P. 246 GOVERNOR JOEL A. MATTESON
UNDER TEE NEW CONSTITUTION — MATTESON ELECTED GOVERNOR—
ILLINOIS CENTRAL BUILT — SLAVERY AGITATION—
CANAL SCRIP FRAUD — STATE AND NATIONAL POLITICS.
MATTESON ELECTED GOVERNOR
The Democratic state ticket in 1852 was Governor Joel A. Matteson, Will county; Lieutenant Governor, Gustavus Koerner, Belleville, St. Clair county; Secretary of State, Alexander Starne; Auditor, Thomas H. Campbell; Treasurer, John Moore. Mr. Matteson was a successful business man of Joliet. He was a contractor in the construction of the Illinois and Michigan canal. Gustavus Koerner was born in Germany in 1809. He was highly educated having received the degree of LL. D. from Heidelberg in 1822. The Whigs put forward for Governor E. B. Webb of White county; for Lieutenant Governor J. L. D. Morrison of St. Clair county; Buckner S. Morris for secretary of state; Charles Betts for auditor; and Francis Arnz for treasurer. There was little excitement in the contest and the state and national Democratic tickets were elected. Governor Matteson seemed to have very decided views on the affairs of the state many of which were crystallized into law. He recommended a new penitentiary at Joliet; the building of a governor’s mansion; chartering the state P. 247 agricultural society; and the most important of all was the free school system. This last will be discussed under the subject of education. The progress of the state is shown when it is stated that at the beginning of his term of office there were only four hundred miles of railroad in the state while at the close of his term there were three thousand miles of completed road. The population of Chicago was doubled. During Governor Matteson's term there was radical legislation on the sale of intoxicants. In 1855 a law resembling the “Maine law” was passed which was a prohibition law, but it carried a clause which required it to be ratified by a popular vote before it went into effect. When the vote was taken on the referendum clause in June of that year it lost by a small majority. It is said the counties in the southern part the state voted against the law.ILLINOIS CENTRAL BUILT
The period covered by Governor Matteson’s term was one filled with important events both for the state and the nation. The Illinois Central Railroad was built in this time, the Republican party had its origin. the free school system was put in operation, and the repeal of the Missouri Compromise was brought about.SLAVERY AGITATION
During the years of Mr. Matteson‘s administration, there was great agitation in Illinois on the slavery question. The constitution of 1848 had abolished slavery, but there were in the state quite a number of free negroes. The “underground railroad” was in active operation and had been since 1835. The fugitive slave law passed by congress in 1850 was very obnoxious to many people and the underground railway was liberally patronized in the years ‘51, ‘52, and ‘53. On February 12, 1853, the legislature passed a law concerning free negroes and mulattoes. This law made it a crime to bring into the state a negro. Again if a negro came into the state and remained ten days, he was liable to arrest, and to be fined $50. If he could not pay the fine he was sold to anyone who would pay the cost of the arrest and trial. This law was intended to serve two purposes; first to make it a crime to assist negroes into the state and in making their escape, and second to enable the southern slave catcher to get possession of his slave at the actual cost of arrest and trial. Nor was the slave question at all pacified by the passage of the law repealing the Missouri Compromise. Mr. Douglas was the champion of the bill in congress and when he returned to Illinois he found many of his neighbors and friends actively and even bitterly opposed to the measure. All over the state there were speeches, conventions, and resolutions denouncing it. An active newspaper war was everywhere waged against the measure. The bill was passed in May, 1854, and the congressional canvass was carried on through the summer months following. Douglas attempted to explain his action but in many places he was treated with scant courtesy by the disappointed people. There was a great disturbance in political parties and new parties were being formed. These shall have our attention presently. P 248|
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A ONE HUNDRED DOLLAR CANAL SCRIP BILL SUCH AS GOVERNOR MATTESON CASHED WHILE GOVERNOR OF THE STATE |
CANAL SCRIP FRAUD
There was a scandal in Governor Matteson‘s administration which has left a cloud over the name of a very excellent businessman and one who in many ways showed himself patriotic. This is what is known as the canal scrip fraud. It was not discovered until in January, 1857, but it will be in order to relate it at this time. In the early part of the month named there were discovered evidences of extensive frauds having been committed upon the treasury of the state. It seems that in 1839 the trustees of the Illinois and Michigan canal had issued what was called “canal scrip” to the amount of nearly $400,000. This canal scrip was similar to bank notes and was issued in fifty and one hundred dollar bills. It served the purpose of money till the regular bonds could be sold when with the cash thus received these canal scrip bills were to be redeemed. They were all redeemed by 1842-3 excepting $316. But it appears that when this scrip was redeemed instead of being destroyed or cancelled, the bills were packed away in boxes and finally found their way to the capitol in Springfield. Here they were stored away and probably forgotten. Governor Matteson was a rich man, and had been engaged previously to his election in taking contracts for the building of railroads, canals, and other public works. He also dealt in bonds and stocks. Now there seemed to have been an arrangement by which old canal bonds, scrip, etc., should be refunded or be redeemed in cash. Just before Governor Matteson went out of office he presented large quantities of these canal scrip bills for redemption. They were promptly redeemed by the proper officers. Other large quantities were redeemed. So when the whole matter came to light it appeared that the governor had received about $250,000 from the treasury for this scrip. Upon investigation the boxes which formerly contained the uncancelled scrip were empty—at least contained no uncancelled scrip. The canal commissioners testified the scrip presented by Governor Matteson was the same scrip they had redeemed. Judgment was obtained against Governor Matteson for over $250,000. His property was seized and sold, and altogether $238,000 was realized; it left an unpaid balance due the state of $27,000. Governor Matteson went into retirement P 249 and passed the rest of his days in very great quiet. He died in 1873. It is said no one ever went out of office with brighter prospect before him than did Governor Matteson, but this discovery blasted every prospect.STATE AND NATIONAL POLITICS
When Illinois came into the Union in 1818, there was but one party in this country. This was what we know as the Democratic party, then often called the Republican party. When Jackson became president, there were Jackson men and anti-Jackson men, the old Federalist party having run its course, In the struggle over slavery in Illinois from 1833 to 1837 there were two factions, but they were all Democrats. But by 1840, there were distinct political parties, the Whigs and the Democrats. There were also Abolitionists who might be either Whigs or Democrats. The Whigs were fairly well organized from 1840 to 1854. In 1852 at the Whig convention in Illinois the presiding officer stated publicly that there was not much chance for the Whigs but that they should keep up a bold front for the sake of their friends in other states. When the repeal of the Missouri Compromise was before congress, there was great interest An Illinois among the political parties, since it appeared that the line of cleavage would henceforth be between those who favored slavery and those who opposed it. In many counties in Illinois there were conventions and other public meetings held for the purpose of protesting against the repeal of the Missouri Compromise. One such convention which met in Springfield in October, 1854, took the name Republican. Stephen A. Douglas, one of the United States senators from Illinois, was the champion of the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Of course all southern Democrats would be with him, so would those southern Whigs who were slave-holders and wished to see slave territory extended. There were in the north and east Whigs who oppose the repeal of the Missouri Compromise. The Abolitionists, if they took any hand in the contest at all, would naturally be against the measure. All Free-Soilers were bitterly opposed to the repeal. The Know-Nothings were against slavery. There was thus in Illinois in 1854, on one side of the anti-Nebraska question, the Democratic party, led by Douglas, which remained loyal to the national Democratic administration. This party was for the repeal of the Missouri Compromise. There were on the other side of the dividing line Free-Soilers, Whigs, Know-Nothings, Independent Democrats, and Abolitionists. The common ground upon which all or nearly all of these opponents of the Democratic party could stand, was opposition to the spread of slavery into the territory of the United States. Public meetings, resolutions, and platforms of principles were the order of the day. In Kane county a meeting was held on August 19, 1854, at which the fold lowing platform was adopted: We, the people of Kane county, in mass convention assembled, irrespective of party, in view of the long continued encroachments of the slave power, culminating at last in the repeal of the law of freedom in all the hitherto unorganized territories of the Union, will cooperate with friends of freedom throughout the state in an effort to P 250 bring the government back to first principles; to restore Kansas and Nebraska to the position of free territories; to repeal the fugitive slave law; to restrict slavery in the states in which it exists; to prohibit the admission of any more slave states into the Union; to exclude slavery from all the territories over which the government has exclusive jurisdiction; restrict the acquirement of any new slave territory; and the repeal of the inhuman and barbarous black laws of this state. This expresses very generally the feeling of the Anti-Nebraska party throughout the state. Anti-Nebraska candidates were nominated for congress, and an Anti-Nebraska state convention, which met in Springfield, October 3, 1854, consisting of but twenty-six delegates, nominated a candidate, J. E. McClun, for the office of state treasurer. Mr. McClun's name was later replaced by that of Mr. James Miller. A platform was announced and a central committee appointed. Mr. Lincoln was on the central committee. A vigorous campaign was made. Chase and Giddings, of Ohio, assisted in the campaign in this state. Mr. Miller was defeated for treasurer, but three of the nine congressmen from Illinois were Anti-Nebraska or Republican. They were Elihu B. Washburne, James Knox, and Jesse O. Norton. The Anti-Nebraska elements were drawn together all over the country, and the Democrats of Illinois felt keenly the need of holding all their forces together. They issued a call as early as December 1, 1855, for their state convention, which should meet in Springfield May 1, 1856. At this convention the Hon. W. A. Anderson, of Adams county, was nominated for governor. Col. R. J. Hamilton, of Cook, was nominated for lieutenant-governor. The platform affirmed that congress had no right to abolish, establish, or prohibit slavery in the states or territories. It approved the principle of popular sovereignty, the compromise of 1850, and declared that the foreign born citizens ought not to be proscribed on account of their nativity or religion. The Anti-Nebraska party or what came to be the Republican party, was very active during the year 1855, and early in that year definite and vigorous lines of political actions were laid out for the guidance of the party in the campaign before it. The Hon. Paul Selby, now an honored citizen of Chicago, was at that time editor of the Morgan (Jacksonville) Journal. Mr. Selby issued a call through the columns of his paper for a convention of all Anti-Nebraska editors, to be held in Decatur, February 22, 1856, for the purpose of formulating definite plans in the coming campaign. Mr. Selby was honored with the chairmanship of the convention, and Mr. William J. Usrey, editor of the Decatur Chronicle, was made secretary. There was only one fundamental point upon which all agreed, that was opposition to the Kansas-Nebraska bill. There were, of course, many points of difference among the dozen editors present; but they were all wise enough and patriotic enough to leave these differences unnoticed. Strong resolutions against the Kansas-Nebraska legislation were passed, and a call was issued for a state convention of anti-Nebraska people to meet in Bloomington May 29, 1856. To further the interests of such a movement, this convention of editors appointed a sort of executive committee consisting of one from each congressional district and two at large, making eleven in all. This committee issued the call, P 251 apportioned the delegates, and made other provisions for the Bloomington convention. The convention assembled on the 29th of May. Out of one hundred and two counties in the state about thirty counties were not represented. In some instances men came as representatives having no credentials. In other cases the properly accredited delegates were accompanied by scores of sympathetic citizens. There were present the representatives of at least four political parties—Whigs, Democrats, Know-Nothings, and Abolitionists. It was not called a Republican convention. Prominent among those who were there were John M. Palmer, who was selected as the chairman of the convention, Abraham Lincoln, 0. H. Browning, John Wentworth, Richard Yates, Owen Lovejoy, Richard Oglesby, Gustavus Koerner, David Davis, Norman B. Judd, Joseph Medill, and scores of others who afterward filled responsible positions in the party organization as well as in the state and nation. The platform was a short but clear statement of the principles upon which a state and national party might be grounded. There were six resolutions. 1. They pledge themselves to wrest the government from the Democratic party by honorable and constitutional means and restore it to the principles of Washington and Jefferson. 2. They hold to the doctrine held by all the statesmen of the first sixty years that congress has the constitutional right to control slavery in the United States. 3. They affirm that the repeal of the Missouri Compromise was a violation of the plighted faith of the states, and pledge themselves to restore by constitutional means Kansas and Nebraska to freedom. 4. They declare their allegiance to the Union and denounce the disunionists who are trying to bring about its dissolution. 5. They favor the immediate admission of Kansas with the constitution adopted by the people of the territory. Resolved, That the spirit of our institutions, as well as the constitution of our country, guarantees the liberty of conscience as well as political freedom, and that we will proscribe no one, by legislation or otherwise, on account of religious opinions, or in consequence of place of birth. A state ticket was nominated as follows: For governor, William H. Bissell; for lieutenant governor, Francis A. Hoffman (afterwards replaced by John Wood); secretary of state, 0. M. Hatch; auditor, Jesse K. Dubois; treasurer, James Miller; superintendent of public instruction, William H. Powell. Of course there was much oratory and not a little prophesying. Among those who spoke was Abraham Lincoln, but unfortunately his speech was not reduced to writing and it has poetically been called the “lost speech.” Men yet living who heard it differ as to some of the details, but upon the main and fundamental points there seems to be unanimity. Mr. Herndon has said: “I have heard and read all of Mr. Lincoln’s great speeches, and I give it as my opinion that the Bloomington speech was the grand effort of his life. His eyes were aglow with inspiration; he felt justice; his heart was alive to the right; his sympathies, remarkably deep for him, burst forth, as he stood before the throne of eternal right.” The Democratic party had held its convention the first of May, and nominated Col. William A. Richardson, of Quincy, for governor, with a complete state ticket. Colonel Richardson had been a representative in congress for the past eleven years and had been a faithful ally of Douglas. He was considered a very strong candidate at the head of a strong ticket. There was another political party which took part in the canvass. It was called the native American party. It put forth Buckner S. Morris for governor. The vote for governor stood, Bissell, 111,375; Richardson, 106,643; Morris 19,087. The canvass was full of interest. The Republicans looked hopefully forward to success while the Democrats saw that their only chance was to keep their opponents from fusing their interests. The Anti-Nebraska people, or the Republicans as they were beginning to be called, were bitterly denounced as “Black Republicans,” and as Abolitionists. The Republicans brought in noted speakers from abroad. Lincoln made about fifty speeches. The Republicans made very little headway in the south end of the state. In eight southern counties there were cast for Fremont only fifty-one votes. Buchanan carried the electoral vote but the Republicans elected four of the nine congressmen, besides the state ticket. The legislature was Democratic.
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