The attitude of the Farmers’ Alliance members, from start to finish, toward the Republican minority, was in effect, that they presented to them the alternative of electing the Alliance nominee with Republican votes, or of allowing the Democratic nominee to be elected by Alliance votes. The proposition was one as humiliating to the great political organization to which it was made, as it was inconsistent in those who made it. Nevertheless, it was adhered to and all counter-propositions were rejected. Republican diplomacy was tried without result, the Alliance members refusing to vote for a leading representative of their own interests when he was put forward as the Republican nominee.
As the contest was prolonged, the feeling between Republicans and Democrats became more intensely antagonistic, and a point was finally reached where some of the Republican leaders apparently determined to defeat General Palmer at any cost. To do this they determined to throw the support of the entire Republican membership of the Legislature to Streeter, thereby securing his election by a majority of two votes. Principles were for the time being lost sight of by those who favored this movement. Political trusts were relegated to the region of barren idealities, and rank heresies were to be swallowed without a grimace for the sole purpose of compassing the defeat of an old time political adversary.
That the dominant party of the third State in the Union was not in a sense, committed to the vagaries of a nondescript political organization, and made directly responsible for the acts of one of its most erratic representatives, was due to the sound judgment and positive convictions of a very small number of Republican Legislators, of whom Hon. Henry H. Evans, representing the Fourteenth Senatorial District, was the acknowledged leader.
While Colonel Evans had long been prominent in the politics of the State and had had much to do with shaping its legislatures for a dozen years or more, no other event in his life has brought him so conspicuously before the public as the determined stand which he took against, what could not have been regarded in the future, as anything else than a sacrifice of the political integrity of his party. While those who were engineering this movement may have been mistaken in their calculations, they frequently affirmed that they could deliver to the Alliance candidate for Senator, the entire Republican vote of the Legislature, provided Senator Evans would consent to have this vote so recorded, and it is reasonably certain that his colleagues of the opposition were largely influenced by him. The pressure brought to bear on him, to induce him to become a party to the combine with the Alliance, was of the most powerful kind, but to entreaties, arguments and threats alike, he returned the same answer, the gist of which is contained in a brief statement of his intentions, to which he gave utterance at one of the numerous Republican caucuses, at which this matter was considered. On that occasion he said: “I want to say to this caucus, that I will never vote for any of these men for United States Senator, no matter what this caucus may think. I am a Republican, and I am for a Republican. I was elected and sent here to vote for a Republican for United States Senator, and that I will do to the end of this contest. But I do not think we should humiliate the glorious old Republican party of Illinois, by bartering away our independence for the sake of sending to the Senate a political nondescript for whose official action we must be responsible.”
This was the ringing declaration of an honest and courageous representative of well defined political principles. It was a declaration of his purposes from which he did not deviate during the contest, and no public servant ever made a better record for consistency and a strict observance of his obligations to his constituency.
The prominence which he attained in this honorable contest, and through public services previously rendered, have made him one of the prominent figures among the public men of Illinois, and the story of his life becomes interesting.
Born at Toronto, Canada, March 9, 1836, he has been essentially the architect of his own fortune. His father, Griffith Evans, and his wife, (Elizabeth Weldon), were both natives of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, being descendants of families ante-dating the Revolution—so that, although born on Canadian soil, Colonel Evans is of thoroughly American ancestry.
His father was a millwright by trade, who with his wife and family settled at Aurora, Illinois, in 1841. Colonel Evans was next to the eldest of ten children. The father was an industrious and intelligent mechanic who had more or less to do with the erection and equipment of several large mills in the neighborhood of Aurora, but he never accumulated any considerable amount of property, and his children had to depend mainly upon their own resources.
Col. Evans received his education in the public schools of Aurora, grew to manhood there, and then married Alice M. Rhodes, a lady of English birth and parentage. Soon after his marriage, he engaged in the restaurant business and continued in this business until September, 1862, when he enlisted in the One Hundred and Twenty-fourth Regiment of Illinois Volunteer Infantry. He was mustered into the service at Springfield, Illinois, went into action first at Jackson, Tenn., participated in the siege of Vicksburg and in successive campaigns, being mustered out of service at the end of three years days from the date of his enlistment.
Immediately after his retirement from the military service, he returned to his old business in Aurora. Enterprising, shrewd and capable, his business expanded and he became the proprietor and then owner of the leading hotel of the city, and one of its most enterprising and public spirited citizens. He became largely interested in real estate, laying out several large additions to the city, and realizing handsome profits from his investments. In 1882, he organized the Aurora Street Railroad Company, took charge of the construction of the road, and pushed to completion, an enterprise which has since been developed into one of the most perfect electric railroad systems in the West. He was also the projector of the Joliet and Aurora Northern Railroad, an enterprise with which he was most actively identified up to the date of its going into operation, and at a late date as one of its leading officials. In everything calculated to contribute in any way to the growth and prosperity of Aurora he has taken a most active interest, and as a natural consequence of this, coupled with a cheering geniality, he has always enjoyed great popularity.