P. 166 NINIAN EDWARDS, GOVERNOR OF ILLINOIS
THE STATE BANK—AN INTERESTING DOCTRINE—SCHOOL LEGISLATION
—THE WINNEBAGO WAR
THE STATE BANK
Mr. Edwards had been a prominent figure in Illinois since the separation of Illinois territory from the Indiana territory, in 1809. At that time he was appointed governor of the Illinois territory by President Madison. He served in that capacity till the territory was admitted into the Union in 1818. He then served as senator from Illinois and succeeded himself in March, 1819. In 1824 he resigned to accept an appointment as minister to Mexico. Mr. Crawford was at that time secretary of the treasury and while before a committee of the lower house, made some reference to Mr. Edwards which the latter took as a reflection upon his character. Mr. Edwards sent a communication to the lower house in which he made some serious charges against the management of the treasury. An investigation into the treasury department showed Mr. Edwards charges not sustained by the facts, and Mr. Edwards resigned his mission to Mexico and sought reelection as a vindication, but failing of reelection he offered himself as a candidate for governor of Illinois. His canvass was made upon the need of a thorough investigation of the affairs of the State Bank of Illinois. The opposition to Mr. Edwards’ canvass came from some of the strongest men in the state, especially those connected with the banking system. However, Mr. Edwards had some good help in three gentlemen of prominence— Thomas Ford, William H. Brown, and David J. Baker. Upon taking the oath of office as governor, he attacked the bank in his first message, as well as in special messages. He also attacked the extravagance in state expenditures, as well as the uselessness of the circuit court judges. He forced the legislature into an investigation of the affairs of the bank, but the committee appointed to make the investigation made a whitewash report, and again Mr. Edwards was humiliated. The recently organized circuit court was, however, P 167 abolished, excepting that Judge R. M. Young was still a circuit judge in the military district. Another matter of interest was the beginning of the work which finally led to the establishment of the penitentiary system. The territorial laws of Indiana and Illinois enumerated the various punishments for crimes, consisting of whipping, confinement in the pillory and stocks, and hanging on the gallows. The jails in the early history of the country were so dreadfully shocking that the description of them that has come down to us makes us sick at heart, and we cannot give them full publicity in these pages. The Newgate prison in Connecticut, is described as follows: “The only entrance to it was by means of a ladder down a shaft which led to the caverns underground. The darkness was intense; the caves reeked with filth; vermin abounded; In the dampness and the filth the clothing of the prisoners grew mouldy and rotted away. Into such pits and dungeons all classes of offenders of both sexes were indiscriminately thrust. It is therefore not at all surprising that they became seminaries of every conceivable form of vice, and centers of the most disgusting diseases. Men confined as witnesses were compelled to mingle with the forger, be-smeared with the filth of the pillory, and the fornicator streaming with blood from the whipping post, while here and there among the throng were culprits whose ears had been cropped, or whose arms, fresh from the branding irons, emitted the stench of scorched flesh.” It is to be hoped these scenes were never witnessed west of the Alleghenies. But it is true that the places of confinement in Illinois were shocking and the forms of punishment inhuman. Dr. Samuel Willard, still living in Chicago, tells what he saw in Carrollton, Greene county, this state, in 1832. After telling of a public hanging which was revolting he says: "Another infliction of punishment which would now be more revolting in public than the hanging would be, I saw on the public square in Carrollton, in 1832. There was then no penitentiary in the state, hence other penalties had to take the place of confinement. Near the courthouse on the public square there was set a strong post, an unhewn log, ten feet high with a crosspiece near the top. I saw a man brought from the jail by the sheriff (Jacob Fry) and a constable, to be whipped thirty lashes for the theft of a horse. He was stripped naked to the hips, his hands were tied and the rope carried to the cross-piece and drawn as tight as could be without taking his feet from the ground. Then Sheriff Fry took that terrible instrument of punishment and torture, a rawhide; the sheriff began laying strokes on the culprit’s back, beginning near his neck and going regularly down one side of the backbone, former Sheriff Young counting the strokes aloud. Each stroke made a red blood blister. When fifteen blows had been counted the officer paused and some one ran to the poor wretch with a tumbler of whiskey. Then the other side of the man received like treatment. Then the man’s shirt was replaced and he was led away to the jail. The whipping-post remained there two or three years, but I never heard of any further use of it." It was to remedy the evils of confinement in jails and the punishments for offenses, that induced John Reynolds, a member of the legislature in 1826-7, to introduce a bill to provide a penitentiary. The P 168 measure met with vigorous opposition, chiefly on the ground that the financial condition of the young state would not justify it. Mr. Reynolds was quite equal to the occasion and proposed to get congress to grant the state the salt reservations to be sold for this purpose. The measure carried and congress made the grant, and the penitentiary was begun. It was located at Alton. The first commissioners were ex-Governor Bond, Dr. Gershom Jayne, and William P. McKee. By 1831 a few cells were ready for occupancy.AN INTERESTING DOCTRINE
It remains to tell of a very interesting doctrine advanced by Governor Edwards and later endorsed by the legislature, relative to the ownership of the public lands in Illinois. When Governor Edwards was in the United States senate a bill was introduced by Senator Lloyd of Maryland, proposing to give to each of the old states, for purposes of education, a portion of the public lands equal to the amount granted for the same to the new states. Senator Edwards opposed this policy in a very able address which was highly praised by men abundantly able to judge of the merits of a public address. Senator Edwards defended very earnestly and logically the donations by the general government of lands for school purposes to the new states on the ground that schools and schoolhouses would enhance the value of the remaining lands, and thus the government would reap the benefit in the early sale of the remaining lands at an advanced price. He showed that this in no sense was a local application of the principle of free donations, but that gifts to the older states out of the lands within the new states could in no sense accrue to the advantage of the general government, but would be purely local. It is not a very great stretch of our imagination to see how this doctrine laid down by Senator Edwards, in its later application, enabled the government to make those magnificent gifts which have resulted in the building of canals and railroads throughout all the regions from the Ohio river to the Pacific ocean. But the matter referred to above was a doctrine which Governor Edwards and the legislature formulated in 1829, relative to the real ownership of the public domain in the new states. Governor Edwards in a message to the legislature covering thirty-nine pages in the printed journal of the lower house, sustained the doctrine that the lands within the limits of the states belonged to the state. He quoted the Ordinance of 1787, which said that the states admitted out of this Northwest territory should be admitted on an equal footing with the older states. The general government never owned a foot of land in any one of the older states except what it bought of individuals. If, therefore, Illinois was admitted into the Union on an equal footing with Virginia, then Illinois must own in fee simple every foot of land in the state. This partly grew out of the fact that the government had set aside nearly one hundred and eighty thousand acres of mineral lands in Illinois which it would not sell, only lease. These lessees were under contract with the general government, subject to general governmental control though residing within the state of Illinois yet not subject to the laws thereof. The legislature formulated a resolution which was presented to congress, declaring that the United States possesses no right of jurisdiction over any lands within the limits of Illinois; that the United States P 169 can not hold any right of soil within the limits of the state but for the erection of forts, arsenals, docks, etc. This doctrine was not without support in congress as a resolution introduced in 1826 by Senator Tazewell of Virginia, shows, and as late as 1842 it appears a measure was introduced into the senate by Senator Calhoun providing for ceding to the states all remaining unsold lands within the several states. This resolution was supported by seventeen votes in the senate.SCHOOL LEGISLATION
But all the legislation during these years was far from being wise. The lack of foresight on the part of the statesmen of that early period has been a subject of regret in these later years. The second general assembly during Governor Edwards term of office attempted to legislate in favor of the cause of education, but looking at it from the year 1912, it looks as if its efforts were a miserable failure. To understand this it will be necessary for us to go back to the Ordinance and the Enabling Act. The former said: “Religion, morality, and knowledge being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged (in this northwest territory).” The Enabling Act provided that section numbered 16 in each township, or one of equal value, should be granted the state for the use of the schools of that township. Again three per cent of the net proceeds of the sale of public lands in Illinois was given by the general government “for the encouragement of learning of which one-sixth part shall be exclusively bestowed on a college or university.” And again—one entire township was set aside by the general government for a seminary of learning in the state. The first grant, that of the sixteenth sections, amounted to near a million of acres, while the township grant amounted to twenty-three thousand and forty acres. The three per cent gift was $613,362.96. The first legislation looking toward the care of this munificent gift was in 1819. In that year the first state legislature passed laws which had for their object the protection of the sixteenth section by making it unlawful to take timber from these school lands. It also provided that these lands might be leased and the rents put into improvements. Some legislation in 1821 provided for the opening of schools and the establishing of other educational agencies. In 1825 Senator Duncan secured the passage of a law already referred to. This system of common schools planned by Senator Duncan in 1825 was very much like the one we have today. Taxes were to be levied and collected on the property of the people in the district. There was a board of directors who were to have control of the school, buildings, examine the teachers, and have general oversight of the whole subject. In 1826-7 the legislature provided for better securities from those who were borrowing the money for which the school lands had been sold. But in 1829, the legislature repealed the part of the Duncan law of 1825 which gave two per cent of the net revenue of the state to the schools. Every commendable feature of the Duncan law was now repealed and the schools lay prostrate till 1855. The legislature of 1828-9 also adopted the plan of selling the school P 170 and seminary lands. The law provided that the sixteenth section in each township might be sold whenever nine-tenths of the inhabitants (evidently voters) were in favor of the sale. Later the law allowed the sale if three-fourths were in favor of it. The immigrants coming into an unsettled township were always eager to dispose of the sixteenth section as it made a fund with which the authorities might assist the schools. But this section when sold for $1.25 per acre, the regular government price, would bring only $800, and this at ten per cent interest would bring only $80 per year. This would not be of much service when distributed among the schools of the township. At this date, 1912, much of this land is worth from $100 to $200 per acre. The argument for selling the lands was that the early pioneers were the ones who ought to reap most of the benefit of the government's liberality. Six hundred and forty acres at $100 per acre would make a permanent fund of $64,000, which put at interest at six per cent would produce an annual income of $3,840. This distributed among nine schools would give to each school in the township $426.66. The seminary township was sold in 1842 and the money borrowed by the state. The state also borrowed the three per cent of the public lands. The amount borrowed was about $500,000. This money came to the state treasury in quantities of $20,000 a year. For twenty-five years the state had a constant income of $20,000 per year. When it was all in, the debt was nearly $500,000. This drew interest at six per cent, the annual interest being $28,000. Thus we received $20,000 a year for twenty-five years for the privilege of paying out $28,000 annually for all time to come.THE WINNEBAGO WAR
In the summer of 1827 occurred an incident which is usually spoken of lightly by historians. It was known at the time as the Winnebago war or the Winnebago scare. But however lightly we may treat the matter now, it was one of deep concern to those upon the borders of civilization around Galena in 1827. The story may be briefly told. The Winnebago Indians occupied the lands in the. southwestern part of what is now Wisconsin. The whites in their search for lead were continually trespassing upon this territory. Though the Winnebagoes were friendly to the whites, they remonstrated with the latter without success. Eventually some whites were killed. The killing of the whites is said to have resulted from incorrect information coming to Red Bird, the Winnebago chief, as to the death of four of his warriors by Colonel Snelling, commandant at Fort Snelling. Two keel boats returning from Fort Snelling were attacked on the Mississippi, probably about the region of Bad Axe creek. Two boatmen were killed and others wounded. The Winnebagoes sent word throughout the country to exterminate the whites. It was this word which reached northwestern Illinois about Galena and spread consternation far and wide. It is said three thousand whites fled to Galena, a flourishing mining town, for protection. Governor Edwards was appealed to and immediately dispatched a regiment of militia from Sangamon and Morgan counties under command of Col. T. M. Neale. General Atkinson, of the United States army, with six hundred regulars appeared upon the scene and quieted P 171 the disturbance without any bloodshed. Several prominent Indians were arrested and tried, those found guilty of murder were executed, the others turned loose. Black Hawk was among those liberated. Governor Edwards closed his term as chief executive of Illinois amid expressions of satisfaction from the people. He turned over the office to his successor in December, 1830, and retired to his home in Belleville where he died in 1833. His life had been indeed a very active one, he having held political office nearly a quarter of a century.
History Table of Contents
Biography Table of
Contents
Name Index
Memorial Library Illinois
Selections
USGenNet.org
- First & Only 501(c)3 Host for Genealogical & Historical Sites
Livingston County Michigan Historical & Genealogical Project
American
History & Genealogy Project
Home
© 2006~ Pam MARDOS Rietsch pam@livgenmi.com