Fifty Years of Public Service | Page 9

of the Assembly, and were determined to make a vigorous effort
to carry their measure at the session of the Legislature to be held in
1822-23. Governor Coles, in his first message, recommended the
emancipation of the French slaves. This served as the spark to kindle
into activity all the elements in favor of slavery.
Slavery could not be introduced, nor was it believed that the French
slaves could be emancipated, without an amendment to the Constitution;
the Constitution could not be amended without a new convention, to
obtain which two thirds of each branch of the Legislature had to concur
in recommending it to the people; and the voters, at the next election,
had to sanction it by a majority of all the votes given for members of
the Legislature.
When the Legislature assembled, it was found that the Senate contained
the requisite two-thirds majority; but in the House of Representatives,
by deciding a contested election in favor of one of the candidates, the
Slave party would have one more than two- thirds, while by deciding in
favor of the other, they would lack one vote of having the majority.
These two candidates were John Shaw and Nicholas Hanson, who
claimed to represent the County of Pike, which then included all the
military tract and all the country north of the Illinois River to the
northern limits of the State.

The leaders of the Slave party were anxious to re-elect Jesse B. Thomas
to the United States Senate. Hanson would vote for him, but Shaw
would not; Shaw would vote for the convention, but Hanson would not.
The party had use for both of them, and they determined to use them
both, one after the other. For this purpose, they first decided in favor of
Hanson, admitted him to a seat, and with his vote elected their United
States Senator; and then, toward the close of the session, with mere
brute force, and in the most barefaced manner, they reconsidered their
former vote, turned Hanson out of his seat, and decided in favor of
Shaw, and with his vote carried their resolution for a convention.
There immediately resulted a very fierce contest before the people,
characterized by lavish detraction and personal abuse--one of the most
bitter, prolonged, and memorable in the history of the State --and the
question of making Illinois permanently a Slave State was put to rest by
a majority of about two thousand votes. The census of 1850 was the
first that enumerated no slaves in our State.
In this connection I cannot avoid giving a little account of Frederick
Adolphus Hubbard, who was Lieutenant-Governor when Coles was
Governor. Hubbard seemed to be a very ignorant man, but ambitious to
become Governor of the State, or to attain some other position that
would give him reputation.
"It is related of him that while engaged in the trial of a lawsuit,
involving the title to a certain mill owned by Joseph Duncan [who
afterwards became Governor], the opposing counsel, David J. Baker,
then recently from New England, had quoted from Johnson's New York
reports a case strongly against Hubbard's side. Reading reports of the
decisions of courts before juries was a new thing in those days; and
Hubbard, to evade the force of the authority as a precedent, coolly
informed the jury that Johnson was a Yankee clock-peddler, who had
been perambulating up and down the country gathering up rumors and
floating stories against the people of the West, and had them published
in a book under the name of 'Johnson's Reports.' He indignantly
repudiated the book as authority in Illinois, and clinched the argument
by adding: 'Gentlemen of the jury, I am sure you will not believe

anything that comes from that source; and besides that, what did
Johnson know about Duncan's mill anyhow?'"( 1)
Hubbard, in 1826, became a candidate for Governor of Illinois. He
canvassed the State, and the following is a sample of his speeches,
recorded by Ford:
"Fellow-citizens, I offer myself as a candidate before you for the office
of Governor. I do not pretend to be a man of extraordinary talents, nor
do I claim to be equal to Julius Caesar or Napoleon Bonaparte, nor yet
to be as great a man as my opponent, Governor Edwards. Nevertheless
I think I can govern you pretty well. I do not think it will require a very
extraordinary smart man to govern you; for to tell you the truth,
fellow-citizens, I do not believe you will be very hard to govern,
nohow."( 2)
In 1825, Governor Coles notified Lieutenant-Governor Hubbard that he
had occasion to leave the State for a time and required the latter to take
charge of affairs. Hubbard did so, and when Governor Coles returned
Hubbard declined to give up the office,