Lyman Trumbull

From Belleville into History

Lacey M. Diesel
Belleville Township High School West, Belleville

Lyman Trumbull was a little-known Illinoisan who, nonetheless, was very important. He was born in Colchester, Connecticut, on October 12, 1813. After Trumbull finished his formal education, he began teaching grammar school in the Northeast, but soon ventured south to Georgia after hearing rumors of the increase in teachers there. While teaching in Georgia, Lyman began his studies in law, which he eventually pursued as his full-time career. It was also at this time that Trumbull began forming his opinions regarding slavery, which he found to be degrading to both master and slave.

In 1837 Trumbull decided to head north to the booming state of Illinois. After making the entire trip on horseback, Trumbull decided to settle in Belleville, a bustling town that had been in existence almost as long as Illinois had been a state. It was in Belleville, the county seat of St. Clair County, where Lyman's law and political career began and flourished.

Shortly after his arrival, Trumbull was admitted to the bar and became a law partner with John Reynolds. Reynolds had been an Illinois state associate justice, a state representative, and a governor. Reynolds, an influential Democrat in Illinois politics, was one of the few people to have served in all three branches of Illinois government. It was definitely an honor for young Trumbull to be his law partner. After Reynolds was elected to the United States House of Representatives, Trumbull's younger brother, George, came to study and work with Trumbull. They soon had their own law partnership and handled a wide variety of criminal and civil cases.

In 1840 Trumbull's political career began when he was elected to the state legislature as a Democrat. At twenty-seven, Lyman became the youngest member in the Illinois General Assembly at the time. While serving in the legislature, it was said that Trumbull was a successful debater. However, it was fairly obvious that he was not the most prestigious orator when compared to men like Daniel Webster. Even so, Trumbull successfully debated such politicians as Stephen Douglas, David Davis, Richard Yates, James Shields, and Abraham Lincoln.

Trumbull was successful at such a young age because he had established goals early in life: succeed in law, and rise in political circles. Despite the simplicity of these goals, they paved the way for the rest of his political career.

While Lyman served in the Illinois state legislature there was a great banking crisis in Illinois. The banks, many of which were near bankruptcy, were in dire need of help from the legislature, and many politicians at the time, excluding Trumbull, believed that it was the government's responsibility to bail them out of debt. During the legislature's special session to remedy the crisis, Trumbull made endless enemies, including Lincoln, by working to embarrass the bankers.

While Trumbull's views regarding the banking crisis were not widely accepted, he made several important contributions while in the state legislature. For example, he sponsored a bill that assisted free blacks. The bill allowed any free black to register with the court clerk of their county in the event that their status was ever questioned.

Trumbull also worked with many important Democrats of the time to pass a new law that allowed five new justices to be appointed to the Illinois Supreme Court. Even though this act was an improvement in Illinois government, this turned out to be more of a political move. To ensure favorable decisions involving the voting rights of aliens, who voted mainly Democratic, the Democrats pushed this law through over Whig objections.

In 1841, after Stephen Douglas resigned his seat as the secretary of state to become one of the five new justices, the Illinois Senate confirmed Trumbull as his replacement. The eighth man in Illinois history to hold that position, Trumbull performed a wide variety of trifling tasks. However, Trumbull was not the secretary of state for long. As a result of the gubernatorial election of 1842, Governor Carlin was replaced by Thomas Ford, who referred to Trumbull's wing of the Democratic party as "ultras." Consequently, because of Ford's dislike for Trumbull, the governor requested that Trumbull be removed from office. After a close vote, Trumbull was removed.

Leaving Springfield was hard for Trumbull. There were two very important reasons why he longed to stay. First, he wanted to stay and serve in politics. Second, he had met a young woman by the name of Julia Jayne of whom he had been fond. Therefore, even after he left Springfield to return to his Belleville law practice, Lyman continued to court her. They were eventually married on June 21, 1843. Lyman and Julia had their first child in May 1844. Unfortunately, Lyman, Jr. died in August of the same year.

For the next few years, Trumbull suffered a series of political defeats. He lost two consecutive congressional elections and one gubernatorial elec-

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tion. This did not effect Trumbull's legal work on important issues of the time; Trumbull remained an active antislavery advocate, and he played an important role in eradicating slavery from Illinois. Although slavery was illegal in the prairie state due to the Northwest Ordinance, the law was often ignored, especially in southern Illinois. Trumbull argued many Illinois Supreme Court cases on behalf of former slaves. The supreme court adopted many of Trumbull's arguments. Although slave owners were slow to obey the court, the arguments Trumbull made in these cases eventually helped to write a legal end to slavery in Illinois.

The Trumbulls eventually had three more children. The first, Walter, was born in February 1846. The second, Lyman Perry, was born in April 1849, but died of cholera infantum fifteen months later. Finally, Perry was born in January 1851. He was the only son to outlive Trumbull.

In the midst of the births, illnesses, and deaths, Lyman and his wife decided to move to nearby Alton in 1848. At the time Alton had a cleaner water supply than that of Belleville. Because of the general sickliness of the Trumbull family, Lyman and Julia thought that a better water supply would keep the family healthy.

Lyman Trumbull, pictured here with his granddaughter, worked hard to pass the Thirteenth Amendment to abolish slavery.

In September 1848 Trumbull was elected to the Illinois Supreme Court. Because of this job he traveled a great deal, but, despite the drawbacks of being away from his family, he sought reelection in 1852 and won for a full nine-year term. The salary of a supreme court justice was very low. In order for Trumbull to make ends meet, he was forced to take on several more jobs between sessions of the court. He worked for the Alton and Jersey Plank Road Company, the Illinois Mutual Fire Insurance Company, and also in real estate. Despite all of these jobs, the income was still not sufficient for Trumbull. Therefore, shortly after his second term as Illinois Supreme Court Justice began, he resigned.

Trumbull returned to practicing law, but not for long. In late 1853 Trumbull was forced to take some time away from work due to a severe back injury. After he recovered, he returned to his law practice. In 1855, shortly after his return, Trumbull went off to Washington to begin his national political career.

Trumbull had won a seat in the United States Senate. He did not win this seat as a Democrat; Trumbull had decided to change parties because of the Democratic Party's increasing support of the slavery movement. Trumbull became a member of the Republican Party, which was also known at that time as the Antislavery Party. This new party consisted of anti slave Democrats and anti slave Whigs. Not only did he win a seat in the United States Senate, but he also had first defeated Abraham Lincoln for the party's nomination to the position.

Trumbull spent the next eighteen years in Washington working on such controversial issues as the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which he opposed, as well as working beside President Lincoln during the Civil War. The Lincoln and Trumbull families became close friends despite the differences they had experienced regarding past issues. Lincoln and Trumbull even campaigned together while still in Belleville. Trumbull also played a major role in the drafting and ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment, and Illinois would become the first state to ratify the resolution to abolish slavery.

Lyman Trumbull is perhaps best known for his vote regarding the impeachment trial of President Johnson. Because of President Johnson's actions regarding decisions of post-Civil War Reconstruction of the South, which were opposed by the Radical Republicans, the President was impeached by the House of Representatives. As a member of the United States Senate, Trumbull had to vote for or against conviction. The final vote was close. The Radical Republicans fell short by one vote to convict President Johnson.

Despite the fact that Johnson had vetoed some of the bills that Trumbull had supported, Trumbull was one of the seven Republicans who voted with the Democratic senators against conviction of the president. He felt that there was not enough evidence to convict Johnson. Largely due to his vote not to convict President Johnson, Trumbull lost the support of the Republican Party. Thereby, he did not have the votes to win a fourth term to the United States Senate.

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Even after he left politics, Trumbull continued to lead a very busy life. He held important political offices for nearly thirty-nine years. He died June 25, 1896, in Chicago. While he is not widely known in United States history, his contributions played an important part in forming what Illinois and the United States are today.—[From Belleville Weekly Advocate, Ap. 25, Aug. 8, 1840; Jan. 13, Feb. 20, Mar. 6, 1841; Mar. 23, June 29, 1843; June 13, 1844; Aug. 16, Dec. 27, 1845; Jan. 24, July 16, 1846; Oct. 26, Nov. 9, 1848; May 5, July 14, 1852; Feb. 14, Feb. 28, 1855; Ap. 16, June 4, Oct. 22, 1856; Dec. 7, 1859; Jan. 11, 1861; June 26, 1863; Feb. 16, 1866; Aug. 21, 1868; Dec. 21, 1877; Jan. 3, 1878; Aug. 6, 1879; Aug. 28, 1896; Belleville Weekly Democrat, Mar. 20, 1858; Charles A. Church, History of the Republican Party in Illinois; Robert P. Howard, Illinois; Alvin Louis Nebelsick, A History of Belleville; Ralph J. Roske, His Own Counsel; St. Clair Tribune, Ap. 14, July 7, Nov. 24, 1855; Mar. 1, May 3,1856.]

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