next a line drawn on the ground on either side of said plank and parallel with it, each at the distance of the whole length of the sword and three feet additional from the plank ; and the passing of his own such line by either party during the fight shall be deemed a surrender of the contest.

"Third - Time: On Thursday evening at five o'clock, if you can get it so ; but in no case to be at a greater distance of time than Friday evening at five o'clock.

The position prescribed for the combatants on the field looks like the cropping out of one of Lincoln's jokes, as each would be, seem¬ ingly, out of harm's way, but the advantage would certainly have been with Lincoln owing to his great height and length of arm.

These instructions were read to General Whiteside by Dr. Merriman who declined to agree on terms of settlement until they should meet in Missouri. To have accepted them in the state would have violated the oaths of of¬ fice of both Shields and Whiteside, who were state officers. All parties now left for the field of combat : Lincoln and his party by way of Jacksonville where they were joined by Dr. Bledsoe ; and Shields and Whiteside by way of Hillsboro, where they were joined by General Ewing. Arrived at Alton, they were further joined by Dr. T. M. Hope. The Lincoln party had also been joined at Jacksonville by Dr. R. W. English, later postmaster at Alton. In the meantime Gen. John J. Hardin of Jacksonville and Dr. R. W. English of Carrollton, later postmaster at Alton, had also arrived and, as

"Messrs. Whiteside and Merriman : "As the mutual personal friends of both Messrs. Shields and Lincoln, but without authority from either, we earn¬ estly desire a reconciliation of the misunderstanding existing between them. Such difficulties should al¬ ways be settled amicably, if it is possible to do so with honor to both parties. Believing ourselves that such an arrangement can possibly be effected, we respectfully but earnestly submit the following pro¬ position for your consideration : Let the whole dif¬ ficulty be submitted to four or more gentlemen to be selected by yourselves, who shall consider the affair and report thereon for your consideration.

This proposition was submitted to both principals and accepted on the ground by them with slight modifications. Then followed cor¬ respondence between the referees of both parties who were John D. Whiteside, William Lee, D. Ewing and T. M. Hope for Shields ; and E. H. Merriman, A. T. Bledsoe and Wil¬ liam Butler for Lincoln. In the first note ex¬ changed the Shields referees asked the Lincoln referees to "explain the offensive matter" in the article in controversy. The Lincoln refer¬ ees, in reply, stated that Mr. Lincoln in the "Lost township" article had written for politi¬ cal effect and with no intention of reflection on the character and standing of Mr. Shields as a man and a gentleman. Thus the contro¬ versy was settled and no blood shed. The referees on both sides united in a saying that the interference of Messrs. Hardin and Eng¬ lish "was of the most courteous and gentle¬ manly character."

Dr. English, in his later years after the war and when a resident of Alton, took great pleas¬ ure in relating to his friends the incidents of this prospective duel in which he acted as me¬ diator. "All parties," he said, "returned to

Alton on the ferry boat. There was a great crowd on the levee awaiting their arrival. Some wag on the boat, in order to have a joke on the crowd, took a log of wood, covered it with a sheet, so as to resemble a human figure, and as the boat approached the landing bent over the figure and engaged industriously in wielding a fan, giving the impression that he was attending a wounded man." Thus ended the great fiasco.

Two other challenges to duels resulted from this occurrence. The first was a challenge from Shields to William Butler, one of Lin¬ coln's seconds. Shields took offense at a re¬ port of the fiasco which Butler sent to the Sangamon Journal and challenged him to fight a duel. Butler promptly accepted and, as the challenged party, named the place and weap¬ ons. Shields' seconds refused to accept the terms, as the place named was within the state and their principal could not accept without violating his oath of office. Thus the affair ended.

Out of this last affair grew another chal¬ lenge, this between Merriman, Lincoln's sec¬ ond, and Whiteside, Shields' second, originat¬ ing from the character of the notes exchanged between Whiteside and Merriman in the Shields-Butler controversy. Whiteside was the challenger and Shields acted as his friend, while Lincoln figured as Merriman's second. This duel fell through on account of disagree¬ ment as to time and place.

Of special interest in the Lincoln-Shields duel is the comment made thereon by the Al¬ ton Telegraph and Democratic Review then edited by Judge Bailhache. It is vitriolic in its criticism of the future president and of the man who was to be thereafter a general in the Mexican and Civil wars and a senator from three states. In his issue of October ist, the editor says : "Our city was the theatre of an unusual scene of excitement during the last week from the visit of two distinguished gen¬ tlemen of Springfield, who, it was understood, had come here with a view of crossing the river to answer the requisitions of 'the code of honor' by brutally attempting to assassinate each other in cold blood. We refer to this matter with pain and the deepest regret. Both of them are, and have been for a long time, our personal friends. Both we have esteemed in all the private relations of life, and conse¬ quently we regret that what seems a duty we owe the public compels us to allude to the dis¬ graceful and unfortunate occurrence at all. We consider, however, that both of these gen¬ tlemen have violated the laws of the country and insist that neither their influence, their respectability nor their private worth should save them from being amenable to those laws they have violated. Both of them are lawyers; both have been legislators of this state and have aided in the construction of laws for the government of society ; both of them exercise no small influence in the community - all of which, in our estimation, aggravates instead of mitigates their offense. Why they should be permitted to escape punishment, while a friendless, penniless and obscure person, for a much less offense, is hurried to the county jail, forced through a trial with scarcely the forms of law, and finally immured within the walls of a penitentiary we are at a loss to conject¬ ure. It is a partial and disreputable adminis¬ tration of justice, which, though in accordance with the spirit of the age, we must protest against. . . .

We call upon Attorney General Lamborn to exercise a little of the zeal which he is con¬ tinually putting in requisition against less favored but less guilty offenders, and bring all who have been concerned in the late attempt at assassination to justice. LTnless he does this he will prove himself unworthy of the high trust that has been reposed in him.

able to say. The friends of Mr. Shields and those of Mr. Lincoln claim it to have been settled on terms 'honorable' to both - notwith¬ standing the hundreds of rumors - many of which border on the ridiculous - that are in circulation. We are rejoiced that both are enabled' to return to the bosom of their friends, and trust that they will now consider, if they did not before, that rushing unprepared on the untried scenes of Eternity is a step too fearful in its consequences to be taken with¬ out preparation.

"We are astonished to hear that large num¬ bers of our citizens crossed the river to wit¬ ness a cold-blooded assassination between two of their fellow beings. It was no less disgraceful than the conduct of those who were to be actors in the drama. Hereafter, we hope the citizens of Springfield will select some other point to make public their inten¬ tion of crossing the river to take each others' lives, than Alton. Such visits cannot but be attended with regret, and with unwelcome feelings, and the fewer we have of them the better. We should have alluded to this mat¬ ter last week but for our absence at court.''

Another County Affair of Honor Another "affair of honor" in which a resi¬ dent, or former resident of Madison county, was a principal occurred in 1841. The gentle¬ man was Hon. Theophilus W. Smith, of Edwardsville, then a judge of the supreme court. It seems that the election of Harrison in 1840 to the presidency had caused a bitter partisan feeling throughout Illinois, which had gone Democratic, and culminated in an act of the legislature adding five Democratic judges to the supreme court in order to overcome the influence of the Whig members, then in the majority, and who, it was feared, would de¬ cide a certain alien case in a way inimical to the Democrats. The contest over the mat¬ ter at issue was bitter and many controversies arose which threatened serious consequences. Judge Smith, it was charged, had given cur¬ rency to certain reports in regard to the in¬ tentions of his associates on the bench. These reports were the basis of a bitter speech made by Hon. John A. McClernand in the legisla¬ ture assailing the Whig members of the court. Judge Smith denied circulating the reports, but when the fact was brought home to him he was stung into sending a note to McCler¬ nand, by the hands of his friend Dr. Merriman (subsequently General Shields' second), couched in such language that it might or might not be construed into a challenge. Mc¬ Clernand promptly accepted it as a challenge, named the place of meeting, which was to be in Missouri, the weapons rifles, and distance forty paces. The fact of the challenge and acceptance becoming known and Attorney General Lamborn lodged a complaint before a justice of the peace in Springfield, where¬ upon Smith was arrested and placed under bonds to keep the peace. The affair being thus squelched, the belligerent judge left town to enter upon his judicial duties.*

*The greater part of the facts connected with these duels are condensed from Davidson and Stuve's "History of Illinois,'' who give the Springfield papers as their authorities. This does not apply to the local facts here given or the extract from the Alton paper.