training that made him the peerless orator, also enabled him to divine and forecast the action of his antagonists; this and the courage of his race to act instantly with all his force, to do the right thing at the right time. He also had what is not often given to the imaginative, artistic temperament, the executive ability of the English race that has made them the great administrators of modern times. His men loved, admired and trusted him implicitly. Had not his career been untimely cut off at Balls Bluff he would have ranked high among the great commanders of the civil war. In every Company of the Fourth were men who were eagerly sought to command the raw volunteers of 1861 and who gladly gave their services, and many their lives, that the Union might continue one and indivisible, the hope of mankind the world over. The most distinguished of these was a lieutenant in the Decatur Company, the greatly beloved, the lion-hearted, Richard J. Oglesby.

The State of Illinois did well when the Sixteenth General Assembly in 1849, directed that the "Governor of the State procure suitable swords, with proper devices and inscriptions to be presented in the name and in behalf of the people of this State to Major-General Shields; to the eldest son of the lamented Col. John J. Hardin; and to each of the field officers from this State engaged in the Mexican war. as a public testimonial of their admiration for the gallant conduct of these officers at the battle of Buena Vista, Cerro Gordo, and elsewhere."

One of these swords, the gift of a grateful people to a noble man, Lieutenant-Colonel Moore, of the Fourth, I have here for the inspection of those who desire to see this beautiful specimen of the artisan and goldsmith. (Colonel Moore's sword was shown at the meeting, by Mr. Prince)

*Note-After the delivery of the above address, Mr. Prince having ascertained that Mr. Elliot, spoken of by Lieutenant Duncan, was living at San Rafael, Cal., sent him a copy of the address and received the following reply:

"General Scott says: The field of operations covered many miles in extent broken by mountains and deep chasms. General Shields, a commander of talent and activity, is I fear if not dead mortally wounded. Of the conduct of the volunteer force under the brave General Shields I cannot speak in too high terms." General Patterson says: "Colonel Baker, Fourth Illinois regiment. having assumed the command, the enemies' lines were charged with spirit and success by the Third and Fourth Illinois and New York regiments of volunteers under their respective commanders Colonels Foreman and Burnett and Major Harris. The route now became general, the brigade pressed forward in rapid pursuit leaving a sufficient force to secure the artillery, specie, baggage, provisions and camp equipage left in our hands."

Colonel Baker says: "The brigade moved to reinforce General Twiggs' division operating on the right of the Cerro Gordo pass. It reached the position of that division about five o'clock on the evening of the 17th, too late to share in the brilliant action of that day. During the greater portion of the night almost the entire brigade was occupied in dragging a battery of twentyfour pounder siege gun and two twenty-four pound Howitzers, which work they performed with great labor and zeal. At daylight on the morning of the 18th the brigade was under arms and moved at an early hour to attack the extreme left of the enemy's position. This was effected over very difficult ground through a thick chaparral and under a galling fire from the enemy's guns on the heights.

"Upon approaching the main road the enemy was found upon and near it with a field battery of six guns supported by a large force of infantry and cavalry.

"While forming for the attack under a heavy fire from the enemy's guns, General Shields who had gallantly led the command fell severely if not mortally wounded. I then directed a company to deploy as skirmishers and ordered a charge upon the enemy's lines which was accomplished with spirit and success by those companies which from the nature of the ground were able to make the advance. They were promptly and gallantly supported by the remainder of the Fourth Illinois regiment under Major Harris. The Third regiment under Colonel Foreman, the New York under Colonel Burnett, being ordered by me to move forward to the right and left and upon the enemy. The route became complete at that point and the enemy fled in great confusion leaving his guns, baggage and a large amount of specie, provisions and camp equipage in our hands.

"I am under obligations to Colonels Foreman and Burnett and Major Harris for the coolness, promptness and gallantry with which they carried into execution the several dispositions of their commands."

15. LIBRARIES AS LOCAL HISTORY CENTERS: THE CHICAGO HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

(By Caroline B. McIlvaine.)

It is not my hope to be able to offer to the Illinois State Historical Society any new ideas upon the subject of collecting local historical material; for this organization has achieved in the seven years since its founding, a success in that direction, and in coördinating the historical interests of the state, which would be absolutely unaccountable did we not know that it had already lived for many decades in the hearts of its founders. Speaking then in the capacity of a librarian, and wholly as a layman where historical matters are concerned, my observations may present to you some new aspect of familiar themes.

The foundations for historical research in Illinois having been laid very broad and very deep by our first historical society, known as the Antiquarian and Historical Society of Illinois, the duty devolving upon its successors, and so upon librarians as custodians of the collections of such bodies, are neither few nor light, and if the historians and librarians of the rising generation are to build intelligently upon the foundations of their elders they cannot review too often nor too thoughtfully, the objects of that pioneer society as set forth in its Proceedings from which the following are extracts. "On the evening of Saturday, December 8th, 1827, a number of gentlemen, chiefly members of the bench and bar of the Supreme Court then in session, met at the State House at Vandalia in pursuance of public notice, for the purpose of organizing a Historical Society for this State: Chief Justice Wilson was called to the chair, and James Hall appointed secretary. The following resolution was offered by Mr. Hall, and adopted:

Resolved, that the gentlemen present do now form themselves into a Society, for the promotion of elegant and useful learning. [The Preamble to the Constitution adopted is so striking a monument to the sagacity and farsightedness of these first gentlemen of Illinois that it has ever since served as the standard of symmetry and completeness by which all subsequent historical effort has been gauged, if indeed it does not indicate the highwater mark of aspiration in this direction. It is in part as follows.] "The undersigned citizens of Illinois, and others, sensible that there are now in existence, within this state, many interesting vestiges of its former population, that many important facts respecting its settlement by the present race of inhabitants are preserved only in tradition; that little is correctly known, even by ourselves, in relation to those points, and that the past and present character of our country, its soil, climate and productions, remain almost unnoticed by the

naturalist and historian; and believing that these important relics of the past, or monuments of the present time, are daily diminishing in number and value, have determined to establish an institution which shall afford a safe depository for all such documents, facts, and materials, as we shall be able to procure, and which may be properly classed among the evidences of history."

The duties of the librarian of that Society, who was one Robert Peebles by name, are defined in the constitution as follows:

The librarian shall keep all documents and other articles handed to him by the Society for safe keeping; shall make proper records and catalogues of the same, under the direction of the corresponding committee, and perform such other duties as may be deemed necessary. I am unable to learn anything beyond the name of this first librarian, but doubtless he was custodian of many choice local items lacking in the collections of today if the following resolutions were carried out:

Resolved, that the committee of correspondence be instructed to cause observations to be taken of the heat, weight, and currents of the atmospherethe change of seasons-the quantity of rain; and to note all such other phenomena as will tend to illustrate the climate of Illinois.

Resolved, that the committee of correspondence be instructed to procure, if possible, by donation, if not, to ascertain on what terms, the Laws-the Journals of Executive and Legislative bodies-and all other documents of the N. W. Territory, prior to the organization of the Territory of Illinois-and of the Territory and State of Illinois.

Resolved, that the committee of correspondence be instructed to procure, in like manner, Illinois newspapers from the earliest to the present period-and to cause a file to be preserved in future.

I believe that it was in some of the writings of Mr. Beckwith that I came across the following extract from the Illinois Intelligencer of February 14, 1829: "We publish this week the proceedings of the Antiquarian Historical Society of this State, and we earnestly recommend this subject to the attention of our readers. The improvement of the country, and its advancement in literature, are of more importance to the people than the elevation of an ambitious aspirant, or the quarrels of demagogues."

Apparently the "ambitious aspirants and demagogues" were too numerous for the promoters of elegant and useful learning, for the society only lived a few years; but long enough to leave the stamp of the great minds which composed its membership upon its records, where were enrolled among others the names of James Hall, Samuel D. Lockwood, Edward Coles, John Reynolds, John Mason Peck, Peter Cartwright, Sidney Breese, Henry Eddy, Auguste Chouteau, General William Clark and William H. Brown. Three of the pamphlets published in Edwardsville in 1828, and at Vandalia in 1829 and 1830, are in the library of the Chicago Historical Society. The writer would be glad to learn of other publications of this Society or of other copies of the above mentioned.

It is now four score years since that first Illinois historical society librarian entered upon his duties of safeguarding and cataloguing the pioneer accumulations of that first historical society, yet notwithstanding much effort during the many intervening years to collect along the lines then marked out, the librarian of an Illinois historical collection of the twentieth century, in contemplating the volumes in his charge, finds the heritage of those years much lighter in some important departments than one would suppose. Indeed the history

of Illinois is yet to be written. So far I believe no librarian in the state has the happiness to be custodian of an entirely complete set of the territorial laws, a consecutive file of an early Illinois newspaper, nor even of the full set of Illinois county histories. To the thrifty bookman these incomplete files are thorns in the flesh, not to be tolerated until it has been proven that the lacking volumes are not sequestered in some cellar or attic, or buried alive under the accumulated dust of some lawyer's office.

The thirty odd local historical societies which the industry of the Illinois State Society has brought into corresponding communication with one another, have done much to bring to light forgotten records in the vicinity of their headquarters. Is it not true that there is much loss in effectiveness, however, in county historical societies by reason of the fact that the meetings of a society whose membership extends over a large area, are necessarily held only at long intervals, and that in the meantime enterprises undertaken with enthusiasm lapse for want of opportunity for consultation and coöperation? If it were practicable to go on multiplying historical societies until every city, village and hamlet had its own organization, I venture to say that precious documents would no longer slumber in dusty offices and attics, for the historians who were on the spot would not rest until everything of this description was rescued and accessibly preserved. But if the multiplication of petty organizations would not mean increased strength is there any agency which can be relied upon to assist in sustaining interest in historical matters in the interim between the meetings of the societies? To the mind of the librarian of an historical society there can be but one answer to this question, namely that the local public library in the smaller communities with its permanent building, and staff of assistants maintained at public expense, is that agency.

In the opinion of the writer the public libraries might become a valuable asset in reckoning the historical strength of the State. But whether or not the societies wish to avail themselves of this means of extending their influence it would seem to be their duty to point out to those entrusted with the management of town libraries the importance of devoting some part of the funds in their hands to collecting material relative to their own towns, for it is a fact that some towns have not even preserved copies of their own official publications. The more progressive however, even now, realize that the formation of a local collection enlists the cooperation of a larger part of the community than any other subject could possibly do. But some trustee will take alarm and object that it is the mission of the historical societies to investigate and preserve the remains of Indian occupation, the relics of the explorers and missionaries and the vestiges of pioneer settlers. This is perfectly true, but as has been before remarked, there are not now and probably never will be enough historical societies in the State of Illinois to canvass this great field minutely. It is the mission of the historical societies to advise, to investigate, and to call general attention to the historic sites, etc., but it is the privilege of the communities where these sites are found, and particularly of the libraries located there, to foster local pride in the