applause with which it was greeted, amid which the orator withdrew from the stand. and the work of the convention was over. There were then no Whigs, Democrats, nor Free-Soilers, but men of every shade had been fused into a conquering phalanx.

Until this convention Mr. Lincoln was little known in many parts of the State. as his law practice and political speeches had been confined to the central counties, mostly. He went away better known throughout the State and with a reputation as a public speaker never before enjoyed.

No stenographic report or otherwise was made of this speech or of any other delivered before the convention, so far as known, but the manner and matter of this speech were extravagantly praised by the daily press of the State. The fact of no report is to be regretted, as all who heard it and other speeches of the same man agree that it was among the greatest. It has since been called the "Lost Speech," but though lost to posterity, it was far from being lost upon his then hearers.

Other candidates for State officers were nominated upon the recommendation of a committee appointed to name suitable persons; and as is well known the ticket thus named, with the exception of the candidate for Lieutenant Governor who gave place to another, was elected at the November election, 1856, the first instance in the history of the State where candidates for State offices adverse to the party of Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson were successful; while the electoral vote of the State was given to the Democratic nominee. Had the entire Whig element of the State stood by Lincoln's choice, as it did by Bissell, Buchanan would have lost the State.

The ultimate effect was to wholly change the political complexion of the State for the next half century, with the exception of one gubernatorial term. Another effect was to remove from a probably successful presidential candidacy, Judge Douglas, and to make Lincoln the man of destiny, for he retired from that convention the acknowledged leader of the new party in Illinois, and before two weeks came near being made the candidate of his party for VicePresident, in that campaign.

It was said at the beginning of this paper that no meeting of the people of the State of Illinois in state convention was ever held which effected greater results in the State and national history than did this convention. Half a century of history making proves this claim to be true.

Another assertion there made as to those named as participants in its deliberations and as to its effects upon them, is also true. Coming from the doors of Major's Hall at the close of that convention was Abraham Lincoln, a future President of the United States. the Emancipator of a race, whose memory the wide world reveres; there came also Richard Yates, the great War Governor of Illinois, who was eminent as a United States Senator: another Governor of Illinois, no less distinguished as a Senator and as a Major General in the War of the Rebellion. John M. Palmer, was of the number; there came a future Cabinet Minister and United States Senator,

Orville H. Browning; there were also William Pitt Kellogg, Burton C. Cook, Thomas J. Henderson, Abner C. Harding, John Wentworth, Thomas J. Turner, Owen Lovejoy, and perhaps others who served terms in Congress of various periods; there was also Norman B. Judd, who became a foreign minister; there were well known citizens who afterwards became members of the General Assembly, among whom may be named A. W. Mack, J. V. Eustace, Isaac C. Pugh, Dr. Robert Boal, Nathaniel Niles, Isaac L. Morrison, John H. Bryant, H. C. Johns, and Washington Bushnell who also filled the office of Attorney General of this State; there were those who before and after this date distinguished themselves as leaders of public opinion in the capacity of editors of newspapers, among whom may be named D. S. Parker, of Kankakee, Geo. T. Brown, of Alton, George Schneider, of Chicago, B. F. Shaw, of Dixon, W. H. Bailhache, of Springfield, C. H. Ray, Joseph Medill and J. L. Scripps, of Chicago. It is but just to say that Mr. Selby was prevented from being at the convention on account of having suffered from an assault made upon him by a ruffianly opponent.

Other distinguished citizens of great prominence before or since the convention were in attendance, among whom may and should be named, such men as Leonard Sweet, Jesse W. Fell and W. W. Orme, of Bloomington, D. L. Phillips, of Union county, G. D. A. Parks, of Joliet, Gen. James M. Ruggles, of Mason county, M. P Sweet, T. J. Prickett, A. C. Fuller, A. J. Joslyn, W. H. Herndon and William Vocke. Among those in attendance were those eminent historians, John Moses and John G. Nicolay. So this convention gave to many young men in attendance impulses which staid with them through life and gave them position and character.

So there were many who, with some of those named above, five years afterward, when the South undertook to test Lincoln's declaration to the effect that this nation could not exist half slave and half free, took their places in the ranks of the Nation's defenders, and either came home with their chaplets of victory, or gave up their lives to verify Lincoln's other declaration to the effect that the South should not go out of the Union.

some.

While the convention was a notable one for the reasons given upon the preceding page, it was also notable on account of the absence of At many places in the State were individuals whose convictions were as strong as were those of Lincoln or of any other participator in the convention, as to the policy of prohibiting slavery in the territories, and who were unstinted in their opposition to the course of Senator Douglas, yet who, from a timid fear of being thought and called "Abolitionists." remained away from the convention, trained with the third party in the campaign of 1856, and left Mr. Lincoln and his friends to bear the burden of an active opposition to the policy of the national administration. These men, who shall be nameless here, were what are sometimes called moral cowards; but when the day of victory was seen to be sure for the new party, they took their places in the front ranks and have well maintained their claims to this day, the chief reapers in the harvest where others sowed the seed.

ANCIENT FORT CHARTRES.

(By Homer Mead.)

The writer points out the importance, especially for the people of Illinois, of this historical monument, only a few miles from the village of Prairie du Rocher, with its associations which carry the visitor back to the days of the French and British dominion in the Illinois country The circumstances of its construction in 1718-1720, as a part of the great designs of Law and his Company of the West, are described, and there is a brief sketch of the subsequent history of the fort and the surrounding village down to the close of the French occupation in 1765. The attractiveness of the old French community life is emphasized.

The conditions under the old English régime are then described and the period is characterized as one of neglect and decadence. The writer then summarizes various contemporary notices of the fort, including those of Gage in 1765, and those of Brackenridge, Beck, and Reynolds. The fort was abandoned after the flood of 1772, but the damage done by the rain has been greatly exaggerated. The writer regards the wholesale demolition of the walls as the work of persons in search of building material. He thinks however, "that the wholesale, unrestrained grab after the useful material of the fort did not begin until 1840, when people should have known better."

Up to July, 1902, Red Bud, twenty miles away, was the nearest railroad station to this locality; but the Illinois division of the Iron Mountain railroad now has a station at Prairie du Rocher" which makes a visit to the fort comparatively easy. Prairie du Rocher itself still presents a distinctly French aspect, though the coming of the railroad is gradually changing the unique character of the place.

66

"In early days all roads led to Fort Chartres" and highways leading to it were prominent features of early maps but "now, not even a cowpath leads to it." The fort area is reached by crossing a "beautiful level field" and entered through "a rude farm gate." "Cellar walls are in many places intact and nearly filled with debris. The angle of the main wall remains and is used as a stable. Two rude houses occupied by a farmer's tenants, are within the enclosure, which has been cleared of trees, except a few tall ones near the magazine." The magazine, itself is surprisingly well preserved.

[It is to be hoped that this paper may help to stimulate public opinion and lead to some tangible action by the State for the preservation of what still remains of the old fort. Even in its ruins, Fort Chartres is undoubtedly the most important monument of the French dominion in Illinois. For further information regarding Fort Chartres, see E. G. Mason, Illinois in the Eighteenth Centuary (Fergus Historical Series; also, Fort de Chartres, by Jos. Wallace, in Pub. No. 8 of Ill. State Hist. Lib.)-ED.]