McLean County, Illinois - The whole text, 1900 (part 2 of 4)

It appears to have been willed that the battle of freedom should be hot, in the fiery ordeal the heat might become sufficiently intense to melt the shackles more completely trom enslaved limbs. A word against slavery was interpreted as a blow at the constitution, a step towards disunion; that grand prophecy that this government could not remain half slave, and half free, was charged up against Lincoln, as a most rank disunion sentiment. The prejudice against Al)olitionists, philosophers tell us, resulted from a patriotic motive, love of country - very properly classed in this day as a sophistical paradox, - destruction of a school house in Connecticut where colored girls were taught to read; mobbing of a colored asylum, abolition persecutions, result of patriotic motives! We are told that many great evils of the world have been committed by ignorant men of good intentions, material used in paving the road to Hades. We have it in the history of religious persecutors, ignorant of truth, the ardor of their sincerity warms them into persecution, brings fanaticism into deadly activity, the evil they do is the result of misdirected virtue. This may be applied to the mass of that day, but is not an excuse for the pro-slavery leaders and politicians. In our own state there were many legislative struggles, indicative ot slave power enmity. I remember that \'(nn- own city of Blooniington furnished a l)acker for Governor Yates in trou])lous times here; he was a manwhodid not fear totell copperheads who endeavored to stop apprc)priation for supplies for our soldiers.

Born November 17, 1797. Kentucky: died January *29. 1865: stock raiser, land owner: State Senator \>-&2 to iNt>5. Se"e Good Old Times McLean County ofcO and Volume II. Transactions McLean Countv Historical Society.

that they were traitors, and hurl back their insuUs so defiantly that Lincoln gave him praise. The name of Isaac Funk should have a place in this history. \\\ all-wise Providence has ways of his own in gathering his instrumentalities for the purpose of purifying nations. Had the slave holder been content to let slavery remain where it was, and not endea\ or by fraud and murder to extend it into the territories, how different might have been our history. "Whom the Gods would destroy, they first make mad." I well remember that it was the manner of forcing slavery into Kansas, by intimidation and fraud, that caused universal indignation of fair-minded men, quite as much so, as any anti-slavery sentiment that then existed. There was a notion among the people that the ballot box in its purity was the palladium of our liberty. The Missouri Compromise, an agreement between the slave and Free States, that slavery should not go into the territories north of a certain line. 36 degrees, 30 minutes, was repealed by congress. Senator Douglas, of our state, introduced the measure, and it was passed in May, 1854. By him it was cunningly worded. The law which had been revered a quarter of a century as an agreement settling a controversy between the states was, in the repealing act, declared inoperative, because '"inconsistent Avith the principle of non-intervention with slavery." and ''did not permit people to regulate their own domestic institution." This act of repeal alarmed the nation. A sacred trust had been broken. Douglas defended the repeal, claiming that it was in the interest of self-government, and called it ''Squatter Sovereignty.'' "The people could decide whether or not they would have slavery." It was soon demonstrated that this was a trick. The people were not permitted to decide the question, if a Democratic party then in power could prevent it. It was soon apparent that the full power of the government was to be used to force the people of Kansas to adopt a slave constitution against their will. The hypocritical cant about the consent of the governed was not then in use by Democratic statesmen. Emigrant Aid Societies w^ere organized to assist in settling Kansas with freedom lov-

I will not detain you with a repetition of that disgraceful history. How the president with the army, militia from slave states under pay of the government, swarms of border ruffians overrunning that territory for the sole purpose of driving legal voters from the polls, failed in the effort to force slavery upon an unwilling people. Homicide, underpay, and murder by order from the Wliite House at Washington; brutality and hatred dressed in regimentals, malignity in epaulets; bloody mania in support of human bondage. It is strange that there were so few John Browns. A proslavery Democratic legislature made up of people who went there not as settlers, but to make it a slave state, passed laws making the simple speaking to a slave a death penalty. Two score of laws enforcing the death penalty for using words and acts in opposition to slavery.

That was the reason a couple dozen editors gathered at Decatur and called the Bloomington convention which we today celebrate. Patriots everywhere were alarmed for the liberty of the whites as well as the blacks. In the first Republican convention of a national character, Owen Loveioy in an eloquent prayer did not ask an all-wise Providence to abolish slavery, but he made an eloquent and earnest plea for better politics in the party then in power. He hoped for fair election in Kansas. Being a minister of the gospel ^Ir. Lovejoy had some sort of an idea that perhaps the Almighty might have some sort of an influence with the people at the coming election if not with a Democratic president and so he prayed, to use the exact words, that the "Present wicked administration might be removed from power and its unholy design on the liberties of the people thwarted."

On the day that Owen Lovejoy uttered that patriotic prayer in Pitts1)urg, the editors of IHinois met at Decatur. Though my friend, Mr. Selby, tells you of that meeting, and General Palmer will well cover the sul)ject, may I not digress to recall a few incidents. I was one of the committee on resolutions, and had the good fortune of being in consultation with Abraham Lincoln, in forming the first Republican platform in Illinois. At the banquet in the evening given by the citizens of Decatur, I was informed that I would be called upon for a toast, and so prepared one which was so complimentary of Mr. Lincoln that when I saw that he was present. I did not have the cheek to give voice to my admiration, and changed my toast and spoke something about placing free ballot boxes in the hands of freemen and meeting despots with cartridge boxes. Mr. Lincoln was in a happy mood. I remember that apologetically, for being at a convention of editors, he called attention to what I have always imagined a personal reminiscence. He stated that he believed he was a sort of interloper there and was reminded of the incident of a man not possessed of features the ladies would call handsome, while riding on horseback through the woods met an equestrienne. He reined his horse to one side of the bridle path and stopped, waiting for the woman to pass. She also checked her horse to a stop and looked him over in a curious sort of a way, finally broke out with.

In the line of thought regarding Constitutional Abolitionists, I recall an interview with Mr. Lincoln at his residence at Springfield, that has not heretofore been made pul^lic. It occurred a few weeks before his departure for Washington to deliver his inaugural address, and take his seat as president. I, with several Dixon citizens, among them

Col. John Dement, a leading Democrat in the state, who had enjoyed an acquaintance with the president-elect in early days, and was a comrade in the Black Hawk War, called to pay our respects. When we arrived we were ushered into the parlor where w^e found several gentlemen from Arkansas, and, I believe from other border states, as they were then called, who had come as a sort of a committee to urge upon the presidentelect to issue some sort of a manifesto assuring the people of the south that it was not his intention to liberate the slaves. The committee was urgent in the matter and seemed to believe that such a precaution was necessary to prevent insurrection among the slaves, who were impatient regarding their anticipated freedom. It was urged by the gentlemen from the south that the slaves believed that Mr. Lincoln's election meant their freedom. They had been told that they would be liberated. They heard the people of the south talk about it and were discontented. The committee understood \Qry well that l\Ir. Lincoln did not intend to abolish slavery. But the negroes and the ignorant whites of the south did not so understand it. The gentlemen believed that it was the duty of the president-elect to at once undeceive them. Several members of that committee of safet}' earnestly urged the importance of some assurance from Lincoln to colored men and ignorant people of the south, that an Emancipation Proclamation would not be among his first official acts. He listened respectfully, and after the importance of a proclamation was fully urged, he made a reply that was so masterful in logic; so touching in kindness and yet so full of marvelous sarcasm coupled with witticism showing the absurdity of the proposition of the committee, that I shall never forget it. ]\Ir. Lincoln opened in answer by stating that such a manifesto would indicate fear on his part and would be, by most of the citizens of the south, attributed to cowardice, a charge freely made against the people of the north generally. He believed that his inaugural address which would in a few days l)e deli\'ered from the steps of the national capital, would be in ample time to undeceive people haviiig erroneous opinions upon the matters which troubled them. To anticipate his inaugural address, as requested, would be unwise and lacking in dignity. He closed his reniarks with much earnestness and no little emphasis: the words I remeniljer quite well : "In all my speeches/' he said, "I have never uttered a word indicating intention to interfere with slavery where itexists in states: Republican speakers and newspapers not only never advocated abolition of slavery, but are constantly refuting the charge that they are radical Abolitionists. Such utterance has been one of the principal contentions of the campaign just closed. So you see, gentlemen, if the colored people of the south have heard that I intended to abolish slavery, they received the idea from the lips of your own people; from their masters at the dinner table, or heard it at your own political meetings, and not from any Republican source; therefore it is your duty to rectify the mistake. It is certainly not encumbent upon me to correct at this time the falsehoods of our opponents."

As the people of the south were then threatening to destroy the government and Civil War was inevitable, he remarked that the committee reminded him of the disadvantageous excitement of the man whose house was on on lire, who, in his efforts to save property, threw mirrors, pitchers a.nd valuable vases out of the second story window, and carried flat-irons and bedding carefully down stairs in his arms.

The committee retired with the firm impression that L.incoln had a mind of his own, as one of them was heard to remark. After they had departed, a man from central Illinois placed in ^Ir. Lincoln's hands application papers for a postoffice and remarked that the boys were ready to fight for him. Mr. Lincoln turned to Colonel Dement, again shook him by both hands cordially, and remarked that he did not enjoy the talk about figJitijig for him. He was in the mood of Robert Burns when he wrote

Meeting Mr. Lincoln the next day at the hotel I requested permission to print that interview at his private residence in my paper, he replied. "Td a heap rather you had done it without asking me." This was a characteristic precaution m Lincoln that his endorsement should not even by inference a])pear to such an absurdity as the interview on the issuing of the manifesto. So I never printed it.

Owen Lovejoy firmly believed that the constitution was intended to protect human liberty and if rightly interpreted would do away with slavery. He did not even favor an amendment in that behalf, deeming it not necessary. I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Lovejoy a number of times. I heard him deliver a speech at Amboy, Lee county, during a presidential campaign, when he was assisting to elect the Republican ticket. In that speech he urged the radical Abolitionists to support Lincoln, they generally having refused to do so, for the reason that the Republicans did not propose any action leading to the abolition of slavery. He told them the Repviblican party was going their way. To illustrate that idea he said that if he were walking on the road to Chicago, and a man passing in a wagon should ask him to ride, it would not be good sense for him to refuse because the man was going only a few miles on his route. He would not refuse to ride with the man because he was not going through to Chicago, ^o, he would climb in and ride as far as he went his way. So long as the Republicans are on their road he would advise radical Abolitionists to get in and ride with them, inasmuch as they were both going in the same direction.

I again met Mr. Lovejoy on a train enroute for Freeport, the day of Lincoln and Douglas' joint debate there. He was not in a pleasant humor. At Ottawa a few days before Douglas v/ith a sneer had classed Lincoln as a Lovejoy Abolitionist in a manner intimating that the latter was of the radical class, thus misrepresenting the .irentlemen from Princeton, much to his dislike. Remembering the temper he was in. after arriving at Freeport, when the debate was over, in the evening I suggested to a number of friends that Mr. LoNcjoy was in a humor to make a speech, and we would call him out. A dry goods ])Ox was improvised as a platform in front of the Brewster House ancl he readily responded to the call. I shall never forget that speech and magnificent appearance of the speaker : a man of splendid physique, Websterian mold of countenance, all aglow with flame of intellectual genius, interested deeply in the cause of humanity. Douglas had put the question to Lincoln, "Would he, if an officer of the law, return a fugitive slave to his master?" Lovejoy answered the interrogatory in scathing phillipics against Douglas and all others who had voted for the Fugitive Slave law. Taking the pythagorean idea of transmigration, he had the soul of Douglas turned into a savage bloodhound on the track of a slave escaping from bondage. A man innocent of crime, only a polar star as a guide to a freedom justly his, tlie man-greyhound in hot pursuit, lapping the mire by the wayside to quench his hellish thirst for blood. The cubless tigress raging in the jungle for her slaughtered offspring is touching sympathy compared with the man who would hunt down an innocent being that he might enslave.

A gem was lost when that speech was not reported and published. Douglas was a great leader, at one time beloved by the entire Democratic party. He lacked only one vote and a half of becoming president. His repeal of the Missouri Compromise proved his downfall. It caused great indignation in the north, and when he saw a Democratic president, a man of his own party, use all the intluence and power of government in forcing slavery upon the unwilling people of Kansas where he had promised that people should be "free to vote slavery up or down," he was appalled at the diabolical enormities committed in the name of Democracy. He rebelled against the administration and then the southern leaders, heretofore friendly, whom he had always befriended, turned against him. Abolitionists had not endured more bitter insult than were heaped upon the senator fr(jm Illinois by southerners whose cause he had so favored. Hosts of friends in the north had ignominiously deserted him for the political acts he had performed for the south. It was a monstrous ingratitude hy the southern leaders. In Douglas it was a "grievous fault and grievously hath he answered it." His terril^le plight IS descrihed by the poet Byron :

"As the struck eagle, stretched upon the plain. No more through rolling clouds to soar again, Viewed his own feather on the fatal dart. And winged the shaft that quivered in his heart, ^ Keen were his pangs, but keener far to feel He nursed the pinion that impelled the steel ' -''^^ While the same plumage that had warmed his nest, - Drank the last life-blood of his bleeding breast." In a talk of Republicanism in Illinois, we must needs speak of Stephen A. Douglas, its greatest opponent until the close of his life, when he became its warm supporter ; an accomplished orator, wonderful debater, beloved at one time by millions of his countrymen. Small in stature and mighty in intellect, he was known as the "Little Giant/' But alas, history classes him in the vast list where

My friend, John H. Bryant, of Princeton, who was to speak today on the subject assigned me. but declined on account of ill health, in June, 1856, closed a letter to his brother, the great poet, in regard to the Bloomington convention, and especially politics m Illinois, with assurance that "She is solid for Freedom and the Constitution, for Republicanism and Right."

It matters little that forty-four years ago, previous to the time of the Bloomington convention, my name was the only one prominent as the running mate of Governor Bissell for lieutenant governor, that I was one of the vice-presidents of that convention - or that in February previously at a meeting at the capital of Whigs and Free Soil Democrats who were ready for the organization of a party more fully representing the tide of advanced political principles. I was one of the committee associated with Abraham Lincoln and Ebenezer Peck, and prepared the resolutions adopted at the meeting which led to the convention held on the 29th of May. 1856.

It matters much, however, that the convention was held and that a portion of the leading men of both parties came together and took their places beside Abraham Lincoln on a platform of expansion of free territory, enlarged human rights and human liberty, and expanded patriotism, on which basis every man nominated was elected and placed in office.

The time was auspicious. We were then under the last of the old time Democratic governors in Illinois who had appropriated to his own use about a quarter of a million dollars in state bonds and left the state a ruined man and a political party badly smirched. Since then we have had but one Democratic governor and he has made all other governors quite respectable - comparatively I

The nation was also in a turmoil over the slavery que>tion. Lincoln had not yet announced the problem that "the nation could not long endure half slave and half free" - but the events then transpiring justified the assertion. Kansas was the theatre of O])erations of the Missouri Jay-hawkers, who without restraint of the administration were madly rushing on to the de- struction of the government of the esta])lishment of slavery upon the virgin soil of the territory. They had ca])turc(.l and imprisoned the gin'ernor ot the territory to make ])]ace for one in full sympatliy v.ith themselves. The governor's wife, a most beautiful and interesting lady, had tied for life to Illinois for protection and was on the train that carried the delegates from Springfield to Bloomington - her presence creating the profoundest sympathy and the wildest enthusiasm.

Xot all the Wdiigs and a lesser portion of the Democrats joined in the movement. It was too radical for many who had been leaders in the old political parties, and too conservative for the radical Abolitionist, but occupied safe ground upon which to found a great political party which has for forty years ruled the destines of the nation - vastly expanding it in population, education, wealth and territory, until at the present time when it occupies the proud place of the most enlightened and powerful nation on the globe.

The nominees at that convention, after faithfully serving the people in the places assigned them, have long since laid down their well spent lives - leaving us to cherish their memories and emulate their official example. Of all the great and good men that took part in that Bloomington meeting but few are left. Lincoln led the convention and was the first to lay down his life for the cause inaugurated there. Yates, Lovejoy, Browning, \\'ashbiu*n. Archibald Williams, Judd, \\'entworth, and a host of others have followed him to the grave. Palmer, the honored president of that convention, I am glad to know, still lives.

Born in New Hampshire April 11. 1S14: died March 12. 1893. merchant, banker: Secretary of Slate t>-n7 to lb65. See Biographical Dictionary and Portrait Gallery Illinois Volume IbC'C. page 140.

Made at Bloomin^^ton. Illinois. May 29. 1900. at a Celebration of the Forty-fourth Anniversary of the Bloomington Convention held on May 29, at which the Republican Part}' in Illinois was Organized.

By Gen. Thomas J. Henderson, Of Princeton, Ill

Mr. President and Members of the McLeaii County Historical Society^ Ladies and Gentlemen : When invited to be present at this anniversary meeting, or celebration, the secretary of your society, kindly requested me to make some remarks on the campaign of 1856. But I declined to do so, for several reasons. In the hrst place, it was not certain that 1 could be present at the meeting, and even if I could be, my *time was so occupied that I was not able to prepare any suitable remarks for an occasion of so much interest as this. And I felt that without preparation, any speech I might attempt to make would be rambling and of but little interest to those who might hear it.

The convention of May 29, 1856, the forty-fourth anniversary of which we today celebrate, marked an era in the political history of Illinois, and I may say, of the entire country. And on such an occasion so many memories come crowding upon us that it is difficult to control our thoughts and emotions, and to pursue any connected line of thought or speech. ,\s we think of the many able, eloquent, earnest, patriotic men, who were present and members of that convention, and who participated in its proceedings, and of how many of them have since passed away, after having rendered distinguished services to the country, and what a small numl)er still survive, we are almost overwhelmed. And so, my friends, in attempting to speak to \'ou today, without preparation and with such a con- Gen. Thomas J. Henderson was born at Brownsville, Tenn.. November 19. l?2t. Came to Illinois in l>^:ir. Admitted to the bar ]>r)*'\ In member of Illincns

House of Representatives and State Secretary isr)6 to \»>0. Delegate to the Major's Hall convention May 2-.». In iSt5-J Col. 1 12 111. Vols. )S(j.T Brev. Brier. Gen. Republican presidential elector IH'SS. Representative in Congress. 1874 to 1>9.=>. Is president of the board of management of the National Soldiers' Home.

fusion of meniories. I fear my remarks will be of but little interest. But I am glad to be here to meet all who are present, and especially to meet the old friends, sur\iv6rs of the convention of May 29, 1856.

The convention held at Major's Hall, in this city, in 1S56, was a great convention - one of the most important and farreaching in its induence and in its results, that was ever held in the state of Illinois, in my judgment. It had a deeper and stronger influence upon the political action of the people of the state, than any other convention ever held in the state. It fairly revolutionized the old political parties of the state.

I have ahvays been proud of the fact that I was a member of that convention and participated in its proceedings. I was a delegate from Stark county and a member of the committee on resolutions. Orville H. Browning, of Quincy, a native of Kentucky, who had been a prominent Whig of the state, was, as I remember, chairman of the committee, which prepared the resolutions, or platform, adopted by the convention, and he made, on or after the presentation of the resolutions, an able and eloquent speech. There were present at the convention, either as members, or interested spectators, many of the able and distinguished men of the state, from all parts of the state. Men who had been leading, prominent members of the old political parties : - Abraham Lincoln, Archibald Williams, Orville H. Browning, Ricliard Yates, Richard J. Oglesby, and many other old Wdiigs - were there. And among the many old Democrats and Abolitionists were John M. Palmer, John F. Farnsworth, Xorman B. Judd, John Wentworth, and Owen Lovejoy. All of them, including the Whigs named, were strong, able, earnest men, and deeplv interested in the work of the convention. They were prominent then in the politics of the state, and some of them in the service of the country, and most of them afterwards distinguished themselves as soldiers in the War of the Rebellion and in civil life.

and he not only distinguished himself in the campaign which followed the convention, as an able speaker and advocate of freedom and free territory, but he has served the country with great ability and distinction since, in both military and civil life, as a general, governor, and United States senator. He, also, made a strong and powerful speech at the convention in 1856.

But the great speech of that convention was the speech made by Abraham Lincoln. His speech was of such wonderful eloquence and power that it fairly electrified the members of the convention and ever}'body who heard it. It was a great speech in what he said , in the burning eloquence of his words, and in the manner in which he delivered it. If ever a speech was inspired in this world, it has always seemed to me, that that speech of Mr. Lincoln's was. It aroused the convention, and all who heard it, and sympathized with the speaker, to the highest pitch of enthusiasm. I have never heard any other speech that had such great power and influence over those to whom it was addressed. I have .always believed it to have been the greatest speech ]\Ir. Lincoln ever made, and the greatest speech to which I ever listened. I can never forget that speech, and especially that part of it where, after repelling with great power and earnestness the charge of disunion made against the Anti-Xebraska party, he stood as if on tip-toe, his tall form erect, his long arms extended, his face fairly radiant with the flush of excitement, and, as if addressing those preferring the charge of disunionism, he slowly, but earnestly and impressively, said :

As he uttered these memorable and. I may say, prophetic words, the members of the convention and everybody present rose as one man to their feet, and there was a universal burst of applause, repeated over and over again, so that it was some moments before ]\Ir. Lincoln could proceed with his speech.

Democrat, sat 1)y my side during- Mr. Lincoln's speech; anrl was profoundly impressed by his wonderful eloquence. lie said to me he was greatly suri:)rised to tind that Illinois had such a man as Abraham Lincoln, and that they knew nothing about him in Xew York; that he had lived in Xew York all his life and had heard most of the great men of the country speak at one time or another in that city; that he had heard Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, John C. Calhoun. ]^Iartin \'an Buren, Le\-i Woodbury, Silas Wright, and others. But, he said, he had never before heard from any one so great a speech as the one just delivered by Lincoln. The speech converted him, and he became, as I was informed afterwards, a good Republican.

]Mr. Lincoln's speech was delivered without manuscript, and I think, without notes ; and no report of it was made. Xor has it ever been published until within a few years when a report of it written, as it is said, from notes taken at the time, was published as the "Lost Speech." And I am forced to say that I rather regret the publication, for I do not think it does justice to the speech that }vlr. Lincoln delivered. In fact, I am strongly impressed with the belief, that no report could have been made and published then or since, especially after the lapse of so many years, which would give a just conception of the great power and magnetic effect of that memorable speech.

That speech, and the great debates between him and Stephen A. Douglas in 1858, made '\lr. Lincoln president of the United States, and forever lost to ]\Ir. Douglas the hope of the presidency, which was without doubt the highest ambition of his life.

But what can I say as to the campaign of 1856? I have said the conventi(jn of 1856 was a memorable one, and so the campaign tliat followed it was equally memorable. The campaign was made by only two parties - the Democratic or Nebraska party, struggling to maintain its snprcniacy. and the Anti-Xebraska or Republican party, battling to resist the encroachments of the slave-power, to which the Democratic party, througli the influence of Mr. Douglas and other leading Democrats, had yielded and seemingly given themselves up. The bad faith shown in the repeal of the ^Hssouri Compromise and the opening of the wav for human slavery to go into territory from which, by solemn compact, it had been forever excluded, had excited an intense feeling in the minds of libertyloving Democrats, as well as Wdiigs and Abolitionists, in Illinois, that the further aggressions of the slave-power must cease or our freedom and free institutions would be overthrown. Hence the campaign of 1856 was a campaign of conscience, of deep conviction, of earnest purpose. It was the first political campaign in which I ever participated, actively as a speaker. I had made a few speeches in the campaign of 1852 - the last campaign in which the Whigs had a candidate for the presidency, advocating the election of Gen. Winfield Scott and opposing that of Franklin Pierce. But in the campaign of 1856, I made nearly a hundred speeches. The Anti-Xebraska or Republican party, inspired by the actionof the great convention and the great speeches made in it. at Bloomington, forty-four years ago today, started out to win, and immense meetings, addressed by Lincoln, Palmer, Trumbull, Farnsworth, Yates, Browning, Williams. Judd. Knox, Lovejoy, Codding, and other able and distinguished speakers, were held all over the state. I can remember as if it was but yesterday, how we spoke and sang at those great meetings for victory. Do you not remember, all of you wdio are old enough, the rallymg-cry for 'Tree Soil ; Free Speech ; Free Press ; Fremont and A'^ictory?" And while we lost our presidential ticket in the state and nation, we elected the gallant Bissell, governor, and the whole state ticket, nominated in Alajor's Hall in this city, by a majority, which surprised and overwhelmed the Democrats of the state. And so earnest, energetic, and effective was the work done in the campaign of 1856, that we have never elected by one Democratic governor in the state since - and that was a great mistake.

swer that he was; at least by those who knew him well. It was my good fortune to have known ^Ir. Lincoln from my boyhor.d. The first time I ever saw him was when I was 15 years of age. It was at an^ immense Whig convention, held at Springfield in June, 1840, in the Harrison and Van Buren campaign. This was said, at the time, to have been the largest convention e\ er held in the state. The XMiigs came in large delegations from all parts of the state. They canie with music and banners, ir. wagons and in carriages, on horseback and on foot. Log cabins, with coon-skins and hard cider, were drawn by oxen from distant parts of the state, and prominent Whigs were there from almost every country. ^ly father as a Whig, a native of Kentucky, like ^Ir. Lincoln, and had served with him in the Illinois legislature, and both w^ere re-elected members that year. And though my father lived more than a hundred miles from Springfield, he and a number of other Whigs in the vicinity of our home, were at the convention : and my father took me along. So you see I became interested in politics at an early age.

I remember that convention well, and the prominent speakers, who made speeches on that occasion. Abraham Lincoln and E. D. Baker, of Springfield; John J. Hardin, of Jacksonville; John Hogan. then a Methodist preacher, of Alton; Ben Bond, of Clinton county; Fletcher W^ebster, a son of Daniel Webster, then living at Peru, in La Salle county» and S. Lisle Smith, of Chicago, one of the most gifted and eloquent speakers in the state, were there. I remember them all. and heard them all speak. 'My father introduced me to Mr. Lincoln, and the impression made upon my mind at that time by my father and others, was that Lincoln was one of the leading, prominent Whigs and able men of the state, and he was then but 31 years of age.

I have thought it somewhat remarkable that four of thr-se distinguished sjjeakers whom I heard speak at that convention, were afterwards killed in battle or in time of war. while rendering distinguished services to the country. John J. Hardin was colonel of an Illinois regiment and was killed in the

Avar with Alexico, at the battle of Buena Vista. Baker, the eloquent orator and gallant officer and soldier, was killed at Ball's Bluff, Virginia, in the war of the rebellion. Fletcher Webster was also killed in battle in Virginia, in the same war; and Abraham Lincoln was assassinated while president of the United States and commander in chief of the army and navy, after rendering the most illustrious service to his country.

Again my father, having been re-elected as a member of the state legislature, as I have said, took me with him to Springfield when the legislature assembled in November, 1840, and I was in Springfield several weeks with him, during the session, and saw much of Mr. Lincoln and heard him speak a number of times. He was one of the prominent members of the house, and was recognized as one of the able, if not the ablest, of the Whig leaders and debaters in the house. And there were many other able men, members of the house, who Avere afterwards distinguished in the public service. William H. Bissell, whom we elected governor in 1S56: Lyman Trumbull, John Dougherty, Thomas Drummond, John J. Hardin, John A. ^IcClernand, John Logan, father of John A. ; ex- Attorney-General Kitchell, and many others, were able and prominent members, and Lincoln was, I think, as prominent as any of those m^entioned.

I may put a higher estimate on the ability and prominence of Mr. Lincoln at that time, than some others do, and it may be very natural that I should ; for I was a Whig, and a little later, when I became a voter, and interested in politics, I was associated with him, politically, and followed him as a leader, and always regarded him as a strong and able man. When a member of the legislature in 1S55, I voted for him nine times for L^nited States senator, and on the tenth ballot I changed my vote, somewhat unwillingly, and voted at ^Ir. Lincoln's own request, for^Lyman Trumbull. We could not get our old friend, Senator Palmer, to vote for Lincoln, once (Senator Palmer shook his head). But it is all right, senator: you came around all right afterv;ards, for Mr. Lincoln, and the probabilities are that if we had elected ^Ir. Lincoln

United States senator then he would not have l^een elected president - and if he had not been, wliat the condition of our country would be today we cannot imag'ine.

Xo, my friends, Abraham Lincoln was always a great man in my estimation, from my first acquaintance. He was great in his boyhood, in the cabin homes of his father. He was, 1 think, born great, and grew in greatness all his life.

A brother-in-law of mine, now dead, said to me a few years since, when standing in Statuary Hall in the capitol at Washington, and looking at the statue of Abraham Lincoln by Vinnie Ream, "Thomas, the more I study the life and character of Lincoln, and compare him with the other great men of history, the more 1 think he is one of the most remarkable men of all ages." And such, I think, as the ages go by, will be the judgment of mankind.

Ladies and GoLtlcineii : I came here without any preparation to address you on such an important subject as the foundation of the Republican party in Illinois, and as I might say, in the United States. Your president made the remark, that the elements out of which the new party had been formed, consisted of members of the old W hig party with antislavery tendencies; of the Democratic party with even more radical views, and represented by such men as my distinguished friend. General Palmer; the xA^merican or Know-Xothing party; and the Germans, with the most advanced, anti-slavery feelings of all of them. ]\Iy friend, Mr. Paul Selby, gave you the history of the Decatur convention where all these factions were represented.

Here the most difficult task did fall to me as the editor of a German paper and as a member of that convention. The repeal of the ^Missouri Compromise created a storm in the affairs of the country such as was never before witnessed since the foundation of the republic. The south had been made bold and defiant by the success in the affairs of the nation since the adoption of the so-called 'compromise measures.' The attempt of the nationalization of the institution of slavery, and of a most rigid Fugitive Slave law with all its horrors, had aroused the sleeping conscience of the nation.

George Schneider was born at Pirraasens. Bavaria. December 13. 1^23: liberally educated; took part in (German revoiuticm. 1S4S: was oondeinned to death, escaped to the United States: with his brother established an anti-slavrrv German paper at St. Louis, Mo.; l^ol. moved toCliicaeo and became the editor of the .s'(/a'.<- Zeitnrirj. which he made a dailv and the leadiner German newspaper ot the northwest: called the first anti-Nebraslca raeetioK in the United States: member of editorial con ven ion of February. is.^R. and of the convention or Mav CO. iSoO. and of the national Ketmblican conventions of I'^.'iti and l^tiO: pre'^idential elector, l^-i; appointed \)\ President fdncoin to conhdential mission to l»enrnark an^Kiermar. y, 1>*61: internal revenue colle(:t(_)r, I^'il and iSfio; rnemTier i d t'^iicatro Uni^n l)e:er.<e Committee, and l-'i-i: a{)pointed minister to Switzerland, isTti: twenty-hve years engaged in Vjankintr in Chicaco; the coniidential adviser of everv Repub'lican president, from Lincoln to McKinley. (See Biographical Die and For. Gal.. 111. Ed. p.30 *

When Senator Donglas introdnced his bill to repeal the Missouri Compromise, this was the signal for the volcanic out-break of the pent up feelings, of the citizens of the Republic who had preserved their love of humanity, right and justice. This was particularly the case with the adopted citizens of the German nationality.

The revolution of 1848 and 1849 in Germany for the unification of the Fatherland, and the failure of this great effort, sent thousands of the best men of Germany, - men of culture and strong will power, - to this country, who were placed at the head of many of the best newspapers printed in the German language. From New York to the great west, their influence was felt at once and a great revival began amongst them. The principal places of this new uprising in thought and action were New ^.^ork. Philadelphia, Chicago, Cincinnati and St. Louis. All the principal papers in these cities opposed at once the extension of slavery in the new territories, and in fact, slavery itself. i

Our state was in advance of all of them and nearly every paper published in the German language in the state opposed the Nebraska bill. But here appeared most suddenly, a black cloud on the political horizon which seemed to assume such proportions and threatening form, as to not only dampen the fire of the new movement against slavery, but to drive the Germans from the ranks of the party to be formed. I refer to the so-called American, or Know-Nothing party. Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Maine, Vermont, Connecticut, Rhode Island, iMaryland, and several other important states were controlled by the new party, and this movement swept even the shores of all the middle and northwestern states. The Germans, who had just entered the new party with the only desire to oppose slavery, were in a most unpleasant and critical position, and their political future seemed dark.

I entered the Decatur convention with a resolution in opposition to this movement and I had resolved to fight with all my might and win or go down, and with me, perhaps the new party. My friend, Paul Selby. who has appeared before yon with his excellent and trne historical address on the Decatur convention, placed ine on the connnittee of resolutions and I had to help form a platform containing- a paragraph against the proscriptive doctrines of the so-called American party. This portion of the platform raised a storm of opposition and in utter despair I proposed submitting it to Mr. Lincoln, who had appeared in the convention, and abide by his decision. !vlr. Lincoln, after carefully reading the paragraph, made the following remark :

''Gentlemen \ Theresolution introduced by Mr. Schneider is nothing new. It is already contained in the Declaration of Independence and \ ou cannot form a new part}' on proscriptive principles.'

This declaration of Mr. Lincoln's saved the resolution and in fact, helped to establish the new party on the most liberal democratic basis. It was adopted at the Bloomington convention and next, at the great, and the first, national Republican convention at Philadelphia on the i8th of June. 1856. And in connection with this I wish to say that the delegation from Illinois followed the lead of General Palmer, the real'grand old man' from Illinois. He drew up the plan of operations; he had the negotiations with President Lane and secured the proper committee on resolutions and the great success was due to his fearless and at the same time prudent and statesman-like action. The great majorityof the Germans in all the statesof the north, and even in some portions of the south, entered the new party that had made Lincoln president, and made it possible to carry on the war with success against slavery, and create, in fact, a new Union. The new light which appeared at Decatur and Bloomington, spread its rays over the whole of the L'niten States, and so the regeneration of the Union and the downfall of slavery dated from Bloomington; and the convention of which we hold today this memorial convocation of the few survivors, makes one of the great epochs in the history of the country; and with all this we must think of the man who has been sent by Providence to carry this nation through the ag-if -I ^ ''OV tation of war to its present hi^h position, amongst the nations of the earth, and I wish in conclusion to say of him : he cr\ stalized sentiment, gave it a focal p«:tint. Following his action at Decatur, at Bloomington he made his wonderful speech which certainly gave the party public form. I heard this great speech of his. He was not great in rhetoric, but his mode of speaking was new. He was full of philosophy and got into the souls of men. He produced a new manner of politics. He rose up as a prophet. That was his great force and strength. He caught the wandering thoughts of troubled men and gave them continuity, and for this he was in my judgment the builder of the party in Illinois, the state in which it first took shape and rose to national prominence.

I was present at the convention on ]\Iay 29, 1856, though not as a delegate, but as an observer. I came here in the company of Mr. Lincoln, who had been in attendance upon the courts of Champaign and \>rmilion counties during weeks previous. At that time the only way of reaching Bloomington from the eastern counties, bv public conveyance, was by way of the Wabash railroad to Decatur and by the Illinois Central railroad to Bloomington.

A number of delegates and others from the eastern counties, mostly young men, happened on the A\'abash train with Mr. Lincoln and arrived at Decatur about the middle of the afternoon. Xo train coming to Bloomington until the next morning, made it necessary that we spend the afternoon and night at Decatur. The afternoon was spent by ^Ir. Lincoln in sauntering about the town and intalkingof hisearly experiences there twenty-five years before. After a while he proposed going to the woods then a little way south or southwest of the village, in the Sangamon bottoms. His proposition was assented to and all went to the timber. A convenient log by the side of the road, in a patch of brush, afforded seats for the company, where the time was spent listening to the playful and tamiliar talks of Mr. Lincoln.

We spent the night at the Oglesby House, at Decatur, and early the next day a train took us to Bloomington. Mr. Lincoln was very solicitous to meet some of his old Whig friends from southern Illinois, whom he hoped to enlist in the new political movement, and searched the train to find such. He was gratified in finding some one from the south and it is believed that Jesse K. Dubois, afterwards nominated as auditor of public accounts, was the man.

Arriving at Bloomington many were found awaiting the opening of the convention, largely from the northern counties, among whom there existed a most intense feeling upon the situation in Kansas. Lawrence had been sacked but recently by the ruffianly pro-slavery men and the greatest outrages perpetrated upon free state settlers.

The evening previous to the convention Governor Reeder arrived in town, having been driven a fugitive from the territory he had been commissioned to govern, and spoke to a large crowd of listeners in the street from an upper piazza. He was moderate and not denunciatory in his address, only delineating the violence he had witnessed and suffered. Dispatches were received and often publicly read to the crowds at the hotels and on the streets and excitement over the situation was intense. No convention in Illinois ever assembled under circumstances of greater excitement.

One circumstance in the nomination of Colonel Bissell was peculiar. Long before the day of the convention there existed no doubt as to the nominee for governor. Colonel Bissell had earned a most enviable reputation as a gallant soldier in the war with ^lexico and as having backed Jefferson JDavis down in a dueling aft'air the latter had provoked with Bissell, was outspoken upon the issues most prominent in political discussions, and people had settled it before that he was to be the standard bearer in the state campaign. The temporary organization had hardly been eft'ected when ^Ir. Munsell. a delegate from Edgar county, whose name has been read here today as a delegate, sprang to his feet and nominated Colonel Bissell for governor, regardless of the usage in such cases.

The people having settled this part of the business in advance, the nomination was confirmed with a yell, after which the business of a permanent organization of the convention, with General Palmer as permanent president, was proceeded with.

During the absence of the committees many speeches were made. Lovejoy (and by the way Owen Lovejoy was the greatest stump speaker I ever listened to, ) Browning, Cook, Williams, Arnold and among them one Emory, a free state refugee from Kansas, all made speeches. Owing to the inflamed condition of public sentiment, the audience had become much wTOught up in feeling when it came the turn of Mr. Lincoln to make his speech, - the so-called "Lost Speech." I thought it then a great speech and I now think it a great speech, one of the greatest and certainly one of the wisest ever delivered by him. Instead of adding, as he might have done, and as most speakers w^ould have done, to the bitterness and exasperation his audience felt, as a manner of gaining control of the audience, he mildly and kindly reproved the appeal to warlike measures invoked by some who had spoken before him, and before entering upon the delivery of his great arraingnmentof the slavery question and of the opposing party, he said : "I'll tell you what we will do, we'll wait until November and then shoo^ paper ballots at them." This expression, with his conciliatory and wise declarations greatly quieted the convention and prepared the members for the well considered platform which was afterwards presented and adopted.

This morning I received by mail from a friend what is said to have been a contribution from the Mr. Emory to a Kansas paper, giving his version of the convention and of the speech of 'y,lv. Lincoln. I am sure this meeting will be glad to have it read here.

'- I got off the cars May2S at Bloomington. * * * I learned that the Missouri river was shut up for free-state men and that there was to he the next day a big gathering of the friends of freedom from all parts of Illino;>. I here met Governor Keeder who had got out of the territory in the disguise of an Iri-h hod-carrier. My own home city had heen sacked and our newspaper office demolished and the types and printing-presses thrown into the raging * * * the morrow came in that Illinois town May iJ^oO. It was mil of excited men - tne very air ^^as surcharged with disturbing forces: men of all parties met face to face on the streets, in the overflowing hotels and about the depot platforms of tbe incoming trains. Anti-Nebraska. Democrats. Free-Soil Whigs and Aboiitioni.-^ts were all tbere. There was Palmer and Lovejoy and Browning, well known names whom I had often heard fjf before. * The large hall - Major s - was crowded almo.st to >uffocation a.> I took my seat on one of the rear benches. John ^l. Palmer was chairman and made a speech that took him out of the Democratic i-arty for the lime being. Browning was called for and he enjoined upon us 'to ever remember that slavery itself was one of the compromises of the constitution, and was sacredly protected by the supreme law, " After this, rather a cold dose to be administered just at that time, Owen Lovejov appeared and carried the convention by a storm of eloquent invective and terrific oratory. The committee on resolutions was then announced and while this was being done I felt a touch on my shoulder when a young man said he was going to call me out to talk while the committee was out, adding that I must stop when I saw the committee come in, as it had been arranged to have "a fellow up here from Springfield, Abe Lincoln, make a speech. He is the best stump-speaker in Sangamon county.' This young man was Joseph Medill a reporter for the (Jhu'ujn Tribune, as I afterward learned. J had no thought of anything of this kind, but of course I was prepared to tell the story of bleeding Kansas, there in the house of herfriends. But two things bothered me all the time I was speaking: one was. I was tr3-ing to pick out Mr. Lincoln who was to follow me. for he was the best stump-speaker in Sangamon county, as I had just been told and I had never heard his name before. Added to this, was the watching I kept up at the hail doors of the committee room to be sure to have a fitting end to my rather discursive talk OQ that now notable occasion when the party standing for free-Kansas was born in Illinois and when a great man appeared as the champion (jf the Kansas cause * * * As I stepped aside. Mr. Lincoln was called for from all sides. I then for the first time, and the last, fixed my eyes on the great president. I thought he was not dressed very neatly, and that his gait in walking up to the platform was sort of swinging. His hair was sort of rather rough and the stoop of his shoulders was noticeable : but what took me most was his intense serious look. He at once held his big audience and handled it like the master he was before the people pleading in a great and just cause. Today, that -Lost Speech' looks quite conservative; his chief contention all through it was that Kansas must come in free, not slave, he said he did not want to meddle with slavery where it existed and that he was in favor of a reasonable fugitive slave law. I do not now recall how long he spoke, none of us did. r judge. He was at his best and the mad insolence of the slave power as at that time exhibited before the country furnished plenty of material for his unsparing logic to effectively' deal with before a popular audience. Men that day hardly were able to take the true gauge of Mr. Lincoln. He had not yet been recognized as a great man and so we were not a little puzzled to know where his jjower came from. He was not eloquent, like Phillips, nor could he electrify an audience like Lovejoy. but he could beat them both in the deep and lasting convictions he left on the minds of all who chanced as I did to listen to him in those dark days, now receding into the mystic past. "

One of the delegates from Pike count}- was John G. Nicolay, editor of the Pike OmnOj Free Press, afterwards private secretary to :^Ir. Lincoln during- his candidacy in ]86U. and also private secretary to the president until Mr. Lincoln's death. He was also author of a tenvolume Life of Mr. Lincoln.

The paper on "'Abraham Lincoln*' has been prepared by Mr. Nicolay. but owing- to ill health he is unable to be with us. His paper will be read by Mr. Prince, secretary of this society.

By John G. Xicolay

^Iy Dear Sir : - I received with great pleasure your invitation to address a meeting to be held in your city on the 29th of May, in commemoration of the Bloomington convention of 1856. I am deepl}' disappointed at finding myself unable to respond in person to your flattering request, btit my regret is mitigated b}' }'our kind permission to send you some words of greeting by mail.

In this, the closing year of the Nineteenth Century, the anniversary celebration you have appointed, is most opportune and most instructive. It will afford the occasion to recall and record the conspictious role which the state of Illinois was called upon to play in American politics nearly half a century ago; to review the mighty changes in national thought, national legislation, and national destiny which have occurred, and to

John G. Nicolav was born in Essingen. Bavaria. February 26, 1832. Came to United .States in L^SS. At 16 entered the orr.ce of the Pike countv, Illinois. Pre><x and while stiil in his minoritv became editor and proprietor of thatpaj^er. In INot) became as^istiiat to O. M. Hatch. Secretary of State of Illin<)is. In became private secr^.-iarv of Mr. Lincoln and remained with him as hi.s i>rivale secretary until his a^->as>ination. I'nited States Tonsul at Paris from l^i'>r-. t<> I^^k*. Afterwards for sometime etiitor C/iiraz/o R-^irdilhuni. Marshal Supreme i_\)urt of the United .States from \y^VZ to l^s;. Author.* with John Hav of --Abraham Lincoln." a histor\-of ten volumes, the Standard Life of Lincoln.

I had the good fortune to be one of the delegates from Pike county in the Bloomington convention of 1856, and to hear the inspiring address delivered by Abraham Lincoln at its close, which held the audience in such rapt attention that the reporters dropped their pencils and forgot their work. Xever did nobler seed fall upon more fruitful soil than his argument and exhortation upon the minds and hearts of his enthusiastic listeners. The remembrance of that interesting occasion calls up very vividly many other momentous and related events it was my priviledge to witness during the stirring years that succeeded. In the Representatives' Hall at Springfield I heard him deliver the famous address in which he quoted the scriptural maxim that "a house divided against itself cannot stand/' and declared his belief that the Union could not permanently endure, half slave and half free. In the Wigwam at Chicago I heard the roll call and the thunderous applause that decided and greeted his first nomination for president. On the east portico of the Capitol at Washington I heard him read his first inaugural, in which he announced the Union to be perpetual. In the White House I saw^ him sign the final Proclamation of Emancipation. On the Battlefield of Gettysburg I heard hiin pronounce his immortal Gettysburg address. I saw him sign the joint resolution of congress which authorized the Thirteenth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States. And once more on the east portico, I heard from his lips the sublime words of the second inaugural.

These leading incidents are but a few of the monumental mile stones that measure the career of this wonderful man. Between them, through a period of ten years, runs an easily traceable chain of cause and eft'ect. But the chain of cause and effect, which is so clear to the readers of history forty-four years after the events, could not be seen by those of us who sat in the Bloomington convention. It was hidden by that impen- veil which the future hangs between every sunset and

We who heard Lincohi's convention speech of 1856 could not know - neither could he himself know - that it would be followed by his House-divided-against-itself speech in 1858; that the Lincoln-Douglas debates would elect him president in i860, and that the resulting Civil War would usher in the Thirteenth Amendment. The most that the Bloomington resolutions dared to ask for was the restoration of the [Missouri Compromise, the prohibition of slavery in all the territories, and the immediate admission of Kansas as a free state. Such was the bewilderment of public thought - such the party antagonisms of the past - such the uncertainties of the future, that the Bloomington convention only called itself an Anti-Xebraska organization, and even the Philadelphia convention which three weeks later nominated Fremont, did not yet adopt the Republican name, either in its call or in its platform.

Unfortunately the fifty speeches which Lincoln made in the Fremont campaign were never put in print, and we therefore have no record of his observations on the weather-signs of approaching politics, except that the election of Governor Bissell rendered Illinois a prospective Republican state. .It required two years more to afford a clear outlook on the political situation which was developed, first in the election of Buchanan, second in the reactionary dictum of theDred-Scott decision, and third in the astounding contrivances of the Lecompton Constitution. By these events, the slavery question revealed itself in entirely new aspects, and Lincoln was the first and only man in the United States who correctly discerned and accurately defined its grave portents. In his house-dividedagainst-itself speech he laid down what was at once the most radical and the most conservative programme of action outlined by any American statesman, and which, though not embodied in the phraseology of the re]:>ulilican platform, became practically the basis of thought, of discussion, and of decision by the whole body of American voters. Territorial prohibition or popular sovereignty, the admission of Kansas, or the senate balance of power, were no longer vital prol^lems. All the previous four years' discussion, oral and printed, had become empty breath and waste paper. The whole field of conflict was changed. The fight was no longer to be waged in the halls of congress, or on the plains of Kansas. There remained but two real and authoritative contestants, one, the voice of the supreme court, the other, the voice of the people. Let the supreme court decide that the states were powerless to prohibit slavery, and let public opinion accept the decision, and controversy was necessarily at an end, and the nationalization of slavery complete and final.

Against this consummation there was but one effectual safeguard; an appeal must be taken from the dictum of the supreme court to the conscience of the nation. Not alone must the spread of slavery be arrested, but the public mind must be restored to the belief that the institution was in course of ultimate extinction. That was the starting point of the famous Lincoln-Douglas debates, in which the discussion ranged over a multitude of collateral points, with a skill in forensic battle that has rarely, if ever, been equaled. But the very pith and marrow of the debate was exceedingly simple. Douglas devoted all his ability to show that if the people of a territory or state wanted slavery, they had a right to have it. Lincoln, on the contrary, little by little forced the discussion to a demonstration that even if they did want slavery, they had no right to have it, because slavery was wrong, and no people have a right to do wrong. Upon this issue, though Douglas gained the senatorship, Lincoln carried the popular vote, and made Illinois a factor in the coming presidential campaign.

This, however. Avas only a local result. As a matter of fact, these Lincoln-Douglas debates were widely printed and read in the newspapers, and absorbed public attention in e\ ery state in the Lmion to an extent never before accorded a merely state election. The larger question of slavery, so unexpectedly renewed in 1854, was gradually reaching its climax, and the short axiomatic definitions with which Lincoln lifted the ar-

The debate indeed did not end with the senatorial contest. The doctrine of "unfriendly legislation/' to which Lincoln's searching questions had driven Douglas, created a schism in the Democratic party, and the agitation went on in various forms, until Lincoln, in his Cooper Institute speech in New York once more clearly defined the pending issue :

"If slavery is right, all words, acts, laws, and constitutions against it are themselves wrong, and should be silenced and swept away. If it is right, we (the north) cannot justly object to its nationality - its universality; if it is wrong, they, (the south) cannot justly insist upon its extension - its enlargement. All they ask, we could readily grant if we thought slavery right; all we ask they could as readily grant if they thought it wrong. Their thinking it right and our thinking it wrong, is the precise fact upon which depends the whole controverisy. h< * * Wrong as we think slavery is, we can yet afford to let it alone where it is, because that much is due to the necessity arising from its actual presence in the nation; but can we, while oi r votes will prevent it, allow it to spread into the national territories, and to overrun us here in these free states.^ If our sense of duty forbids this, then let us stand by our duty fearlessly and effectively. * * * Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith let us to the end dare do our duty as we understand it."

It was this clear analysis of the pending quarrel between the north and the south; this candid assertion that slavery is wrong; this firm declaration that public opinion must put it in course of ultimate extinction, which caused the nomination of Lincoln for president at Chicago, and induced the people of the free states to elect him.

In the decisive majorities shown by that election the southern leaders beheld the final verdict of public opinion. No matter what compromises they might break ; no matter by what force or fraud they might restore their senatorial balance of power; no matter how many Dred-Scott decisions they might obtain; no matter how many John Browns they might hang; their institution was doomed. The election declared with unmistakable emphasis that slavery was wrong and must be put in course of ultimate extinction. In blind anger and desperate defiance eleven southern states seceded and began Civil War, and tried to justify their course by the candid declaration of Alexander H. Stephens that their confederate government was built on slavery as its corner-stone. Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, with the irresistible hat of war, and the thirteenth amendment, with the omnipotent voice of the people, swept away that corner-stone, and the confederate government fell.

If, in the Bloomington convention of 1856, we were called upon to deplore that an eminent citizen and senator of Illinois had so prominent a share in repealing the Missouri Compromise, and renewing the slavery contest, we in this commemorative meeting of 1900 may proudly rejoice that another eminent Illinoisian, president of the United States, corrected the error and brought the problem to a real and permanent finality.

Two of the members of the convention were Dr. Thomas Worthington, delegate from Pike county, and Isaac L. Morrison, delet,'ate from Morgan county. At the request of the committee Mr. Morrison has prepared a paper on ''The Whigs and Whig Leaders." Mr. Morrison has prepared his paper, but on account of ill health is unable to be present; but the son of Dr. Worthington. who is also the son-in-law of Mr. Morrison, is present and will read Mr. Morrison's paper.

''The Whigs and Whig Leaders of Illinois'' has been suggested as a theme for consideration in connection with the present occasion. To properly portray ''The Whig Leaders of Illinois" would require "the pen of a ready writer.'* I do not pretend to have that power.

This assemblage has been convened for the purpose of commemorating a political convention held in the city of Bloomington forty-four years ago today. The two 'great political parties existing in the United States had been known, the one as the Democratic party, the other as the Whig party, for about twenty-five years preceding that date. There were distinctive principles of political economy, that of the Wliig party being in favor of the principal of protection, the Democratic party opposed; and the ever present question of slavery presented itself.

The Democratic party had been in control of the state of Illinois for many years next preceding the holding of this convention. The Whig party was a minority . party in the

Isaac L. Morrison, lawyer and leg^islator. born in Barren countv, Ky., l^'2fi. Was educated in the corarnon schools and the Masonic Seminary of his native state. Admitted to the bar and came to Illinois in 1851, locating: at Jacksonville where he became a leader of the bar and of the Hei)uhlican party, which he assisted to organize as a member fif its tirst State convention at Bloomineton. in He was also a delegate to the Republican National convention of lsH4 that nominated Abraham Lincoln for the presidency a second tir.u'. Mr. Morrison was three times elected to the lower house of the General Assemlilv ^s7^-). rs and '^Ji and by his clear ji cj^ment and incisive powers as a public speaker, took a hieh rank as a leader in" that body. Uf late years he has tjiven his attention solelv to the practice of hi? prcff^L-sion in Jacksonville. - y/j^'^o/vV"// Encycl"j,f(li(i o f Il'inois'3>6.

The movement having- in \'ie\v the acquisition of Texas was primarily a move by the Democratic party of the south in order to acquire that territory and bring it into the Union as a slave state, thereby giving to that party increased power m the United States senate. ]\Ir. Calhoun, while secretary of state under ]Mr. Tyler, instructed our minister, Air. King, representing the United States at the Court of France, to obtain the consent, if possible, of that power to the acquisition of Texas by the United States, in the interest of slavery. Mr. Clay, the great leader of the W big party, was opposed to the project on the ground that it would increase the slave territory of the Union. In his letter to the National Intelligencer on the subject, in 1844, he expressed his opposition to the acquisition of Texas on that ground, claiming that it would produce a war with Mexico, and that he was opposed to the acquisition of any more slave territory. -

Mr. Webster, in a speech delivered at Xiblo's Garden, elaborately argued the question to show that Texas ought not to be admitted into the Union, because of the existence of slavery within her boundaries. ]Mr. Van Buren, in his letter to Mr. Hemmert, of Mississippi, declared himself opposed to the acquisition of Texas at that time, and opposed to the extension of slavery. It was this letter, written and published by him, which lost him the nomination by the Democratic party in the convention of 1844. He had a majority of that convention in his favor, but was unable to obtain a two-thirds vote under the rules of the Democratic party, and was. therefore, defeated. Mr. Polk was an advocate of slavery and in favor of admitting Texas into the Union as a slave state. He was nominated by that party and elected to the presidency of the United States. " '

The \\'hig party was then opposed to the extension of slavery and all but three of the Whig senators in congress from the "Free States" voted against the admission of Texas. Texas, however, was admitted as a slave state.

In 1848 ]\[r. \\'e1)ster declared tliat the Whig party was the "Free Soil" party of the Union. He objected to the Whig party being absor])ed by the "Barn burners' Party" oi New York, because, as he said, it would put Air. \"an Buren at the head of the Whigs.

Mr. Seward, in a speech delivered in October, 1848. at Cleveland, urged the \\'estern Reserve people of Ohio to vote for General Taylor on the ground that he represented tlie ''Free Soil" party.

The legislature of the state of Illinois in 1849 passe^i a resolution instructing our senators and requesting our representatives in congress to vote against any and all legislation favorable to the introduction of slavery into any of the territory acquired from ^vlexico by the treaty of Guadaloupe Hidalgo. Every \Miig elected to that o-eneral assembly voted for the passage of that joint resolution, and a sufficient number of Democrats joined them in the vote to pass it. The Whigs of Illinois were thereby committed to the doctrine of ''Free Soil.*' so far as a unanimous vote of their members of that general assembly couldcommit them. Mr. Clay, in a speech in the United States senate in ]\farch, 1850, defining the resolutions introduced by him with a view to a compromise of the questions then under consideration, declared that no power on earth could compel him to vote to introduce or extend slavery into territory then free. hfs::\

The discovery of gold in California and the great rush of people to that territory, soon increased its population to such an extent as to give it a claim upon the United States government for admission into the Union under a state organization. A convention was assembled there, without an enabling act by Congress, and a constitution was framed and adopted by the people, representatives elected and senators appointed, and application made to the Congress of the United States for admission.

By the admission of Texas, the slave power gainc! two senators, but hy the admission of California so soon :i:ereafcer. the pov/er thus gained by the south was neutralized by senators from the "Free State." The Democratic party opposed the admission of CaHfornia. The question was finally settled for the time Ijeing" by the admission of California as a state, with a constitution prohibiting- the introduction of slavery, by the abolition of the slave trade within the District of Columbia, and by the passage of the Fugitive Slave law. This law, hateful in all its provisions, was demanded by those interested in slave property, on the ground that the constitution of the United States provided for such legislation. It was very unpopular with the Whigs in the "Free States," and was claimed to be unconstitutional because it provided that the fugitive arrested might be taken back by his captor to the state in which it was claimed he belonged, without the formality of a trial by jury. The administration was democratic, the judges were appointed by a democratic president, and the law was held constitutional.

This legislation had a very strong tendency to force the Whigs in all the free states to a united opposition to the extension of slavery. Compromises are frequently said to be objectionable as a confessed departure from principle ; but it may well be doubted whether it was not the part of w^isdom for the under the leadership of ]\Ir. Clay and others, to concur in these measures ; because it is believed that had the extreme southern element then made the attempt to bring about the disruption of the Union, as had frequently been threatened; it was extremely doubtful whether the sentiment in the Free States could have been so far consolidated as to have successfully resisted the attempt. At any rate after the passage of these resolutions, the Democratic party in its platform of principles, in 1852, declared explicitly that the compromise measures finally settled the slave controversy. That platform was a distinct pledge to the people of the Union that the agitation of the slavery question was to cease.

The resolutions passed by the \\ big convention of that year were not sufficiently exj^licit in expression to satisfy either wing (^f the party. They were a little tO(^ strong to suit the Whig party in Kentucky and other southern states that had before that time been controlled by the Wliig- party, and tliey were not sufficiently strong and explicit to satisfy the Free Soil Whigs of the Free States. The consecjuence was that they did not attract to their support the people in either section. General Pierce was elected by an overwhelming majority. The people seemed to be inclined to accept the situation. They desired rest and quiet. It was therefore apparently unexpected by the public at large that the question of the claims of slavery should be precipitated so soon thereafter. The introduction of a bill into congress organizing the territory west of ^Missouri and of Iowa into the territory of Nebraska, and that by a northern senator, with the proposition to repeal the ]vIissouri restriction, produced a profound sensation. The Missouri Compromise had been in force for about thirty-hve years, and had been regarded as an explicit and sufficient guarantee that it was legally impossible ever after for one man to buy or sell another within the territory belonging to the United States lying north of 36 degrees, 30 minutes, and west of ^Missouri. However, the majority in congress pushed the matter until the bill, eventually taking the form of the organization of Kansas into one territory and Nebraska into another, was passed, and the Missouri restriction repealed. The doctrine had been advanced during the discussion of the compromise measures that by the force of the constitution itself, slavery had the right to enter any territory of the United States, and that congress had no power to prohibit it; and that therefore the ^Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional and void. The effect of this legislation was to arouse in the Free States an anti-slavery sentiment. The \Miig party did not disorganize in Illinois in the political campaign of 1854, although there were divisions in its ranks in various k^calities.

The campaign of 1854 was conducted by the opponents of the Democratic party as an Anti-Nebraska party; that is to say, in opposition to the administration of President Pierce and to the demands of the slave power. The election that fall resulted in the choice of a majoritv of the meml)ers opposed to the Kansas-Nebraska bill, opposed to the Democratic adminis- tration, and in favor of Free Soil. A great majority oi the Whig leaders in the state supported the Anti-Xebraska movement. There were some leading Democrats, howex'er, elected to the generalassembly, gentlemen who had stood high in the counsels of the Democratic party, who were in sentiment and principle opposed to the extension of slavery. Such were John M. Palmer, Xorman B. Judd. Burton C. Cook, senators, besides some meml^ers of the house.

That legislature elected Lyman Trumbull to the senate of the United States. ^Ir. Trumbull had occupied a seat upon the supreme bench of the state : he resigned his seat, became an Anti-Xebraska candidate for congress in the Belleville district, and was elected ; but before the time arrived for him to take his seat, he was elected to the senate of the United States.

The discussion of the slavery question continued to occupy public attention throughout the year 1855, and on February 22, 1856, the Anti-X^ebraska editors in the state met at Decatur in convention, for the purpose of considering the best mode of conducting the Anti-X'ebraska campaign. That convention was presided over by a Whig editor, ^Ir. Paul Selby, then of ^Morgan county. Resolutions were adopted, a central committee appointed, and it was recommended that a convention be held on the 29th of ]May, 1856, for the purpose of organizing all the forces of the state in opposition to the Democratic party. On the same day a political convention assembled at Pittsburg , Pennsylvania, composed of men from the various states of theUnion who were opposed to the policy of the administration of General Pierce and opposed to the extension of slavery. We might refer to some of the Whig leaders who were present in this convention, in this city, or, if not present, cooperating with the movement. There was E. B. Washburn, of Jo Daviess county, afterwards a member of congress and still later minister to France: Ira O. Wilkinson, a native of Kentucky and a circuit judge from Rock Island county: Wm P. Kellogg, of Peoria county, afterwards a member of congress: Orville H. Browning, afterwards secretary of the interior; N. Bushnell and Archil)ald Williams, of

Adams county; Mr. Williams was the United States district attorney under P^illmore, and was appointed district judge in Kansas by Mr. Lincoln; William Ross, William A. Grimshaw, Jackson Grimshaw, and Dr. Thomas Worthington, an original anti-slavery Whig, of Pike county; also Ozias Isl. Hatch, of that county, meml^er of the lower house of the general assembly and, nominated at this convention for secretary of state ; Francis Arenz, a learned German, and Henry E. Dummer, afterwards member of the legislature, then from Cass county; Samuel D. Lockwood, who came to the state of Illinois in 1818 and was on the supreme bench for nearly thirty years, whose residence was injacksonville, Illinois, and afterwards at Aurora in Kane county. He was also a member of the constitutional convention of 1847. ^^'ilham Thomas, who settled in ]Morgan county in 1826, a native of Kentucky, served in the lower house and in the senate, and also in the constitutional convention of 1847. There was also from ]^Iorgan county Joseph J. and Martin H. Cassell, and Jonathan B. Turner, Richard Yates, David Davis, then on the circuit bench, and afterwards elevated to the supreme bench by ^Iv. Lincoln, Jesse Fell and Leonard Swett, of McLean county; C. H. Moore, of DeWitt county; William G. Green, a native of Tennessee from ^lenard county, and an intimate friend and associate of Mr. Lincoln at Xew Salem; Richard J. Oglesby, of Macon county ; James ]\L Ruggles, of Mason county ; Joseph T. Eckles, of Montgomery county, a member of the constitutional convention of 1847; Benjamin Bond, of Clinton county. United States marshal under Fillmore's administration; Thomas J. Henderson, of Bureau county, brigadier general in the L'nion Army and a member of congress; James C. Conkling, Wm. H. Herndon, William Jayne, Wm. Butler. ^lilton Hay, James X Brown, from Sangamon county: Shelby ^1. Cullom, from Tazewell county, and afterwards of Sangamon county.

Other Whig leaders did not follow or support the antislavery movement of the Whig party generally. Of those we might name Buckner S. ^^lorris, of Cook county; Charles

H. Constable, of Coles county: Anthony Thornton, of Shelby: James L. D. ^Morrison, of St. Clair: David ^I. Woodson anrl Charles D. Hodges, of Greene county, and John Todd Stuart and Benjamin S. Edwards, of Sangamon county. Some of t-^"-* these gentlemen last named joined the Democratic party on the slavery question and some of them became extreme partisans i'^'i in that organization. '.-.H.'^r' ' >V'VLh

The convention assembled at Bloomington was composed I of earnest, determined, yet conservative men who had become alarmed at the demands of the slave interest in the United - .is States, and who desired to form a compact, energetic and ag- ^t-T gressive political party in opposition to the extension of slavery. It was not contemplated, so far as I know, nor was it claimed by any one, that the constitutional power existed to inter- l.'i.' fere with slavery in the states where it existed by force of local - and positive law; but it was the doctrine of that convention ' that slavery was a cruel wTong and a mistaken policy, and ought not to be permitted to extend into other territory. And e 'n it was believed that to circumscribe it within the boundaries where it then legally existed would have a direct and strong tendency to ultimately overthrow it. There was no question ..'.ic raised as to the name of the party at the time. That is to say, the name Republican" was not proposed, but the eftort was made to unite all earnest men who were willing to renounce former political organizations and associations and unite in the organization of a party having for its chief purpose the restriction of slavery to its then existing limitations. Colonel rur Bissell, a Democrat, who had commanded the Second regiment of Illinois volunteers in the ^Mexican W^ar, and who had v.r; > justly gained renown for the achievements of that regiment, " ^h'^ and who had represented his state in the state legislature and in congress, was nominated for governor without a dissenting voice. General John M. Palmer, then Senator Palmer, was elected to preside over the deliberations of the convention, incir Francis A. Hoffman of Cook county, was nominated for the office of lieutenant governor, and he ha^-ing been found to be in- c eligible, John Wood, of Adams county, was substituted. Ozias s

M. Hatch, a hig representative in the legislature, was nominated for secretar}' of state; Jesse K. Dubois, a life-long Whig, was nominated for auditor of state. The ticket was a concession to the Whig element then forming or constituting the largest part of, the convention.

It is not possible on this occasion to enumerate or mention all the Whig leaders who took part in the movement which formed the Anti-Xebraska or anti-slavery party in Illinois. I may only mention those above named and a few others. Many of those leaders acquired national fame. ]\Ir. Washburn as a legislator and diplomat; ]\Ir. Judd in the diplomatic service; David Davis as a member of the supreme court, and many others who acquired fame in the military service for the preservation of the Union. Richard J. Oglesby, a gallant private soldier in the war with ^lexico and a brigadier general of the Union Army, thrice elected governor of his state and once elected to the United States senate; Shelby !M. Cullom. a native of Kentucky, who has served as speaker of the house of representatives in the state legislature, who has twice been elected governor of his state; has served in the lower house of congress and three times elected to the United States senate. Richard Yates, who was one of the vice-presidents of this convention, who served his county and district in the state legislature and for four years in the house of representatives in congress, who was elected governor of the state of Illinois in i860, and whose service as the chief executive of this state in the organization of regiments sent into the field for the preservation of the Union has not been surpassed by any citizen or officer of the United States. He also served six years in the United States senate. He sleeps in a cemetery near the little city in which he spent his life from early youth. Xo stately shaft of bronze or marble marks his grave. His monument has been and is in the affections of more than 200,000 Illinois soldiers whom he organized into regiments at the call of their country, to uphold liberty, law and the Union.

efforts in the promotion of the principles and interests of the Whig party and in opposition to the extension of slavery than any other memher of it. His kindly sympathy for all living creatures, yet his comprehensive, steady judgment proved him to be, above all others of his time, the greatest Whig, the greatest anti-slavery adx ocate and the greatest man.

The party organized forty- four years ago today in the state of Illinois as the Anti-Xebraska party, soon after took the name of ''Republican" party, which name it has ever since retained. The achievements of that party have been memorable in the history of the country. While it was made up of a majority of \\liigs, yet it included a strong element, and many strong men, from the previously dominating party in the Union - Democracy. It had strength enough to overthrow the Democratic party at the Xovember election in 1856 in the state of Illinois. It did not succeed in electing the Anti-Nebraska electoral ticket of that year, but it got possession of the state government. It has retained possession from that time to the present, forty- four years, with the exception of from January, 1893, to January, 1897, a period of four years.

The Whig leaders not only achieved their purpose in preventing the extension of African slavery, but they established that other distinct principle belonging to the Whigs - the principle of protection, and. by its beneficient operation in the management of the revenues of the nation, it has brought the people of the United States into an elevated and advanced position among the family of nations. The W'liigs and the Whig leaders of the state of Illinois are entitled to their full share of the achievements which preserved the Union intact, crushed out that infamous institution - American slavery - and placed the whole people of the nation upon that broad and Catholic principle - ''Liberty for all.'' The state of Illinois may well be proud of the deeds performed bv the AMiigs and Whig leaders of the state.

bill, thereby carrying into full effect the long cheri^herl principle of protection. Thus a policy was adopted which, with only spasmodic exceptions, has continued since 1862. justifying, in its results, the claims made l)y the Whigs for the principle which they had so long and earnestly advocated.

Our next speaker it is unnecessary to introduce. Major-general in the War of the Rebellion, governor of this state, and senator in the congress of the United States, he is a man whom we all delight to honor. It is only necessary to further state that he wa^ the president of the convention of May 29, 1856.

Fcllozi' Citiccus: I know that some of those present at the convention of 1856 ( the forty- fourth anniversary of which we celebrate today), still survive - but they are few - some of the old friends preceded Mr. Lincoln into the "land of shadows." Of the central figures in that convention one only, Hoffman, is living; Bissell. Wood, Hatch, Dubois, Miller, (your fellow citizen) and Powell, all are gone!

And those who issued the call for the convention William B. Ogden, S. M. Church, G. D. A. Parks, T. J. Pickett, E. A. Dudley, W. H. Herndon, R. J. Oglesby, Joseph Gillespie, D. L. Phillips, Gustav Koerner and Ira O. Wilkinson and also James C. Conkling, Asahel Gridley. Burton C. Cook, Charles H. Ray, and N. B. Judd,the executive committee under whose directions the campaign of 1856 was carried on, they too have

John McCaule}' Palmer, was born in Scott countv. Kv., September IS l-^IT. Moved to Madison county. III. Entered Shurtleff Collee:e.'tau£bt school, studied law, 1843 elected probate j udge of Macoupin countv. Member of Constitutional convention of 1?<47, elecred to State Senate in is.v/ and re-elected in 1*54, as an Ant:- Nebraska Democrat, cast his vote for Lyman Trumbull for United states Sena:or. was president of the Major s Hall convention, deletjate to National conven:;.:.a that nominaleii F'remont i n 1^?.^. Presidential elector in Member Nat;, nal

Both the great parties of the country had pledged themselves by the action of their national convention in 1852, to maintain the compromise measures of 1850, as a final, and satisfactory settlement of the slavery question in the United States, but the permanent success of the Democratic party was destroyed by an event which was intended to insure its predominance.

In 1854 Mr. Douglas, then a senator from Illinois, reported a bill from the committee on territories for the organization of the territory of Nebraska. In his report he said : "The prominent amendments which your committee deemed it their duty to commend to the favorable action of the senate in a special report, are those in which the principles established by the compromise measures of 1850, so far as they are applicable to territorial organizations, are proposed to be affirmed, and carried into practical operation within the limits of the new territory with a view of conforming their action to what they regard as the settled policy of the government, sanctioned by the approving voice of the American people, your committee had deemed it their duty to incorporate and perpetuate in their territorial bill the principles and spirit of those measures. If any other considerations were necessary to render the propriety of this course imperative upon the committee, they may be found in the fact that the Nebraska country occupies the relative position to the slavery question as did Xew ^lexico and Utah when those territories were organized. It was a disputed point whether slavery was prohibited by law in the country acquired from ^lexico.

On the one hand it was contended as a legal proposition that slaverv having been prohibited by the enactments of Mexico, according to the law of nations, we received the country with all its laws and local institutions attached tu the soil, so far as they did not contlict with the constitution of the United States: and that a law. either protecting- or prohibitingslavery was not repugnant to that instrument, as was evidenced by the fact that one-half of the states of the Union tolerated, while the other half prohibited the institution of slavery.

On the other hand it was insisted that l)y virtue of the constitution of the United States, everv citizen had a right to remove to any territory of the Union and carry his pro]:»erty with him tuider the protection of law, whether that property consisted of persons or things.

The difficulties arising from this diversity of opinion were greatly aggravated by the fact that there were many persons on both sides of the legal controversy who were unwilling to abide the decision of the courts on the legal matters in dispute; thus among those who claimed that the ^Mexican laws were still in force, and consequently, that slavery was already prohibited in these territories by valid enactments, there were many who insisted tipon congress making the matter certain by enacting another prohibition.

In like manner some of those who argued that Mexican law had ceased to have any binding force, and that the constitution tolerated and protected slave property in those territories, were unwilling to trust the decision of the court upon the point, and insisted that congress should, by direct enactment, remove all legal obstacles to the introduction of slaves into the territories.

Your committee deem it fortunate for the peace of the country and the sectirity of the Union, that the controversy then resulted in the adoption of the compromise measures, which the two great political parties with singular unanimity have affirmed as a cardinal article of their faith and proclaimed to the world as a final settlement of the controversy and an end of the agitation.

upon your committee the propriety and necessity of a strict adherence to the principles and e\ en a Hteral adoption of the enactments of that adjustment, in. ah their territorial hills, so far as the same are not locally inapplicahle.

When admitted as a state, the said territory, or any portion of the same, shall he received into the Union, with or without slavery, as their constitution may prescribe at their admission.

That the legislative power of said territory shall extend to all rightful sul:)jects of legislation consistent with the constitution of the United States and the provisions of this act : but no law shall be passed interfering with the primary disposal of the soil; no taxes shall be imposed upon the property of the United States, nor shall the land or property of non-residents be taxed higher than the lands or other property of residents.''