more than $150,000, by receiving depreciated currency; $150,000 more by paying it out, and $100,000 of the loans, which were never repaid by the borrowers, and which the State had to make good, by receiving the bills of the bank for taxes, by funding some at six per cent. interest, and paying a part in cash in the year 1831."

The result of all this was that the banks became insolvent, and everywhere hard times prevailed, and in 1843, the Legislature passed an act compelling the banks to go into liquidation, and here ended the first trials of the people with reckless banking.

FIRST CANVASS BEFORE THE PEOPLE FOR GOVERNOR.

In 1822, there were no distinctive parties in Illinois, and the race for Governor was free for all. The candidates were Joseph Phillips, then Chief Justice of the Supreme Court; Edward Coles, Register of the Land office at Edwardsville; Thomas C. Browne, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, and James B. Moore, General of the State Militia. The State was then very sparsely settled. The election took place in August, and the total vote of all the candidates was but 6,309. Coles received 2,810; Phillips, 2,760; Moore, 522, and Browne, 217. Coles' plurality over Phillips was but 50. There is a striking contrast between the vote of the State then and now. In the election of 1880, the total vote for State officers was 620,995.

It will be observed that there were two candidates for the office of Governor from the Supreme Court. Since then, however, the Supreme Court has been tacitly divorced from the politics of the State, out of deference to to an unmistakable expression of public sentiment in favor of a pure, unpartizan judiciary.

CHAPTER VII.

STATE GOVERNMENT-1822-26.

The second State Government was inaugurated December 5, 1822, with Edward Coles, of Madison, as Governor; Adolphus S. Hubbard, of Gallatin, Lieutenant-Governor; Samuel D. Lockwood, of Madison, Secretary of State; Elijah C. Berry, of Fayette, Auditor of Public Accounts; R. K. McLaughlin, of Fayette, Treasurer; James Turney, of Washington, Attorney-General.

The Third General Assembly convened December 2, 1822, and adjourned February 11, 1823. Lieut.-Gov. Hubbard presided over the Senate, and Thomas Lippincott was elected Secretary. William M. Alexander was elected Speaker of the House, and Charles Dunn Clerk.

This was a stormy session. In the campaign, in which Gov. Coles was elected, the question of making Illinois a slave State had been broadly mooted, and a pro-slavery Legislature had been elected. In his inaugural address Gov. Coles took strong ground against slavery, which arrayed both branches of the Legislature against him, but of the final outcome of the controversy we speak at length in a subsequent chapter.