The slavery question, however, was the problem of lasting political importance. Slaves had been brought into the Illinois country by the French, and Governor Arthur St Clair (1734-1818) interpreted the article of the Ordinance of 1787, which forbade slavery in the North-West Territory, as a prohibition of the introduction of slaves into the Territory, not an interference with existing conditions. The idea also arose that while negroes could not become slaves, they could be held as indentured servants, and such servitude was recognized in the Indiana Code of 1803, the Illinois constitution of 1818, and Statutes of 1819; indeed there would probably have been a recognition of slavery in the constitution of 1818 had it not been feared that such recognition would have prevented the admission of the state to the Union. In 1823 the legislature referred to the people a resolution for a constitutional convention to amend the constitution. The aim, not expressed, was the legalization of slavery. Although a majority of the public men of the state, indeed probably a majority of the entire population, was either born in the Southern states or descended from Southern people, the resolution of the legislature was rejected, the leader of the opposition being Governor Edward Coles (1786-1868), a Virginia slave-holder, who had freed his slaves on coming to Illinois, and at least one half the votes against the proposed amendment of the constitution were cast by men of Southern birth. The opposition to slavery, however, was at first economic, not philanthropic. In 1837 there was only one abolition society in the state, but chiefly through the agitation of Elijah P. Lovejoy (see [Alton]), the abolition sentiment grew. In 1842 the moral issue had become political, and the Liberty Party was organized, which in 1848 united with the Free Soil Party; but as the Whig Party approved the policy of non-extension of slavery, these parties did not succeed so well united as under separate existence. In 1854, however, the Liberty and Free Soil parties, the Democrats opposed to the Kansas-Nebraska Bill, and some Whigs united, secured a majority in the legislature, and elected Lyman Trumbull United States senator. Two years later these elements formally organized as the Republican Party, though that name had been used locally in 1854, and elected their candidates for state offices. This was the first time that the Democratic Party had been defeated, its organization having been in control since the admission of Illinois to the Union. An important influence in this political revolution was a change in the character of the population. Until 1848 the Southern element predominated in the population, but after that year the immigration from the Northern states was greater than that from the South, and the foreign element also increased.[5] The opposition to slavery continued to be political and economic rather than philanthropic. The constitution of 1848, which abolished slavery, also forbade the immigration of slaves into the state.[6] In 1858 occurred the famous contest for the office of United States senator between Stephen A. Douglas (Democrat) and Abraham Lincoln (Republican). Douglas was elected, but the vote showed that Illinois was becoming more Northern in sympathy, and two years later Lincoln, then candidate for the presidency, carried the state.
The policy of Illinois in the early period of secession was one of marked loyalty to the Union; even in the S. part of the state, where there was a strong feeling against national interference with slavery, the majority of the people had no sympathy with the pro-slavery men in their efforts to dissolve the Union. The legislature of 1861 provided for a war fund of $2,000,000; and Capt. James H. Stokes (1814-1890) of Chicago transferred a large amount of munitions of war from St Louis, where the secession sentiment was strong, to Alton. The state contributed 255,092 men to the Federal armies. From 1862-1864, however, there was considerable opposition to a continuance of the war. This was at first political; the legislature of 1862 was Democratic, and for political purposes that body adopted resolutions against further conflict, and recommended an armistice, and a national convention to conclude peace. The same year a convention, whose duty was to revise the constitution, met. It declared that the law which called it into being was no longer binding, and that it was supreme in all matters incident to amending the constitution. Among its acts was the assumption of the right of ratifying a proposed amendment to the constitution of the United States which prohibited Congress from interfering with the institution of slavery within a state, although the right of ratification belonged to the legislature. The convention also inserted clauses preventing negroes and mulattoes from immigrating into the state and from voting and holding office; and although the constitution as a whole was rejected by the people, these clauses were ratified. In 1863 more pronounced opposition to the policy of the National Government developed. A mass meeting, which met at Springfield in July, at the instance of the Democratic Party, adopted resolutions that condemned the suspension of the writ of Habeas Corpus, endorsed the doctrine of state sovereignty, demanded a national assembly to determine terms of peace, and asked President Lincoln to withdraw the proclamation that emancipated the slaves, and so to permit the people of Illinois to fight only for “Union, the Constitution and the enforcement of the laws.” The Knights of the Golden Circle, and other secret societies, whose aims were the promulgation of state sovereignty and the extension of aid to the Confederate states, began to flourish, and it is said that in 1864 there were 50,000 members of the Sons of Liberty in the state. Captain T. Henry Hines, of the Confederate army, was appointed by Jefferson Davis to co-operate with these societies. For a time his headquarters were in Chicago, and an elaborate attempt to liberate Confederate prisoners in Chicago (known as the Camp Douglas Conspiracy) was thwarted by a discovery of the plans. In the elections of 1864 the Republicans and Union Democrats united, and after an exciting campaign they were successful. The new legislature was the first among the legislatures of the states to ratify (on the 1st of February 1865) the Thirteenth Amendment.
From the close of the Civil War until the end of the 19th century the Republican Party was generally dominant, but the trend of political development was not without interest. In 1872 many prominent men of the state joined the Liberal Republican Party, among them Governor John M. Palmer, Senator Lyman Trumbull and Gustavus Koerner (1809-1896), one of the most prominent representatives of the German element in Illinois. The organization united locally, as in national politics, with the Democratic Party, with equally ineffective results. Economic depression gave the Granger Movement considerable popularity, and an outgrowth of the Granger organization was the Independent Reform Party, of 1874, which advocated retrenchment of expenses, the state regulation of railways and a tariff for revenue only. A Democratic Liberal Party was organized in the same year, one of its leaders being Governor Palmer; consequently no party had a majority in the legislature elected in 1874. In 1876 the Greenback Party, the successor in Illinois of the Independent Reform Party, secured a strong following; although its candidate for governor was endorsed by the Democrats, the Republicans regained control of the state administration.
The relations between capital and labour have resulted in serious conditions, the number of strikes from 1880-1901 having been 2640, and the number of lock-outs 95. In 1885 the governor found it necessary to use the state militia to suppress riots in Will and Cook counties occasioned by the strikes of quarrymen, and the following year the militia was again called out to suppress riots in St Clair and Cook counties caused by the widespread strike of railway employees. The most noted instance of military interference was in 1894, when President Grover Cleveland sent United States troops to Chicago to prevent strikers and rioters from interfering with the transmission of the United States mails.
Municipal problems have also reacted upon state politics. From 1897 to 1903 the efforts of the Street Railway Companies of Chicago to extend their franchise, and of the city of Chicago to secure municipal control of its street railway system, resulted in the statute of 1903, which provided for municipal ownership. But the proposed issue under this law of bonds with which Chicago was to purchase or construct railways would have increased the city’s bonded indebtedness beyond its constitutional limit, and was therefore declared unconstitutional in April 1907 by the supreme court of the state.
A law of 1901 provided for a system of initiative whereby any question of public policy might be submitted to popular vote upon the signature of a written petition therefor by one-tenth of the registered voters of the state; such a petition must be filed at least 60 days before the election day when it is to be voted upon, and not more than three questions by initiative may be voted on at the same election; to become operative a measure must receive a majority of all votes cast in the election. Under this act, in 1902, there was a favourable vote (451,319 to 76,975) for the adoption of measures requisite to securing the election of United States senators by popular and direct vote, and in 1903 the legislature of the state (which in 1891 had asked Congress to submit such an amendment) adopted a joint resolution asking Congress to call a convention to propose such an amendment to the Federal Constitution; in 1904 there was a majority of all the votes cast in the election for an amendment to the primary laws providing that voters may vote at state primaries under the Australian ballot. The direct primary law, however, which was passed immediately afterwards by the legislature, was declared unconstitutional by the supreme court of the state, as were a second law of the same sort passed soon afterwards and a third law of 1908, which provided for direct nominations of all officers and an “advisory” nomination of United States senators.
American Governors of Illinois
| Territorial. | ||
| Ninian Edwards | 1809-1818 | |
| State. | ||
| Shadrach Bond | 1818-1822 | Democrat |
| Edward Coles | 1822-1826 | ” |
| Ninian Edwards | 1826-1830 | ” |
| John Reynolds | 1830-1834 | ” |
| Wm. L. D. Ewing (acting) | 1834 | ” |
| Joseph Duncan | 1834-1838 | ” |
| Thomas Carlin | 1838-1842 | ” |
| Thomas Ford | 1842-1846 | ” |
| Augustus C. French | 1846-1853[7] | ” |
| Joel A. Matteson | 1853-1857 | ” |
| William H. Bissell | 1857-1860 | Republican |
| John Wood (acting) | 1860-1861 | ” |
| Richard Yates | 1861-1865 | ” |
| Richard J. Oglesby | 1865-1869 | ” |
| John M. Palmer | 1869-1873 | ” |
| Richard J. Oglesby | 1873 | ” |
| John L. Beveridge (acting) | 1873-1877 | ” |
| Shelby M. Cullom | 1877-1883 | ” |
| John M. Hamilton (acting) | 1883-1885 | ” |
| Richard J. Oglesby | 1885-1889 | ” |
| Joseph W. Fifer | 1889-1893 | ” |
| John P. Altgeld | 1893-1897 | Democrat |
| John R. Tanner | 1897-1901 | Republican |
| Richard Yates | 1901-1905 | ” |
| Charles S. Deneen | 1905- | ” |
Bibliography.—There is no complete bibliography of the varied and extensive literature relating to Illinois; but Richard Bowker’s State Publications, part ii. (New York, 1902), and the chapters of E. B. Greene’s The Government of Illinois (New York, 1904) contain useful lists of documents, monographs and books. Physiography is well described in The Illinois Glacial Lobe (U.S. Geological Survey, Monograph, xxxviii.) and The Water Resources of Illinois (U.S. Geological Survey, Annual Report, xviii.). The Illinois State Laboratory of Natural History, connected with the State University, has published S. A. Forbes and R. E. Richardson’s Fishes of Illinois (Urbana, 1909). Information concerning economic conditions may be derived from the volumes of the Twelfth Census of the United States, which treat of Agriculture, Manufactures and Mines and Quarries: a summary of agricultural conditions may be found in Census Bulletin No. 213. Constitutional and administrative problems are discussed in Elliott Anthony’s Constitutional History of Illinois; Greene’s The Government of Illinois, and H. P. Judson’s The Government of Illinois (New York, 1900). Among the reports of the state officials, those of the Railroad and Ware House Commission, of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and of the Commissioners of Charity are especially valuable. There is an historical study of the problem of taxation, entitled, “History of the Struggle in Illinois to realize Equality in Taxation,” by H. B. Hurd, in the Publications of the Michigan Political Science Association (1901). Local government is described by Albert Shaw, Local Government in Illinois (Johns Hopkins University Studies, vol. i. No. 10). The Blue Book of the State of Illinois (Springfield, 1903); H. B. Hurd’s Revised Statutes of Illinois (Chicago, 1903), and Starr and Curtis, Annotated Statutes of the State of Illinois (Chicago, 1896), are also of value.
The standard histories of the state are J. Moses, Illinois, Historical and Statistical (2 vols., Chicago, 1889); and H. Davidson and B. Stuvé, Complete History of Illinois (Springfield, 1874). Edward G. Mason’s Chapters from Illinois History (Chicago, 1901) is of interest for the French explorations and the colonial period. C. E. Boyd in “The County of Illinois” (American Hist. Rev. vol. iv.), “Record Book and Papers of John Todd” (Chicago Historical Society, Collections, iv.), C. E. Carter, Great Britain and the Illinois Country, 1763-1774 (Washington, 1910), R. L. Schuyler, The Transition of Illinois to American Government (New York, 1909), and W. H. Smith in The St Clair Papers (Cincinnati, 1882), and the Territorial Records of Illinois (“Publications of the State Historical Library,” No. 3) are important for the period until 1818. Governor Thomas Ford’s History of Illinois (Chicago, 1854), and Governor John Reynolds’s My Own Times (1855), are contemporary sources for 1818-1846; they should be supplemented by N. W. Edwards’s History of Illinois (1778-1833) and Life of Ninian Edwards (Springfield, 1870), E. B. Washburne’s Edwards Papers (Chicago, 1884), C. H. Garnett’s State Banks of Issue in Illinois (Univ. of Ill., 1898), and N. G. Harris’s History of Negro Servitude in Illinois (Chicago, 1904). C. E. Carr’s The Illini (Chicago, 1904) is a study of conditions in Illinois from 1850-1860. W. W. Lusk’s Politics and Politicians of Illinois, the Illinois Constitutional Convention (1862), the Granger Movement in Illinois, and Illinois Railway Legislation and Common Control (University of Illinois Studies), Street Railway Legislation in Illinois (Atlantic Monthly, vol. xciii.), are of value for conditions after 1860. The publications of the Chicago Historical Society, of the “Fergus Historical” series, of the State Historical Library, of the Wisconsin Historical Society, also the Michigan Pioneer Collections, contain valuable documents and essays.