entire strength of the Anti-Nebraska press of the state at that time. Those whose names were appended to the call as avowed supporters of the proposition were: The Morgan Journal, Jacksonville. The Chronicle, Winchester. The Illinois State Chronicle, Decatur. The Quincy Whig, Quincy. The Pike County Free Press, Pitts- The Gazette, Lacon. The Fultonian, Vermont, Fulton County. The Journal (German), Quincy. The Pantagraph, Bloomington. Others may have indorsed the movement, but their names were not appended to the call as published up to the date of the convention. The proposition was ignored by the Chicago Democrat and the Democratic Press, though thev afterwards indorsed the call for the Bloomington convention and supported its nominees. The convention met at the time and place indicated in the call, convening in the parlor of what was then the "Cassell House”—afterwards the "Oglesby House," but now known as the "St. Nicholas Hotel." Of those who had indicated their purpose to participate in the movement, a round dozen put in an appearance and took part in the proceedings, while two or three others arrived later in the day. A severe snow storm, which fell the night before, blockaded many of the railroads, especially in the northern part of the state, and prevented the arrival of a number who had intended to be present. The early arrivals included Dr. Charles H. Ray of the Tribune, and George Schneider of the Staats Zeitung, Chicago; V. Y. Ralston, of the Quincy Whig; O. P. Wharton, of the Rock Island Advertiser; T. J. Pickett, of the Peoria Republican; E. C. Daugherty, of the Register and E. W. Blaisdell, of the Republican, Rockford; Charles Faxon, of the Princeton Post; A. N. Ford, of the Lacon Gazette; B. F. Shaw, of the Dixon Telegraph; W. J. Usrey, of the Decatur Chronicle and Paul Selby of the Morgan Journal. An organization was effected with Paul Selby as chairman and Mr. Usrey as secretary, while, according to the official report, Messrs. Ray, Schneider, Ralston, Wharton, Daugherty and Pickett were appointed a committee on resolutions, and Messrs. Faxon, Ford and Shaw on credentials. The most important work of the convention was transacted through the medium of the committee on resolutions. Mr. Lincoln came up from Springfield and was in conference with the committee during the day, and there is reason to believe that the platform, reported by them through Dr. Ray as their chairman, and adopted by the convention, bears the stamp of his peculiar intellect. A copy of this document, embraced in the official report of the proceedings of the convention, I shall deposit with this paper for such use as your association may see proper to make of it. The platform, while disavowing any intention to interfere in the internal affairs of any state in reference to slavery, reduced to its first elements, amounted to an emphatic protest against the introduction of slavery into territory already free, or its further extension; demanded the restoration of the Missouri Compromise; insisted upon the maintenance of the doctrine of the Declaration of Independence as essential to freedom of speech and of the press, and that, under it, "Freedom" should be regarded "as the rule and slavery the exception, made and provided for as such-and that it nowhere recognizes property in man as one of its principles;" declared in favor of the widest toleration in matters of religion. and for the protection of the common school system—which was a protest against "Know-Nothingism" which had swept over the country within the preceding two years—and concluded with a demand for "reform in the administration of the state government" as second only in importance to the slaveryextension itself. This last declaration had an impressive significance given to it, just three years later, in the exposure of the "canal scrip fraud" which furnished a scandalous sequel to the administration of Gov. Matteson, then occupying the gubernatorial chair. The platform, as a whole, amounted to a declaration of the most conservative Republicanism, and the foresight of its authors was indicated by the reiteration of every feature of it, in subsequent years, in the utterances of state and national conventions of the party. Without disparagement to any, it is safe to say that Dr. Charles H. Ray and Mr. George Schneider were controlling factors in framing the platform—the former in conjunction with Mr. Lincoln in the clear enunciation of the principles of the new party on the subject of slavery, and the latter as the faithful representative of the German Anti-Nebraska element in his championship of religious tolerance and the maintenance of the naturalization laws as they were, as against the demand for the exclusion of persons of foreign-birth from the rights of American citizenship. Not less important than the platform, and possibly even more far-reaching in its effects, was the following, which was adopted as an independent resolution: "Resolved, That this convention recommend a state delegate convention to be held on Thursday, the 29th day of May next, in the city of Bloomington, and that the state central committee be requested to fix the ratio of representation for that convention, and take such steps as may seem desirable to bring about a full representation from the whole state." The adoption of this resolution had been preceded by the appointment of a state central committee embracing the following names: First district, S. M. Church, Rockford. For the state-at-large: Gustavus Koerner, Belleville, and Ira O. Wilkinson, Rock Island. The day's proceedings ended with a banquet given in the evening to the editors in attendance on the convention and a number of invited guests, by the citizens of Decatur at the Cassell House. By this time there had been two or three arrivals of belated editors. Those whom I remember distinctly were Simeon Whitely, of the Aurora Guardian, and Edward L. Baker, of the State Journal, Springfield. The local committee having the matter of the banquet in charge consisted of Capt. Isaac C. Pugh, during the Civil War colonel of the Forty-first Illinois volunteers; Dr. H. C. Johns, who died at Decatur a few weeks ago, and Major. E. O. Smith. Richard J. Oglesby, then a young lawyer, presided and made the welcoming address. Several of the editors made speeches, but, of course, the principal speech of the evening was made by Mr. Lincoln. In response to a suggestion, by one of the editors present, of his name as a candidate for governor, Mr. Lincoln illustrated his characteristic unselfishness and sagacity by advocating the nomination of an Anti-Nebraska Democrat, on the ground that such a nomination would be more available than that of an old-line Whig like himself, finally naming Col. William H. Bissell for the place a suggestion that was carried into effect at Bloomington in May, with the very result in November following that he then predicted. The men named upon the central committee all acted in that capacity with three exceptions. These were W. B. Ogden, who declined on account of the demands of business requiring his absence from the state, his place being filled by Dr. John Evans, who afterwards became the territorial governor of Colorado by appointment of Mr. Lincoln; R. J. Oglesby left the state for a tour through Europe and the Holy Land, his place being filled by Col. I. C. Pugh, of Decatur, and Governor Koerner (then serving as lieutenant governor under the Democratic administration of Governor Matteson) doubted whether the time had arrived for the organization of a new party, and so declined, his place being left vacant. Thus ་ changed, the committee issued its call for a "State Convention of the Anti-Nebraska party of Illinois," naming May 29, as the date and Bloomington as the place, as designated by the convention at Decatur. Thus it was that, on the 124th anniversary of the "Father of His Country," with the aid and counsel of the man who was to become its Preserver amid the greatest perils that had ever assailed it from the foundation of the government, this little band of Anti-Nebraska editors enunciated the doctrines which were to be accepted as the foundation principles of the new party, organized and manned the machinery, and set it in motion in the direction of victory. And yet there was not a man of them who felt he was doing more than any other member of the incipient party was ready to do. The time was ripe for the movement; its spirit was in the minds of thousands, and if that little gathering at Decatur had not taken the initiative, others would have done so and the same result would have been achieved at last. In the language of one of the naval heroes of the Spanish-American War, there was "honor enough for all." A brief word as to the personal history of the members of the Decatur convention: Ralston, of the Quincy Whig, after serving as captain in an Illinois regiment and, later, in an Iowa regiment, died in a hospital in St. Louis in 1864; Dr. Charles H. Ray spent the last three years of his life as editor of the Chicago Evening Post, dying in that city in 1870; T. J. Pickett was engaged in newspaper work in Nebraska for a number of years, dying at Ashland in that state in 1891; A. N. Ford died at an advanced age at Lacon in 1892; W. J. Usrey's life career was ended at Decatur in 1894; Daugherty retired from business on account of declining health in 1865. and died not long after-the exact date I am unable to give; Faxon spent some time after the war in government employment in Washington City, dying, as I think, in that city, date unknown; Whitely, after being employed in some government position among the Indians, turned his attention to insurance business at Racine, Wisconsin, where he died about. |