An act was passed by Congress in 1814, providing for laying off two sections of land in town lots at Shawneetown, which was to be done under the supervision of the Surveyor-General. (See U. S. Laws-at-large, 1813-20.) The same year the town was incorporated by the Legisture. (See Public Laws of Illinois of 1814.)

Mr. Birkbeck was a prominent and honored citizen of Illinois in his day, and took an active part with Gov. Coles in his efforts to prevent Illinois from becoming a slave State. He was Secretary of State from October 15, 1824, to January 15, 1825, when he resigned.

CHAPTER IX.

FOURTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY-1824-26.

The Fourth General Assembly convened November 15, 1824, and adjourned January 18, 1825. A second session convened January 2, 1826, and adjourned January 28. Lieut.-Gov. Hubbard presided over the Senate, and Raphael Widen was elected Secretary. Thomas Mather was elected Speaker of the House, and David Blackwell Clerk.

David Blackwell, of St. Clair, became Secretary of State April 2, 1823, and resigned October 15, 1824, and was succeeded by Morris Birkbeck, of Edwards.

Abner Field, of Union, became Treasurer, January 14, 1823.

George Forquer, of Sangamon, became Secretary of State in 1825.

Gov. Coles retired from office December 6, 1826. His administration was an eventful one. He had boldly met

the party which had atttempted to make Illinois a slave State, and triumphantly defeated it, and thus preserved our fair inheritance to freedom.

Gov. Coles was born in Albemarle county, Virginia, December 15, 1786; he graduated at William and Mary College; was Private Secretary to President Madison, who sent him on a mission to Russia, in 1817. On his return, in 1818, he removed to Illinois.

After his retirement from the office of Governor he mingled but little in politics, and in 1833 removed to Philadelphia, where he died July 7, 1868. His widow, his eldest son Edward, and a daughter, survived him. Gov. Coles was the companion and friend of such eminent men. as Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson, Nicholas Biddle and James Monroe, with whom he was in frequent correspondence; and he wielded a considerable influence in shaping the affairs of the country.

CHAPTER X.

SLAVERY IN ILLINOIS.

When and How Slaves were Held in Illinois-Gallatin County made an Exception in the Constitution-An Attempt in 1822 to make Illinois a Slave State-Vote of the House of Representatives on the Question-A Hot Campaign before the People-Vote of the State Against Slavery.

Illinois being originally a part of Virginia, there were naturally quite a number of slaves in the Territory when it was ceded to the United States, in 1784, and it was then stipulated that persons who claimed to have been citizens of Virginia prior to the cession should be protected in their property, which meant that they should be protected in the right to hold their slaves. But in 1787, Congress passed

an ordinance which declared that neither slavery nor involuntary servitude should exist in the Northwestern Territory, of which Illinois was a part; and it will be observed that the framers of the constitution of 1818 endeavored to carry out the will of Congress. Sections 1, 2 and 3 of Article 6 read thus:

1. "Neither slavery or involuntary servitude shall hereafter be introduced into this State, otherwise than for the punishment of crimes, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted; nor shall any male person, arrived at the age of 21 years, nor female person arrived at the age of 18 years, be held to serve any person as a servant, under any indenture hereafter made, unless such person shall enter into such indenture while in a state of perfect freedom, and on condition of a bona fide consideration received or to be received for their service. Nor shall any indenture of any negro or mulatto, hereafter made and executed out of this State, or, if made in this State, where the term of service exceeds one year, be of the least validity, except those given in cases of apprenticeship.

2. "No person bound to labor in any other State, shall be hired to labor in this State, except within the tract reserved for the salt works near Shawneetown, nor even at that place for a longer period than one year at any one time; nor shall it be allowed there after the year 1825. Any violation of this article shall effect the emancipation of such person from his obligation to service.

3. "Each and every person who has been bound to service by contract or indenture in virtue of the laws of Illinois Territory heretofore existing, and in conformity to the provisions of the same, without fraud or collusion, shall be held to a specific performance of their contracts or indentures; and such negroes and mulattoes as have been registered in conformity with the aforesaid laws, shall serve out the time appointed by said laws: Provided, however, that the children hereafter born of such person, negroes or mulattoes, shall become free, the males at the age of 21 years, the females at the age of 18 years. Each and every child born of indentured parents, shall be entered with the clerk of the county in which they reside, by their owners, within six months after the birth of said child."

While Illinois was in no true sense slave State, yet slavery existed in the State until 1840. The United States

Census of 1810, shows that there were 168 slaves in the Territory; that of 1820, that there were 917 in the State; that of 1830, 747; that of 1840, 331, and that of 1850, that the institution had become utterly extinct so far as the force of law governed it. Slavery, however, did not exist in the sense that it did in the slaves States proper, but merely in the form of an indenture.

But the constitution of 1818 did not fully settle the agitation of the slavery question in the State, for a most determined effort was made during the administration of Governor Coles to change the organic law so as to make Illinois a slave State, and the effort seems to have been as dishonest as it was earnest.

In his inaugural address, in December, 1822, Gov. Coles took the ground that, notwithstanding slavery was prohibited by the Ordinance of 1787, and by the constitution itself, yet it existed in Illinois, and he sought to impress upon the attention of the law-making power the idea that the institution was inhuman and morally wrong, and that it was the duty of the General Assembly to pass such laws as would effectually overthrow the institution in whatever form it might exist. But this rational and just recommendation was utterly disregarded by the pro-slavery men, who, being largely in the majority, deliberately went to work to put in motion the machinery by which the constitution was to be so changed as to make of Illinois a slave State. In both houses the pro-slavery men had a large majority; but when the final test came in the House, they lacked one vote of having the required constitutional majority. The journal of the House of that session shows that there had been a contest between Nicholas Hansen, anti-slavery, and John Shaw, pro-slavery. both of Pike county; and that on the 9th of December, 1822, the House declared Hansen entitled to the seat. But when it became evident to the pro-slavery men that they needed one

additional vote to insure the passage of a resolution calling a convention to amend or revise the constitution, Alexander P. Fields, of Union county, moved to reconsider the motion by which Hansen was admitted. This was on the 28th of January, 1823, over two months after Mr. Hansen had been declared entitled to represent his district in that body. It was pretended that some new evidence had been developed, and on this pretext Hansen was unseated and John Shaw admitted in his place. The convention resolution having previously passed the Senate, needed only the formality of a vote in the House to render its passage certain, and the election for a convention to frame a new constitution was therefore called for the first Monday in August, 1824. The contest was a bitter one from the very first hour the question was mooted, and it grew in bitterness as the canvass progressed.

Speaking of the passage of the convention resolution, Ex-Gov. Reynolds, himself a pro-slavery man, thus refers to the proceedings of the General Assembly: "This proceeding in the General Assembly looked revolutionary, and was condemned by all honest and reflecting men. This outrage was a death-blow to the convention."

Ex-Gov. Ford, in his History of Illinois, bears testimony to the same effect, wherein he says:

"The night after this resolution passed, the convention party assembled to triumph in a great carousal. They formed themselves into a noisy, disorderly, and tumultuous procession, headed by Judge Phillips, Judge Smith, Judge Thomas Reynolds, late Governor of Missouri, and Lieutenant-Governor Kinney, followed by the majority of the Legislature, and the hangers-on and rabble about the seat of Government; and they marched, with the blowing of tin horns and the beating of drums and tin pans, to the residence of Gov. Coles, and to the boarding houses of their principal opponents, towards whom they manifested their contempt and displeasure by a confused medley of groans, wailings and lamentations. Their object was to intimidate, and crush all opposition at once."