Part 43 (2/2)

”At the election i the adoption of the Constitution under which Illinois was admitted into the Union, Mr

McLean was chosen the Representative in Congress Soon thereafter, he presented to the House of Representatives the State Constitution then recently adopted at Kaskaskia; and upon its formal acceptance by that body, Mr McLean was duly admitted to his seat as the first Representative froress of the United States

He was defeated for re-election by the Hon Daniel P Cook, one of the ifted men Illinois has known at any period of her history

”Rarely have onists in debate either upon the hustings or in the halls of legislation With the people of the entire State for an audience, the exciting issues of that eventful period were argued with an eloquence seldom heard in forensic discussion In very truth, each was the worthy antagonist of the other It is not too le exception of the masterful intellectual combat las, Illinois has been the theatre of no greater debate

”Upon his retireress, Mr McLean was elected to the Lower House of the Illinois Legislature and subsequently chosen Speaker of that body The valuable service he there rendered is an ined the speakershi+p in order thea State bank His predictions as to the evils to the state, of which the proposed legislation would be the sure forerunner, were more than verified by subsequent events More than a decade had passed before the people were relieved of the financial ills which John McLean ineffectually sought to avert

No other evidence of his statesmanshi+p is needed than his islation I have indicated

”Apart from the fact that his name is continually upon our lips, the career of Mr McLean is well calculated to excite our profound interest During the fifteen years of his residence in Illinois, he held the high position of Representative in Congress, Speaker of the popular branch of the State Legislature, and ice elected to the Senate of the United States At his last election he received every vote of the joint session of the General assembly--an honor of which few even of the most eminent of our statesrity was beyond question, and it ed every public duty He died at the early age of thirty-nine, the period when, to most public un Upon the occasion of the announceue, Senator Kane, paid an eloquent tribute to his lofty character, his ability, and his worth, and deplored the loss his State had sustained in his early death

”He lies buried in the State that had so signally honored him, near the beautiful river upon whose banks he found a home when Illinois was yet a wilderness Such, in brief, was the ood county will hand down to the after tiher tribute need be paid to his nificent doiven

”In no part of this broad land has there been more prompt response than in this to the authoritative call to arest measure McLean County has met every require has been her contribution of le with the savage foe, as he burned his am and disappeared before the inexorable advance of civilized men; in the War with Mexico, by which States were added to our national doreat Rebellion, where the life of the nation was at stake, and in our recent conflict with Spain--four tile life, McLean County has sent her full quota of soldiers to the field Few survive of the gallant band who stood with Bissell and Hardin at Buena Vista, or followed shi+elds and Baker through the burning sands from the Gulf to the City of Mexico And at each successive reunion of coreat civil strife, there are fewer, and yet fewer, responses to the soleround, Their silent tents are spread'

”And what a record is that of this glorious county during the eventful years of '61-'65! With a population of but forty per cent of that of to-day, allantly to the front They gathered from farm, from shop, froht live On led and died, soldiers fro every pathway of danger and of glory they were to be found

In every grade of rank were heroes as knightly as ever fought beneath a plureat conflict would be but to call over her muster rolls of officers and men

”The chords of memory are touched as the vision of the Old Courthouse rises before us Its walls were the silent witnesses of events that would es of history Here asseiven to the ages Here, at a critical period in our history the great masters of debate discussed vital questions of state--questions that took hold of the life of the republic Here, at tis of political power Here in the high place of authority sat one destined later to wear the er his membershi+p of that court in the eventful years ireat conflict, questions novel and far-reaching pressed for determination; questions no less important than those which had in the infancy of the republic exhausted the learning of Marshall and its associates It is our pride that our townsreat court, by whose adjudication renewed vigor was given to the Constitution, and enduring safeguards established for national life and individual liberty

”To the Old Courthouse in the early days caall, then just upon the threshold of a brilliant career, which culminated in his election as a Senator froentleress o, when his district e froo and Galena In Congress he was the political associate and friend of Webster, of Crittenden, and of Clay Many years ago, upon the occasion of Mr Stuart's last visit to Blooton, he told me, as we stood by the old 'Stipp' ho of the judicial history of McLean County, when Judge Lockwood opened its first court With deep emotion he added that he was probably the last survivor of those then assembled, and that his own days were almost numbered His words were prophetic, as but a few months elapsed before he, too, had passed beyond the veil There came also Edward D Baker, Representative froon To hiifts His eloquence cast a spell about all who heard hiht into which he soared was his hoey on the laic death in one of the early battles of the great war cast a gloom over the nation

”In his official capacity as prosecuting attorney calas A born leader of e and eloquence rarely equalled, he ell equipped for the hurly-burly of our early political conflicts

Save only in his last great contest, he was a stranger to defeat

Public Prosecutor, Mee of the Supree of thirty-three a Senator in Congress

Amid storain, he there held high debate with Seward, Chase, and Sumner; and measured swords with Tombs, Benjamin, and Jefferson Davis upon vital issues which, transferred later from forum and froinning near the spot where we have to-day asselas was indeed reat office which had been the goal of his a over the nation, and the yet darker shadows falling about his couch, he aroused himself to the last supreme effort, and in words that touched millions of responsive chords, adjured all who had followed his political fortunes to know only their country in its hour of peril With his pathetic words yet lingering, and 'before reat beyond

”Out of the shadowy past another form is evoked, fareater than any yet spoken, is upon our lips Of Abrahareat orator, Bossuet, when he pronounced his ht truly be spoken:

”'At the lory of the Prince of Conde, I find reatness of the theme and the needlessness of the task What part of the habitable globe has not heard of the wonders of his life?

Everywhere they are rehearsed His own countryive no inforer'

”Of Lincoln no words can be uttered or withheld that could add to or detract froe of all people and all times

”When in the loom of time have such words been heard above the din of fierce conflict as his subliic death?

”'With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firht, let us strive on to finish the e are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his , and his orphan--to do all whichourselves, and with all nations'

”The men who knew Abraham Lincoln, who saw him face to face, who met him upon our streets, and heard his voice in our public asserave Another generation is upon the busy stage The book has forever closed upon the dread pageant of civil strife Sectional ani now only to the past The mantle of peace is over our entire land, and prosperity within all our borders