Fifty Years of Public Service | Page 8

for
two hundred miles west was opened. Settlers, principally from
Missouri, immediately began to flock in, and with the first attempt to
hold an election a bloody epoch set in for that region between the
pro-slavery and anti-slavery factions, fanned by attempts in
Massachusetts and other Eastern States to make of Kansas a Free State.
By methods of intimidation, Whitfield, a slave-holder, was elected the
first delegate to Congress. At a second election thirteen State Senators
and twenty-six members of a Lower House were declared elected. For
this purpose 6,320 votes were cast--more than twice the number of
legal voters.
Foreign affairs other than Spain's unfriendly activities also had a share
in distracting attention. The United States paid Mexico ten million
dollars to be free of the Guadalupe Hidalgo obligation to defend the
Mexican frontier against the Indians.
My first experience after I was elected City Attorney, was to prosecute
persons charged with violating the ordinances prohibiting the sale of
intoxicating liquors. One of my preceptors, the Hon. Benjamin S.
Edwards, was a strong and earnest temperance man. He volunteered to
assist me in the prosecution of what we called "liquor cases." The fact
is that for a time he took charge of the cases, and I assisted him. Life
was made a burden to violators of liquor ordinances that year in
Springfield.
The following year, 1856, was a Presidential year. I was chosen as an
elector on what was called the "Fillmore Ticket." I did not at that time
believe very strongly in Fremont for President. During the same year, I
was nominated as a candidate for the House of Representatives of the

Illinois Legislature, and was supported by both the Fillmore party and
the Free-soil party and thus elected.
The House of Representatives of the Legislature of 1856 was so close
that if all the members who had not been elected as Democrats united,
they had one majority. If any one of them went to the Democrats, the
Democrats would have the control. One of the men elected on the
Fillmore ticket went over, thus giving the Democracy the coveted one
necessary. The Republicans, or as they were then called, Free-soilers,
attempted to organize the House by recognizing the clerk of the
previous House, who was a Free-soiler, it then being the custom to
have the clerk call the House to order and preside until a temporary
organization was perfected. The Democrats refused to recognize the
clerk whom the opposition recognized. The Democrats declared by
vote the election of a temporary chairman, nominated and elected a
sergeant-at-arms and a deputy, and ordered the two latter officers to
carry the clerk out of the hall; which was promptly done at the expense
of a good suit of clothes to the clerk who departed reluctantly. This was
my first experience in legislation.
A careful reading of the annals of the State of Illinois will show that
this incident is by no means unique in its history.
To go back a few years, when Edward Coles, who had been private
secretary to President Madison, was elected Governor, it was by a mere
plurality vote over his highest competitor, and--to use the language of
former Governor Ford--he was so unfortunate as to have a majority of
the Legislature against him during his whole term of service. The
election had taken place soon after the settlement of the Missouri
question. The Illinois Senators had voted for the admission of Missouri
as a Slave State, while her only Representative in the Lower House
voted against it. This all helped to keep alive some questions for or
against the introduction of slavery.
About this time, also, a tide of immigrants was pouring into Missouri
through Illinois, from Virginia and Kentucky. In the Fall of the year,
every great road was crowded with them, all bound for Missouri, with
their money and long trains of teams and negroes. These were the most

wealthy and best educated immigrants from the Slave States. Many
people who had land and farms to sell, looked upon the good fortune of
Missouri with envy; whilst the lordly immigrant, as he passed along
with his money and droves of negroes, took a malicious pleasure in
increasing it by pretending to regret the short-sighted policy of Illinois,
which excluded him from settlement, and from purchasing and holding
lands.
In this mode a desire to make Illinois a Slave State became quite
prevalent. Many persons had voted for Brown or Phillips with this view,
whilst the friends of a Free State had rallied almost in a body for Coles.
Notwithstanding the defeat of the Democrats at this election, they were
not annihilated. They had been beaten for Governor only by a division
in their own ranks, whilst they had elected a large majority of each
House