Chicago City (part 3 of 57)

Arrangements were made for an immense mass meeting to be held at the Wigwam building in Chicago, and Mr. Douglas was asked to address the assemblage. He went direct to Chicago from Springfield, and addressed the meeting as follows :

"I beg you to believe that I will not do you or myself the injustice to think that this magnificent ovation is personal to myself. I rejoice to know that it expresses your devotion to the Constitution, the Union, and the flag of our country. I will not conceal gratification at the incontrovertible test this vast audience presents - that whatsoever political differences or party questions may have divided us, yet you all had a conviction that, when the country should be in danger, my loyalty could be relied on. That the present danger is imminent, no man can conceal. If war must come - if the bayonet must be used to maintain the Constitution, I say before God, my conscience is clear. I have struggled long for a peaceful solution of the difficulty. I have not only tendered those states what was their right, but I have gone to the very extreme of magnanimity.

"The return we receive is war ; armies marching upon our capital ; obstructions and dangers to our navigation ; letters of marque, to invite pirates to prey upon our commerce ; a concerted movement to blot out the United States of America from the map of the globe. The question is, ' Are we going to maintain the country of our fathers, or allow it to be stricken down by those who, when they can no longer govern, threaten to destroy ?' * * * The slavery question is a mere excuse. The election of Lincoln is a mere pretext. The present secession movement is the result of an enormous conspiracy, formed

"But this is no time for the detail of causes. The conspiracy is now known. Armies have been raised, war is levied to accomplish it. There are only two sides to the question. Every man must be for the United States or against it. There can be no neutrals in this war, only patriots or traitors.

"Thank God, Illinois is not divided on this question. I know they expected to present a united South against a divided North. They hoped in the Northern states party questions would bring civil war between Democrats and Republicans, when the South would step in with her cohorts, aid one party to conquer the other, and then make easy prey of the victors. Their scheme was carnage and civil war in the North.

"There is but one way to defeat this. In Illinois it is being so defeated, by closing up the ranks. War will thus be prevented on our own soil. While there was a hope for peace, I was ready for any reasonable sacrifice or compromise to maintain it. But when the question comes of war in the cotton fields of the South, or the corn fields of Illinois, I say the further off the better.

"I have said more than I intended to say. It is a sad task to discuss questions so fearful as civil war ; but sad as i t is, bloody and disastrous as I expect it will be, I express it as my conviction before God, that it is the duty of every American citizen to rally around the flag of his country.

"I thank you again for this magnificent demonstration. By it you show you have laid aside party strife. Illinois has a proud position - united, firm, determined never to permit the government to be destroyed."

Lincoln and Douglas, the two greatest political figures of the day, who rocked the country from center to circumference, and one of whom led a new party to victory, were essentially Illinoisans in their every instinct and feeling. While neither were born here this was their home and the state they loved.

The history of Stephen Arnold Douglas is largely a history of Illinois, and much of it is known to all who are conversant with the political history of their country. He was born in Brandon, Vt., April 23, 18 13, his ancestors being of Puritan stock. Two months after his birth his father died, and on account of the straitened circumstances of his mother he was sent to live with his maternal uncle. He attended the schools of his native village until fifteen years of age, when he was apprenticed to a cabinet- maker. It was but a short time before he was enabled to cease mechanical work and follow the bent of his mind to obtain an education and he entered Brandon Academy, where he remained a pupil one year. His mother having remarried, he removed with her to Canandaigua, and having chosen the profession of the law he entered the office of Hubbell Bros., as a clerk. In 1833 he determined to go to the West, and journeyed to Winchester, a little Illinois village, where he became an auctioneer's clerk for a season. He soon opened a private school as a means of enabling him to prosecute his legal studies, and in 1834 he was admitted to practice by the Supreme Court. The following year his talents were recognized by friends in the Illinois Legislature, and he was elected Attorney-general. In 1836 he was elected to the Legislature, and in 1838 made his first canvass for a seat in Congress, receiving a majority of the votes cast in the election, but he was counted out by a partisan canvassing board, because his name was incorrectly spelled on a number of ballots. In 1840 he was appointed Secretary of State of Illinois, and in 1 84 1 was elected Judge of the Supreme Court. In 1843 ne resigned his seat upon the bench, and after a heated contest, was elected to Congress by a majority of four hundred votes, which even the ingenuity of a politically hostile board.of canvassers could not overturn. In 1844 he secured a re-election by a majority of one thousand nine hundred, and in 1846 was triumphantly returned by a majority of three thousand. From the date of his first election his remarkable and brilliant gifts of oratory ; his energy in national councils and fearlessness in debate made him one of the conspicuous men of the nation. Before the meeting of Congress in 1846, to which body he had been elected representative by so decided a majority, he was chosen United States Senator, and took his seat in the Senate in March, 1847, remaining a member of that body until his death. At the outset of his career in Congress he was recognized as a fearless champion of the principle of state sovereignty, especially as opposed to national intervention in such matters as the making and control of internal improvements, and one of his first speeches was in behalf of a bill making an appropriation for Western lakes and rivers, in which he advocated a system of tonnage charges to be levied by the state. He also advocated the law extending the admiralty jurisdiction of United States Courts over the Northern lakes. In all foreign matters Mr. Douglas was intensely American in his views and action. He opposed the proposed compromise of the Oregon boundary question warmly, and with equal vigor championed the prosecution of the Mexican war. While a Senator he lent his assistance to the bill granting to the state of Illinois the right of way through the public lands, together with the title to alternate sections along the route of railroads actually constructed, and together with Judge Sidney Breese he is entitled to the credit of having developed the wealth of the state by this early championship of the measure which became a law, and out of which grew the Illinois Central Railroad. It was perhaps, his attitude on slavery, and the various measures for its regulation introduced by him that more than anything else made him prominent nationally, although in 1844 ne gained much celebrity through his defense of Gen. Jackson, of whom he was a warm admirer and devoted adherent. Congress had seen fit to censure the rugged old hero of the war of 18 1 2, by passing an order fining him $1,000 for having declared martial law in New Orleans. Douglas, in a brilliant speech in support of a bill refunding the fine, which with interest then amounted to about $2,700, attracted the sympathies of the House, and the bill was passed without the loss of the vote of any member of his party, and great gains from the opposition, the record standing 158 to 28 in favor of the measure. In the Senate there was a strictly party vote of 28 to 22. Gen. Jackson left with his literary executor a copy of this speech indorsed.

The attitude of Senator Douglas on the Kansas-Nebraska question, the Missouri Compromise and the Fugitive Slave law divided his constituents in opinion and lost him the support of many former friends. Only a great man could have evoked such criticism and bitter hostility as his course developed. He made his first public appearance in Chicago in 1840 and took up his residence in this city in 1847. ^n October, 1850, he spoke before a great mass meeting, defending the principles of the Compromise and the Fugitive Slave bill, and enunciated the principles which in 1853 became embodied in his Kansas- Nebraska bill. Resolutions were adopted at this meeting indorsing his course and denouncing the action of the Common Council, which body had directed the police force not to obey the law providing for the return of fugitive slaves. His activity in the nation's councils and bold stand upon all great and vital public questions had at this date convinced his friends that he was the coming great statesman, and they attempted to elevate him to the Presidency. He received ninety-two votes for the nomination for

President in the Democratic National Convention in 1852. In 1854 his advocacy of the Nebraska bill again divided his following, and in Chicago every journal united in denouncing him. He returned to the city and arranged for a great meeting, to be held at North Market hall on the evening of September 1. Various accounts have been published of this notable event ; it having been charged in some that the people of Chicago denied Douglas the right of free speech and in others that he was mobbed outright. There is no doubt that a turbulent crowd not in sympathy with Douglas held possession of the street in front of the North Market hall, and for no less than four hours refused to let Douglas explain himself or state his position upon the leading questions of the time. Mayor Isaac L. Milliken presided at the meeting and Mr. Douglas was flanked on the platform by General Hart L. Stewart, Dan Mclllroy. Francis C. Sherman, Cornelius Price, Tom Mackin, Dan O'Hara, William Price, Elihu Granger, Elisha Tracy, Isaac Cook and Col. Dick Hamilton. The Chicago Times of August 19, 1877, contained an account of the anti-Douglas demonstration, together with the causes leading up to it, from which the following is taken :

" Two causes led to the mobbing of the Little Giant in 1854. Those were Know-nothing days, and the Nebraska excitement - supplemented by the Kansas furore - was coming to a head. That it was a period of turmoil is little matter for wonder. In the one case it was a question between the native and the foreign born element - a question, in fact, whether the adopted citizen had any rights which the native was bound to respect. In the other case it was a struggle between freedom and slavery ; a life and death, hand-to-hand struggle then begun, and which came to an end only with the surrender of Lee under the apple tree. * * * There was at that time a daily paper in Chicago called the Democratic Press. It was edited by John L. Scripps and Hon. William Bross, the latter still surviving. This paper, once Democratic, turned with vindictive vehemence on the ' Little Giant,' and left no means untried to turn the populace against him. Just before the meeting all manner of reckless reports were given currency by the opposition press, one being to the effect that Mr. Douglas had selected a bodyguard of five hundred Irishmen who, with arms in their hands, were to be present and compel the people to silence while he spoke. This story was spread to inflame the Know-nothing element. * * Under such circumstances as these assembled the meeting on that September evening.

" The gathering was on Michigan street, immediately in front of the old North Market hall. A great crowd was assembled, and it was plain from the start that a wicked feeling was abroad. A little before 8 o'clock Mr. Douglas began to speak. And still the crowd increased. It completely filled up Michigan street, east as far as Dearborn, and west as far as Clark. And, besides this, the roofs of opposite houses were covered, and the windows and balconies filled, for the ' Little Giant' had a way of making himself heard at a great distance.

" The Senator had spoken but a few minutes when it became apparent that there was an element present that was not disposed to hear him. On the questioning of some statements of the speaker by some person in the crowd the rumpus began in earnest, and for a matter of two hours a juvenile pandemonium sported at a white rage all around that old Market hall. First hisses were in order. The Senator paused until silence was comparatively restored, when he told the meeting that he came there to address his constituents, and he intended to be heard. He was instantly assailed by all manner of epithets. Every name that vile tongue could invent was hurled at him. In a moment he was surrounded by a howling, raging mob, hungry to do him personal injury. But, all undaunted, he fearlessly faced the enemy, at the same time keeping down a little company of friends on the platform, who were all eagerness to resent the insults and affronts so brutally heaped upon their idol. Mr. Douglas appealed to the latter to be calm ; to leave him to deal with the mob before him. He boldly denounced the violence exhibited as a preconcerted thing, and in defiance of yells, groans, cat-calls, and every insulting menace and threat, he read aloud, so that it was heard above the infernal din, a letter informing him that if he dared to speak he would be maltreated.

" The Senator's biographer, Mr. Sheahan, said subsequently: The motive, the great ruling reason, for refusing him the privilege of being heard, was that, as he had in 1850 carried the judgment of the people captive into an indorsement of the fugitive slave law, so, if allowed to speak in 1854, he would at least rally all Democrats to his support by his defense of the Nebraska bill. The combined fanatics of Chicago feared the power and effect of his argument in the presence and hearing of the people. They therefore resolved that he should not be heard."

There has also always been a question as to whether, on this occasion, Senator Douglas was made to suffer the indignity of being pelted with rotten eggs or rotten apples. Before his

Chicago, Cook County, And Illinois. 9 1

Many old settlers who were present at the meeting delight to relate how, at the height of the disturbance, Isaac Cook, who was Sheriff of Cook county in 1846, and subsequently served two terms as postmaster, and was well known for his earnestness and warm friendship for Douglas, leaned over the edge of the platform and, in a highly excited and dramatic manner, exclaimed :

In an article published in the Chicago Tribune, August 25, 187/, Ex-Gov. Bross made reply to some of the strictures contained in the Times article already quoted. He says of the attitude of the Chicago Democratic press and public feeling, as he observed it :

" On Tuesday morning before the meeting I published a statement of the programme of the Democracy, and told our liberty-loving citizens how to prevent its accomplishment. It was determined by the Democracy to fill North Market hall at an early hour with the rabble, thus preventing other people from gaining admittance, pass resolutions strongly indorsing the repeal of the Missouri Compromise and Senator Douglas, and have that go out as the opinion of the people of Chicago. The substantial and order-loving people were urged to turn out early, and thus defeat the schemes of the political tricksters. Mr. Douglas' friends, knowing that this advice would be strictly followed, changed their plan, and built a platform in front of the south door of the North Market hall. The meeting was an immense one, perhaps the largest up to that evening ever held in the city. We then had no shorthand reporters here, and, unwilling to trust any one else - as only anxious to give as correct a version of the speech as possible - I went there myself to report it. I was at once invited upon the stage, perhaps by Mayor Milliken, who presided, and, receiving a pleasant greeting from Senator Douglas, I sat down and composed myself for the work before me. The very first sentence he uttered was considered an insult to the people and the press of the city. He charged them with not understanding so plain a proposition as the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, and the press with persistently misrepresenting and maligning him. The statement was received with groans and hisses, and for perhaps two or three minutes nothing else could be heard. When comparative quiet was restored, he spoke for perhaps eight or ten minutes, and then the laughing and hooting were repeated. This thoroughly enraged the Senator, and his language and manner became exceedingly offensive. * * *

"The question recurs, Was there a mob on the evening of the i st of September, 1854, to prevent Judge Douglas from making a speech on his Kansas-Nebraska bill - otherwise, his repeal of the Missouri Compromise ? If you define a mob to be an angry crowd of men, who use missiles, or destroy property, maim and injure their opponents, perhaps kill them, then I assert positively that there was no mob in Chicago on that evening, and thousands of our citizens who were there will cordially indorse what I say on the subject There was not a rotten egg, a rotten apple, or anything else whatever thrown at any one on the stage during the entire meeting. I was there during the whole time till Douglas left, except a minute or two, as above stated, when I was circulating among the people to see if they were in good humor. Had any missiles been thrown, I certainly would have known it."

" Mr. Douglas came before his constituents - those who had made him, who had intrusted to him the execution of certain duties - rather as a master than a servant. The spirit of a dictator flashed out from his eyes, curled upon his lip, and mingled its cold irony in every tone of his voice, and every gesture of his body. His manner, as well as his language, furnished a practical illustration of the possibility of reversing the natural order of master and servant, of representative and constituent, in a free government. The Czar of Russia could not have exhibited a more domineering and intolerant spirit than he."

Senator Douglas finally gave up the effort to make himself heard, and, enraged and aggrieved, he entered his carriage and started for the Tremont House, the hoodlum element of the crowd following, hooting at and reviling him, until the bridgetender at Clark street bridge opened the draw behind the retreating carriage, and shut off the noisy and riotous pursuers. Subsequently Senator Douglas was invited by his political friends to partake of a public dinner, and on the 9th of November some two hundred of his staunch adherents sat at the festive board, while in response to a complimentary toast, he made an address which embodied substantially the same points that he desired to get before the people in September, had he then been allowed to speak. An election was pending for Congressman and State Treasurer, and he spoke at most of the principal towns in Northern Illinois, and in a number he met with a repetition of the interruption and insult he had experienced in Chicago ; but he held his ground, forced a hearing, and soon came into public favor once more. In the Democratic National Convention of 1856 he was again placed in nomination for the Presidency, and received 121 votes, but he declined to make further contest, and his name was withdrawn, and the nomination given to Mr. Buchanan. It was not alone from anti-slavery enemies that he received bitter opposition. By attacking certain measures in which Mr. Buchanan was interested, he aroused the animosity of the President, and a coalition was formed between friends of Buchanan and the Abolitionists to defeat his re-election to the Senate, and return Abraham Lincoln instead. Douglas was reelected, however, by a majority of eight votes, after a close and exciting struggle. In this same year Douglas denounced, on the floor of the Senate, the Harper's Ferry outbreak, and charged the Republican party with having, if not instigated, at least abetted it. This was his last expression of sympathy with his old pro-slavery friends and adherents. In the famous Charleston convention of i860 he was a prominent candidate, and after the convention had gone to pieces, the faction which reassembled at Baltimore nominated him for President on the second ballot, he having received 180^ votes out of 194^ votes cast. In the ensuing election he received, next to Mr. Lincoln, the highest popular vote.

Senator Douglas arrived in Chicago from Washington on the evening of May 1, 1861. His patriotic indorsement of Mr. Lincoln's policy and devotion to the Union, as exemplified by his famous Springfield speech, made him the first ideal orator of the rebellion and the idol of the people. A committee of citizens met him at Joliet, and a great throng of people cheered his entrance to the city. He was welcomed by the Hon. Thomas B. Bryan on behalf of the people, and a salute of thirty-four guns was fired in his honor as he was escorted to the old Wigwam, which had been re-named National hall, and where, before an audience of ten thousand loyal citizens, he repeated the substance of his Springfield address. This was his last public speech. Death seized him when the truly great work of his life began and his services were most needed. He died at 9:10 o'clock, on the morning of June 3, 1861, of acute rheumatism, the malady from which he had long been a sufferer, and which had assumed a typhoid type, accompanied by blood poisoning. His body lay in state in Bryan Hall, in charge of a Masonic guard of honor, until the day of the funeral, and upward of 50,000 people did honor to the remains of the dead statesman in the interval. The entire city was draped with mourning emblems. Mayor Rumsey issued a proclamation requesting a general suspension of business on the day of the funeral, and the Common Council made an appropriation of $2,000 to defray the expenses of the funeral, it having been the desire of Mrs. Douglas originally to have the remains interred in the Congressional cemetery at Washington. Subsequently, at the united request of the Common Council and committees representing the city and the state, Mrs. Douglas readily changed her views, and on June 7 the remains were placed upon a stately funeral car, and, accompanied by a funeral procession in ten divisions, in which were noted statesmen representing nearly every state in the Union, they were borne to a site onthe late Senator's own estate, on the shore of Lake Michigan, at the foot of Douglas avenue, and interred where he had designed to build a home, within sight of the university which bears his name, and which now is marked by a stately monument, erected at a cost of $96,350, most of which was appropriated by the state.

It is a labor involving more than simple research to attempt an analysis of men's characters by their deeds, or by what has been written of them. Those acquainted personally with Lincoln and Douglas have, by relating instances of the many splendid qualities of these great men, enriched a vast field of anecdote, reminiscence and historical knowledge, which will be plowed over by many future Americans who will respect and admire the genius, patriotism and true nobility of soul that distinguished the two statesmen. Douglas was bold, full of fire, aggressive and inspiring; Lincoln calm, cautious, logical and convincing. He mastered every difficulty and grasped every situation, no matter how perplexing, that confronted him during his career, and there was no issue during the war that he had not foreseen and carefully considered. September 13, 1862, the Rev. W. W. Patton and the Rev. John Dempster presented to President Lincoln a memorial urging him to proclaim emancipation, which had been adopted at a public meeting of the Christian men of Chicago, September 8. The memorial declared that the time had at length arrived of which Jefferson had solemnly warned his countrymen, when he declared that the slaves of America were enduring- bondage, one hour of which was fraught with more misery than ages of that which occasioned the war of the Revolution, and added, " When the measure of their tears shall be full ; when their tears shall have involved heaven itself in darkness, doubtless a God of justice will awaken to their distress, by diffusing a light and liberality among their oppressors, or at length, by his exterminating thunder, manifest his attention to things of this world, and that they are not left to the guidance of blind fatality." The memorialists declared as their solemn conviction that there could be no deliverance from Divine judgment until slavery ceased to exist in the land. The President was urged, therefore, as the head of this Christian nation, as the only means of preserving the Union, to proclaim, without delay, National Emancipation.

In their report to an assembly of citizens at Bryan hall, September 20, the emissaries related that the President had listened to the reading of the memorial courteously and with fixed attention, and in reply had said :

The subject presented in the memorial is one upon which I have thought much for weeks past, and I may say even for months. I am approached with the most opposite opinions and advice, and that by religious men who are equally certain they represent the Divine will. I am sure that either the one or the other class is mistaken in that belief, and perhaps in some respects both. I hope it will not be irreverent for me to say that if it is probable that God would reveal His will to others on a point so connected with my duty, it might be supposed He would reveal it directly to me. For, unless I am more deceived in myself than I often am, it is my earnest desire to know the will of Providence in this matter, and if I can learn what it is I will do it. But what good would a proclamation of emancipation do from me? Would my word free the slave, when I cannot even enforce the Constitution in the rebel States? * * * I suppose I have a right to take any measure that would best subdue the enemy. Nor do I urge objections of a moral nature, in view of possible consequences of insurrection and massacre at the South ; I view the matter as a practical war measure, to be decided upon according to the advantages or disadvantages it may offer to the suppression of the rebellion."

The Committee replied that the virus of secession was found only where was found the virus of slavery, and there was the amplest reason for expecting to divert the divine judgment by putting away the sin. It would secure the sympathy of the whole civilized world ; would thrill every patriotic heart in the North, giving the people a glorious principle for which to fight and to suffer, and give us both laborers and soldiers.

" Do not misunderstand me because I have mentioned my objections. I have not decided against a proclamation of liberty to the slaves, and I can assure you the subject is in my mind by day and night more than any other. Whatever appears to be God's will, that I will do."

President Lincoln more fully answered the petition by his subsequent acts, and by his utterances later on in the contest. Under date of April 4, 1864, writing from the Executive Mansion at Washington, to A. G. Hodges, Esq., of Frankfort, Ky., he said :

" My Dear Sir : You ask me to put in writing the substance of what I stated the other day in your presence, to Governor Bramlette, and Senator Dixon. It was about as follows :

" I am naturally anti-slavery. If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong. I cannot remember when I did not so think and feel; and yet I have never understood that the Presidency conferred upon me an unrestricted right to act officially upon this judgment and feeling It was in the oath I took that I would to the best of my ability preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. I could not take the office without taking the oath. * * * I understood, too, that in ordinary civil administration this oath even forbade me to practically indulge my primary abstract judgment and feeling on slavery. I did understand, however, that my oath to preserve the Constitution to the best of my ability, imposed upon me the duty of preserving, by every indispensable means, that Government, that Nation, of which the Constitution was the organic law."

" Neither party expected for the war the magnitude or the duration which it has already attained. Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease even before the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental and astounding. Both read the same Bible and prayed to the same God, and each invoked His aid against the other.

" It may seem strange that any man should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces. But let us judge not, that we be not judged. The prayer of both should not be answered - that of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has his own purposes. * * * Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away ; yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondmen's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword - as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said, that the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether."

From 1846 to 1857 the government of the City of Chicago remained in the hands of the Democrats, with the single exception of the year 1855, when the American party or " Know-nothings," nominated and elected Dr. Levi D. Boone, formerly a Democrat, as Mayor. Charles M. Gray occupied the executive chair during the eighteenth term of the Mayoralty, having been elected on the Democratic ticket March 14, 1853. He was essentially a business man and made no personal effort to enter or remain in politics. He was a native of New York, arriving in Chicago in 1834, and engaging soon after in the manufacture of grain cradles. Later, he became associated with Cyrus McCormick in the manufacture of reapers, and was also engaged in business as a wholesale grocer, and at a still later date was the assistant general freight agent of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railroad.

In 1854 the opposition to the Democrats centered upon Amos G. Throop for Mayor, who was nominated in a harmonious convention, and whose election was confidently looked for. The Democratic City Convention placed in nomination Isaac L. Milliken, a self-made and popular man, and he was elected by a decisive majority, March 15, 1854. Mayor Milliken was one of the early settlers of Chicago, and for several years following his arrival in the city he followed the trade of blacksmithing. Besides being industrious he was ambitious, and he put in his spare time in study, and gained some knowledge of law. He was twice elected a member of the Common Council, and from 1852 to 1854 served as assistant County Judge. His administration of the office of Mayor was satisfactory to his party and he was renominated in 1855, but was defeated. In i856he became Police Magistrate and served in that capacity for many years.

Dr. Levi D. Boone, his successful opponent, was elected, as has been shown, on the American, or Know-nothing ticket, March 8, 1S55. This election occurred at the height of a strong local feeling in favor of a stringent temperance law passed by the State

Legislature the preceding winter, and which was to be submitted to the people for adoption or rejection. Dr. Boone believed the act would be ratified, and he was confident also that trouble would ensue in Chicago over the enforcement of its provisions. Feeling that he understood the situation and could put the law in force by easy stages, thereby avoiding the difficulties that it appeared were likely to arise, he allowed the American party to use his name and readily accepted the nomination. He did this the more readily because he felt confident of his own election. Although his opponent, Mr. Milliken, had defeated a popular man, Amos G. Throop, the year previous, and was the choice of the Democrats for re-nomination, Dr. Boone believed that he would get enough Democratic votes along with the Know-nothing vote to give him a substantial majority, and in this he was not mistaken, as the result of the election showed. The contest was an exciting one and the discord and animosity aroused continued to exist for many years thereafter. Aside from the temperance issue the Catholic question was being discussed with so much vigor and intensity of feeling as almost to precipitate a religious war. The watchword of the American party was, " Put none but Americans on guard." A staunch organ of the American ticket was the Native Citizen, a newspaper conducted by W. W. Danenhower, who became an elector on the Fillmore ticket with Dr. Boone, in 1856. The "Know-nothings" were opposed to foreigners holding office, and the Native Citizen published a list of names of persons classed in this category, among them Philip A. Hoyne, and others equally as prominent. Mr. Danenhower was the father of Lieutenant Danenhower, of Arctic expedition fame of 1882. His paper ceased to exist after the defeat of Fillmore the following year.

A full " Know-nothing" Council was elected alone with Dr. Boone. One of Mayor Boone's first acts after induction to office was to recommend to the Council that the license fee be raised from $50 per annum to the rate of $300 per annum, but that no license be issued for a longer period than three months. This he believed to be a wise measure of precaution, since it would root out all the lower class of dives, and leave the business in the hands of the better class of saloon-keepers, who, when the temperance law should go into force, could be rationally dealt with. The saloon element, however, believed Mayor Boone to be the arch representative of Know-nothing ideas, and that they were to be deprived of rights which they claimed were guaranteed to them by the Constitution, and they united to defeat the object of the ordinance. They sent agitators among the people and soon the North side, where citizens of German birth and descent were in the preponderance, was in a ferment. The "personal liberty " cry was raised, and all foreigners were besought by ignorant leaders to resist the law and its executors in defence of their liberties. There was a law prohibiting the sale of liquor on Sunday on the municipal statute books, but it had been a dead letter for some years. The temperance leaders attempted to revive this law and secure its enforcement, and this fanned the fire of resentment into a flame of open revolt. Mayor Boone had not. been in office but a few weeks when nearly two hundred saloon-keepers were arrested, and some jailed and others held in bail for trial, charged either with selling liquor without license, or violation of the Sunday ordinance. The saloon-keepers banded together and employed one attorney to represent them, and between this attorney and the City Attorney it was agreed to try one test case, as a precedent for all. This case came up for trial April 21, at 10 o'clock before Police Magistrate Henry L. Rucker, whose office was in the Court House. While the case was on hearing a mob of several hundred half drunken men, led by the balance of the saloon-keepers under bonds, with a fife and drum at their head, marched into the Court House, evidently determined upon intimidating the Justice. After a scene of great disorder the mob withdrew and made a stand at the corner of Clark and Randolph streets and obstructed traffic on both thoroughfares. The police force at that time numbered less than one hundred men. C. P. Bradley was Chief of Police, Luther Nichols Captain, and Darius Knight City Marshal. When it appeared as if the inflamed mob intended to do damage to property Captain Nichols hurried to Mayor Boone for orders. The Mayor directed him to clear the streets and disperse the mob at all hazards. The police charged the mob ; dispersed it without any fatalities, and made several arrests.

The main body of the mob returned to the North side and the leaders began organizing a more formidable body for the avowed purpose of rescuing the prisoners in the custody of the police. To be prepared for an emergency Mayor Boone swore in one hundred and fifty extra policemen, and therefore had about two hundred and fifty men at his command.

At 3 o'clock in the afternoon the mob again started for the South side, and in crossing Clark street bridge divided into two divisions. The bridge-tender, when one wing had crossed over, swung the bridge open and kept the other division at bay on the

Ioo Politics And Politicians

North side. He was soundly reviled for this action and the mob threatened to fire on him if the bridge was not closed instanter, but he calmly replied that he was acting under the Mayor's orders and could not close the bridge. After he had perfected a few details and ordered the police into position, Mayor Boone sent word to close the bridge. When it was closed the mob swarmed across, joined their comrades on Clark street and proceeded toward the Court House. At Lake street the police wheeled into Clark and presented a solid front to the rioters. The mob charged the officers fearlessly, crying, " Pick out the stars !" " Shoot the police !" and a brisk fire ensued. Many of the rioters were wounded and one killed, and several of the policemen received wounds more or less serious. One active German leader of the mob leveled a shot-gun at officer Hunt and blew off his left arm. Sheriff Andrews, who saw the act, directed a young man named Frazer to return the fire, and he did so, and dropped his man. Subsequently friends of the rioters had Frazer arrested for the shooting, but he was acquitted. At Mayor Boone's suggestion the City Council voted officer Hunt $3,000, and for over thirty years since the riot he has been detailed for special duty, being now in charge of the show licenses in the Comptroller's office. The riot created intense excitement throughout the city, and the military, consisting of an Irish company, called the Montgomery Guards, and a battery of two guns, was called out, but there was no demand for their active services. The prompt action of the Mayor and the nerve of the police had cowed the mob spirit, and beyond an occasional street broil peace reigned, and the laws thereafter were enforced.

Mayor Levi D. Boone was one of the most respected and successful citizens of Chicago. He was born in 1808 near Lexington, Ky. His father was ' Squire" Boone, a noted Baptist minister ; his mother a Virginia woman, and he was a grandnephew of the famous frontiersman, Daniel Boone. His earliest recollections were of Indian warfare, in which his father, who was killed in the battle of Horseshoe Bend, took an active part. At twenty-one years of age hegraduated with honors from Transylvania Medical University. In 1829 he removed to Edwardsville, 111., and subsequently to Hillsboro', where he engaged in the practice of his profession. In 1832 he served as captain of a company of mounted troops in the Black Hawk war, and in 1836 removed to Chicago. For several years he was Western manager of a life insurance company, and he also served for a number of years as city physician, and his services in this capacity during the cholera epidemic of 1848, were invaluable. Prior to his election as Mayor he served three successive terms as a member of the Common Council. He was the first man in Chicago to advocate private bounty as an inducement to men to enlist in the Federal army during the war, and made a proposition to give a city lot or a farm of forty acres to the widow of the first Chicago volunteer who should fall in defense of the Union, and the widow of a soldier in Colonel Mulligan's gallant command received the Boone bounty. During the existence of Camp Douglas he was one of the physicians there. He was also a trustee of the Chicago University, and a valued member and patron of the Michigan Avenue Baptist Church.

The Campaign Of I 862 Arnold And Lovejoy

The opposition to the local Democracy having experienced success in putting a former Democrat at the head of their ticket in 1855, tried the same plan in 1856, nominating Francis. C. Sherman, who had been elected Mayor as a Democrat in 1841, and who still retained great popularity. Mr. Sherman was nominated as an anti-Nebraska Democrat, in the hope that a sentiment which was believed to hold sway over a majority of the voters would accrue advantageously to the ticket. The ticket was all American, or by many called " Know-nothing," except Mr. Sherman, and his nomination was due principally to the efforts of " Long John" Wentworth, who gave him the earnest support of the Chicago Daily Democrat.

The nominee of the Democratic City Convention was Thomas Dyer, an old and respected settler of Chicago, and prominent business man. The support of Mr. Sherman lacked cohesion, and when the returns were counted on the 10th of March, the Democrats had a large majority. Mayor Dyer was a native of Connecticut, and his father was an officer of the Revolution. He was raised as a farmer, but developed business proclivities, and in 1835 he moved to Chicago, and soon engaged in general trade. He became a member of the warehouse firm of Wadsworth, Dyer & Chapin, one of the first warehouses established in the city. He was later elected a director of the Galena and Chicago Union Railroad ; served a term in the State Legislature ; and was President of the Chamber of Commerce in 1848. He died at Middletown, Conn., June 6, 1862, aged 57 years.

From 1854 to 1857 Chicago was the recognized ceifter in the West of anti-slavery sentiment, and in 1856 the movement which resulted in making Kansas a free State radiated from this city. One of the first and most enthusiastic Kansas meetings was held in the Courthouse square on the evening of Saturday, May 31. Under the following spirited headlines the Chicago Daily Tribune of June 2 gave an account of the meeting :

" Illinois Alive and Awake !" " Ten Thousand Freemen in Council!" "Two Thousand Old Hunkers on Hand!" "Fifteen Thousand Dollars Subscribed for Kansas ! ! !"

" Norman B. Judd presided, and made the opening speech, and he was followed by Francis A. Hoffman. J. C. Vaughn, in an eloquent speech, presented the claims of Kansas for immediate relief, and offered the following resolutions :

" Resolved, That we recommend the adoption of a similar policy to the people of all the States of the Union, ready and willing to aid ; and also a thorough concert and co-operation among them, through committees of correspondence, on this subject.

"Resolved, That Tuthill King, R. M. Hough, C. B. Waite, J. H. Dunham, Dr. Gibbs, J. T. Ryerson and W. B. Egan be a finance committee to raise and distribute material aid."

The Kansas speakers were Col. James H. Lane and Mr. Hinman. Col. Lane, who was considered one of the most remarkable orators of his time, made doubtless the most effective and ablest effort of his life, and it is unfortunate that no authentic record of his words on this occasion is known to exist. Some who were present have tried to preserve a portion of the address in the following extracts :

" The Missourians poured over the border in thousands, with bowie knives in their boots, their belts bristling with revolvers, their guns upon their shoulders, and three gallons of whisky per vote in their wagons. When asked where they came from their reply was, ' From Missouri ; ' when asked, ' What are you here for?' their reply was, 'Come to vote.' If any one should go there and attempt to deny these things, or apologize for them, the Missourians would spit upon him. They claim to own Kansas, to have a right to vote there and to make its laws, and to say what its institutions shall be.

" For the blood of free men shed on the soil of Kansas - for the blood now flowing in the streets of Lawrence - for every drop which has been shed since the people asked to be admitted as a state, the Administration is responsible. Before God and this people I arraign Frank Pierce as a murderer !

"In conclusion, I have only this to say : The people of Kansas have undying faith in the justice of their cause - in the eternal life of the truths maintained - and they ask the people of Illinois to do for them that which seems for them just."

" We regret we can only give a meager outline of the eloquent and telling effort of Col. Lane. * * * Language is inadequate to give the reader a conception of the effect of the recital of that tale of woe which men from Kansas had to tell ; the flashing eyes, the rigid muscles, and the frowning brows told a story to the looker-on that types cannot repeat. From the fact that the immense crowd kept their feet from eight till twelve o'clock, that even then they were unwilling the speakers should cease, or that the contributions should stop ; from the fact that working men, who have only the wages of the day for the purchase of the day's bread, emptied the contents of theirpockets into the general fund; that sailors threw in their earnings; that widows sent up their savings ; that boys contributed their pence ; that those who had no money gave what they had to spare; that those who had nothing to give offered to go as settlers and do their duty to Freedom on that now consecrated soil ; that every bold declaration for liberty, every allusion to the Revolution of 1776, and to the possibility that the battles of that period were to be fought over again in Kansas, were received as those things most to be desired. * * * Take it with its attending circumstances - the shortness of the notice, the character of the assembled multitude, and the work which was accomplished - it was the most remarkable meeting ever held in the State. We believe it will inaugurate a new era in Illinois. We believe it is the precursor of the liberation of Kansas from the hand of the oppressor, and of an all-pervading political revolution at home."

Chicago, Cook County And Illinois. Io5

This prediction was verified as a true one, for, during the year following, the Kansas excitement and slavery troubles elsewhere were moving causes resulting in the extension and thorough organization of the Republican party. John Wentworth, publisher and editor of the Chicago Democrat, who had for many years been prominent in political matters, and had extended his influence in local affairs by his cordial support of Francis C. Sherman, as an anti-Nebraska Democrat for Mayor the year before, was made the nominee for Mayor by the new party, against Mr. Carver, the regular Democratic nominee, and was elected upon the issues involved in the hastening and inevitable National struggle. The ticket was styled the Republican-Fusion ticket and it received 5,933 votes to 4,132 votes for Carver, the Democratic nominee; Mr. Wentworth's majority being 1,801. The election, which took place March 3, 1857, was bitterly contested, and great disorder and scenes of violence prevailed at the polls; the rioting resulting in the killing of one citizen and the wounding of many more. Charles Seifert, a respectable German citizen, having a wife and several children, was killed at the corner of Division and Sedgwick streets, the second precinct of the old Seventh ward ; and George Armour, a prominent citizen, since deceased, was one of the number who were seriously wounded in the first precinct of the same ward, at the southeast corner of Wells and Kinzie streets. In his inaugural address, delivered at Metropolitan hall, March 10, 1857, Mayor Wentworth deplored these scenes of violence and condemned the lawlessness, interference with voters and repeating, which it was charged had been prevalent on the day of election. He said : The continuance of ruling dynasties, in most nations, depends upon the power of a mercenary soldiery, to stifle the struggles of the oppressed. Here the success of dynasties depends upon the purity of the ballot box. * * * He then, who deprives one of his fellow citizens of a free access to the ballot box, deprives him of one of his inalienable rights, and acts the part of a tyrant and an oppressor. And he who votes, not having the right to vote, or is accessory to the voting of others who have no such rights, perpetrates a fraud upon his countrymen, and strikes a blow at the only safeguard of our Republican institutions - the purity of the ballot box.

Respecting the political policy of his administration, Mayor Wentworth said : " With the two immediate preceding administrations I could have no political sympathy. The doctrines of the former (American or Know-nothing) would proscribe a man for the unavoidable accident of his birthplace, whilst those of the latter (pro-slavery) would proscribe him for his sympathy in favor of free labor. As foreign labor constitutes the great bulk of free labor, those who would enfranchise our new territories favor liberal laws toward foreign immigration. Hence, at our recent election we saw the ultra ' Know-nothing,' who professes a desire to proscribe foreign labor as the competitor of slave labor, and the ultra pro-slavery foreigner, who professes a desire to proscribe everything in the shape of ' Know-nothingism/ voting the same ticket. Much as they professed to be opposed to each other, the friends of the last two administrations combined against the great Democratic-Republican reform movement of this year." Mayor Wentworth complained that the city had suffered greatly from the too free use of the pardoning power by state executives.

In respect to applicants for places under the city government, Mayor Wentworth said he should receive no personal or confidential communications, but should consider all as public documents, to which the public might have free access. The message continued in this connection : " No man is qualified to attend to the business of the city who could not earn the amount of his salary in some of the other avocations of life. * * * I shall labor to bring into the service, of the city a new order of men ; men who can get a living without office ; men who will labor for reform and economy ; men who will not be afraid to do their duty lest it may make them unpopular. I feel as though I had the whole city to select from, and that I am indebted to 'principles and not men' for my election. I publicly told our citizens before election that if any man supported me with the expectation of getting an office he would be disappointed, as no man while in office, who followed office-seeking as a means of livelihood, was ever known to recommend, much less carry out, a reform. * * * I shall send to you, in a few days, nominations for all the offices. Meanwhile, I hope no one will embarrass me with applications for himself or others. I look upon all my fellow citizens as candidates, and I have no doubt but I can find as good men as we ever had, who will be willing to accept our offices at much reduced salaries." Applicants for position on the police force were recommended to apply directly to the Committee on Police, and the message stated that it was important that all members of the police force should be bona-fide residents of the city. In respect to public improvements, the message continued : " I recommend the paving of all our first-class business streets, and macadamizing the others, as soon as the Water and Sewerage Commissioners have finished their works in them. The materials should be provided and the contracts ready to be let, so as to have the paving or macadamizing follow closely upon the abandonment of the streets by the Commissioners herein referred to. The system of planking our streets should be abandoned.

" The same change is necessary in our sidewalks, so far as relates to the more thickly-settled portions of our city. And so confident am I that plank sidewalks must give way everywhere to those of stone, that I would suggest to all persons who are building residences or stores that they adopt sidewalks of stone at once."

The bad condition of the streets was dwelt upon, and an appropriation of $500 for each ward, to better their condition, was recommended, and Mayor Wentworth offered to loan the city $5,000, without interest, to be applied to this purpose, should the embarrassed condition of the treasury be deemed an objection to the appropriation. In respect to the financial affairs of the city, the message was as follows : " We should raise revenue by annual taxation to meet our interest and pay our annual expenses, and we should not borrow any -money unless for some permanent improvement, which will carry down to posterity visible and tangible proofs of the justness of the debt we have saddled upon it.

" I would dislike to be called upon to point out to posterity the improvements in our city which have created our present indebtedness, and especially in view of the heavy taxes which we have been annually paying ostensibly for them. * * * Our citizens complained greatly and very justly of the heavy city taxes necessary to meet the expenses of the administration ending March, 1856. The taxes to meet the expenditures of the administration ending March, 1857, which are to be collected in 1858, will have to be higher still. Thus any advantage arising from measures of reform this year will not be experienced until the taxes are collected in 1859. By reference to our city charter it will be seen that the Council is restricted in borrowing to an amount not exceeding $100,000 in any one year. It cannot pledge the revenue of the city for the payment of, nor issue bonds for, a larger sum than this. This restriction has been looked upon by preceding Councils as an injunction, and, so far back as I have been enabled to trace, I find that, in addition to the annual taxes, the Council of each year has borrowed and used up this $100,000. It has been some consolation to our citizens, while paying their high taxes, that they were paying for the necessary expenses of the city government. Very few have known that $100,000 each year have been borrowed in addition to the proceeds of our enormous assessments for taxes, and this without reference to our water and sewerage debts. It may be said that this $100,000 has been annually expended for improvements. Yet it is very difficult to ascertain where the improvements are which have not been paid for by assessments or by special taxes on the property benefited. I have examined what purports to be an annual statement of the city's finances. From it I am unable to ascertain the amount of our indebtedness, or how much the Council of the past has anticipated the revenue of the present year. Whether the administration of this year shall be able to get along without borrowing the $100,000 in addition to the taxes, as has been customary, I have no facts from which to form an opinion. One of the Committee on Finance has informed me that he refused to sign the annual financial statement for the past year, and I learn that it was made up by the City Clerk. I would recommend that a thorough examination of our financial condition be immediately set on foot, not only as a matter of justice to our fellow citizens, but that the indebtedness chargeable to preceding administrations be not confounded with that chargeable to this."

Mayor Wentworth in 1857 introduced the first steam fire engine, the " Long John," and in i860, during his second administration he introduced two more, the " Liberty" and the " Economy." The present grade of the city was established during his first administration. It was during Mayor Wentworth's administration, in 1857, that he made his celebrated raid upon "The Sands." The criminal and law defying classes had taken possession of the lake shore beach on the North side, as squatters, and occupied a large number of shanties, which were the scenes of drunken revels and bacchanalian orgies too vicious for description. The police by order of the Mayor razed these domicils to the ground, burning many and clearing "the Sands" of their lawless occupants, the while the Revenue Cutter Michigan stood off in the lake ready to enforce the Mayor's efforts to purify Uncle Sam's domain, and rid the city of a plague spot.

Mr. Wentworth introduced in Congress the first bill ever drawn in favor of the bonded warehouse system. He early saw the importance of this question and knew legislation must be devised to control the great interests involved. February 1 7, 1 846, in pursuance of previous notice he asked and obtained leave to introduce a bill (No. 241) to establish the warehousing system, which bill was read the first and second times and referred to the Committee on Commerce, of which Mr. Wentworth was a member. The other members of the committee thought action illadvised at that time, while all admitted that some day the bill would be a necessity and have to be adopted. Mr. Wentworth did not cease his agitation of the subject until the bill became a law. The bonded warehouse system now in vogue, therefore, originated in Chicago, and it stands as devised by Mr. Wentworth, with a few added amendments.

The Hon. John Wentworth's name and fame are not confined to Chicago. His great force of character, eminence in public life and the many public services he has rendered are matters of more than mere local record. He was born in Sandwich, Strafford county, N. H., March 5, 18 15, his father being the Hon. Paul Wentworth ; his mother Lydia (Cogswell) Wentworth, and his paternal grandfather the Hon. John Wentworth, Jr., member of the Continental Congress from New Hampshire, whose name is signed to the original " Articles of Confederation." He passed his early youth amid the sterile surroundings of a New Hampshire farm, and later attended various academies in the larger towns of his native state, where he developed great oratorical and literary ability. In the winter of 1831 he taught school and in the fall of 1832 he entered Dartmouth College, graduating therefrom in 1836, meantime teaching school in the winters. After graduating from Dartmouth he determined to go West, and he landed in Chicago October 25, 1836, bearing letters of introduction to Governor John Reynolds, of Illinois, and Governor Henry Dodge, of Wisconsin. Accidentally meeting Matthew S. Moloney, then of the leading mercantile house of Wild, Moloney & Co., formerly of Northfield, N. H., and an old schoolmate, that gentleman strongly recommended to him the United States Hotel - previously the Sauganash - kept by the late John Murphy, afterward well-known as an Alderman and leading politician of the city. He determined upon pursuing the study of law, and made the necessary arrangements with Henry Moore, a leading lawyer, whose ill-health required him to return to the East, where he died of consumption. On November 23, 1836, Mr. Wentworth was induced to take editorial charge of the Chicago Democrat. 'The young editor speedily made the influence of the paper felt in National, State and local politics, and through its medium did much to develop the interests of Chicago and the Northwest. Within three years Mr. Wentworth had purchased the paper, paying therefor $2,800, which he had earned by incessant labor and rigid economy. He took an active part in the election of Chicago's first Mayor, William B. Ogden, and was the secretary of the first political meeting ever called in the old First Ward. In 1837 he was appointed by the Council the first corporation printer of Chicago, and in 1838 was appointed School Inspector. Mr. Wentworth has ever been one of the most persistent advocates of the common-school system in the West. In 1839 he was appointed one of the " aids-de-camp " of Governor Carlin. In 1840 he started the Daily Democrat, the first Democratic daily in the Northwest. In the fall of 1841 he was admitted to the bar, and in May, 1843, was nominated for Congress by the Democratic Convention held at Joliet, and duly elected, and was re-nominated and re-elected until he had served twelve years in Congress altogether. He was a member of the Baltimore National Convention of 1844, which nominated James K. Polk for the presidency ; also of that of 1848, which nominated General Lewis Cass. He was chairman of the committee that called the celebrated National River and Harbor Convention which assembled at Chicago in 1847. He attended the inauguration of Abraham Lincoln, and was one of the committee to receive his remains at Chicago. His action upon the slave question, and change from Democracy to Republicanism was thus commented upon by Zebina Eastman, in 1857 : "In politics Colonel Wentworth acted with the old-line Democratic party ; but when the old party split up, by mak'ing the slavery extension question a test, he went, with such other Democrats as Hamlin, Wilmot, King, Trumbull, Fremont, Blair, and others, into what is known as the Republican movement." He was a vice-president of the famous Republican Convention of 1880, being a delegate from the first Illinois district, but he among other delegates was ruled out. He did not cease his advocacy of Gen. Grant as a candidate, however, and was a recognized leader in the immortal fight of the "306" for " Ulysses the Silent." Mr. Wentworth was one of the original stockholders of the Chicago & Galena Railroad, and continued one of its most urgent supporters, and was chairman of the executive committee of the board when the road was consolidated with the Northwestern. He has also been one of the financial pillars of the First National Bank for many years. A portrait of Mr. Wentworth by the eminent artist John Phillips, hangs on the walls of the Historical Society, and a life-sized portrait by

George P. A. Healey adorns the parlors of the Calumet Club. Of late years Mr. Wentworth has given his close attention to a magnificent farm estate of some 5,000 acres, at Summit, Cook county, and while he has lived for many years at the Sherman House, he considers the Summit property his homestead. Mr. Wentworth stands six feet six inches in height, which accounts for his familiar sobriquet, " Long John," and in his prime weighed three hundred pounds. At 76 years of age he is still hale and hearty, but begins to show the inevitable ravages of time, and a life of toil and activity.

In 1858 the Republican nomination to the Mayoralty was deemed equivalent to election, and Mr. Wentworth was offered, but declined, renomination. The leaders then looked elsewhere for a candidate, and selected John C. Haines, a representative business man, who had served as Alderman from the Fifth Ward for six years, and who was elected March 2, 1858, and, after serving one term acceptably, was renominated by his party, and re-elected March i, 1859.

John C. Haines is a native of New York state, having been born at Deerfield, May 26, 181 8. When but seventeen years old he came to Chicago, entered upon commercial pursuits, and, by industry and economy, soon attained an enviable reputation and a comfortable fortune. In 1846 Mr. Haines became associated with Jared Gage in the proprietorship of the Chicago Flour Mills. This enterprise was a success. In 1853 Mr. Haines, J. H. Woodworth and George W. Dole were elected Water Commissioners, and during their term of office the present water system was begun and completed. During his term in the City Council his business interests underwent a change ; he dissolved partnership with Mr. Gage, and was made President of the Illinois Savings Institution.

In 1869 Mr. Haines was chosen as a member of the Constitutional Convention. In 1874 he was elected to the State Senate from the First District, and he served in the Twenty-ninth and Thirtieth General Assemblies. Of late years Mr. Haines has taken no active part in politics, but has devoted himself to the manufacturing and financial interests with which he is identified.

In the spring of i860 John Wentworth was induced, by the political exigencies of the day, to become a candidate for Mayor for a second time. He was tendered the Republican nomination unanimously, accepted it, and made a stirring campaign, and was elected by a majority of 1,267 out of a total of 18,747 votes cast. His second inaugural address was delivered before the Common

I I 2 Politics And Politicians

Council and citizens at Metropolitan hall on the evening of March 22, i860, and he had the following to say : " Gentlemen of the Common Council : The chapter of the Charter of the City of Chicago which requires me to take and subscribe to the oath of office just administered to me, defines the duties of the Mayor as follows : ' He shall preside over the meetings of the Common Council, and take care that the laws of the state and the ordinances of the city are duly enforced, respected and observed, and that all other executive officers of the city discharge their respective duties. He shall from time to time give the Common Council such information and recommend such measures as he may deem advantageous to the city.' There are many laws and ordinances appertaining to our municipal government, the propriety of which may be questioned, but the oath of office which I have just taken requires me to take care that all of them be 'duly enforced, respected and observed.' Furthermore, I am required to take care that all the other officers of the city discharge their duties in causing each and every one of the laws and ordinances to be 'duly enforced, respected and observed.' Chapter II of the City Charter provides for the removal of every person appointed or elected to any office, by a vote of two-thirds of all the Aldermen, upon good cause therefor being shown ; and it is good cause for the removal of any man when he takes the oath which all officers are compelled to take, and then gives no attention to plain violations of the city laws and ordinances. Such an officer perjures himself, and ought to be promptly removed therefor. * * * A large number of the city officers are appointed by the Mayor. I shall appoint no man to any office, nor allow him when appointed to remain in any office, unless he can read and understand the laws and ordinances appertaining to the duties of his office, and unless he will heartily co-operate with me in taking care that the laws and ordinances be 'duly enforced, respected and observed.' It is no part of the duty of executive officers to inquire into the justice or expediency of any law. It is enough for them to know that thus saith the law. Besides, the best way to bring about the repeal of an obnoxious law is to enforce it, and every law which ought not to be or cannot be enforced, should be at once repealed. Our laws should be few in number and simple in language. The enactments of our Legislature are beyond the reach of this Council, but I recommend a thorough revision of our city ordinances with reference to this consideration. I am not a candidate for re-election, and I recommend that at the next session of our Legislature our charter be so amended as to make the Mayor ineligible to an immediate re-election. This is now the case with the Sheriff of our county and the Marshal of our city. The Mayor's office is not the place for any man who desires immediate political preferment of any kind, lest the desire to make friends and the fear to make enemies prove incentives to him to deviate from the peremptory requirements of the law. The Mayor is but the right arm of the law, and there should be nothing of human ambition to paralyze the power of that arm. These sentiments are but a repetition of those promulgated in my inaugural address of 1857, and which controlled my action whilst in office. For a long period of the time during which I have been a resident of Chicago, the party with which I was politically associated was in a majority. Yet, during that time, I never entertained the least desire to discharge the duties of the office of Mayor, inasmuch as my name was used in connection with other offices. I looked upon it as an office in which a man who did his dutystood no chance to make friends, but was sure to greatly multiply the number of his opponents. I had received, at five different elections, the highest office in the gift of the people, and, in justice to others, I had no right to expect any further honors in that direction Having finished my political career, and thus being in a situation in which I could afford to act independently and set at defiance the spirit of lawlessness which was overrunning the city, I consented to take the office of Mayor. Remembering my oath of office, I at once set myself at work to enforce all the laws and ordinances of the city. This gave great offence to a class of voters who professed to entertain peculiar notions respecting what they called necessary evils in large cities, of which evils they themselves were not only conspicuous patrons, but often large beneficiaries. They censured me for executing laws which they dared not petition to have repealed, and which should now be repealed if they cannot or ought not be enforced. But, nevertheless, I continued to enforce the laws. Portions of our city confiscated to vice and crime were made orderly and respectable, and are now inhabited by some of our most law-abiding citizens. Gambling houses, brothels and other abodes of lawlessness were broken up and their inmates brought to justice or compelled to leave the city. Many of these offenders, thus disturbed by an honest execution of long-existing laws, were persons of wealth, talents and position. They had not then reached that degradation into which an established career of vice is sure eventually to plunge every one. Feeling the effects of such an administration, this class of men have been making it their business to see that there never should be another such Mayor in any city in the Union, and so they have tried, by every means in their power, to make my former administration odious, both at home and abroad. Not only has a portion of the press of our own but that of almost every city in the Union, been at work so to mould public opinion that no Mayor in any city would ever again endeavor to enforce the laws against this class of offenders. Under this state of things, I deemed it a great moral necessity to appeal to the people again. * * * I had no other object in becoming a candidate for Mayor than to have an opportunity to repeat them under the same circumstances. When a candidate in 1857 I received 5,924 votes. At the election just terminated I received, out of 18,747, tne number of 10,007 votes, making a majority of 1,267 votes, and being almost double the number I received at my first election, and this, too, with the oldest and most powerful organization in the Union opposing me upon a difference of political sentiments, whilst it was aided by that element of lawlessness which in large cities claims to hold the balance of power, and which timid and corrupt aspirants are too apt to court, but which I have ever defied, and shall do my utmost to remove from the city. Fortunately, since I left the office of Mayor an important ordinance, commonly known as the 'Vagrant Act,' has been passed, and I intend to rigidly enforce it. Under its provisions all suspicious persons can be compelled to give ' a good account of themselves,' whereas, under my previous administration, I had to await overt acts. My course, then, cannot be misinterpreted. It is not my fault that we have unpopular and unjust laws, but it will be my fault if they are not faithfully executed. I then have but one order to give to those whom the people are taxed to support as my subordinates, and that is : Remember your oath ! Read the laws ! Execute them ! " Mayor Wentworth proceeded to say that he should refuse to allow any one to approach him personally with the view of influencing him with reference to any act, ordinance or resolution of the Council, but that all such communications must be in writing, to be filed with the City Clerk, and be considered public documents and part of the city archives. Attention was called to the fact that in 1857 the funded debt of the city was $535,000, which he had decreased $21,000, and which yet remained $514,000, with nothing to show to posterity to justify the outlay. After deducting the proceeds of the tax sale for the current year and of all other revenues occurring prior to April i, there would still remain a floating debt of $300,000. There would be no money in the treasury, and Mayor Wentworth proposed to ask an extension upon all debts contracted prior to April 1, and to petition the Legislature for the passage of a law allowing the city to fund the debt. As a measure of economy, he recommended the vacation of the office of City Superintendent, and the employment of some person, at a per ^^compensation, to close up the few works remaining unfinished. The abolishment of the offices of City Physician and Health officer were also recommended. Inasmuch as it was the duty of the county to provide for the sick poor, he recommended the sale of the city hospital, which had been erected at a cost of $73,538, to the county, which had need of it, whilst the city had not. It had been suggested that orders could be issued directly to the police Lieutenants of divisions, and thereby save the salary of the Captain, and Mayor Wentworth said he was willing to try the experiment of getting along without a Captain, and should not, therefore, at present nominate anybody for that office. He also thought the city could get along without a prosecuting attorney in the police courts, and that the City Attorney should do the work. There was great need of a new registry law, and of efforts \x> purify the city of fraudulent voters and protect the elective franchise. A board of public works was much needed, both to systematize and economize the public improvements. In the legitimate discharge of their respective duties, the Street Commissioners, the Sewerage Commissioners, the Water Commissioners and the City Superintendent had been found generally opening and filling the same ground in a single week. The great object in the way of the much-needed reform was the dislike of the incumbents of the various positions to be legislated out of office. Mayor Wentworth recommended also, upon the expiration of the terms of office of the Street Commissioners and City Superintendent, the consolidation of the Water and Sewage Commissioners into a Board of Public Works. This would save $25,000 per annum to the city. The ordinance for the organization of the paid Fire Department, passed before the city had much experience with reference to this indispensable institution, needed alteration in many important particulars. In the revision of the rules of the Council, it was recommended that that body dispense with the " Committee on Claims," which was created before the new charter went into effect. Thereafter all disputed accounts would be referred directly to the Mayor and the

Finance Committee, and their decision would be a bar to any action of the Common Council. The Council were recommended to scan the general appropriation bill due in the month of April, and, after that should have passed, to close the door of the treasury for the remainder of the year. Great circumspection was recommended in any action of the Council looking to the vacation of streets and alleys. By a law of the last session of the Legislature a majority of a quorum could vacate any street or alley without previous notice. In the known absence of some members of the Council, two members could call eleven together, and six of the eleven could close up Lake street or any street in the city. The charter required that all officers of the city not elected by the people should be nominated by the Mayor. As both the Comptroller and the School Agent were required to be nominated by the Mayor and confirmed by the Council, it had occurred to the Mayor that, as there was no difference in the means of appointing these two officers, the duties of the School Agent might be performed by the Comptroller, without any additional expense to the city. If the Comptroller should not give ample bonds to cover the amount of school funds, the Council had power to increase them. In this way the salary of the School Agent, which was $500, would be saved to the school fund. The members of the Common Council were prohibited from receiving any office at the hands of the city, and Mayor Wentworth hoped the day was not far distant when the Board of Supervisors of Cook county, the Board of Guardians of Reform School and all other boards would have the same restrictions applied to them as were applied to the Council. The message concluded as follows : " However much we may differ respecting the question of the voluntary and involuntary systems of labor that now constitute the only difference between the two great political parties of our nation, there is no necessity that we should be divided in our opinions or our actions in municipal affairs. Good order affects us all alike. Economy reduces the taxes of all alike. The preservation of our city's credit benefits us all alike. A proper enforcement of the laws gives security to all alike. We all have children in whose future our hopes are alike concentrated. Our interests are one. Our expectations are the same ; our destinies identical. Why, then, should we differ ? I am your presiding officer for the last time. Seven indorsements at the hands of my fellow citizens have satisfied my most sanguine aspirations. It is for some of them soon to stand in the position which I now occupy ; and when they do, they will appreciate my appeal to forget all outside differences and remember only the interests of our city. The pressure upon us from claimants, contractors and office-hunters will be great. We must steel our hearts to all other sympathies but those for the taxpayers of our city. The man who does this belongs to my party, so far as all municipal affairs are concerned, and I belong to his. The eyes of all our citizens are upon us. They expect much in this crisis in our financial affairs at our hands. Your future prospects demand that the expectation shall not be destroyed ; whilst I, in my determination to retire to private life, have but one ambition, and in accordance therewith I invoke the aid of the Ruler of the Universe that our administration may be governed in all things by the right, and be conducive to the lasting welfare of our city."

Sectional issues were running high in the spring of 1861, and the excitement aroused by the imminence of civil war outweighed every other issue in local politics. Julian S. Rumsey, one of the most active business men, and a patriotic citizen, was made the Republican nominee for Mayor, and he was elected April 16. In the evening of that day at Metropolitan hall, where a great ratification meeting was held, he delivered a notable oration in behalf of loyalty, patriotism, and the'maintenance of the Union. This was but a few days after the firing on Fort Sumter had aroused the indignation of all the loyal men of the North. Mr. Rumsey became known as the first " War Mayor," and he was a member of the Executive Committee of the first War Finance Committee. Shortly after his election a Committee of One Hundred was formed to visit Washington, to see if wise counsels could not be made to prevail, and a conflict with the South thereby be avoided. At the head of this Committee was Mayor Rumsey and Stephen Clary, President of the Board of Trade, and its membership included such well-known citizens as Norman B. Judd, Isaac N. Arnold, Philip A. Hoyne, W. C. D. Grannis, Richard Wilson, of the Evening Journal, Joseph Clarkson, Tertius Wadsworth, Dwight Booth, George H. Phelps, W. F. Tucker, W. G. Houghteling and others. They reached Washington by way of Pittsburgh and Baltimore, and upon arrival at the capital were entertained in the Senate restaurant by Stephen A. Douglas and John F. Farnsworth, who were at that time not on speaking terms on account of former political differences, but both were desirous of doing- honor to the distinguished Chicagoans composing the Committee. Washington was in an uproar, and the air was surcharged with martial excitement.

I I 8 Politics And Politicians

The Committee conferred with William H. Seward, Andrew Johnson and Gen. Winfield Scott, but were not encouraged to believe that hostilities could be averted. Gen. Scott shed tears when he acknowledged that avoidance of a resort to arms seemed hopeless. The day following their arrival the Committee waited upon President Buchanan. Philip A. Hoyne relates that the President received them in the Blue room of the White House and treated them very courteously. He assured them that he was doing all in his power to heal up the sectional troubles without recourse to arms, but what the result would be he could not foretell.

The Committee were not satisfied with the result of their visit, having accomplished nothing ; and many of them departed, firmly convinced that the President believed the country had grown so large and its interests so diverse that separation was inevitable. They had been joined by Charles M. Larrabee, a bright but somewhat eccentric lawyer, and a member of Congress from the La Crosse, Wis., district, and as they were about to leave the President's presence Congressman Larrabee upbraided him by saying : " If you had not forced the quarrel against Douglas in our own party this trouble would not now be upon the country." President Buchanan maintained an unruffled exterior and replied quietly but with great earnestness that Democratic party politics had nothing to do with the attitude of the South, where the chivalrous spirits that led the people believed they were contending for as vital a principle of liberty as the people of the North were. The President closed the interview by saying that it used to be thought that the Democratic party could not survive after Jackson, and many now thought it could not live without Douglas. He warmly disavowed, however, having been instrumental in precipitating the quarrel with Douglas.

During the campaign of 1840 Mayor Rumsey distinguished himself by helping to sink, in a bin of wheat in his warehouse, the famous old brass cannon found in the river near Rush street bridge in 1837, and over the ownership of which a heated controversy arose. It was the desire of Mayor Rumsey and his friends to take the old gun to Springfield to assist in booming Gen. Harrison for President. Mr. Rumsey arrived in Chicago in 1835 and with his brother George, entered the employ of his uncle, Mr. Dole, then of the firm of Newberry & Dole. He developed a commercial and speculative disposition ; became a member of the Board of Trade; in 1859-60 was President of

Chicago, Cook County, And Illinois. Ii9

In the election for delegates to the Convention to frame a new State Constitution, which took place in November, 1861, the Chicago representatives elected were John Wentworth, Melville W. Fuller and Elliott Anthony. The Democrats had a majority of fifteen in the Convention over Republicans and Fusionists. The Convention, however, undertook a number of extraordinary acts, among other#an ordinance appropriating $500,000 for the benefit of the sick and wounded soldiers of Illinois ; but Governor Yates held that the duties of the Convention were simply to frame a new Constitution, and he refused to recognize the legality of any other act. The new Constitution, as submitted to the voters for adoption, provided that no negro or mulatto should migrate to or settle in Illinois, nor should any negro or mulatto have the right of suffrage, or hold office in this state. These articles were voted upon separately, and both were carried by large majorities, while the balance of the Constitution was defeated by a majority of 25,515 in the state.

The State and Congressional campaign of 1862 was a notable one, owing to the war excitement, the preservation of the Union overshadowing all other issues at that time. August 8 a great Union mass meeting was held at Chicago, which was addressed by Isaac N. Arnold, Owen Lovejoy and John F. Farnsworth.

"Starting from the nation's capital, all along through New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Indiana, you see avast uprising of the people, with a fixed, stern determination, at any cost, to crush out this vast rebellion. But it is in the Northwest, and in this great city of the Northwest, that the zeal and energy of patriotism is most active and all-pervading. Illinois is writing for herself and her children a glorious record. She had won distinguished honors in the Mexican war. Bissell and Hardin had associated their names and the name of Illinois with Palo Alto and Buena Vista ; but in this far more glorious war, in which the faithful fights for his country against rebels and traitors far more cruel and barbarous than Mexican guerillas, Illinois covered herself with glory. The bones of her sons lie scattered on every battle-field in the valley of the Mississippi. With more than 60,000 of her gallant sons in the field, the President, whom Illinois has given to the nation, calls for more troops. Illinois springs to the rescue. Her commercial capital speaks to-day in a voice which will thrill 'the nation. The Northwest is ready. As a citizen of this city, I claim to-day to express my thanks to the Board of Trade. You have done nobly, and your efforts will tell in all the Northwest, and be felt throughout the loyal states, and I doubt not the gallant soldiers you raise will be felt among the barbarians in arms against our country. Every great war has underlying it a great idea. What is the great idea which gives impulse and motive-power to this war? It is our nationality. The grand idea of a great flbntinental republic, ocean bounded, and extending from the lakes to the gulf, commanding the respect of the world, is an idea implanted deeply in the American heart, and it is one for which every American patriot will fight, and if necessary, die. Nowhere is this sentiment stronger than in the Northwest. With one hand we clasp the East, and with the other the Northwest will grip the South, and we will hold the Union together. We will not see this grand Republic split up into contemptible Mexican provinces - always fighting and destroying each other. Incident to this idea of nationality - and becoming every day stronger - is another, that this grand republic must be all free, filled with one great, free population. The suicide of slavery is being enacted before our eyes. Let the cursed barbarous, traitor-breeding institution die. The slaveholder has himself given to it the mortal wound ; let no timid Northern dough-face attempt to staunch the blood. The end of slavery will prove the regeneration of the nation.

"Liberal bounty is offered to the gallant volunteer. I wish to state a fact which may not be generally known. The Congress just adjourned provided by law that all our foreign-born soldiers should become the adopted children of the Republic ; he who fights for the flag shall be immediately a citizen. We could not do less for the gallant Germans, the countrymen of Sigel, and Osterhaus, and Willich, - for the brave Irishmen, who, under Meagher, and Shields, and Mulligan, are fighting for the old flag.

lo every Irishman I would say, Remember Corcoran, and rally to his rescue. Who shall pay the cost of this war ? Let us quarter on the enemy, confiscate his property, and free the slaves of rebels."

Isaac Newton Arnold was admitted to the bar in 1835, and came to Chicago in October, 1836. On January 3, 1837, ne was one of the organizers of the Mechanics' Institute. In March, was one of the first School Inspectors chosen under the law of February 27, 1840, and was Secretary to the Board of Education in 1840-41. In April, 1841, he was appointed master in chancery, which position he held until he was elected to the State Legislature in 1842, being re-elected in 1844. ^n that year also he was a Presidential Elector on the Democratic ticket. In 1856 he was again elected to the Legislature on the Anti-Slavery ticket. In i860 he was elected to Congress, and was re-elected in 1862. During his term he, on February 15, 1864, introduced the resolution to amend the Constitution so that slavery should be abolished. It passed, and Chicago took the first step in the person of Mr. Arnold to kill slavery in the United States. His Congressional career terminated on March 3, 1865. He was a distinguished writer, and his " Life of Abraham Lincoln " is one of the finest biographical works extant. In his labors for Chicago he was unselfish and indefatigable. He was commissioned First Lieutenant of the Chicago Cavalry at its organization in the early spring of 1842, and at the outbreak of the civil war was unwearied in his efforts against the success of secession. At the time of the suppression of the Chicago Times he, with Senator Trumbull, telegraphed to rescind the order for its discontinuance. He was one of the incorporators of the Chicago Relief and Aid Society ; was one of the earliest trustees of the Merchants' Loan and Trust Company ; was one of the first members of the Chicago Historical Society, and was its president from 1876 until his death on April 24, 1884.