Illinois's War: The Civil War in Documents

Timeline

 Timeline 1848 February The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ends the Mexican-American War. March Illinois voters ratify a new state constitution and vote to authorize the state legislature to prevent the migration of free blacks into Illinois. Chicago Board of Trade is founded, creating the nation’s oldest commodities and futures exchange. April The Illinois-Michigan Canal, linking Chicago to LaSalle on the Illinois River, is completed and opened for traffic. July The nation’s first women’s rights convention is held in Seneca Falls, New York. August Illinois Democrat Augustus C. French is reelected governor. The Free-Soil Party is organized at Buffalo, New York. Congress organizes the Oregon Territory on the basis of free soil. The first state convention of the Illinois Free-Soil Party is held in Ottawa. November Democrat Lewis Cass carries Illinois in the presidential election; Whig Zachary Taylor is elected president. Free-Soil Party presidential candidate Martin Van Buren receives 12.7 percent of the vote in Illinois. 1849 January The Illinois General Assembly, controlled by Democrats, passes a nonbinding resolution in favor of the Wilmot Proviso. October The general assembly elects Democrat James Shields U.S. senator. November The Territory of California adopts a free-soil state constitution. 1850 January President Taylor urges Congress to accept California’s free-soil state constitution and admit it into the Union.  Timeline Kentucky Senator Henry Clay introduces the Compromise of 1850 into Congress. September The measures making up the Compromise of 1850 are passed by Congress. Congress authorizes land grants to various states in order to facilitate the creation of a railroad from Chicago to Mobile, Alabama. October Indignation meetings opposed to the Fugitive Slave Law are held in numerous northern Illinois towns, including Aurora, Chicago, and Ottawa. Chicago’s common council passes resolutions condemning the Fugitive Slave Law. 1851 January The general assembly, controlled by Democrats, endorses the Compromise of 1850 and rescinds the 1849 Wilmot Proviso resolution. February The general assembly grants charter incorporation to the Illinois Central Railroad, making it the largest landholder in the state. The general assembly passes the Free Banking Law, subject to approval by voters. November The Free Banking Law is ratified by 54 percent of the voters, facilitating the rapid creation of banks across the state. 1852 March Uncle Tom’s Cabin, by Harriet Beecher Stowe, is first published in Boston, having appeared in serial form the previous year. November Democrat Joel Matteson is elected governor. Democratic presidential candidate Franklin Pierce carries Illinois and is elected president. Free-Soil presidential candidate John Hale receives 5.7 percent of the vote in Illinois. 1853 January The Illinois State Agricultural Society is formed. Timeline  March The general assembly enacts the Black Exclusion Law. October The State Convention of Colored Citizens of the State of Illinois meets in Chicago to protest passage of the Black Exclusion Law and other forms of discrimination. December Zebina Eastman commences publication of the Chicago Free West, devoted to free-soil principles. 1854 January Illinois senator Stephen A. Douglas introduces the KansasNebraska bill. March The general assembly passes resolutions endorsing Douglas’s bill. May Congress passes the Kansas-Nebraska Act. May–June Anti-Nebraska agitation commences in many towns across northern and central Illinois. October Abraham Lincoln delivers his Peoria speech, against the KansasNebraska Act. 1855 January The general assembly elects anti-Nebraska “Free Democrat” Lyman Trumbull to the U.S. Senate, replacing James Shields. March The anti-immigrant, antiliquor Know Nothing movement carries the municipal elections in Chicago; nativist Levi Boone is elected mayor. April German residents in Chicago’s North Division stage the Lager Beer Riot against police and state militia to protest the city’s recent increase of liquor license fees. June Voters narrowly reject a statewide “Maine law” that would prohibit the manufacture and sale of liquor in Illinois. 1856 March Heavy German and Irish turnout defeats the nativist Know Nothing movement in Chicago’s municipal elections; lower liquor license fees are restored.  Timeline May Massachusetts senator Charles Sumner is caned on the Senate floor by South Carolina congressman Preston Brooks; the free-soil settlement of Lawrence is “sacked” by proslavery settlers in Kansas. An anti-Nebraska state convention is held in Bloomington, successfully combining Illinois’s antislavery forces into a single organization. November Republican presidential candidate John C. Frémont receives 40 percent of the vote in Illinois; Democrat James Buchanan carries Illinois and is elected president. Republican William...