Chapter VIII: Part I: 206 (2)

With reference to the financial affairs of the State the expert makes no effort to disprove a single statement I have made. He simply makes the broad statement that my conclusions do not agree with other statistics, and yet he fails to produce the statistics with which they do not agree. To illustrate his point he calls attention to the different _rates_ of taxation covering a period of about ten years, which if true is of no importance in this connection because the same has no bearing upon the material point now under consideration. The tax _rate_ is always determined by the amount of money needed to meet the obligations of the State, predicated upon the assessed value of taxable property. Changes in the tax rate, therefore, are liable to be of frequent occurrence. The material point at issue is the volume of money paid into the treasury and the disposition made of it. In this connection a slight amplification of the figures already given will not be inappropriate. In 1875, the last year of Republican rule and the year the State was _redeemed_, the total receipts from all sources amounted to $1,801,129.12. The disbursements, same year, were $1,430,192.83, or $370,936.29 less than was received. In 1907 the receipts from all sources amounted to $3,391,127.15. The disbursements, same year, were $3,730,343.29 or $339,216.14 more than was received, and $2,300,150.46 more than was paid out in 1875. In fact, the financial condition of the State during several years was such that the Legislature was obliged to authorize the issuance of bonds upon which to borrow money to meet current demands, thus adding materially to the bonded debt of the State. Can any thing more inexcusable and indefensible than this be imagined? That any one of the Reconstructed governments could possibly have been guilty of such maladministration as this is inconceivable. And yet, this administration typifies what Mr. Rhodes is pleased to term the restoration of home rule at the South, for which all lovers of good government should rejoice.

The expert admits that I am right in what was said about Senators Alcorn and Bruce, but asserts that Senator Pease, Mr. Brace's immediate predecessor, was opposed to Ames. This is another assertion that is not in harmony with the truth. Ames was a United States Senator when he was elected Governor. When he resigned the Senatorship to become Governor there remained about fourteen months of his term. There devolved, therefore, upon the Legislature that was elected in 1873, the same time Senator Ames was elected Governor, the duty of electing a Senator for the full term and also for the unexpired term. Bruce, an Ames man, was elected for the full term and Pease, also an Ames man, was elected for the unexpired term. If Pease had been opposed to Ames he could not have been elected to the Senate by that Legislature for that was unquestionably an Ames Legislature. It is true Pease was defeated for renomination for State Superintendent of Education by the Convention that nominated Ames, still he loyally supported the ticket and after the election he was looked upon as one of the friends and supporters of the Ames Administration. As such and for that reason he was elected as one of the administration Senators. I was a member of Congress at that time and, therefore, had occasion frequently to confer with Senator Pease. If he were opposed to Ames, I am sure that both Mr. Rhodes and his expert will admit that I would have known it; and yet I do not hesitate to say that Senator Pease never did by word, act or deed cause me to entertain the slightest suspicion that he was not a loyal friend and supporter of the Ames Administration.

In regard to the decisions of the Supreme Court, the expert simply makes the declaration that the statement made by me that the failure of Reconstruction was due to unwise judicial interpretation need not be considered. In the first place, it is not true that I admitted that Reconstruction was a failure. On the contrary, those who will carefully read what I wrote will not fail to see that my contention is that in its important and essential particulars that policy was a grand and brilliant success and I instanced the ratification of the 14th and 15th Amendments, neither of which could have otherwise been ratified, as a vindication of the wisdom of that legislation even if nothing else had resulted from it. It is admitted that some of the friends and supporters of the Congressional plan of Reconstruction have been disappointed because those governments did not and could not stand the test of time. To this extent and for this reason some persons claim that the policy was a failure. I am not one of that number, the reasons for which the readers of the article referred to will see. But the inability of those governments to stand the test of time I accounted for under three heads, one of which was several unfortunate decisions rendered by the Supreme Court, the result, in my opinion, of two unwise appointments made by President Grant in the persons of Chief Justice Waite and Associate Justice Bradley. I do not assert that those two judges, or any others, for that matter, were appointed with reference to their attitude upon any public question, still I am satisfied that they were believed to be in accord with the other leaders and constitutional lawyers in the Republican party in their construction of the 14th Amendment. The constitutional warrant for the Civil Rights Bill is the clause which declares that "no state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States." It was therefore held that any law or ordinance which provided for, recognized or sanctioned separate facilities for the two races in the exercise and enjoyment of the rights and privileges that are supposed to be common to all classes of persons, would be a violation of this provision of the 14th Amendment; and since Congress was authorized to enforce the Amendment, affirmative legislation for the enforcement of that provision was held to be thus warranted. This view was held by such able and brilliant constitutional lawyers as Edmunds and Conkling in the Senate, and Butler, George F. and E. Rockwood Hoar, Lyman Tremaine, Garfield and Wilson in the House. Senator Carpenter was the only Republican lawyer of any note that took a different view of the matter. While he believed the whole bill was unconstitutional, the section prohibiting race discrimination in the selection of jurors in State courts he believed to be especially obnoxious to the constitution. He declared that if that section could stand the test of a judicial decision all the others could and should. And yet the court, through a decision handed down by Mr. Justice Strong, affirmed the constitutionality of that section, but in a decision delivered by Mr. Justice Bradley the section providing for equal accommodations in hotels, inns and places of amusement was declared unconstitutional except in the District of Columbia and the territories. In several subsequent decisions, giving in the main the opinion of Chief Justice Waite, some of the most vital and important sections of the enforcement acts, especially those having for their object the protection of individual citizens, through federal machinery, when necessary, against domestic violence, were also declared to be unconstitutional and void.

I am of the opinion, shared in by many others, that if men of the type of Edmunds and Conkling had been appointed Supreme Court Justices instead of Waite and Bradley, the rulings of the court in the important cases referred to might have been, and I think would have been, different. The unfortunate thing about those decisions is the wide scope of authority thus conceded to the States. In other words, they amount to a judicial recognition of the dangerous doctrine of States Rights--a doctrine which has been the source and the cause of most of our domestic troubles and misfortunes since those decisions were rendered. But for those unfortunate decisions our country would not be cursed and disgraced today by lynch law and other forms of lawlessness and racial proscription and discrimination. But for those unfortunate decisions lynchings could have been and I am sure would have been held to be an offense against the peace and dignity of the United States as well as the State in which the crime is committed. Consequently, the criminals could be, and in most cases would be, prosecuted in the United States courts, as was done in the case of many of the leaders of that secret criminal organization called the Ku Klux Klan. But this took place before the decisions referred to were rendered. The court has also decided that a State law providing separate accommodations for white and colored people on railroad trains, at least for a passenger whose journey begins and ends in the same state, is not an abridgment in violation of the constitution, provided the accommodations for the two races are exactly equal. This means that the validity even of those laws will not be affirmed whenever it can be shown that the accommodations are not equal, which can be very easily done. _Equal_ separate accommodations are both a physical and a financial impossibility. It is simply impossible for a railroad company to provide the same accommodations for one colored passenger that it provides for one hundred whites. If, then, a colored passenger cannot occupy a seat or a sleeping berth in a car in which white persons may be passengers, this will not only be an abridgment, but in some cases, an absolute denial of such accommodations. The ultimate nullification of such unfair, unjust and unreasonable laws must necessarily follow.

In spite of the unfavorable rulings of the court, as above noted, that tribunal, as at present constituted, has rendered several very important decisions which have given the friends of national supremacy and equal rights much hope and encouragement, the most important of which is the one declaring unconstitutional and void the ordinances providing for the segregation of the races in the purchase and occupation of property for residential purposes in several cities. The decision in this case was broad, comprehensive and far-reaching. This important, fair and equitable decision has given the colored American new hope and new inspiration. It has strengthened and intensified his loyalty and devotion to his country, his government, its flag and its institutions. It makes him feel that with all of its faults and shortcomings, our _form_ of government is superior to, and better than that of any other, and that by a few more decisions along the line of this one, which I hope and believe may be safely anticipated, every justifiable cause of complaint on the part of the Negro will have been removed, because the evils resulting from the unfavorable and unfortunate rulings above noted will have been remedied and cured. Our type of democracy will then be what it now purports to be, pure and genuine. It will then be in truth and in fact the land of the free and the home of the brave. It will then be a typical representative of that form of democracy under which there can be no slave, no vassal and no peon, but every one will be an equal before the law in the exercise and enjoyment of life, liberty and property and in the exercise and enjoyment of such public rights and privileges as are, or should be, common to all citizens alike, without distinction or discrimination based upon differences of race, color, nationality or religion. These were the aims the framers of the Fourteenth Amendment had in view when that Amendment was drawn, and from present indications it seems to be clear that the highest court in the land will not allow the same to be defeated.

But the most significant point about the segregation decision grows out of the fact that the fair, reasonable, sound and equitable principles therein set forth and clearly enunciated received the approbation and endorsement of a unanimous court consisting of nine Judges in which conflicting and antagonistic political views are presumed to be represented. This indicates that the day is not far off when the so-called race question will cease to be a political factor, and that all political parties will recognize merit and not race, fitness and not color, experience and not religion, ability and not nationality as the tests by which persons must be judged, not only in the administration of the government but in the industrial field as well. For the accomplishment of these desirable purposes, men of the type of James Ford Rhodes should give their support instead of allowing the same to be used in the interest of that small class of unpatriotic Americans who seek political distinction and official recognition at the expense of racial harmony and brotherly love.

JOHN B. LYNCH
4352 FORESTVILLE AVENUE,
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

FOOTNOTES:

[227] _Mag. of Am. History_, XVIII, 424.

[228] Boutwell, _Report_, 1446, 1470.

[229] _Ibid._, 608.

DOCUMENTS.

LETTERS OF GOVERNOR EDWARD COLES BEARING ON THE STRUGGLE OF FREEDOM AND SLAVERY IN ILLINOIS[230]

Edward Coles was born of distinguished parentage in Albemarle County, Virginia, December 15, 1786. He was educated at Hampden-Sidney and William and Mary College, having as classmates Lieutenant-General Scott, President John Tyler, Senator William S. Archer and Mr. Justice Baldwin, of the Supreme Court of the United States. At the age of twenty-three his father had bequeathed him a large plantation with a number of slaves. "Of a polished education, fine personal appearance, good manners and irreproachable character,"[231] he so impressed President Madison that he made him his private secretary in 1809. In this position he became well informed in public affairs and useful to the President.

Early in Coles' college days he discussed with himself the question as to whether the declaration that "all men are born free and equal" could be harmonized with slavery. He reached the conclusion that the institution should not exist in a country claiming to be a democracy. He, therefore, resolved that he would not hold slaves and would not live in a slave-holding State.

Enjoying the confidence of Jefferson, Coles took up with him the important question of emancipating his slaves in the year 1814. The letter follows:

EDWARD COLES TO THOMAS JEFFERSON

WASHINGTON, July 31, 1814.

_Dear Sir_:--I never took up my pen with more hesitation, or felt
more embarrassment than I now do in addressing you on the
subject of this letter. The fear of appearing presumptuous
distresses me, and would deter me from venturing thus to call
your attention to a subject of such magnitude, and so beset with
difficulties as that of a general emancipation of the slaves of
Virginia, had I not the highest opinion of your goodness and
liberality, in not only excusing me for the liberty I take, but
in justly appreciating my motives in doing so.

I will not enter on the _right_ which man has to enslave his
brother man, nor upon the moral and political effects of slavery
on individuals or on society; because these things are better
understood by you than by me. My object is to entreat and beseech
you to exert your knowledge and influence in devising and getting
into operation some plan for the gradual emancipation of slavery.
This difficult task could be less exceptionally and more
successfully performed by the revered fathers of all our
political and social blessings than by any succeeding statesmen;
and would seem to come with peculiar propriety and force from
those whose valor, wisdom and virtue have done so much in
ameliorating the condition of mankind. And it is a duty, as I
conceive, that devolves particularly on you, from your known
philosophical and enlarged view of subjects, and from the
principles you have professed and practiced through a long and
useful life, pre-eminently distinguished as well by being
foremost in establishing on the broadest basis the rights of man,
and the liberty and independence of your country, as in being
throughout honored with the most important trusts of your fellow
citizens, whose confidence and love you have carried with you
into the shades of old age and retirement. In the calm of this
retirement you might, most beneficially to society, and with much
addition to your own fame, avail yourself of that love and
confidence to put into complete practice those hallowed
principles contained in that renowned Declaration, of which you
were the immortal author, and on which we founded our right to
resist oppression and establish our freedom and independence.

I hope the fear of failing, at this time, will have no influence
in preventing you from employing your pen to eradicate this most
degrading feature of British Colonial policy, which is still
permitted to exist, notwithstanding its repugnance as well to the
principles of our revolution as to our free institutions. For
however prized and influential your opinions may now be, they
will still be much more so when you shall have been taken from us
by the course of nature. If, therefore, your attempt should now
fail to rectify this unfortunate evil--an evil most injurious
both to the oppressed and to the oppressor--at some future day
when your memory will be consecrated by a grateful posterity,
what influence, irresistible influence will the opinions and
writings of Thomas Jefferson have in all questions connected with
the rights of man, and of that policy which will be the creed of
your disciples. Permit men then, my dear Sir, again to entreat
your great powers of mind and influence, and to employ some of
your present leisure, in devising a mode to liberate one-half of
our fellow beings from an ignominious bondage to the other,
either by making an immediate attempt to put in train a plan to
commence this goodly work, or to leave human nature the
invaluable Testament--which you are so capable of doing--how best
to establish its rights; so that the weight of your opinion may
be on the side of emancipation when that question shall be
agitated, and that it will be sooner or later is most certain.
That it may be soon is my most ardent prayer--that it will be,
rests with you.

I will only add as an excuse for the liberty I take in addressing
you on this subject which is so particularly interesting to me,
that from the time I was capable of reflecting on the nature of
political society, and of the rights appertaining to man, I have
not only been principled against slavery, but have had feelings
so repugnant to it as to decide me not to hold them; which
decision has forced me to leave my native State, and with it all
my relations and friends. This, I hope, will be deemed by you
some excuse for the liberty of this intrusion, of which I gladly
avail myself to assure you of the very great respect and esteem
with which I am, my dear Sir, your very sincere and devoted
friend,[232]

EDWARD COLES.

He wrote Jefferson the following concerning the same question about two months later:

WASHINGTON, Sep. 26th, '14.

I must be permitted again to trouble you, my dear Sir, to return
my grateful thanks for the respectful and friendly attention
shown to my letter in your answer of the 25th ult. Your favorable
reception of sentiments not generally avowed, if felt, by our
countrymen, but which have ever been so inseparably interwoven
with my opinions and feelings as to become, as it were, the
rudder that shapes my course, even against a strong tide of
interest and of local partialities, could not but be in the
highest degree gratifying to me. And your interesting and highly
prized letter conveying them to me in such flattering terms,
would have called forth my acknowledgments before this but for
its having been forwarded to me to the Springs, and from thence
it was again returned here before I received it, which was only a
few days since.

Your indulgent treatment encourages me to add that I feel very
sensibly the force of your remarks on the impropriety of yielding
to my repugnancies in abandoning my property in slaves and my
native State. I certainly should never have been inclined to
yield to them if I had supposed myself capable of being
instrumental in bringing about a liberation, or that I could by
my example ameliorate the condition of these oppressed people. If
I could be convinced of being in the slightest degree useful in
doing either, it would afford me very great happiness, and the
more so as it would enable me to gratify many partialities by
remaining in Virginia. But never having flattered myself with the
hope of being able to contribute to either, I have long since
determined, and should but for my bad health ere this, have
removed, carrying along with me those who had been my slaves, to
the country north-west of the river Ohio.

Your prayers I trust will not only be heard with indulgence in
Heaven, but with influence on Earth. But I cannot agree with you
that they are the only weapons of one at your age; nor that the
difficult work of cleansing the escutcheon of Virginia of the
foul stain of slavery can best be done by the young. To expect so
great and difficult an object, great and extensive powers, both
of mind and influence, are required, which can never be possessed
in so great a degree by the young as by the old. And among the
few of the former who might unite the disposition with the
requisite capacity, they are too often led by ambitious views to
go with the current of popular feeling rather than to mark out a
course for themselves, where they might be buffeted by the waves
of opposition; and indeed it is feared that these waves would in
this case be too strong to be effectually resisted by any but
those who had gained by a previous course of useful employment
the firmest footing in the confidence and attachment of their
country. It is with them, therefore, I am persuaded, that the
subject of emancipation must originate; for they are the only
persons who have it in their power effectually to arouse and
enlighten the public sentiment, which in matters of this kind
ought not to be expected to lead, but to be led; nor ought it to
be wondered at that there should prevail a degree of apathy with
the general mass of mankind, where a mere passive principle of
right has to contend against the weighty influence of habit and
interest. On such a question there will always exist in society a
kind of _vis inertia_, to arouse and overcome, which requires a
strong impulse, which can only be given by those who have
acquired a great weight of character, and on whom there devolves
in this case a most solemn obligation. It was under these
impressions that I looked to you, my dear Sir, as the first of
our aged worthies to awaken our fellow-citizens from their
infatuation to a proper sense of justice, and to the true
interest of their country; and by proposing a system for the
gradual emancipation of our slaves, at once to form a rallying
point for its friends, who, enlightened by your wisdom and
experience, and supported and encouraged by your sanction and
patronage, might look forward to a propitious and happy result.
Your time of life I had not considered as an obstacle to the
undertaking. Doctor Franklin, to whom, by the way, Pennsylvania
owes her early riddance of the evils of slavery, was as actively
and as usefully employed on as arduous duties after he had past
your age as he had ever been at any period of his life.

With apologizing for having given you so much trouble on this
subject, and again repeating my thanks for the respectful and
flattering attention you have been pleased to pay to it, I renew
the assurances of the great respect and regard which makes me
most sincerely yours

EDWARD COLES.

Coles went west to find a suitable location for settlement but was delayed in carrying out the enterprise by serving on a special mission to Russia in 1816. He then moved in 1819 to Edwardsville, Illinois, where he emancipated his slaves. Arriving in that State just at the time its citizens were trying to decide whether or not that commonwealth should be a slave or free State, this anti-slavery man turned the tide in favor of freedom. He had been in the State only three years when he was nominated by the anti-slavery party for governor. He received a minority of the votes cast at the election in 1822; but owing to a split in the pro-slavery party which divided its votes between two candidates, Coles was elected, although the friends of slavery elected their candidate for lieutenant-governor and a majority of the members of both branches of the legislature. There ensued then a struggle to have a convention called so to change the constitution as to make Illinois a slave State.

Judge Gillespie, a contemporary, described the situation as follows:

It was conceded in those days that a State formed out of the
"North West Territory" could not be _admitted_ into the Union
contrary to the provisions of the ordinance of 1787, which
prohibited slavery, but the slavery propagandists contended that
you could, the next day after being admitted under an
_anti-slavery_ constitution, change the constitution so as to
admit slavery, and in that way, "whip the devil around the
stump." It was likewise contended that slavery existed in
Illinois beyond Congressional interference, by virtue of the
treaty (of 1763) between France and England, and that between
England and the United States at the close of the Revolutionary
War, in both of which the rights of the French inhabitants were
guaranteed. One of these rights was that of holding slaves,
which, it was contended, was protected by treaty stipulation, and
was equal in binding effect, to the Constitution (of the United
States) itself. Besides, it was maintained, that by the conquest
of George Rogers Clark, this country became a part of Virginia,
and that Congress had no more power to abolish slavery in
Illinois, than it had in Virginia. The logic of the times was
that the French inhabitants had the right to hold slaves, and
that the other inhabitants had equal rights with the
French--ergo: they all had the right to hold slaves. This was the
argument of the celebrated constitutional expounder--John
Grammar, of Union county--in the Legislature in reply to an
intimation questioning the validity of the title of slaves in
Illinois. The old gentleman instantly arose and remarked "that
fittener men" than he was "mout hev been found to defend the
masters agin the sneakin' ways of the infernal abolitioners; but
havin' rights on my side, I don't fear, Sir. I will show that are
proposition is unconstitutionable, inlegal, and fornenst the
compact. Don't every one know, or leastwise had ought to know,
that the Congress that sot at _Post Vinsan_, garnisheed to the
old French inhabitants the right to their niggers, and haint I
got as much rights as any Frenchman in this State? Answer me
that, Sir." Notwithstanding this seeming confidence, these men
were exceedingly desirous of reinforcing their rights. They
resorted to the indenturing method, by which they got their
servant to go before some officer and bind himself to serve the
master, generally for ninety-nine years, for which he was to
receive a slight equivalent at the end of each year.

As the "Yankees" increased in numbers, confidence (on the part of
the pro-slavery men) in the titles to their negroes, diminished,
and they finally concluded that there was no assurance for them,
except in changing the constitution so as to sanction
slaveholding and thus the contest commenced, which for fierceness
and rancor excelled anything ever before witnessed. The people
were at the point of going to war with each other. The
pro-slavery men were, as they have always been ready to resort to
violence wherever they dared, unwilling to listen to, or
incapable of comprehending arguments. Their method of overcoming
opposition was by "buldozing"; but on this occasion they had to
encounter men of invincible courage, who were eager and willing
to 'beard the lion in his den,' and defend their rights at all
hazards. Many of these men had removed to Illinois to get rid of
the curse of slavery.

This scheme, however, was with much difficulty defeated and the State was saved for freedom. The intensity of this struggle has been well described by Governor Reynolds in his _My Own Times_. He says:

The convention question gave rise to two years of the most
furious and boisterous excitement and contest that ever was
visited on Illinois. Men, women and children entered the arena of
party warfare and strife, and the families and neighborhoods were
so divided and furious and bitter against one another, that it
seemed a regular civil war might be the result. Many personal
combats were indulged in on the question, and the whole country
seemed, at times, to be ready and willing to resort to physical
force to decide the contest. All the means known to man to convey
ideas to one another were resorted to, and practised with energy.
The press teemed with publications on the subject. The
stump-orators were invoked, and the pulpit thundered anathemas
against the introduction of slavery. The religious community
coupled freedom and Christianity together, which was one of the
most powerful levers used in the content. At one meeting of the
friends of freedom in St. Clair county, more than thirty
preachers of the gospel attended and opposed the introduction of
slavery into the State.

This contest has been further described by W. H. Brown. He says:

The struggle which now commenced, and was continued through the
succeeding eighteen months, was one of no ordinary character. Our
previous elections had been conducted with warmth and zeal; but
into this canvass was infused a bitterness and malignity which
the agitation of the Slavery question only engenders. Why it
always produces this result, is worthy of the investigation of
the moralist and philosopher. Other great evils, political or
moral, are discussed with freedom, and measures for their
amelioration or prevention meet with no outward opposition; but
call in question the right of one man to enslave another, or even
make an effort to confine this gigantic sin to the territory in
which it exists, and the fiercest passions are aroused in the
hearts of its advocates, and the lack of power alone, saves their
opponents from utter destruction.

In this spirit was the contest of 1823-4 waged. Old friendships
were sundered, families divided and neighborhoods arrayed in
opposition to each other. Threats of personal violence were
frequent, and personal collisions a frequent occurrence. As in
times of warfare, every man expected an attack, and was prepared
to meet it. Pistols and dirks were in great demand, and formed a
part of the personal habiliments of all those conspicuous for
their opposition to the Convention measure. Even the gentler sex
came within the vortex of this whirlwind of passion; and many
were the angry disputations of those whose cares and interests
were usually confined to their household duties.

It will doubtless be profitable, therefore, to study the following letters showing Governor Coles' connection with the anti-slavery movement during the early history of Illinois.

GOVERNOR COLES TO RICHARD FLOWERS

_Dear Sir_:--I would have made my acknowledgments to you long
since for your kind letter of 13th of February, but for my having
been prevented from writing by the bearer of it, from the haste
with which he took his departure hence, and for my being much
harassed by the business attendant on the approaching
adjournment of the Legislature; and for my having gone soon
after the adjournment to Edwardsville, where I was detained until
a few days since by torrents of rain which have deluged the
country and rendered the streams and roads impassable. The
perusal of your letter afforded me particular pleasure. It
breathes the genuine sentiments of a Republican and of a
philanthropist; and produced an emotion which was "pleasing
though mournful to the soul." Pleasing that an adopted citizen
should possess principles so entirely accordant with our free
institutions; and as it held out encouragement that the people
would not sanction the late conduct and measures of their
Representatives--mournful, that if the slave faction should
succeed, how unpleasant and truly unfortunate the situation of
many of us, who have removed from a great distance and invested
our all in property which we shall be compelled to abandon or to
sacrifice, to seek new homes we know not where; or remain in a
community whose principles and practice are not only entirely at
variance with our own, but of a character calculated daily to
harrow up our feelings in the most painful way. I was born in the
very bosom of negro slavery; have seen it in all its bearings;
reflected well upon the nature of it, and having found it
impossible to reconcile it either with my political or religious
creed, I abandoned my native State, my aged parents and
relations, to seek in this State a community whose principles and
practice I presumed were in unison with my own. Judge, then, of
my feelings at the efforts which have been made and are now
making to change this free community of ours into a truly odious
one, consisting of masters and slaves--and you can judge the
better as your situation and principles are very similar with
mine. The great inducement with us both to emigrate to this State
was the firm belief that we should not be disturbed by the
clanking of the fetters of Slavery; that tyranny would not be
given a legal sanction, nor afforded the food on which it could
prey. But the majority of the people's representatives, having by
the most violent and unprecedented measure, taken a step with the
view of breaking down those barriers to oppression, which had
been erected by the wisdom and virtue of those who framed the
fundamental law of the State, and which you and many of us
considered, if not sacred, at least to have been permanently
settled, it becomes us to be on the alert to defeat a measure,
which if it should succeed, will not only be ruinous, and in the
highest degree unjust to many of us who have emigrated here under
the most solemn assurance that "neither slavery nor involuntary
servitude" should exist; but it will be of incalculable injury to
the interest of the State, of the Union, and of the extension and
advancement of freedom, and the amelioration of the human race.

You reside in a favorable situation to aid with effect this great
question. The county just below you forms the dividing line
between the sections of country in which the free and slave
parties predominate. It has occurred to me that the friends of
freedom would give ample support, and that the good cause would
be greatly promoted by establishing a printing press on the
Eastern side of the State. And I know of no place where it could
be established to so much advantage, as at Albion. Besides the
advantage it has in locality, there are in Albion, and its
vicinity, many persons who wield chaste and powerful pens, and
who have the means, and, I trust, the disposition of patronizing
an establishment of the kind. Pardon me for asking it as a favor
to me personally, and as a sacrifice to the furtherance of the
best and most virtuous of causes, that all personal, sectional,
national, county or town feelings, and all other unkind feelings,
let them originate from what cause they may, shall be buried, at
least while the great question is pending. I will write and ask
the same favor of Mr. Birkbeck. I have but little news. From all
I can learn a considerable majority of the people of the counties
situated in the north-west part of the State, as far south as
Monroe, St. Clair and Washington, are opposed to a call of a
convention, but great and extraordinary efforts are already
making to induce the people to vote for it.

Present my respectful compliments to Mrs. F. and family, and to
your son and his lady, and be assured of my respect and esteem.

EDWARD COLES.

GOVERNOR COLES TO NICHOLAS BIDDLE

_Dear Sir_:--It has been a long time since I either wrote to you
or heard from you. I made a visit last summer to my relations in
Virginia, and intended to have extended my tour as far as
Philadelphia, which I should certainly have done, for I am still
more attached to Philadelphia than any other city in the Union,
but for my trip having been delayed by a severe attack of bilious
fever, and having been prolonged in Virginia beyond the time I
expected, and the necessity I was under to be back here by the
meeting of the Legislature, to enter on the duties of the office
to which I had been recently elected. I assure you, when about to
leave Washington (where I staid only four or five days) and to
turn my face to the west, there was a great struggle between a
sense of duty which dragged me here, and my inclinations and many
strong attractions which drew me to your charming city. There has
long existed in this State a strong party in favor of altering
the constitution and making it a slave-holding State; while there
is another party in favor of a convention to alter the
constitution, but deny that Slavery is their object. These two
parties have finally, by the most unprecedented and unwarrantable
proceedings (an account of which you have no doubt seen in the
newspapers), succeeded in passing a resolution requiring the
sense of the people to be taken at the next general election
(August, 1824), on the propriety of calling a convention for the
purpose of altering the constitution. Knowing that this measure
would be strenuously urged during the late session of the
Legislature, and that many who professed to be hostile to the
further introduction of Slavery, would advocate it, and believing
that it would have a salutary effect to furnish them an
opportunity of evincing the sincerity of their professions; and
being also urged by a strong sense of the obligations imposed on
me, by my principles and feelings, to take notice of the subject,
I called the attention of the Legislature in a speech I delivered
on being sworn into office (a printed copy of which I sent you by
mail) to the existence of Slavery in the State, in violation of
the great fundamental principles of the ordinance, and
recommended that just and equitable provision be made for its
abrogation. As I anticipated, this part of my speech created a
considerable excitement with those who were openly or secretly in
favor of making Illinois a slave-holding, rather than making it
really as well as nominally, a free State--who wished to fill it
rather than empty it of slaves. Never did I see or hear in
America of party spirit going to such lengths, as well officially
as privately, as it did here on this question. Indeed, it seems
to me that Slavery is so poisonous as to produce a kind of
delirium in those minds who are excited by it. This question, and
the manner of carrying it, is exciting great interest throughout
the State, and has already kindled an extraordinary degree of
excitement and warmth of feeling, which will no doubt continue to
increase until the question is decided. I assure you, I never
before felt so deep an interest in any political question. It
preys upon me to such a degree, that I shall not be happy or feel
at ease until it is settled. It is impossible to foresee the
injurious effects resulting to this State of the unhappy
consequences which may arise to the Union, from the success of
the slave party in this State. Many of us who immigrated to this
State under the solemn assurance that there should exist here
"neither slavery nor involuntary servitude," will, if the slave
faction succeeds, be compelled to sacrifice or abandon our
property and seek new homes, we know not where, or remain in a
community whose principles we shall disapprove of, and whose
practice will be abhorrent to our feelings. And already we hear
disputed the binding effect of the ordinance--the power of
Congress to restrict a State, etc., etc., from which I fear, if
the introduction of Slavery should be tolerated here, the
discussions on the expediency and unconstitutionality of the
measure will not in all probability be confined to the citizens
of this State. But this is a part of the question too painful for
me to dwell on. I trust the good sense and virtue of the citizens
of Illinois will never sanction a measure so well calculated to
disturb the harmony of the Union and so injurious to its own
prosperity and happiness, as well as so directly opposite to the
progress of those enlightened and liberal principles which do
honor to the age. But to insure this it is necessary that the
public mind should be enlightened on the moral and political
effects of Slavery. You will confer a particular favor on me and
promote the virtuous cause in which I am enlisted, by giving me
information, or referring me to the sources from whence I can
draw it, calculated to elucidate the general character and
effects of Slavery--its moral, political and social
effects--facts showing its effects on the price of lands, and
general improvement and appearance of a country--of labor both as
it respects agriculture and manufactures, etc., etc. The State of
Pennsylvania having been long distinguished for its attachment to
free principles, there is no doubt but what you can procure in
Philadelphia many valuable pamphlets and publications which would
throw light on this question. Any which you may have it in your
power to procure and forward, will be most thankfully received,
and the amount of the expense repaid as soon as it is known. Your
old and truly sincere friend,

EDWARD COLES.

TO NICHOLAS BIDDLE, ESQ.,
PRESIDENT OF THE BANK OF THE UNITED STATES,
PHILADELPHIA.

MR. BIDDLE TO GOVERNOR COLES

PHILADELPHIA, May 20, 1823.

_Dear Sir:_ I have just received your friendly letter of the 22nd
ult., to which I shall take the first moment of leisure to give a
more detailed answer. In the meantime I can only say that I feel
most sincerely the embarrassment of your situation, and hope that
you may be able to triumph in the good cause. That no effort may
be wanting, you shall have all the assistance which I can give or
procure. My occupations necessarily absorb so much of my time
that I can promise you little on my part, personally, but I have
already engaged two of our most active gentlemen familiar with
that subject, who will cheerfully and zealously contribute to
your support. The first fruit of their labor is the pamphlet
accompanying this letter. I have not had time to read it, as I am
anxious to forward it without delay, but I understand that it is
the latest and best work on the subject, and goes directly to the
question of the superiority of free over slave labor. Mrs. B. and
Mr. Craig are glad to hear of your prosperity, and desire to be
particularly remembered to you.

With great sincerity of regard,
yrs.,
N. BIDDLE.

EDWARD COLES, ESQ.,
Vandalia.

MR. BIDDLE TO GOVERNOR COLES

PHILADELPHIA, May 26, 1823.

_My Dear Sir:_ My present occupations necessarily engross so much
of my time that I can scarcely contribute more than my good
wishes to the great cause which so naturally and deeply interests
you. It gives me peculiar satisfaction, therefore, to procure for
you the correspondence of my friend, Mr. Roberts Vaux, to whom
this note is intended to serve as an introduction. Mr. Vaux is a
gentleman of education, talents, fortune, leisure and high
standing in the community. He feels sensibly all the
embarrassments of your situation; he perceives the deep
importance of defeating this first effort to extend to the
north-western country the misfortunes of the slave population and
he is disposed to co-operate warmly and zealously with you. I
know of no individual more calculated to render you the most
efficient service. He is worthy of all your confidence, and I
recommend to you to yield it to him implicitly, as I am sure it
will be repaid by every kindness and every service in his power.

With great esteem and regard,
yrs.,
N. BIDDLE.

EDWARD COLES, ESQ.,
Vandalia,
Illinois.

MR. BIDDLE TO GOVERNOR COLES

PHILADELPHIA, May 26, 1823.

_My Dear Sir:_ I have put into the hands of my friend, Mr. Vaux,
a note for you which he will accompany with a communication on
the subject which now occupies you. Mr. Vaux will be hearty and
zealous in the cause, and I really deem it a subject of
congratulation to you, to procure the assistance of one who is
more able and willing than any individual of my acquaintance to
assist you. There is one thing which I wish to add. The Abolition
Society of this city, has been the subject, whether justly or not
I am unable to determine, of much hostility at a distance, and it
would be rather injurious than beneficial to have it supposed
that the society was active in the cause which you are
supporting. You will therefore understand that neither the
Abolition Society nor any other society has the least concern in
this matter. The simple fact is that Mr. Vaux, and two or three
of his friends, have been so much pleased with your past conduct
in relation to Slavery, and have so deep a sense of their duty to
resist the extension of that system, that they mean to volunteer
in assisting you, without any connections with any set of men,
and without any motives which the most honorable might not be
proud to avow.

Very sincerely,
yrs.,
N. BIDDLE.

EDWARD COLES, ESQ.,
Vandalia,
Illinois.

PHILADELPHIA, 5 Mo. 27, 1823.

TO EDWARD COLES, ESQ.:

_Esteemed Friend:_--My friend, Nicholas Biddle, has kindly
furnished me with a note of introduction to thy correspondence,
which is transmitted by the mail that conveys this letter. I
have been induced thus to solicit access to thy notice, because
thy conduct in relation to the emancipation of thy slaves could
not fail to beget great respect for an individual whose noble,
and generous example displayed so much practical wisdom, and
Christian benevolence. Nor has it been less gratifying to be
informed of thy official efforts to prevent the overthrow of
those constitutional barriers, which were erected to protect the
State of Illinois, from the moral, and political evils
inseparable from domestic slavery.

It is really astonishing, that any part of the inhabitants of
your State should wish to introduce a system which is generally
reprobated where its effects have been longest known, and from
the dominion of which, such of our fellow citizens of the South
as are disposed to examine the subject with the gravity which it
certainly merits, most anxiously desire to be redeemed.

Notwithstanding, however, the lessons which experience has taught
in this respect, it is likely that Illinois will be agitated by
the exertions of unreflecting men, and possibly without timely
and energetic efforts to counteract their schemes, they may be
enabled to persuade a majority of her people to violate their
early vows on this subject, and pollute your soil with the blood
and tears of slaves.

Feeling as I do, a deep sympathy for thyself, thus threatened
with the most unhappy consequences, and desirous that miseries
and mischiefs, the amount of which no mind can fully calculate,
may be averted from the extensive and fair region of which
Illinois forms a part, I would willingly contribute anything in
my power, and with these views I offer my own, and the services
of a few of my friends, in this interesting cause.

We have thought that benefit might result from making judicious
selections from writers whose purpose is to show the iniquity,
and impolicy of slavery--these selections to be printed in the
_Tract form_ (at our own expense) and forwarded to Illinois for
gratuitous distribution. If this plan should meet thy
approbation, I should be glad to receive an early intimation to
that effect, but should thy official station, or duties, render
it either improper or inconvenient for thee to take an active
part in this business, perhaps it will be in thy power to select
a few individuals who may be disposed to aid us, and in that
event, I shall be obliged by thy introduction of such persons to
my correspondence.

Accept the salutation of my respect,
ROBERTS VAUX.

EDWARDSVILLE, ILLINOIS, June 27, 1823.

_Esteemed Friend_:

Your kind and highly interesting letter of the 27th ult. was
rec'd by the last mail, and has been perused with very great
pleasure. The benevolent sentiments you express, and the correct
views you take of the great question which is now unfortunately
agitating this State, and the deep interest you evince for the
prosperity and happiness of Illinois, and the preservation of the
rights and liberty of its inhabitants, do credit alike to the
native benevolence of your heart and to those divine and
political principles which distinguish the real Christian and
Republican, and cannot fail to present a contrast, which, however
mortifying it may be to me as an Illinoisan, cannot but be highly
gratifying to me as a man, to see one so far removed from the
scene, and without any other interest except that which he feels
in the general happiness of his species, nobly and generously
volunteering his services to assist in promoting the cause of
humanity, whilst there are thousands here strenuously advocating
the giving a legal sanction to the oppression and abject slavery
of their fellow-creatures. Such noble, generous, and fervid
benevolence as yours, is highly honorable even to a _Friend_; and
is a new and striking proof of that extended philanthropy, and
pure and heaven-born spirit of Brotherly love, by which that
denomination of Christians have ever been distinguished, and
cannot fail to excite the admiration and win the confidence and
attachment of all--especially of those like myself, who daily
experience pain and mortification in hearing doctrines advanced
which are directly in opposition to the great fundamental truths
of our religious and political creeds.

In behalf of the friends of freedom in this State, I give you
sincere and grateful thanks for the offer of your services to
assist us to enlighten the minds of our fellow citizens, by
publishing judicious selections and observations on the iniquity
and impolicy of Slavery, in _tract form_, and distributing them
gratuitously through the State. It may be proper, however, to
remark that distant friends should be cautious in the manner of
making their benevolent exertions, as there is danger that
designing partisans here may not only paralyze the effort, but
turn it against the cause it was intended to promote, by
representing it to be the interference of other States for the
purpose of influencing the opinion of the people of this. An
ingenious pen could dress up this subject in a manner to give it
great effect in this country. Would it not, therefore, be best
not to state on the face of the publications where they were
printed? They could be printed in Philadelphia, and sent with the
goods of some merchant of St. Louis at a much less expense than
by mail.

Not being aware of any consideration which should restrain me,
but on the contrary believing that my present office increases
the obligations I am under, as a good citizen, to exert myself to
enlighten the minds of my fellow citizens, and strenuously to
oppose every measure which I am convinced is unjust in principle
or injurious in its effects, and believing Slavery to be both
iniquitous and impolitic, I conceive myself bound, both as a
citizen and as an officer, to do all in my power to prevent its
introduction into this State. I will therefore cheerfully render
you assistance in distributing any publications you may forward,
or give you any information you may desire.