The Judge Phillips referred to was then the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the State, and his appearance in such company and in such a cause, shows how deeply seated was the slave power upon the very vitals of our State. The contest, as we have said, was waged with wonderful energy on both sides. Gov. Coles was the chosen leader of the anti-slavery party, and to his courage and sagacity may be ascribed the fact that Illinois was not cursed with the blight of slavery. We quote another passage from Ford's history, as the best means of getting before the reader the true character of the campaign:

"The anti-convention party took new courage, and rallied to a man. They established newspapers to oppose the convention: one at Shawneetown, edited by Henry Eddy; one at Edwardsville, edited by Hooper Warren, with Gov. Coles, Thomas Lippincott, George Churchill, and Judge Lockwood, for its principal contributors; and finally, one at Vandalia, edited by David Blackwell, the Secretary of State. The slave party had established a newspaper at Kaskaskia, under the direction of Mr. Kane and Chief Justice Reynolds; and one at Edwardsville, edited by Judge Smith; and both parties prepared to appeal to the interests, the passions, and the intelligence of the people. The contest was mixed with much personal abuse; and now was poured forth a perfect avalanche of detraction, which, if it were not for the knowledge of the people that such matters are generally false, or greatly exaggerated, would have overwhelmed and consumed all men's reputations. Morris Birkbeck, an Englishman, who settled an English colony in Edwards county, Gov. Coles, David Blackwell, George Churchill, and Thomas Lippincott, wrote fiery hand-bills and pamphlets, and the old preachers preached against a convention and slavery. Elias K. Kane, Judge Thomas Reynolds, Judge Samuel McRoberts, Judge Smith, and others, wrote hand-bills and pamphlets in its favor. These missive weapons of a fiery contest were eagerly read by the people. The State was almost covered with them; they flew everywhere, and everywhere they scorched and scathed as they flew. This was a long, excited, angry and bitter contest. It was to last from the spring of 1823, until the August election of 1824; the rank and file of the people were no less excited

than their political leaders. Almost every stump in every county had its bellowing orator, on one side or the other; and the whole people, for the space of eighteen months, did scarcely anything but read newspapers, hand-bills and pamphlets, quarrel, argue, and wrangle with each other whenever they met together to hear the violent harangues of their orators. The people decided by about two thousand majority in favor of a free State. Thus, after one of the most bitter, prolonged and memorable contests which ever convulsed the politics of the State, the question of making Illinois a slave State was put to rest.'

The vote of the counties, and there were then but thirty in the entire State, as shown by the election returns in the office of the Secretary of State, was, for convention, 4,950; against, 6,822-majority against convention, 1,872.

Subsequently, the question as to the right to hold slaves in the State under the indenture system, was frequently brought before the Supreme Court, but no further attempt was ever made to fasten the institution upon the State through the organic law.

CHAPTER XI.

STATE GOVERNMENT-1826-1830.

The third State government was inaugurated December 6, 1826, with Ninian Edwards, of Madison, as Governor; Wm. Kinney, of St. Clair, Lieutenant-Governor; George Forquer, of Sangamon, Secretary of State and AttorneyGeneral; Elijah C. Berry, Auditor of Public Accounts, and Abner Field, of Union, Treasurer.

The Fifth General Assembly convened December 4, 1826, and adjourned February 9, 1827. Lieut.-Gov. Kinney presided over the Senate, and Emanuel J. West was elected Secretary. John McLean was elected Speaker of the House, and Wm. L. D. Ewing Clerk.

In this Assembly was Wm. S. Hamilton, of Sangamon, a son of Alexander Hamilton, the first Secretary of the Treasury, who was killed in a duel with Aaron Burr, who was Vice-President under Thomas Jefferson. Mr. Wm. S. Hamilton was born in New York, and came to Illinois in 1817, settling in Sangamon county. He emigrated to Wisconsin in 1827, and from thence to California, where he distinguished himself. He died in that State October 9, 1850, and a monument marks his resting place.

CHAPTER XII.

CAIRO IN 1818.

As far back as 1818, the territory now occupied by the city of Cairo was regarded as one of the best sites in Illinois for a flourishing city, and it will be both interesting and amusing to read the following preamble to an act which was approved January 9, 1818, incorporating the place:

"AND, WHEREAS, the said proprietors represent that there is, in their opinion, no position in the whole of the extent of these Western States better calculated, as respects commercial advantages and local supply, for a great and important city, than that afforded by the junction of these. two great highways-the Mississippi and Ohio rivers; but that nature, having denied to the extreme point formed by their union a sufficient degree of elevation to protect the improvements made thereon from the ordinary inundations of the adjacent waters, such elevation is to be found only upon the tract above mentioned (the present site of Cairo), so that improvements made and located thereon may be deemed perfectly and absolutely secure from all such ordinary inundations, and liable to injury only from the concurrence of unusually high and simultaneous inundations in both of said rivers-an event which is alleged

but rarely happens, and the injurious consequences of which it is considered practicable, by proper embankments, wholly and effectually and permanently to obviate. And, whereas, there is no doubt but a city, erected at, or as near as is practicable to, the junction of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, provided it be thus secured by sufficient embankments, or in such other way as experience may prove most efficacious for that purpose, from every such extraordinary inundation-must necessarily become a place of vast consequence to the prosperity of this growing Territory, and, in fact, to that of the greater part of the inhabitants of these Western States. And, whereas, the above named persons are desirous of erecting such city, under the sanction and patronage of the Legislature of this Territory, and also of providing for the security and prosperity of the same, and to that end propose to appropriate the one-third of all the moneys arising from the sale and disposition of the lots into which the same may be surveyed, as a fund for the construction and preservation of such dykes, levees and other embankments as may be necessary to render the same perfectly secure; and, also, if such fund shall be deemed sufficient thereto, for the erection of public edifices and such other improvements in the said city as may be, from time to time, considered expedient and practicable, and to appropriate the other two-thirds parts of the said purchase moneys to the operation of banking." (See Laws of the Session of 1818.)

John G. Comyges, Thomas H. Harris, Charles Slade, Thomas F. Herbert, Shadrach Bond, Michael Jones, Warren Brown, Edward Humphreys and Charles W. Hunter were designated as proprietors of the then prospective city.

In the sixty-six years that have passed since this legislation, Cairo has had a hard struggle for the mastery of the floods. In the spring of 1882-83-84, respectively, the height of the rivers exceeded that of all former years, yet the levees successfully resisted the pressure of the water, which clearly demonstrates that human skill has placed Cairo beyond the power of the floods.

PEORIA IN 1824,

Peoria, now with her forty thousand busy, prosperous people, her many grand railways, her great commerce, her immense manufactories, and her flourishing schools, colleges and churches, had but a feeble existence when Edward Coles was Governor. In a report to the Secretary of the Treasury (See Peck's Gazetteer of 1834), regarding the title to town lots in the then village of Peoria, Mr. Coles made the following minute reference to the early history of the place, which, in view of the great achievements since, is worthy of preserving as a part of the history of the State:

"The village of Peoria is situated on the northwest shore of Lake Peoria, about one and a half miles above the lower extremity or outlet of the lake. This village had been inhabited by the French previous to the recollection of any of the present generation. About the year 1778, the first house was built, in what was then called Laville de Maillet-afterwards the new village of Peoria-and of late the place has been known by the name of Fort Clark. The situation being preferred in consequence of the water being better, and its being thought more healthy, the inhabitants gradually deserted the old village, and, by the year 1796 or 1797, had entirely abandoned it and removed to the new village.

"The inhabitants of Peoria consisted generally of Indian traders, hunters and voyagers, and had formed a link of connection between the French residing on the waters of the great lakes and the Mississippi river. From that happy facility of adapting themselves to their situation and associates, for which the French are so remarkable, the inhabitants of Peoria lived generally in harmony with their savage neighbors. It would seem, however, that about the year 1781, they were induced to abandon their village from the apprehension of Indian hostilities; but soon after the peace of 1783, they again returned to it, and continued to reside there until the autumn of 1812, when they were forcibly removed from it and the place destroyed by a Capt. Craig, of the Illinois militia, on the ground, it was