Illinois Country

“ A great advantage in settling in the Illinois, rather than many other parts of America, is the state of society amongst us. Most of the persons who emigrate here, are those who have diminished their former fortunes; persons who have received good education, but are unable to sustain their stations in England. There is no arrogance in saying our circle of society is far superior to that in most of the villages in our native country. Except the parson, the {23} squire, and the principal farmers, what is the society of many of the English hamlets but rude and uncultivated? ”

“ In addition to the inability to secure land titles on account of unsettled French claims, to the presence of Indians and to the discontent with the government of Indiana Territory, almost every cause which made settlement on the frontier difficult was found in the Illinois country in its most pronounced form, because Illinois was the far corner of the frontier. ”

“ The Illinois at once become dear to his heart as his future children; he studies their language, loses no opportunity of learning all about their country, its tribes and their customs, sends them presents of pious pictures and the loving messages of a father, welcomes every member of their nation who might visit Lapointe with open arms, and presses him to his heart, and devotes every moment of leisure afforded him from his labors to sedulous preparation for the contemplated mission of the Immaculate Conception. ”

“ Fortunately there were a few men in authority during that period who had some interest in the interior settlements, and who, from their official positions realized the difficulties of the problem. Such men have left expressions of opinion and stray bits of information which leave us in little doubt as to the governmental status of the Illinois country. General Thomas Gage, Sir William Johnson, and Lord Hillsborough are perhaps the most representative examples. ”

“ An early traveler wrote in 1796: “The province of the Illinois is, perhaps, the only spot respecting which travelers have given no exaggerated accounts; it is superior to any description which has been made, for local beauty, fertility, climate, and the means of every kind which nature has lavished upon it for the facility of commerce.”16 The wide-spreading prairies added to the beauty of the country. Land which now produces one hundred bushels of corn to the acre must have been capable of producing wonderful crops at the beginning of its cultivation. ”

“ A large proportion of the settlers came from Maryland, Virginia, or the Carolinas. Those from Virginia and Maryland were induced to emigrate by the glowing descriptions of the Illinois country given by the soldiers of George Rogers Clark, and these soldiers sometimes led the first contingent. A typical Virginia settlement in Illinois was that called New [pg 092] Design, located in what is now Monroe county, between Kaskaskia and Cahokia. ”

“ One of the most important cessions of land in Illinois ever made by the Indians was that made by the Kickapoo in 1819, of the vast region lying north of the parallel of 39—a little north of the mouth of the Illinois River, and southeast of the Illinois River.324 Settlement had been crowding hard upon this region and many squatters anxiously awaited the survey and sale of the land, especially of that in the famous Sangamon country. ”

“ Of Illinois, in general, it has often been remarked, that it bears the character of country which has been inhabited by a nation skilled like the English in all the ornamental arts of life, especially in landscape-gardening. ”

“ They were soon [Pg 6] followed by hunters and fur traders, and during the first two decades of the eighteenth century a considerable number of families immigrated from Canada, thus assuring the permanancy of the settlement.
Meanwhile the contemporaneous colony of Louisiana had grown to some importance, and in 1717, when the Company of the West assumed control of the province, the Illinois country was annexed. Prior to this time it had been within the jurisdiction of Quebec. This gave the Illinois country a period of prosperity, many new enterprizes being undertaken. ”

“ On the third of February, 1809, an act of Congress was passed, defining the boundaries of Illinois, and establishing the “First Grade” of Territorial Government. The population of the whole territory did not then exceed twelve thousand; and, with the exception of Chicago, and a few settlements on the Wabash, was confined to a narrow strip of country along the Mississippi. ”

“ Four States only had been admitted into the Federal Union, and the population of the entire country was less than that of the State of New York to-day. This same year witnessed the first organization of Illinois into a distinct political community and its creation, by act of Congress, as the Territory of Illinois, with a white population less than one-twentieth of that of this good county to-day. The United States having barely escaped a war with France,—our ally in securing our independence,—was earnestly struggling for distinct place among the nations. ”

“ The British Michilimackinac Company had a large trading-house at Cahokia for supplying the Indians, they held Detroit, and their machinations among the Indians were constant. The feeling of all intelligent Americans in Illinois must have been expressed by John Edgar when he wrote that the Illinois country was totally lost unless a government should soon be established.96 Clark wrote a vigorous letter to the people at Vincennes, telling them that unless they stopped quarreling military rule would be established ”

“ The Ordinance of 1787 was the only oil then at hand for these troubled waters. The situation in Illinois was a complicated one, and probably the numerical weakness of the population alone saved the country from disastrous results. The few Americans in Illinois desired governmental protection from the Spanish, the Indians, the British, and any Americans who might seek to jump the claims of the first squatters; the few French desired protection from the Spanish, the Americans, the British, and soon from the Indians ”

“ We staid in Illinois, lived there as peaceable citizens, and had a city charter, and under its protection improved our city, and had in a short time, by our energy, industry, and enterprize, built one of the best cities in the western country, and had one of the most peaceable societies that existed anywhere, without exception. ”

“ The Indian barrier was being pushed back, and the Sangamon country, with its land-office at Springfield, was a favorite place for settlement. The rapid increase in the amount of land sold is also striking. As the third decade of the century closed Indiana was the favorite place for frontier settlement. The sales of public lands in Ohio were diminishing. A prophetic glance would have seen that as the ever-shifting frontier passed westward Illinois was to overtake and then to far surpass Indiana in number of settlers. ”

“ Missouri, more populous than Illinois by more than 11,000 in 1820, was less so by 17,000 in 1830.529 Governor Coles, in his message of January 3, 1826, said: “The tide of emigration, which had been for several years checked by various causes, both general and local, has again set in, and has afforded a greater accession of population during the past, than it had for the three preceding years. This addition to our population and wealth has given a new impulse to the industry and enterprise of our citizens, and has sensibly animated the face of our country. ”

“ More reliable than so popular a book usually is.
Henderson, John G. Early History of the “Sangamon Country,” being Notes on the first Settlements in the Territory now comprised within the Limits of Morgan, Scott and Cass Counties. Davenport, Iowa: Day, Egbert & Fidlar, 1873. 33 pp.
Of great interest for a study of early troubles with the Indians. Treats of East vs. South in Illinois and of Regulators. Deals almost exclusively with the period before 1830. Compiled largely from interviews with old settlers, hence not wholly reliable. ”

“ See for this, State of the Settlements in the Illinois Country, Pub. Rec. Office, A. & W. I., Vol. 125.
[242] Farmer to Gage, Dec. 16, 1765, B. T. Papers, Vol. 20, Pa. Hist. Soc. Lib. Ibid., March 19, 1766, Pub. Rec. Office, A. & W. I., Vol. 122.
[243] Ibid., Dec. 16 & 19, B. T. Papers, Vol. 20. Farmer had just received word that Col. Reid was on his way to the Illinois from Mobile, with about fifty men and just enough provisions for the journey, he was depending upon receiving further supplies at Fort Chartres. Ibid.
[244] Farmer to Gage, Dec. 16 & 19, 1765, B. T. Papers Vol. XX, Pa. Hist. ”

“ Such was the country and such the people now organized into the County of Illinois.17 The Act establishing the county provided that the governor and council should appoint a county-lieutenant or commandant-in-chief, who should appoint and commission as many deputy-commandants, militia officers, and commissaries as were needed. The religion, civil rights, property and law of the inhabitants should be respected. ”

“ "He made the country down in Illinois, and He made the Missouri," the little girl continued. "I guess somebody else made the country in these parts. It's not nearly so well done. They forgot the water and the trees." ”

“ So great is the emigration to Illinois and Missouri also, that it is apprehended that many must suffer for want of provisions the ensuing winter.”279 “Nothing more strongly proves the superiority of the western territory than the vast emigration to it from the eastern and southern states; during the eighteen months previous to April, 1816, fifteen thousand waggons passed over the bridge at Cayuga, containing emigrants to the western country.”280 “Old America seems to be breaking up, and moving westward.... ”

“ The proofs of an extensive and ramified organization is disclosed, the object of which is to stir the southern slaves to bathe their hands in the blood of the whites of the south. Traitorous scoundrels, with white faces, but black hearts, lead them, and the country is stunned with their deeds of infamy, treason and blood. ”

“ The men prominent in Illinois politics at the close of the territorial period, and at the beginning of the state period, were natives of southern states, a fact hardly conceivable if New England had been largely represented in Illinois. ”

“ Nowhere can there be seen fairer landscapes, nowhere richer farms, than here in your own great State of Illinois, a State whose history has been full of illustrious achievements, rich in possibilities, where lived our illustrious sons; a State whose population is intelligent, contented, orderly, and liberty-loving; a State whose development has not yet begun to approach its possible limits; a State having advantages by the location, swept as it is by two of the great waterways of the continent, advantages of access and markets by lake and rail and river unexcelled by any State in the Union ”

“ No one can be surprised if our feelings prompt us to speak pretty highly of our native home, Illinois, the great fertile prairie valley between the Mississippi and Ohio rivers, like a choice gem placed between the more hilly states on the East and the West. Illinois, the second and soon to be the first agricultural state in the Union; destined by her Creator to do a worthy share in feeding the world. Her merits and her charms have drawn on the intelligence and industry of every nation upon the globe.
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Pioneer Work. ”

“ IN traveling over the great fertile prairie State of Illinois, and viewing its many railroads, its many beautiful cities and towns, its school houses, its churches, its broad fields of waving grain, its orchards bending under their load of golden fruit, its vast population of industrious and intelligent citizens, its mills, and its factories, one can hardly realize that nearly all of this great improvement has been made in the last sixty years, but such is the case. ”

“ We, the people of the state of Illinois-grateful to Almighty God for the civil, political and religious liberty which He hath so long permitted us to enjoy, and looking to him for a blessing upon our endeavors to secure and transmit the same unimpaired to succeeding generations-in order to form a more perfect government, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this constitution for the state of Illinois. ”

“ No State of the American union has a history of more intense interest than our own. Its early chapters, indeed, savor of the romantic rather than of the real. I do not speak of the long-ago time when Illinois forest and prairie were the house and hunting-ground of the red men, and his frail bark the only craft known to its rivers. That period belongs to the border-land age of tradition rather than of veritable history. It is of Illinois under the domination of civilized men I would speak. ”

“ Illinois is a State which has sprung up, as if by magic, to be one of the most fruitful in the West. It was settled by men from the New England States—men who carried with them those characteristics which have made the New Englander's career one of active enterprise, and successful progress, wherever he has been. Not many years ago the name of Illinois was nearly unknown, and on her soil the hardy settler battled with the forest-trees for space in which to sow his first crops. Her roads were merely rude and often impassable tracks through forest or prairie ”