elect directly the Councillors as well as the members of the House of Representatives. The people also chose directly their Territorial delegate to Congress. The first representative legislature of the new Territory met at Kaskaskia on November 25, 1812.1

During the early years of the Illinois Territory, its Border growth was checked by serious Indian troubles, which warfare, finally resulted in open war. In 1811 General Harrison defeated the Indians at Tippecanoe, but when the War of 1812 broke out the Indians generally took the British side. The most terrible affair of this war in Illinois was the Massacre of Fort Dearborn, on the present site of Chicago, in which not only soldiers but also women and children were killed or taken captive by the Indians.2 The border warfare continued through the next two years, but after the treaty with England had been signed several Indian treaties were negotiated, restoring peace and opening the way for new settlements.3

lands.

The immigration which had been checked by the war Public increased rapidly after it was over and was encouraged by the action of the United States government with regard to the public lands. The claims of the settlers under the British, French, and Virginian governments were finally cleared up, so that the incoming settlers could have secure titles to their lands. A preëmption law was passed granting those who had already settled on the public lands a first right to buy, thus giving them an advantage over speculators. Lands could be bought

1Executive Register (in Illinois State Hist. Library, Publications, III. 23, 26, 27); Journal of Legislative Council, ibid., 62. 2 Wentworth, Fort Dearborn (Fergus Historical Series), Appendix.

U. S. Statutes at Large, VII. (Indian Treaties) 123-147.

New county governments.

at the low price of two dollars an acre and payments could be made in istallments. Two new land offices were established in Illinois, one at Shawneetown on the Ohio, and another at Edwardsville on the Mississippi above Kaskaskia.1 All these measures resulted in large sales of public lands. In the last year of the War of 1812 about eight thousand acres were sold at the Illinois land offices. Four years later the total amount sold for the year was more than half a million acres.2

As the Territory grew new county governments were organized. In 1809 there were only two; in the next nine years thirteen new counties were organized, almost all of which were for the government of settlements in the southern third of the State near the great rivers.3 The growth of population shown in the organization of these new counties had also been preparing the Territory for another advance in self-government. When Congress met in the winter of 1817-1818, it was asked to pass a bill admitting Illinois to the Union as a State.

1

1U. S. Statutes at Large, II. 797; Illinois State Historical Library, Publications, III. 109-111; Donaldson, Public Domain, 203-204.

2 American State Papers, Finance, II. 657, 852; III. 284, 285. 3 Executive Register (in Illinois State Historical Library, Publications, III. 3-4, 26); Moses, Illinois Historical and Statistical, I. 547; cf. map at I. 277.

CHAPTER II

THE OLD FRONTIER STATE-1818-1848

9. REFERENCES

Secondary Authorities: Harris, Negro Servitude in Illinois; Moses, Illinois Historical and Statistical, I., chs. 19-31 and Appendix; II., ch. 32 and Appendix; Davidson and Stuvé, History of Illinois, chs. XXVI.-XLV.; Blanchard, Discovery and Conquests of the Northwest with the History of Chicago; Anthony, Constitutional History of Illinois, chs. 12-21; Washburne, Governor Coles and the Slavery Struggle in Illinois; Edwards, History of Illinois from 1778-1833 and Life of Ninian Edwards.

Sources: (1) Contemporary writers: Ford, History of Illinois; Brown, History of Illinois; Reynolds, Pioneer History of Illinois; Reynolds, My Own Times; Illinois in 1837; Gerhard, Illinois As It Is; Washburne, ed., The Edwards Papers; Patterson, Early Society in Southern Illinois (Fergus Historical Series, No. 14). See also various other numbers in the same series, especially on Chicago. (2) Documents: Annals of Congress, 15th Congress; House Journal and Senate Journal of the same Congress; Enabling act and first and second constitutions in Hurd, Revised Statutes of Illinois; Journal of the Constitutional Convention (1847); Laws of the State of Illinois (the "session laws") 1818-1848; House Journals and Senate Journals of the General Assembly; Reports to the General Assembly. For list of State documents, see Bowker, State Publications, Part II., 229-249.

IO. THE ORGANIZATION OF THE STATE

act in Congress.

On January 16, 1818, Mr. Nathaniel Pope, the Illi- The enabling nois delegate in Congress, presented to the House of Representatives a petition from the Territorial legislature asking for State government and admission to the Union, and this petition was referred to a committee,

Provisions of the

enabling act.

of which Mr. Pope was chairman. He soon reported a bill "to enable the people of the Illinois territory to form a constitution and state government and for the admission of such state into the Union on an equal footing with the original states." Two important amendments were afterwards adopted on motion of Mr. Pope himself. The first fixed the northern boundary at 42° 30', thus disregarding the Ordinance of 1787 which proposed a line drawn through the southerly bend of Lake Michigan. This amendment gave to Illinois its present frontage on the lake with fourteen of the present northern counties, including Chicago. Mr. Pope argued that this would give Illinois a closer connection with the middle States and so "would afford additional security for the perpetuity of the Union." He also thought that in this way more attention would be drawn to the plans for a canal between Lake Michigan and the Illinois River and for improving the harbor of Chicago. A second important amendment provided that a part of the proceeds of the sales of public lands in Illinois should be given to the State for the support of education.2 A few other amendments were made, but there was little opposition to the bill, which after being passed by both houses was signed by President Monroe April 18, 1818.

This enabling act gave to the people the right to form a State constitution on certain conditions laid

1 House Journal, 15th Cong., 1st sess., 151, 174.

2 Ibid., 423-424, 428, 492; Annals of Congress, 15th Cong., II. 1677-1678; Senate Journal, 328, 342, 354, 357. For the Wisconsin view of this change from the ordinance of 1787, see Thwaites, The Boundaries of Wisconsin (in Wisconsin Historical Society, Collections, XI. 494-501). Efforts were made (1838-46) to restore the old boundary line.

down by Congress. There was to be a constitutional convention, the members of which were to be chosen by the white male citizens who had been six months in the Territory. The delegates must first decide whether they would have a State government at all. After that had been decided, they could either call a new convention to frame the constitution or they could do the work themselves. Nothing was said about giving the people a chance to vote on the constitution. The only conditions imposed by Congress with regard to the form of the government were that it must be republican in form and not in conflict with the Ordinance of 1787 except in the matter of boundaries. Congress did not, however, promise to recognize the new State unless a special census should show at least forty thousand inhabitants.1

A rather doubtful census was taken which was made to show a little over the required number. The convention was elected in July and assembled at Kaskaskia in August, 1818. Thirty-two members signed the finished constitution. Most of them were farmers, but among the very few lawyers, there was one young man, Elias Kent Kane, who probably had the most influence in forming the constitution. The journal of the convention has been lost, but the most exciting debate was probably on the subject of slavery. A compromise was finally adopted providing that "neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall hereafter be introduced into this State." The old indentures of negroes were recognized, but future ones of a similar kind were forbid

1U. S. Statutes at Large, III. 428.

'Brown, Early History of Illinois (in Fergus Historical Series, XIV.); Moses, Illinois Historical and Statistical, I. 282.

The convention of 1818.