Page images
PDF
EPUB

I. L. Christie, Monmouth. R. H. Downing, Keokuk J.
C. W. Boydston, Cameron. James Callans, Winchester.
A. W. King, Macomb. John Moses, Winchester.
David Rankin, Biggsville. J. S. Harvey, Belleview.
W. Jenney, Burnside. A. J. Thompson, Bethel.
Paul D. Salter, Biggsville. Samuel Woods, Pisgah.
James DeWitt, Littleton. John Gordon, Lynnville.
S. P. Cummings, Astoria. S. P. Gilbert, Carlinville.
S. Y. Thornton, Canton. O. P. Powell, Jerseyville.
Wm. Rowcliff, Robin's Nest. H. F. Martin, Brighton.
Julius S. Starr, Peoria. F. S. Pike, St. Jacob.
Patrick W. Dunn, Peoria. Geo. A. Smith, Alton.
Richard Holmes, Delevan. Geo. H. Weigler, Alton.
R. A. Talbott, Burton View. J. K. McMasters, Nashville.
Thomas Windle, Lincoln. A. G. Henry, Greenville.
T. P. Rogers, Bloomington. Wm. H. Moore, Nashville.
J. F. Winter, Bloomington. Wm. R. Hubbard, Kinmundy.
A. E. Stewart, Bloomington. Thos. E. Merritt, Salem.

Shaw Pease, Niantic.
John H. Tyler, Dewitt.
Samuel S. Jack, Decatur.
Wm. H. Phillips, Rantoul.
Geo. H. Benson, Rantonl.
W. C. Hubbart, Monticello.
Wm. S. O'Hair, Paris.
John Sidell, Fairmount.
Andrew Gundy, Bismark.

John B. Johnson, Alma.
Samuel R. Hall, Albion.
Byron J. Rotan, Louisville.
John Landrigan, Albion.
E. Callahan, Robinson.
John H. Halley, Newton.
J. W. Briscoe, Darwin.
H. W. Hall, Knight's Pr.
A. B. Barrett, Mt. Vernon.

J. A. Connolly, Charleston. Boon Kershaw, Grayville.
E. M. Vance, Mattoon. J. N. Wasson, Shawneetown.

Samuel McKee, Blair.

R. A. Wilson, Williamsburg. A. C. Neilson, Marion.
Wm. Gillmore, Edgewood. Isaac Smith, Ridgway.
W. Middlesworth, Shelbyville. J. W. Rickert, Waterloo.
William Chew, Shelbyville.
Levi Scott, Pana.
John C. Hagler, Pana.
W. F. Mulkey, Nokomis.
Jos. L. Wilcox, Loami.
Fred Gehring, Springfield.
S. M. Cullom, Springfield.
N. W. Branson, Petersburg.
A. G. Nance, Petersburg.
John W. Pugh, Mason City.
T. J. Bates, Camp Point.
Ira M. Moore, Quincy.

J. Chesnutwood, Evansville.
Wm. G. Kase, E. St. Louis.
John Thomas, Belleville.
James Rankin, Lebanon.
F. E. Albright, Murphysboro.
M. J. Inscore, Anna.
Claiborn Winston, Cairo.
Benj. O. Jones, Metropolis.
James R. Stegall, Oak.
L. F. Plater, Elizabethtown.

In this General Assembly the Republicans lost their majority, and by a fusion with the Independents the

Democrats succeeded in obtaining control of both houses. On the sixteenth ballot A. A. Glenn was elected President pro tempore of the Senate, over John Early, by a vote of 26 to 23, when he became acting Lieutenant-Governor, and R. T. Townes, Secretary, over D. A. Ray, by a vote of 26 to 24.

In the House, E. M. Haines was elected Speaker, over Shelby M. Cullom, by a vote of 81 to 68, and Jeremiah J. Crowley, Clerk, over Daniel Shepard, by a similar vote.

Governor Beveridge presented his message to the two houses on the 8th of January. It was a brief, business State paper, and confined exclusively to matters of State; he congratulated the Legislature on the happy and prosperous condition of the people, and commended to their careful and considerate attention the passage of such laws as would subserve the best interests of the State and foster and preserve the State institutions intact.

This was a stormy session, and the leaders on either side sought every opportunity to take advantage of each other, and by reason of this it was an unprofitable session, in many ways.

The laws enacted were comprised in a volume of 118 pages, the most important of which were: the appropriation acts; to provide for the re-organization of cities; to enable corporations in other States and counties to lend money in Illinois; to change the fiscal year; to give railroad companies the right to purchase or lease roads in adjoining States; to authorize the formation of union depots and stations for railroads; to authorize the refunding of funds collected for 1873, under an act passed in 1869, providing for the payment of railroad debts of counties, townships, cities and towns, and to regulate the charitable institutions and State Reform School, and to improve their organization and increase their efficiency.

CHAPTER XXXIII,

A VISION OF WAR.

Extract from a Speech Delivered by Robert G. Ingersoll, at the "Soldiers' Reunion," at Indianapolis, Ind., September 21, 1876.

"The past rises before me like a dream. Again we are in the great struggle for National life. We hear the sounds of preparation-the music of boisterous drumsthe silver notes of heroic bugles. We see thousands of assemblages, and hear the appeals of orators; we see the pale cheeks of women, and the flushed faces of men; and in those assemblages we see all the dead whose dust we have covered with flowers. We lose sight of them no more. We are with them when they enlist in the great army of freedom. We see them part with those they love. Some are walking for the last time in quiet woody places, with the maidens they adore. We hear the whisperings and the sweet vows of eternal love as they lingeringly part forever. Others are bending over cradles, kissing babes that are asleep. Some are receiving the blessings of old men. Some are parting with mothers, who hold them, and press them to their hearts again and again, and say nothing. Kisses and tears, tears and kissesdivine mingling of agony and love. And some are talking with wives, and endeavoring with brave words, spoken in the old tones, to drive from their hearts the awful fear. We see them part. We see the wife standing in the door with the babe in her arms-standing in the sunlight sobbing at the turn of the road a hand waves-she answers by holding high in her loving arms the child. He is gone, and forever.

"We see them all as they march proudly away under the flaunting flags, keeping time to the grand, wild music

of war,-marching down the streets of the great citiesthrough the towns and across the prairies-down to the fields of glory, to do and to die for the eternal right.

66

We go with them, one and all. We are by their side on all the gory fields-in all the hospitals of pain-on all the weary marches. We stand guard with them in the wild storm and under the quiet stars. We are with them in ravines running with blood-in the furrows of old fields. We are with them between contending hosts, unable to move, wild with thirst, the life ebbing slowly away among the withered leaves. We see them pierced by balls and torn with shells, in the trenches, by forts, and in the whirlwind of the charge, where men become iron, with nerves of steel.

"We are with them in the prisons of hatred and famine; but human speech can never tell what they endured. "We are at home when the news comes that they are Idead. We see the maiden in the shadow of her first sorWe see the silvered head of the old man bowed with his last grief.

row.

"The past rises before us, and we see four millions of human beings governed by the lash-we see them bound hand and foot-we hear the strokes of cruel whips-we see the hounds tracking women through tangled swamps. We see babes sold from the breasts of mothers. Cruelty unspeakable! Outrage infinite!

"Four million bodies in chains-four million souls in fetters. All the sacred relations of wife, mother, father and child trampled beneath the brutal feet of might. And all this was done under our beautiful banner of the free. "The past rises before us. We hear the roar and shriek of the bursting shell. The broken fetters fall. These heroes died. We look. Instead of slaves, we see men and women and children. The wand of progress touches the auction-block, the slave-pen, the whippingpost, and we see homes, and fire-sides, and school-houses, and books, and where all was want and crime and cruelty and fear, we see the faces of the free.

"These heroes are dead. They died for liberty-they died for us. They are at rest. They sleep in the land they made free, under the flag they rendered stainless, under the solemn pines, the sad hemlocks, the tearful willows, and the embracing vines. They sleep beneath the shadows of the clouds, careless alike of sunshine or of storm, each in the windowless palace of Rest. Earth may

run red with other wars-they are at peace. In the midst of battle, in the roar of conflict, they found the serinity of death. I have one sentiment for soldiers, living and dead: Cheers for the living; tears for the dead."

CHAPTER XXXIV.

STATE CAMPAIGN OF 1876,

In 1876, the contest was again triangular in part. The Republicans met in State convention May 24, to nominate a State ticket and appoint delegates to the National Convention. Shelby M. Cullom was nominated for Governor, Andrew Shuman for Lieutenant-Governor, George H. Harlow for Secretary of State, Thomas B. Needles for Auditor, Edward Rutz for Treasurer, and James K. Edsall, who was the incumbent, for Attorney-General. The Greenback party was the next to nominate a State ticket. Lewis Steward was nominated for Governor, James H. Pickrell for Lieutenant-Governor, Marsena M. Hooton for Secretary of State, John Hise for Auditor, Henry T. Aspern for Treasurer, and Winfield S. Coy for Attorney-General. The Democrats met July 27, and nominated Lewis Steward for Governor, Archibald A. Glenn for Lieutenant-Governor, Stephen Y. Thornton for Secretary of State, John Hise for Auditor, George Gundlach for Treasurer, and Edmund Lynch for Attorney-General.

The National Greenback Convention met May 17, at Indianapolis, and nominated Peter Cooper, of New York, for President, and Samuel F. Cary, of Ohio, for VicePresident.

« PreviousContinue »