CHAPTER XL.

PRINCIPAL CITIES OF ILLINOIS.

Springfield-Chicago- Quincy - Peoria - Galena.

SPRINGFIELD. This city is the capital of the state of Illinois, and, in commercial importance, wealth and population, it stands fourth in its list of cities. Springfield is the seat of administration for Sangamon county, and it stands about three miles south of Sangamon river, very near the geographical center of the state, nitety-five miles from the city of St. Louis, and one hundred and eighty-five miles from Chicago, the metropolis, not only of Illinois, but of the great Northwest. Springfield stands in the cen ter of a very fertile country, largely improved and very productive, to which it is the port of shipment and market, and from that source a very considerable local trade arises; but there are other circumstances which still more effectually build up the greatness of the state capital. The city is laid out rectangularly on the plain of a vast prairie, which extends in every direction, and the buildings, public as well as private, are of a very high order. The streets wide and straight, adorned with shade trees, and leading to residences which stand in the midst of shubberies, with the bloom of the choicest plants, in their respective seasons, making the air delicious, have procured for Springfield the title of "The City of Flowers." The houses in which the principal citizens reside are showy and substantial, betokening much wealth. and a generous desire to make the whole world aware of that fact The business premises are of a character indicating much profitable trade, and the tone of the community is unquestionably high. Springfield became the state capital in the year 1840, and the capitol building, since erected, is often referred to as a model of architectural beauty. The edifice stands in an enclosure of about three acres in the center of the city, profusely adorned with trees, which, in the leafy season, partially embower the superb outlines of the State House and legislative chambers. In this building

Abraham Lincoln, then a young lawyer, first met Stephen A. Douglas, popularly known as "The Little Giant," long before either of them thought that the events arising out of the "Lecompton compromise" would concentrate the attention of the whole union upon their utterances. At that time the slave power was unbroken and apparently impregnable. The Whig party dared not approach the great question, which more or less agitated every heart; the Democrats were masters of the situation; the right of petition was denied, so far as the peculiar institution of the south was concerned, and it was even forbidden by congress that matter referring to the abolition of slavery should be sent through the post office.

The young giant, Stephen A. Douglas, a man of first class talents and attainments, speedily became the idol of the democratic party in Illinois, and his interests were safe in their hands. There is no reason to believe that he was not thoroughly conscientious and in earnest in the course which he pursued in identifying himself with that body of politicians; as the mass of men, even the mass of talented men, do not reason from first principles to their convictions, but having allowed themselves to be swayed by feeling and sympathy with their surroundings, to the adoption and declaration of certain views, they are, from that moment, bound, with very rare exceptions, to the maintenance of the shibboleth of their party, as much as the soldier is held by his esprit de corps to the defense of his flag, and to that end he devotes every energy of body and mind, dying in the breach, if need arises, rather than falter in the duty once assumed. Ralph Waldo Emerson says that "consistency is the bugbear of weak minds," and he is right when his principle is applied to the speculations of the scientist and philosopher. The discovery of the circulation of the blood, by Harvey, or, rather, the rediscovery by him of a fact well understood two thousand years before, rendered it impossible for any sane man, acquainted with his demonstration, to hold to the erroneous ideas of the past. In precisely the same way, facts and opinions must continue to be dealt with, as long as this green earth endures; but when the movements of political life are approached, in a country where party government prevails, there must be greater fixity in the views of partisans and leaders, every

man sacrificing something of his philosophical freedom in order to secure unity, without which power is impossible. Expediency becomes the recognized rule where absolute truth is impossible, and where material advancement can be secured for a whole people by the temporary abnegation of a course assumed to be theoretically right. The two men meeting in the legislature at Springfield, one of them so poor and courageous that he walked the distance from his home to the capital of the state, represented the two principles of conservatism and progress; the latter being the highest conservatism known to the world. Wealth, almost without an effort, came to the one, and he looked the embodiment of intellectual resources and intrepidity; to the other there was alloted a life of such effort as the world has seldom seen, crowned with a success which will never be surpassed. The whig party, unable to expand sufficiently to embrace the views of the most advanced thinkers in its own ranks, was to be rent into fragments and cast aside before the day of battle, and all save a very few of the old organization, with many who had never trained in any political party before, joined to make up the republican force, which soon won to its support the strength of the whole population. Abraham Lincoln was one of the new birth in that era of the history of the union, but so doubtful were many good men as to the outcome of his candidature for the presidency, that when the vote was taken which transferred the greatest man in America from his comparatively humble residence and the cares of his profession to the White House at Washington, there were only three ministers of the gospel in the city where Abraham Lincoln lived that cast their votes for his election. His abilities were no longer doubtful, for he had been seen and heard, not only pleading the causes of his clients in the courts, where he had habitually practiced his profession; not only in the legislature of his adopted state, where he had served during many sessions; not only in the capitol at Washington, where he had held his own among the foremost in the land, and in New York, where an oration prepared by him had won the plaudits of all hearers, but he had stamped himself as a man of supreme intellectual force by his debates be fore the public with Mr. Douglas. Stephen A. Douglas had a noble ambition, and he was playing for the best attainment of his

race.

career with all the powers of the logician, the orator and the demagogue. His manner upon the platform was superb, and he was supported by the most effective organization in the country, with a wide latitude in the statement of his views, provided he could win success on the great issue to which the party of the slave owners and their friends were committed, by interest as well as by passion. Abraham Lincoln, as ambitious as his opponent, and, as events proved, much better able to read the future, had none of the grace which adorned his rival. When Mr. Douglas had finished his oration, covering many artfully prepared pitfalls for the advocate of the other side, the plain, shrewd face of Mr. Lincoln, and his somewhat awkward figure, as he came down to the front of the platform, suggested many doubts to the friends of the republican party, whether he was not overweighted in the The ancients valued as the highest art that which concealed the fact of art having been employed, when they said: "Ars est celare artem." There was no appearance of art, or art culture, in the man about to speak. His words were simple, and at times almost hesitating. Men wished to see him win, but they could see no probability; and while they were still debating the possibilities in their minds, they were aroused from doubting to discover that the speaker was a giant, and they had entertained an angel unawares. Never was such a transformation seen as that which they were enabled to realize. That face was no longer plain, it was beautiful with the light of intellect, and irradiated with moral force until the man was irresistible. Every pitfall was avoided with unfailing skill; every question was handled as by a man who had been nurtured in the schools and then trained by contact with the earth's wisest sons, in the great arena of society, and the same spirit which said, "Is not this the carpenter's son ?" made it difficult to believe that the orator of the occasion had spent but one year in a poor academy, away from intercourse with books until he was far on towards manhood. The railsplitter, the farm laborer, the boatman and boat builder, the store clerk, the soldier on the frontier, the student using his every moment of leisure, the lawyer, careful to discriminate between right and wrong before taking his fee, the friend who never failed in an emergency, the man of deep religious instincts, who sought,

beyond all else, to be on the side of God and of justice, stood there pleading for the right cause, and it was natural that his face and figure should be transformed "into something new and strange," such as could not fail to captivate his hearers. Long after this, when Stephen A. Douglas, broken by the defection of the men and the party for which he had spent his time and talents, was drawing near his end, when the inevitable rebellion was far on toward its terrible outburst, the two lawyers met again, this time in the White House, where one sat as president of the imperiled union, and the other came as a friendly counselor, anxious for the welfare of the land. They were able to do justice to each other, for they were great men, and the state and the city in which they were mainly developed may well take pride in their talents and their strength. Springfield is very proud of having been the residence of Abraham Lincoln, until his official duties called him to a more troubled career and a martyr's death elsewhere, and when visitors desire to see "the lions" of that city they are certain to include in their round of visits the picturesque cemetery of Oak Ridge, where the dust of the patriot statesman lies buried, about two miles from the capitol, in which he served his first legislative session.

On the streets facing and surrounding the capitol, the various public buildings of the city, county and state, have been erected. The court house is very handsome, but, as Mrs. Malaprop says, comparishments are odorous," and the beauty of the smaller structure suffers from its nearness to the more splendid neighbor. The state arsenal is in the same locality, and there are many other buildings which would well repay description, but we have given so much attention to men that their buildings can have little other than cursory mention. The United States custom house and the court house are together. The high school is a commanding structure. There are numerous churches and several ward schools, besides many private academies, and most of the churches are beautiful edifices in their several orders, The Illinois State University is located here, and the reputation of that home of learning has already extended far beyond the state in which it stands. The building is commodious and elegant, with every convenience for the wide range of studies proper to an in