M. Hatch, a Whig representative in the legislature, was nominated for secretary of state; Jesse K. Dubois, a life-long Whig, was nominated for auditor of state. The ticket was a concession to the Whig element then forming or constituting the largest part of, the convention.

It is not possible on this occasion to enumerate or mention all the Whig leaders who took part in the movement which formed the Anti-Nebraska or anti-slavery party in Illinois. I may only mention those above named and a few others. Many of those leaders acquired national fame. Mr. Washburn as a legislator and diplomat; Mr. Judd in the diplomatic service; David Davis as a member of the supreme court, and many others who acquired fame in the military service for the preservation of the Union. Richard J. Oglesby, a gallant private soldier in the war with Mexico and a brigadier general of the Union Army, thrice elected governor of his state and once elected to the United States senate; Shelby M. Cullom, a native of Kentucky, who has served as speaker of the house of representatives in the state legislature, who has twice been elected governor of his state; has served in the lower house of congress and three times elected to the United States senate. Richard Yates, who was one of the vice-presidents of this convention, who served his county and district in the state legislature and for four years in the house of representatives in congress, who was elected governor of the state of Illinois in 1860, and whose service as the chief executive of this state in the organization of regiments sent into the field for the preservation of the Union has not been surpassed by any citizen or officer of the United States. He also served six years in the United States senate. He sleeps in a cemetery near the little city in which he spent his life from early youth. No stately shaft of bronze or marble marks his grave. His monument has been and is in the affections of more than 200,000 Illinois soldiers whom he organized into regiments at the call of their country, to uphold liberty, law and the Union.

Then there was over and above all the Whig leaders in the state, Abraham Lincoln. He did more by his speeches, by his

efforts in the promotion of the principles and interests of the Whig party and in opposition to the extension of slavery than any other member of it. His kindly sympathy for all living creatures, yet his comprehensive, steady judgment proved him to be, above all others of his time, the greatest Whig, the greatest anti-slavery advocate and the greatest man.

The party organized forty-four years ago today in the state of Illinois as the Anti-Nebraska party, soon after took the name of "Republican" party, which name it has ever since retained. The achievements of that party have been memorable in the history of the country. While it was made up of a majority of Whigs, yet it included a strong element, and many strong men, from the previously dominating party in the Union-Democracy. It had strength enough to overthrow the Democratic party at the November election in 1856 in the state of Illinois. It did not succeed in electing the Anti-Nebraska electoral ticket of that year, but it got possession of the state government. It has retained possession from that time to the present, forty-four years, with the exception of from January, 1893, to January, 1897, a period of four years.

The Whig leaders not only achieved their purpose in preventing the extension of African slavery, but they established that other distinct principle belonging to the Whigs— the principle of protection, and, by its beneficient operation in the management of the revenues of the nation, it has brought the people of the United States into an elevated and advanced position among the family of nations. The Whigs and the Whig leaders of the state of Illinois are entitled to their full share of the achievements which preserved the Union intact, crushed out that infamous institution-American slavery and placed the whole people of the nation upon that broad and Catholic principle—“Liberty for all." The state of Illinois may well be proud of the deeds performed by the Whigs and Whig leaders of the state.

It required the signature of "A Whig Leader of Illinois," as president of the United States, to perfect the Morrill Tariff

bill, thereby carrying into full effect the long cherished principle of protection. Thus a policy was adopted which, with only spasmodic exceptions, has continued since 1862, justifying, in its results, the claims made by the Whigs for the principle which they had so long and earnestly advocated. ISAAC L. MORRISON.

Pres. Davis:

Address of Gen. John M. Palmer.

Our next speaker it is unnecessary to introduce. Major-general in the War of the Rebellion, governor of this state, and senator in the congress of the United States, he is a man whom we all delight to honor. It is only necessary to further state that he was the president of the convention of May 29, 1856.

I have the honor of introducing Gen. John M. Palmer.

Fellow Citizens: I know that some of those present at the convention of 1856 (the forty-fourth anniversary of which we celebrate today), still survive—but they are few—some of the old friends preceded Mr. Lincoln into the "land of shadows." Of the central figures in that convention one only, Hoffman, is living; Bissell, Wood, Hatch, Dubois, Miller, (your fellow citizen) and Powell, all are gone!

And those who issued the call for the convention William B. Ogden, S. M. Church, G. D. A. Parks, T. J. Pickett, E. A. Dudley, W. H. Herndon, R. J. Oglesby, Joseph Gillespie, D. L. Phillips, Gustav Koerner and Ira O. Wilkinson and also James C. Conkling, Asahel Gridley, Burton C. Cook, Charles H. Ray, and N. B. Judd, the executive committee under whose directions the campaign of 1856 was carried on, they too have

John McCauley Palmer, was born in Scott county, Ky., September 13, 1817. Moved to Madison county, Ill. Entered Shurtleff College, taught school, studied law, 1843 elected probate judge of Macoupin county. Member of Constitutional convention of 1847, elected to State Senate in 1852 and re-elected in 1854, as an AntiNebraska Democrat, cast his vote for Lyman Trumbull for United States Senator, was president of the Major's Hall convention, delegate to National convention that nominated Fremont in 1856. Presidential elector in 1860. Member National Peace Conference 1861. Col. 14 Ill. Inf, Brig. Gen. November, 1861. Major General in 1864, Commander 14 Army Corps. 1865 assigned by President Lincoln to command Military Department, Kentucky. In 1868 elected governor as Republican, in 1872 supported Horace Greely for president. 1891 elected United States Senator by democrats. 1896 gold democrat candidate for president.

gone! Others died under the flag, or in the hospitals during the Civil War, whose coming that convention faintly indicated.

The convention was created by the intense hostility of the American people to the extension of human slavery into free territories.

Both the great parties of the country had pledged themselves by the action of their national convention in 1852, to maintain the compromise measures of 1850, as a final, and satisfactory settlement of the slavery question in the United States, but the permanent success of the Democratic party was destroyed by an event which was intended to insure its predominance.

In 1854 Mr. Douglas, then a senator from Illinois, reported a bill from the committee on territories for the organization of the territory of Nebraska. In his report he said: "The prominent amendments which your committee deemed it their duty to commend to the favorable action of the senate in a special report, are those in which the principles established by the compromise measures of 1850, so far as they are applicable to territorial organizations, are proposed to be affirmed, and carried into practical operation within the limits of the new territory with a view of conforming their action to what they regard as the settled policy of the government, sanctioned by the approving voice of the American people, your committee had deemed it their duty to incorporate and perpetuate in their territorial bill the principles and spirit of those measures. If any other considerations were necessary to render the propriety of this course imperative upon the committee, they may be found in the fact that the Nebraska country occupies the relative position to the slavery question as did New Mexico and Utah when those territories were organized. It was a disputed point whether slavery was prohibited by law in the country acquired from Mexico.

On the one hand it was contended as a legal proposition that slavery having been prohibited by the enactments of Mexico, according to the law of nations, we received the