OUT OF THE bitterly contested election of August, 1822, wherein the question of locating a permanent seat of justice
was the overshadowing issue, there came two sets of county officers, each claiming jurisdiction over the then vast
domain that was Pike county. Both Ross's Settlement and Coles' Grove claimed the election, and at the following
regular court term in September, 1822, we find two sets of commissioners convening two county courts at Coles'
Grove, both sets of officers sitting as the duly elected commissioners of the county.
Coincidentally, the county had two sheriffs and two coroners, each claiming full authority. The offices of sheriff,
coroner and county commissioner were the only elective county offices under the Constitution of 1818, all other
officers whose jurisdiction was confined to the county being appointees, either directly or indirectly, of the
state legislature, which had vast appointive power under the first Constitution.
On September 3, 1822, we find two Pike county commissioners' courts sitting at Coles' Grove on the same day and
transacting the business of the county that embraced a third of the state. We find, too, that My Lord Coke Whitney,
clerk of the county commissioners' court, carrying the county seal in his pocket, attended both courts and entered
the records of the proceedings of each. Whether he ever got pay from more than one, the records do not disclose.
Reading the records, brief as they are, one gets the impression that excitement was at fever heat. John Shaw's
commissioners, backed by all the political prestige of the Black Prince, assumed authority over the county's affairs.
The partisans of Ross's Settlement were no less vigorous in asserting authority over the vast domain that was then
Pike county. In the circuit court, presided over by the Honorable John Reynolds, a justice of the supreme court
sitting in this first judicial circuit, the contest raged week after week.
Clerk Whitney's official entries reveal the seething tumult of the times. On Monday, September 2, 1822, David Dutton,
a Ross's Settlement commissioner, opened court at Coles' Grove, but there being no quorum, court was adjourned
to the following day.
On Tuesday, September 3, 1822, David Dutton, James M. Seeley (father of Dr. E. M. Seeley, long identified with
Pittsfield) and Ossian M. Ross, convening court in Coles' Grove, proceeded to transact the business of the court.
These three commissioners, sitting at Coles' Grove, were pledged to Nicholas Hansen, legislative candidate of Ross's
Settlement in the August election, who in turn was pledged to secure action by the state legislature for the appointment
of a commission to locate a permanent seat of justice for Pike county, with a view to transferring said seat of
justice to Ross's Settlement. Having transacted the business in hand, the above commissioners "adjourned until
court in course."
After the adjournment of court by the above commissioners, a second set of commissioners appeared and proceeded
to convene a county court. These commissioners were the Black Prince's men, Ebenezer Smith, James Nixon and William
Metz, pledged to Shaw, Hansen's opponent, who was contesting Hansen's election to the legislature. In the record
book, the proceedings of the Coles' Grove commissioners follow immediately the proceedings of the Ross's Settlement
commissioners of the same day, both records being in the hand of Clerk Whitney.
The convening of the second court of September 3, 1822, is recorded as follows: "On Tuesday, the third day
of September, 1822, appears Ebenezer Smith, James Nixon and William Metz, before me, James W. Whitney, clerk of
the Circuit Court (Whitney was clerk of both circuit and commissioners' courts), and produced certificates from
the Honorable John Reynolds, one of the Justices of the Supreme Court, and presiding in the Circuit whereof Pike
County is a part', setting forth that he had decided their election in their favor, which had been contested, and
on account of their not having taken the oath of office until this day, Court was not opened by them until this
time: And having this day taken the oaths prescribed by law, Court was opened in due form."
Smith, Nixon and Metz, all partisans of Coles' Grove, after formally opening court, decided to adjourn until the
following day when the commissioners, reconvening, proceeded to examine into the state of the county's revenues,
but did not proceed far until they concluded it "was not expedient to proceed to any other business at this
time," whereupon the commissioners "adjourned till court in course."
The reason the Black Prince's commissioners found it "not expedient to proceed to any other business,"
is found in the decision of Justice John Reynolds, who, on September 4, 1822, while the Shaw commissioners were
in session, handed down a decision reversing his former judgment in their favor and finding in favor of the Ross's
Settlement claimants of the offices of sheriff and coroner, the opinion of the Justice being in these words:
"State of Illinois, ss: Upon a second and full examination of the documents transmitted to me in relation
to the contested election of the Sheriff, Coroner and County Commissioners for the County of Pike; and being satisfied
that the certificates heretofore given by me of the election of Rigdon C. Fenton as Sheriff, Joel Bacon as Coroner,
and Ebenezer Smith, William Metz and James Nixon as County Commissioners, was given without sufficient consideration,
I do hereby revoke the said certificates, and do now certify Leonard Ross was duly elected Sheriff, Daniel Whipple,
Coroner, and James M. Seeley, David Dutton and Ossian M. Ross County Commissioners for Pike County in said State.
"Given under my hand and seal this 4th day of September, 1822.
"JOHN REYNOLDS,
"Justice of the Supreme Court of said State, and presiding in the first Judicial Circuit."
The story of that impetuous battle in the early circuit court of Pike is hardly complete without a glimpse of the
presiding Justice, who was one of the most colorful figures the Pike County Bar has known. Justice John Reynolds,
born in 1788, the son of Irish rebels against British rule, came to the Illinois country from Tennessee in 1800,
and grew to manhood on the raw frontier, amid pioneer surroundings and associations that left a deep imprint upon
his character. His recollections, included in his "Pioneer History of Illinois," afford the most reliable
picture of the pioneer life of the territory before it became a state. Living amid the rudest surroundings, he
partook of the characteristics, manners and customs of the pioneers. He disliked polish, condemned fashion, and
was addicted, according to the Pike county historian of his time, to inordinate profanity. These traits, garnished
by his classical education, varied reading, his native shrewdness and a wonderful faculty of garrulity, made him,
considering the high offices he held, one of the public oddities of Illinois.
He was a Justice of the Supreme Court of Illinois when he held court at Coles' Grove and Atlas in the early days.
In 1830 he was elected fourth governor of Illinois and during his term as Governor he took the field in person
against Black Hawk in the last of the Indian wars in Illinois that broke out in 1831. He was a Jacksonian Democrat,
as one had to be to achieve public office in Illinois during the 30 years beginning in 1828. He served in the state
legislature and in the congress, dying at Belleville in 1865, childless.
Now, on September 4, 1822, with the Black Prince defeated in the circuit court, victory perched on the banners
of Ross's Settlement. The great court fight had been declared in favor of Ross's. But the Black Prince was not
yet done. Coles' Grove refused to yield. The Ross's Settlement commissioners, although championed by the Court,
failed to take immediate advantage of their court victory. Whether they were deterred by threats and intimidations,
the records do not disclose. The records do state that, for some reason unexplained, the rightful commissioners
did not immediately assume their duties. They failed to meet in quorum to open court. Term time came, and there
was no court. The October term, 1822, was at hand.
On October 10, David Dutton, a Ross's Settlement commissioner, appeared in hostile Coles' Grove and opened court,
but "there not being a quorum, court kept open until the evening of the next day, when, there not being a
quorum, court was adjourned until court in course."
Thus, in brief but suggestive entries, My Lord Coke has chronicled the reactions of the early court to the great
contest that was raging in the background, stirring the pioneer communities to a high pitch of excitement.
On October 24, 1822, David Dutton, seemingly a fearless commissioner, again appeared in Coles' Grove and opened
court. James M. Seeley, of Ross's Settlement, another of the commissioners, appeared later and court was thereupon
adjourned until the following day. Ossian M. Ross, the third commissioner, did not appear.
On the following day, October 25, 1822, the two commissioners present, Dutton and Seeley, convened court and the
first order of the court was that "the certificate of the Honorable John Reynolds, setting forth the result
of the contested election in this county, be entered of record."
The sitting commissioners, angered by the long controversy with the Black Prince and his followers, then proceeded
to lop off the heads of two of their chief opponents. The record reads as follows: "Ordered that the bond
executed by Nathaniel Hinckley as treasurer of the county, with John Shaw and Levi Roberts his sureties, be cancelled
and taken off the files of this court: whereupon the said Treasurer tendered Leonard Ross as new security, who
is approved by the Court."
Ross's Settlement is now on top. Its partisans sit in the seats of the mighty at Coles' Grove. The government of
all that territory from the junction of the two rivers north to the shores of Lake Michigan and the Wisconsin line
in its hands. The legislature of 1822-24 is about to convene at Vandalia. The way is cleared for a legislative
enactment to establish a permanent seat of justice. Ross's Settlement is sending a partisan to the state legislature
who is pledged to see that the commission named to establish a permanent seat of justice is favorable to Ross's
Settlement.
It would seem now that the county seat war must be nearing a close. But it is not. The war has only just begun.
The period 1822-24 is one of tumult not only in the new county of Pike but throughout the new state of Illinois.
Coincident with the county-seat issue in Pike county, another great issue is coming to a head in the state. In
the soil of Illinois to be slave or free?
Pike county historians have overlooked the tremendous part that the seat of justice war in Pike played in the destinies
of the state and nation. Had they but paused to correlate the records in Pike county with other known facts and
records (as is being attempted in these articles), they would have found inescapable the conclusion that here,
in the memorable feud between Coles' Grove and Ross's Settlement, there was set in motion a train of events that
eventually was to decide the slavery issue in both state and nation. Out of this flaming feud in Pike county, and
forged in its terrific heat, emerged those two great antagonists, Hansen and Shaw, who, in the memorable clash
in the third legislature at Vandalia, in February, 1823, were to precipitate an act so disgraceful and scenes so
indescribably disgusting that the strong pro-slavery sentiment then existing in the state was to be changed into
a clamor for human freedom.
To us of the twentieth century it hardly seems possible that there was a time when the people of Illinois were
preponderantly in favor of slavery; when even in Pike county the people were prone to look upon human bondage with
a degree of tolerance. Yet such is the indisputable fact.
The 35,000 inhabitants of Illinois when it was made a state were preponderantly pro-slavery. The over-whelming
majority of them were immigrants from slave states south of the Ohio river, and, having grown up in a slave atmosphere,
were inured to the horrors of that institution. There is no question that Illinois, in the early years of statehood,
leaned strongly to slavery.
Human slavery had existed in the Illinois territory under French, British and American territorial dominion. It
still existed when Illinois became a state. It had been established within the bounds of what is now Illinois by
early French colonizers of the 18th century and had never been abolished under successive territorial rules.
Although the cause of human freedom had able advocates in the first constitutional convention sitting at Kaskaskia
in 1818, it is evident that the friends of slavery were in the saddle in that convention. It was necessary, however,
in order to secure the state's admission, that some pronouncement against slavery be incorporated in the constitution
to be submitted to the Congress, in view of the United States Ordinance of 1787, comprising articles of compact
between the original states and the people and states of the Northwest Territory, which articles were to "forever
remain unalterable," and which provided that there should be "neither slavery nor involuntary servitude
within said territory, otherwise than in punishment of crimes whereof the party shall have been duly convicted."
Slavery advocates in the convention rose to the occasion by framing and inserting in the Constitution an ambiguous
declaration relative to slavery that deceived not only the anti-slavery delegates in the convention but also the
Congress of the United States.
The weasel-worded pronouncement on slavery declared that "neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall
hereafter be introduced into this state, otherwise than for the punishment of crimes," etc., the joker being
in the fact that slavery had already been introduced and was then existent within the bounds of the new state.
There were numerous slave-holders and numerous human chattels in the state at that time and also many indentured
persons whose lot was as deplorable as that of the slave. Others, noting the term "hereafter" in the
new constitution, hastened to have articles of indenture approved before the constitution became effective.
Pro-slavery advocates in the convention saw to it that the constitution contained no pledge against future amendment
to permit slavery. So, when the third legislature sits in 1822-23, we find the question of calling a convention
to amend the constitution before that body. The purpose of such a convention, as appears to have been well understood
at the time, was to amend the 1818 constitution to permit the institution of slavery in the state. Under a provision
of the basic law, it required a two-thirds vote of each house to authorize a convention. The legislature was strongly
pro-slavery, but the advocates of slavery were put to it to muster a two-thirds majority. In both houses, the vote
was exceedingly close.
On February 10, 1823, the Senate passed the convention resolution without a vote to spare. On the next day the
resolution was transmitted to the House.
Meanwhile, back in Pike county, the war between Coles' Grove and Ross's Settlement had precipitated a bitter election
contest for the Pike county seat in the third legislature. John Shaw, the Black Prince, champion of Coles' Grove,
was opposed by a new adversary who had arisen as the champion of the Rosses. He was General Nicholas Hansen. Already,
early in 1821, in the fixing of a temporary seat of justice, Hansen had crossed swords with the Black Prince, both
having been on the commission named by the second legislature to fix the temporary seat. Victory, on that occasion,
had gone to Shaw.
Nicholas Hansen had come from Schenectady, New York, to which place he returned in later life. He was a relative
of the celebrated Van Renssalaer family of that state. He had come to the Illinois country at a very early date
and being located within the territory embraced by Pike when the county was set up in 1821, he at once became active
in the affairs of the new county. He was county judge in 1821-22, becoming a candidate against Shaw for the legislature
in August, 1822. As the first representative elected from Pike county to the state legislature, he was destined
there to become the center of a human whirlwind of turbulence and passion unparalleled in the annals of the state.
In the legislative election in Pike county in 1822, both Hansen and Shaw claimed the election. Hansen was awarded
the certificate of election and went to the Illinois House as the first representative therein from Pike county.
Shaw contested. The permanent seat of justice for Pike county was at stake. Hansen was pledged to put through an
act under which a commission favorable to Ross's Settlement would be named to fix the seat of justice. Shaw, if
seated, was to save the county-seat for Coles' Grove. Each was resolved to make the most of the slavery issue in
furtherance of his purpose. Hansen was against slavery; Shaw was for it.