Peoria County, Illinois - Chapter 9: Black Hawk and the Black Hawk War, 1880 (part 2 of 2)

Thus, amid fire and tumult, all that was earthly of Black Hawk found a resting place in the ashes of the ruined structure, and thus it came about tliat the last scene with which his eventful career and mortal remains were associated, was no less dramatic than his first public appearance, when, a mere boy, he avenged the death of his father, Py-e -sa, who fell in a bluody battle with the Cherokees, by killing three and wounding several others of the enemy with his own hands.

This chief was no less conspicuous than Black Hawk, save that he refused, and maintained his refusal to join in the war of 1882. He was of the Fox tribe, and possessed great power over his immediate adlierenls. He knew from the first that the war would end in disaster, and refused to lie a parly to the inviusion of Illinois, and such was his influence tliat lie prevented his hand, with a few inilividual exieptions, from joining Hlark Hawk anil his Sacs. After Stillman's defeat, however, the war feeling ran high among his people, and a war-dance was held in which he took a part. When the dance was over, he called a council to prepare for war. In his address he argued the justice of their complaints against the white man, and that to seek redress was a noble amliition. " I am your chief," he said, " and it is my duty to lead you to battle, if, after fully considei'ing the matter you are determined to go. But before you go it is wise to consider the chances for success." He showed the braves of his band and the members of the council that success was hopeless, and added : " If you determine to go upon the war path I will lead you upon these conditions - that before we go we kill all our old men, and our wives and children, to save them from a lingering death by starvation, and that we go determined to leave our bones on the other side of the Mississippi." His force of reasoning, power of oratory and great influence prevailed and saved the Foxes from the fate that came to Black Hawk and the Sacs.

When Black Hawk was defeated at Bad Axe his strength and glory departed and the panoply of power fell upon Keokuk. In 1845 he led his people to Kansas, where he died from poison, administered by one of the tribe, in the early part of 1848. The poisoner was arrested, confessed his guilt and was executed by being shot.

Last Of The Sacs Akd Foxes

Of the Sac and Fox Indians, less than one thousand remain. Of this number, according to the last report from the Secretary of the Interior, three hundred and forty-five are located in Tama county, Iowa, and are giving their attention to the arts of civilization. They have six hundred and ninety-two acres of land purchased with their annuity, wliich is held in trust for their use and benefit, and upon which they pa}' taxes. Two hundred and ten acres of this land is under cultivation. Then- personal property is estimated at $15,000, consisting chiefly of ponies, which is their ideal of wealth. A school house is kept open for their use, but there has been no regular attendance of their children. Another part of the tribe, consisting of four hundred and thirty-three persons, is located on a small reservation in the Indian Territory, " all of whom, with a few exceptions," said the agent in his report under date of August 2, 1878, " are engaged in agricultural pursuits and stock raising. Corn is their principal cereal product. They have done much better than last year in keeping their children in school, and many of the pupils that never attended school before have made commendable progress in acquiring a knowledge of the English language. All the pupils that are large enough are instructed in and required to participate in all the domestic industries."

Among these people there is left but little semblance of the spirit of Black Hawk's time and generation. The death rate exceeds that of births, so that it will not be many years until the tribe will have entirely disappeared.

- Slavery Agitation - Gubernatorial Contest of 1822 - Coles Elected - Kidnapping - Coles' Message - Black Laws - Slavery and Anti-Slavery Parties - Excitement of the People - Triumph of the Anti-Slavery Element

Christopher Columbus made his discoveries in the )'ear 1492. DeSoto, a Spanish explorer, discovered the Lower Mississippi river at or near the present site of Memphis, by cro.ssing the country from Florida, about 1.538, nearly fifty years later, and Marquette and Joliet discovered and entered upon the broad bosom of the Upper Mississippi from the Wisconsin river, in June, 1673, nearly two hundred years after Columbus visited the shores of the Western continent. It followed that the Spanish and French people were the first to attempt to occupy and possess the country thus discovered.

When French attention first began to be directed to the country, according to Charlevoix (iii, 389), " the opinion obtained that the wealth of the Western World consisted in its pearl fisheries, its mines of gold and silver and the wool of its wild cattle." Louis XIV, King of France, and the regent Duke of Orleans, attempted to found an empire in the New World, and thus control its resources. The beginning of this attempt was the French settlements at Kaskaskia, Prairie du Rocher, Prairie du Pont, Cahokea, Peoria and Chicago, under the leadership of LaSalle, Iberville, and the priests, Alvarez, Gravier, Piriet, Marest, and others. These settlements were made, says Mr. Ford, more than one hundred and fifty years before the admission of Illinois as a State.

Large companies were formed in France for the purpose of working the supposed pearl fisheries, gold and silver mines, and collecting the wool of the wild cattle. A monopoly of these resources was first granted by the King to Crozat, in 1712, and upon his resignation, in 1717, to the great " Company of the West," of which another company, known as the " Company of St. Phillips," was a branch, with one Renault as agent and business manager.

Renault sailed from France in 1719, with a view to carrying out the objects of the company and possessing and controlling the resources already mentioned. He left France with some two hundred mechanics, miners and laborers ; and touching at San Domingo, he purchased five hundred slaves, and from thence sailed to tiie country of Illinois, and founded the village of St. Pliillips, in the southeast corner of the present county of Monroe. From there he sent out pro.specting parties to different sections of Illinois and Missouri, to searcli for mines, etc. To Renault, then, tl>e agent and business manager far the " Company of St. Pliillips," belongs the odium of j)lanting negro slavery on the soil of Illinois.

In 1744, Renault returned to France. Before his departure, in closing up the business of the company, Ik; sold his slaves to the F'rencli colonists at Kjiskaskia and other settlements; anil they became the progenitors of the French slaves in Illinois, antl a source of strife and agitation for many yeai-s after Americans came to inhabit the country. We quote from Stuve's Illinois:

" The (juestion of slavery entered largely into the gulii'rnatorial campaign of 1822. There were four candidates in the field - Joseph l*liillii)s, the Chief Justice ; Thomas C. Brown, im<- >if tlie .Siipifini- Cuiut Judges; Maior-Gcneral James H. Moore, and Edward Colea. Mr. Coles was u Virgiuiau by birth, born December 15, 17bC. His father was a planter and owner of a large number of slaves. During the college life of Edward Coles, the question of property in man presented itself to his mind, and he graduated and returned home with well-settled convictions of its moral wickedness and political impolicy, and with the resolution that when he should become the owner of his share of his father's slaves, he would set them free. "Apprehending," says Mr. Stuve, " that these sentiments would meet with no countenance at home, he kept them sacred to himself. At the death of his father, in 1808, he became entitled to twenty-five slaves and one thousand acres of land. In 1816 he was sent in the sloop of war, ' Prometheus,' on a special mission to Russia, as the bearer of important dispatches to the American Ambassador at St. Petersburg. Before his return home he made a tour of Europe, and soon after his arrival determined to come West, and spent the Summer of 1818 in Illinois, and witnessed the labors of the convention at Kaskaskia to frame the first constitution. In the following Spring he removed with his slaves to Illinois. On the trip hither, made mostly on flat boats down the Ohio, the negroes, being ignorant of their destination, were, on one clear moonlight evening in the month of June, called together, and by their master addressed in a plain, short' speech, in which he pronounced them all free. Their gratitude was so profound that they tendered him one year's service at their new home. But, while touched at this manifestation of their attachment, he refused their offer. He gave, besides, to each head of a family one hundred and sixty acres of land in Illinois, in the neighborhood of Edwardsville, aided them with money, and for many years exercised a paternal care over them."*

General Moore was also opposed to slavery, his sentiments on that subject being well known and understood. The other two candidates, Joseph Phillips and Thomes C. Brown, were pro-slavery in sentiment. The result of the election was as follows :

Mr. Coles having received a greater number of votes than either of the other candidates, was entitled to the gubernatorial seat, and was duly inaugurated. In his first message to the General Assembly, December .5, 1822, he called especial attention to the subject of kidnapping, which had become quite frequent. He argued " that the peculiar situation of the State, bordering on three rivers communicating with a country where there was always a demand for slaves, afforded a great temptation and facility to the lawless and inhuman to engage in this crime, and that more efficient measures were required to prevent the kidnapping of free blacks." This recommendation, coupled with his suggestions in regard to the emancipation of the French slaves and for a revision of

*The law of 1S19 respecting free negroes required the emancipator to give bond that they should not become a county charge. Having provided his emancipated slaves with one hundred and sixty acres of land to each head of a family, Coles neglected to give bond, and thereby became liable to a fine of $200 for each negro. During the heat of the convention struggle the Commissioners of Madison county were instigated to bring suit against him for this amount, and a verdict of $2,000 for setting his negroes at liberty without giving bond as required by law was entered against him. Pending a motion for a new trial, in January, 1825, the legislature released all penalties incurred under the act. including those of Coles. At the next term of court he plead this release in bar of judgment against him, but Judge McRoberts decided that the legislature had no power to take from a municipal corporation its vested right in a fine, any more than from an individual, and rendered judgment on the verdict. Tlie decision was believed to have been influenced by the feelings growing out of the slavery contest the year before, and caused no little popular excitement. The case was finally taken to the .Supreme Court and reversed, the power of the legislature being held to be ample in the premises. The opinion of the Court, Chief Justice Wilson, says: "It is said the King can not remit an informer's interest in a popular action after suit is brought ; this is no doubt true, but it is equally true that the Parliament can. It is not pretended that the executive could remit the penalty in this case, but the legislature may."

the black laws in accordance with the dictates of humanity, was enough to fan the smouldering embers of the slavery question into fiercest flames.

It is very clear that, but for the restraining ordinance of 1787, or the enabling act to form a State convention, the convention would have reported a constitution recognizing and establishing slavery ; and if that constitution had been submitted to the people for approval or rejection, there can be no doubt but it would have been adopted by the people by a large moijority.

The slavery party were only beaten in their choice for governor by a division in their own ranks. They succeeded in electing a majority of the legislature, and when Governor Coles recommended the emancipation of the French slaves, this majority and their party constituents, determined upon a vigorous fight to maintain their supremacy and carry their purpose of perpetuating slavery at all hazards.

Slaver}- could not be introduced, " nor was it believed," says Mr. Ford, " that the French slaves could be emancipated, without an amendment to the constitution ; the constitution could not l)e amended without a new convention, to obtain which, two-thirds of each Ijrancli of the legislature must concur in recommending it to the people ; and the voters at the next election had to sanction it by a majority of all the votes given for members of the lesrislature. When the lesrislature assembled, it was found that the Senate contained the requisite two-thirds majority ; but in the House of Representatives, by deciding a contested election case in favor of one of the candidates, the slave party would have one more than two-thirds ; while by deciding in favor of the other, they would lack one vote of having that majority. These two candidates were John Shaw and Nicholas Hanson, who claimed to represent the county of Pike, then including all the military tract and all the country north of the Illinois river to the northern limits of the State.

" The leaders of the slavery party were anxious to re-elect Jesse B. Thomas to the United States Senate. Hanson would vote for him, but Shaw would not : Shaw would vote for the convention, but Hanson would not. The party had use for them both, and determined to use them both, one after the other. For this purpose they first decided in favor of Hanson, admitted him to a seat, and, with his vote, elected their United States Senator, and then, towards the close of the session, with mere brute force, and in the most bare-faced manner, they reconsidered their former vote, turned Hanson out of his seat, and decided in tuvor of Shaw, and with his vote carried the resolution for a convention.

" The night after this resolution passed, the convention party assembled in triumph in a great carousal. They formed themselves in a noisy, disorderly and tumultuous procession, headed by Judges Phillips, Smith, Thomas Reynolds (afterward governor of Missouri), and Lieutenant-Governor Kinney, and followed by the majority of the legislature, tlie hangers-on and raiible, marched, with the blowing of tin horns, beating of drums and tin ])ans, to the residence of Governor Coles, and the boarding-houses of their principal opponents, towards whom they manifested their contempt and displeasure l>y a confused medlej' of groans, wailings and lamentations." The object of this ku-klux procescession was to intimidate all opposition at once.

The object failed, however, and served, on the other hand, to infuse the anti-convention [)arty with new life and more determined resolution. They rallied to a man. Newspapers were estaiilished to op]pose the convention. < )ue of these State pajn-rs was started at Shawneetown, with Henry Eddy as editor ; one at Edwardsviile, with Hooper Warren as editor ; and one at Vandalia, edited by David Hlackwell ; and Governor Coles, Thomas Lippencott, George Churchill aiul Judge Lockwooil as special aiul jirincipal contributors.

Tiif ]irii-slavery ]iarty established a newspaper at Kaskaskia, under the direction of Mr. Kane and Chief Jubtice Reynolds, with Judge Smith as editor. Both parties ap- pealed to the interests, passions and intelligence of the people. Under such circumstances the contest was attended with a great deal of personal abuse, and a regular torrent of detraction and vituperation was poured out by e:ich part}' against the leaders of the opposite party. It is impossible, as well as foreign to a volume of this character, to follow in detail all the maneuvers incident to that campaign. It was a long and bitter one, lasting from the Spring of 1823 until the election of 1824. Almost every stump in the settled portions of the country' had its howling, bellowing orator on one side or the other. For the space of eighteen months the whole people did scarcely any thing else but read newspapers, handbills and pamphlets, attend public meetings, argue, quarrel and wrangle with each other whenever and wherever they met.

The leaders of the convention party were Judges Brown, Phillips and John Reynolds ; Jesse B. Thomas and ex-Governor Edwards, U. S. Senators ; Lieutenant Governor Kinney, Judge Smith, Chief Justice Thomas Reynolds, John McLean, Elias K. Kane, Judge McRoberts and Governor Bond. The principal men and leaders of the anti-convention or free State party, were Morris Birbeck, Governor Coles, Daniel P. Cook, then member of Congress, David Blackwell, George Churchill, Samuel D. Lockwood, Thomas Lippincott, Hooper Warren, George Forquer, Thomas Mather and Henry Edd}'. The question of slavery was thoroughly discussed. The people took an undivided and absorbing interest in it. They were made to understand it completely ; and as this was long before the abolition excitement of more modern times, Illinois may justly be claimed as the original battle-ground between freedom and slavery. The introduction of slavery was resisted, not so much on the ground of principle as from policy and expediency. The free State party triumphed, as the people decided by a majority of 1,668 votes in favor of a free State. The vote was as follows :

Black Laws

Pending the six years agitation of this vexed question under State jurisdiction from 1818 to 1824, some very stringent and inhuman laws were passed regarding the black people. The first laws uyder State organization were enacted in 1819. Under them no negro or mulatto, with or without a family', was permitted to settle in the State until he produced a certificate of freedom properly attested before some court, with a description of the person producing it, and of his family, if any, which was required to be entered on record in the county where he settled. Even under this protection, the overseers of the poor were authorized to expel such persons at their discretion. Any one coming into the State to emancipate his slaves, was required to give bond in the sum of one thousand dollars as a guarantee that they should not become a public charge; for neglecting or refusing to make such bond, a penalty of two hundred dollars was attached. All resident negroes or niulattoes, except slaves, were required to enter their names and the names of every member of their family with the circuit clerk, before the first of June ensuing (1819), together with their evidence of freedom. No person was allowed to employ any negro or mulatto without such certificate, under a penalty of one dollar and fifty cents for each day employed, to be recovered before a justice of the peace, one-third of the amount to go to the informant and the rest to the owner or to the county. Harboring any slave or servant, or hindering an owner from retaking a slave, was declared to be a felony, punish.able by restitution or a fine of twofold value, and whipping not to exceed thirty stripes. Black and mulatto persons not having a proper certificate, were held to be runaway slaves, subject to arrest and commitment by a justice, then to he described and advertised for six weeks by the sheriff.

when, if not reclaimed, or their freedom established, they were to be sold for one year, at the end of which time, they were entitled to a certificate except as against their owner. No one was permitted to buy or sell to, or trade with any servant or slavQ, without the consent of his master, under penalty of forfeiting to the muster four times the value of such transaction. A .slave or servant found ten miles from home without a permit was subject to arrest and thirty-five stripes, on the order of a justice of the peace; or, if he appeared at any dwelling or plantation without leave of his master, the owner of the place was entitled to administer, or cause to be administered, ten lashes on the bare back. For being lazy, disorderly or misbeliaving to his master or his family, on the order of a justice, he was to be corrected witii stripes, and for every day he refused to work, he was to serve two. Riots, routs, unlawful assemblies, trespass, seditious speeches by slaves or servants, were punishable with stripes not exceed thirtynine. Any one suffering three or more slaves or servants to assemble on their premises for dancing, reveling, etc., were liable to a fine of twenty dollars. It was made the duty of coroners, sheriffs, judges and justices of the peace, having knowledge of such assemblages, to have the offenders committed to jail, and after judgment to order thirtynine stripes. In cases where free persons were punishable by fine, slaves or servants were chastised b}' whipping at the rate of twenty lashes for every eight dollars of the fine, not to exceed forty stripes at any one time.

As late as 1847 the convention which revised the constitution, in Article XIV., required the General Assembly at its first session under the amended constitution, to enact such laws as would effectually proiiibit free persons of color from coming and settling in the State, and to prevent the owners of slaves from bringing them into the State for the purpose of setting tliem free. In obedience to this requirement of tlie constitution, the Legislature passed the act of February 12, 1853, which was nearly as infamous as any of the acts already quoted. It provided that, if any negro or mulatto, bond or free, came into the State and remained ten days, with the evident intention of residing therein, he should be deemed guilty of a liigli misdemeanor, and for tlie first offense should be fined fifty dollars, and if the fine was not I'ortiiwilii paid, lie was to be cummitted to the custody of the sheriff, to lie advertised ten days and then sold to any person who would pay the fine and costs for the siiortest period, the purchaser being empowered to hold and work the culprit during the time. <3ne case under this act was taken up to tlie Supreme Court from Hancock county-, and decided in 18G4. The court held the law to be valid: '* That the punishment was not slavery, because the person was only soUl for a limited period; that it was only a species of apprenticeship, and tlial tiie State miglit define offenses and prcscrilie tlie punishment and the exercise of such powers could not be inquired into by the court."

The laws herein quoted were known as the "Black Laws," and were continued in all the revisions of the laws from 1819 down to 180;'), when, by act of February Ttli, tliey were repcaleil. For many years jireviously, however, tliey had ceased to be enforced and were regarded as a dead letter. Tiie excuse for r'etiuniiig tiieiii so long Wiis found in tlie abolition tfxcitement of niodern times, whicli. in a nKiniier. constituted lliem tests of party fealty.

Indkntl'Ked And Reuistebed 8Kkvants

Tlie sixth article of the ordinance lor the governnieiit of the Nortliwtsicrn Territory, adopted July 1:!, 1787, consecrated the territory to freeiloni in these words : '- Tiiere siiall be neither slavery nor involiinlary servitude in tlie said territorv, otherwise than in the punishment of crimes whereof liie party shall have been duly convicted." The proslavery element in the territory sought by every possible means to induce Congress to modify tliis restriction, but without effect. Failing in this, tiie friends of slavery next sought to accomplish their purpose tlirougii the law-making powers of llie Territory, both of the first and second <jrades: and in defiance of the prohibitionary clause in the ordinance, a hiw was adopted entitled "An act concerning the introduction of negroes and mulattoes into this Territory." The act bears date September 17, 1807, and was passed two years before Illinois was set off as an independent territory. We quote:

. Section i. It shall and may be lawful for any person, being' the owner of any negroes or mulattoes above the age of fifteen years, and owing service and labor as slaves in any of the States or Territories of the United States, or for any citizen of the United States or Territories, purchasing the same, to bring the said negroes or mulattoes into this Territory.

Section two provided that within thirty days after bringing the slaves into the Territory, the owner or master should take them before the clerk of the court and have an inienture between the slave and his owner entered on record, specifying the time which the slave was compelled to serve his master, the term generally fixed being ninety-nine years. Section three guarded the property of the master against loss by allowing him, in event of the slave refusing to enter into such agreement or indenture, to have the lawful right, within sixty days, to remove such slave to any State or Territory, where such property could be legally held. \

Section 5. Any person removing into this Territory, and being the owner pf any negro or mulatto under the age of fifteen years, it shall and may be lawful for such person, owner, or possessor, to hold the said negro or mulatto to service or labor, the males until they arrive at the age of thirty-five, and the females until they arrive at the age of thirty-two years.

Sec. 13. The children born in this Territory of a parent of color owing service or labor by indenture, according to the law, shall serve the master or mistress, the males until the age of thirty, and females until the age of twentyeight years.

Other laws were enacted by which the owner or master might sell his servants ! by an assignment of the indenture, thus tolerating and recognizing the traffic in slaves as well as the institution of slavery.

When Illinois Territory was organized in 1809, the governor and judges, who were the law-making power, adopted the law quoted, and thej' were re-adopted by the first Territorial Legislature at Kaskaskia, December 13, 1812. This law was clearly at fault with that section of the ordinance already quoted, and was so decided in the case of Phoeba vs. Jarret.* in the Supreme Court, in which it was decided that the act of September 17, 1807, regarding the bringing of negroes and mulattoes into the territory, was void as being repugnant to the sixth article of the ordinance of 1787. It was further held, however, that the contracts of indenture under that law were rendered void by the third section of the sixth article of the State Copstitution.

" Each and every person who has been bound to service by contract or indenture in virtue of the laws of Illinois Territory heretofore existing, and, in conformity to the provisions of the same, without fraud or collusion, shall be held to a specific performance of their contracts or indentures ; and such negroes and mulattoes as have registered in conformity with tlie aforesaid laws, shall serve out the time appointed by said laws ; provided, however, that the children hereafter born of such persons, negroes or mulattoes, shall become free, the males at the age of twenty-one years, and the females at the age of eighteen years.

The validity of the indenture and registration act was never raised and tried before the territorial courts, nor until some 3'ears after the Territory had been admitted as a State. " The convention, therefore," adds Mr. Stuve, " which enacted the constitution, gave that law the only legal vitality' it ever had, but it is presumable they were under the impression that it was valid and had been all the time ; and it was only in requirement of the enabling act of Congress that they enacted article VI, section I : ' Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall hereafter be introduced in this State.'"

There are, or were, in March. 1878, at least two surviving representatives of tlie indentured and registered servant class still living at Galena - Swanzy Adams and his wife. Adams was taken there by the Johnsons, of Kentucky, about 1825-6, and although sold, traded, kidnapped, imprisoned, etc., time and again, has managed to maintain a home at Galena, where he has accumulated a handsome little propert}-. He was nearly ninety years of age wiieu he was fii-st visited by the \vriter in February, 1878, and for over half a century had made a business of hauling water to citizens who were deprived of other means of a water supply. The woman, now his wife, was taken there a slave girl some years later Ijy other parties. There were others besides these, and some of their descendants still live there. But Swanzy Adams and his wife are the last survivors of their class in northern Illinois, and in all probability, the kst in the State.