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| Illinois Issues Summer Book Section | |
Three Illinois Governors: Coles, Small and Ogilvie The following are excerpts from Robert P. Howard's new book, Mostly Good and Competent Men: Illinois Governors, 1818-1988, to be published September 27. Howard, a political writer for 38 years, has personally known the last 10 governors, from Henry Horner to James R. Thompson. Before his retirement in 1970 he was Springfield correspondent for the Chicago Tribune. His book, Illinois: A History of the Prairie State (Eerdmans, 1972, 1986), is considered the definitive one-volume history of the state. He has been president of the Illinois State Historical Society and has written a number of articles for Illinois Issues. The 360-page book, including approximately 80 photos, will be published jointly by Illinois Issues and the Illinois State Historical Society. Copies may be ordered from either the Historical Society or Illinois Issues: hard cover, $24.95plus $3 postage; soft cover, $14.95plus $2 postage. Second Governor Edward Coles was an idealistic aristocrat from Virginia who freed the slaves he had inherited and became governor by a minority vote three years after he migrated to Illinois. He played the leading role in preventing Illinois from becoming a slave state during its frontier period. Only Thomas Ford, who became governor two decades later, did as much to influence the course of Illinois history. . . . A member of one of Virginia's first families, Coles as a young man urged Thomas Jefferson to free his slaves. An intellectual, he served three years as private secretary to President James Madison, who entrusted him with a diplomatic mission to Russia. No other Illinois governor had such intimate contact with the White House. . . . Coles ran for office only twice and was elected but once. He lacked rapport with the public and never attracted a personal following during the 11 years he lived in Illinois. A polished gentleman, he was tall and handsome, but stiff and slightly awkward, and he lacked personal magnetism. He did not consult legislators and opposition leaders about his plans for the state, and he never hesitated to be blunt when he criticized them in public messages. . . . Coles' inaugural speech was a diplomatic failure, especially in its outspoken treatment of the racial issue. Demanding justice and humanity for Negroes, he asked that the indenture system and a black code be abolished, that the kidnaping of free blacks be stopped, and that freedom be granted to the descendants of slaves who had been brought to Illinois during the French period. Hooper Warren, the crusading editor of the Edwardsville Spectator, accused the governor of precipitating a crisis. A week later a legislative committee recommended that a constitutional convention consider the governor's requests. The report did not specifically ask for legalized slavery, but the inference was clear. . . . Referendum approval seemed inevitable at the start of the unusually bitter 18-month campaign. Coles quickly met friendly legislators and issued a call to arms. In the campaign he worked long hours, wrote extensively, and contributed more than the $4,000 that was his four-year salary. Coles bought the Illinois Intelligencer and contributed almost weekly articles. . . . Financial help and other pamphlets came from Nicholas Biddle, president of the Bank of United States, and Roberts Vaux of Philadelphia, whom Coles had known since his White House days. . . . In heavy balloting August 2, 1824, Coles' supporters cast 57 percent of the vote and won, 6,640 to 4,972. Had the result been reversed, turmoil would have enveloped Illinois for years. Had they won with both political control and momentum on their side, the proslavery faction undoubtedly would have written a Southern-style constitution and made every effort to put it into effect. With multiplying controversies, their attempt to override the Ordinance of 1787 would have been challenged in the federal courts and Congress. Meanwhile, the character of immigration would have changed, with Easterners hesitating to come into Illinois. As it was, pseudoslavery existed in the state almost until the Civil War, and the black code was not repealed until the war was over. Had Illinois been a slave state, Abraham Lincoln probably would have launched his political career elsewhere. Twenty-Sixth Governor Early in the automobile age, Small pulled Illinois out of the mud and gave it one of the nation's best hard road systems. The 7,000 miles of 18-foot pavement he constructed in eight years were badly needed, well-engineered, economically built, July 1988 | Illinois Issues | 20
and highly political. Each county got its share of the pavement if it voted for Small and his legislative candidates. LaSalle County was shorted because its state senator, Thurlow G. Essington of Streator, opposed him in the 1924 Republican primary. In building his downstate political machine, Small emphazied the pavement, which was of major importance to the state's economy. The votes the "good roads governor" needed in Chicago were supplied by [Mayor "Big Bill"] Thompson, who also specialized in patronage and political favors and who fostered the environment in which "Scarface Al" Capone prospered. . . . Small's two terms as governor were marred by a series of scandals, some of which reflected efforts to channel more patronage into the Chicago City Hall. The biggest scandal originated in the state treasurer's office, to which Small had been elected twice, in 1904 and 1916. After each term, laws were passed to tighten the regulation of treasury funds. In 1907 the [Charles Samuel] Deneen administration required that all public money received by the treasury be deposited in state banks. When Small left the treasury in 1919, the Lowden administration ordered that bid-taking precede the deposits. Governor Small erred at the end of the 1921 legislative session when he made deep cuts in Attorney General Edward J. Brundage's appropriation bill. The attorney general, who was one of the mayor's factional rivals in Chicago, retaliated by indicting Small for conspiracy and embezzlement of interest money during his second term as treasurer. Small had deposited state funds in the Grant Park Bank, a long-dormant private bank in suburban Kankakee, and then loaned the money to Chicago meat packers. From them he collected interest at standard commercial rates as high as six percent. He reimbursed the state at call money rates of two or three percent. He did not account for the difference. Tried at Waukegan in 1922 under a change of venue, Small denied wrongdoing and testified that he had paid the state more interest than all preceding treasurers. The criminal trial ended with an acquittal verdict. Small lost, however, when the evidence about the interest money was resubmitted in a civil case. The Illinois Supreme Court upheld a master-in-chancery ruling that he owed the state $1,025,434. In 1927 a more friendly attorney general, Oscar E. Carlstrom, cut the figure to $650,000 and stipulated that Small had not received any interest illegally. Small, who had been instrumental in electing Carlstrom in 1924, raised the $650,000 by assessing state employees and contractors. Thirty-Fifth Governor Major administrative and fiscal reforms in Illinois and Cook County governments were made by Richard B. Ogilvie, a hard-working and tough-minded Republican, who was short on charisma but long on executive ability. Because the state needed it, he insisted that the legislature enact an income tax, which was an issue most governors would have avoided. He was defeated when he ran for a second term, which proves that the American public cannot always be trusted to make the right decisions. Among Illinois governors, he rates as one of the statesmen. One of Ogilvie's handicaps was that a war wound gave his face a stern look. Others were that he had limited acting talent and did not excel as an extemporaneous speaker. Pragmatic rather than philosophical, he ran for office not out of public demand but with a conviction that he could do a better job in Cook County as sheriff and president of the county board of commissioners, and in Springfield as governor. His executive capacity was recognized later when he became managing partner of a major law firm in Chicago. . . . After his inauguration, he promptly surveyed the treasury's income prospects and the increasing demands for money. As he had feared, he found that the revenue gap had become critical during the eight years of the [Otto] Kerner and [Samuel Harvey] Shapiro administrations. He decided it could be closed only if Illinois supplemented the retail sales tax, which had been the chief revenue source since the Depression, with a tax on corporate and personal incomes. Other industrial states had income taxes, but the Illinois Supreme Court in 1932 had ruled that the 1870 Constitution prohibited them. Rather than drastically curtail state expenditures, Ogilvie decided to stake his prestige as an incoming governor on enactment of an income tax law. He hoped that constitutional problems would be solved by taxing individuals and corporations at the same rate. He proposed a four percent tax to finance increases in school, welfare, and other appropriations as well as to bring under control the costs of public aid that had been troublesome since the second [William Grant] Stratton term. . . . Because of Ogilvie's determination and willingness to compromise, the administration bill was enacted three months later in the closing hours of the 1969 legislative session. There were revolts in both houses in both parties. Downstate Democrats insisted that personal incomes be taxed at a lower rate than corporations. Mayor Richard J. Daley, who liked an Ogilvie income-sharing provision that local governments be given one-twelfth of the revenue on a no-strings-attached basis, won additional concessions and at a critical hour agreed to a flat four percent rate. The final compromise taxed corporations at four percent and individuals at two and a half percent.□ July 1988 | Illinois Issues | 21 |
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