The Government and Its Representatives, 1818 to 1830.
In some respects the character of the state government of Illinois shows the character of the settlers. The nativity of the governors and the congressmen of the state indicates that the South was the origin of a majority of the population. Before the end of 1830 there had been no northern-born representative of the state in the national House of Representatives; the first northern-born senator was chosen in the last month of 1825, and the first northern governor in 1830.[370] Pierre Menard, a French Canadian, the first [pg 146] lieutenant-governor, came to Illinois in 1790, and can not fairly be cited as a type of the French descendants of the first white settlers of Illinois.[371] As a matter of fact, the French element was not a political factor of importance. Nor is it true that all southerners were pro-slavery, for the most noted anti-slavery governor of Illinois, and her governor during the Civil War, were from the South, while her first northern senator was pro-slavery. The great influx of immigrants from New England and the rest of the North did not come until after 1830. It was retarded, after the opening of the Erie Canal (1825), by the Winnebago and Black Hawk wars, and did not reach its height until the latter war had closed and the Indian claims to land in northern Illinois had been extinguished. Immigration from the northern states increased proportionally, however, after 1820.
Illinois men in Congress give a number of indications of the feeling of the people on questions having a more or less intimate relation to settlement. Constant and insistent demands for more land-offices, more post-roads, more pensions, donations of land for poor settlers, grants of land for internal improvements, the right of preëmption for squatters, and the reduction of the price of public lands show that the frontier was in favor of a liberal governmental expenditure.[372] Congressmen from Illinois, without exception, favored the tariff bills of 1824 and 1828.[373] In 1828, the only senator from Illinois who voted on the [pg 147] question, voted for the bill abolishing imprisonment for debt on processes issuing from a United States court.[374] Since Illinois early abolished such imprisonment, it is interesting to note that three hundred and thirty-eight persons were committed to the Essex county jail in New Jersey, for debt, in the year ending April 1, 1823, of whom one hundred and forty-one were in close confinement. The aggregate of debt was fifty-five thousand dollars.[375]
Within the state one of the phenomena which has characterized frontier regions appeared about the year 1821. A desperate gang of immigrants had robbed and plundered until, after a most notable robbery, “a public meeting was held, and among other things, a company was formed, consisting of ten law-abiding men of well-known courage, who bound themselves together, under the name of the Regulators of the Valley, to rid the country of horse thieves and robbers.... A regular constitution was drawn up and subscribed to.” After the leader of the desperadoes had been killed the remainder fled.[376] A frontier condition is indicated also by the fact that when Sangamon county was formed, on January 30, 1821, a special law provided that housekeepers in the county should perform the duties and receive the privileges of freeholders. The same provision was made for Morgan county two years later. As land sales in the Sangamon country, in which these counties lay, did not begin until [pg 148] November, 1823, these laws probably resulted from the formation of counties whose entire population consisted of squatters.[377] The persistence of wolf bounties bears testimony to continued wild surroundings.[378] In 1829 alien Irish, and presumably all other aliens, could vote at all elections. An election law of this year provided that voting should be by the voter's approaching the bar, in the election room, and naming in an audible voice the persons for whom he voted, or, if the voter preferred, by delivering to the judges a ballot which should be read aloud by them, the alternative being for the benefit of illiterate voters. Voting had previously been by ballot.[379]
Although frontier conditions obtained, there were evidences of their gradual amelioration. A law of 1823 provided that counterfeiting, which, in the territorial period, had been punishable by death, should be punished by a fine of not more than one thousand dollars, whipping with not fewer than one hundred nor more than two hundred lashes, imprisonment for not more than twelve months, and being rendered forever infamous.[380] The state established a system of common schools to be supported, in part, by the state, in 1825; but in 1829 the sections of the act which provided that two per cent of all money received into the state treasury, and five-sixths of the interest of the school fund, should be for the support of public schools, were repealed,[381] taxation for such a purpose not being then in accord with public sentiment. A [pg 149] mechanic's lien law, passed in 1825, provided that in case of a contract between a landowner and a mechanic, the mechanic should have a lien upon the product of his labor for three months, after which the lien lapsed unless suit had been commenced. Three years later an unsuccessful attempt to secure such a law was made in New York.[382]
Two accounts on the records of the state are of sufficient interest to give at length. The first gives the amount of money received into the treasury during the two years ending December 27, 1822:
“The amount paid into the treasury by the different sheriffs within the two years ending as aforesaid, is $ 7,121.09
The amount of a judgment obtained against the former sheriff of Randolph [County] for non-resident tax of 1818, is 147.14
The amount from non-residents for the two preceding years, including back taxes, redemptions, interest, &c., is 38,437.75
The amount from non-residents' bank stock, is 97.77