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125 [ 6 ] “By No Means an Unimportant Position”: Election to the Office of South Town Clerk in 1887 In August 1885, the correspondent for the Cleveland Gazette wrote that the “Honorable J. W. E. Thomas will never again fill a position as representative of the colored people of this city.” The correspondent, a fierce Thomas opponent, wrote the threat on behalf of “the people,” meaning the African American community. As a prediction, the statement came true. Thomas would lose the 1886 Republican nomination for state representative and he would never again serve in the Illinois General Assembly. However, the reason for his loss was due not only to opposition within the African American community but also because of old-fashioned ward politics. As historian Charles Branham wrote of this era, African American politicians often found themselves captives of the power fights and petty squabbles of white politicians . In 1886 Thomas found himself on the losing side of a power struggle between white politicians.1 The Election of 1886 Thomas entered the 1886 Republican renomination fight after having what was arguably his best year in public service. In the legislature, he sponsored and passed the state’s civil rights bill, which was greatly lauded in the African American community. He was a member of the famous “Logan 103” that elected John A. Logan to the Senate. He had served on the Judiciary Committee . His attendance as a legislator was better than most of the other state representatives, and he did not go on a highly criticized midsession junket to New Orleans. He also chaired the 1885 Illinois State Colored Convention and managed to keep the convention a relatively peaceful one and loyal to the Republican Party. However, intraparty loyalty, at least at the local level, was not very strong in this time period. The political system was made up less of cohesive parties “by NO MEANS AN uNIMpOrTANT pOSITION” 126 and more of little fiefdoms within loosely affiliated political alliances. In Chicago , ward bosses dominated their fiefdoms and competed with other bosses within their party. However, the system was still evolving, and strong bosses or machines controlled some wards, while others were divided. Thomas, as a loyal Republican, was also a loyal member of the Republican machine. It had benefited him when he made an alliance with Third Ward leader John Clough in 1882 and 1884. In 1886, it would work against him.2 During this time, African Americans continued to make gains in Chicago politics, especially within the Republican Party and in the Second Ward. By 1885, Robert M. Mitchell was serving as the Second Ward representative to the city Republican central committee and often served as the committee’s secretary. In April 1885, H. J. Mitchell was elected South Town Clerk and he was reelected in 1886. At party conventions, almost half of the Second Ward delegations consisted of African Americans, including John Howard, Isaac Rivers, William Baker, E. A. Payne and C. H. McCallister. Lloyd G. Wheeler became active in the Democratic Party, advocating Carter Harrison’s successful reelection as mayor in 1885. In the spring of 1886 Democrats nominated an African American for South Town Clerk in an effort to defeat H. J. Mitchell. It didn’t work but that they attempted such a move demonstrates the growing strength of a community active in the political world.3 Thomas was not as active a participant in the Second Ward organization or in the off-year elections as he had been in the past, but he was still active. In the spring of 1885 he was busy with the session in Springfield, but he gave at least one speech in Chicago endorsing the Republican ticket. The Second Ward Republicans had nominated Martin Best over John Howard for alderman , but Best went on to lose the election to Democrat James Appleton. That fall, Thomas ran for delegate to the county convention that nominated candidates for county commissioner and judge. The Second Ward split into two rival factions, with Thomas and three other African Americans running for delegate with the faction led by E. R. Bliss. Baker, Rivers, Waring, E. A. Payne, and H. J. Mitchell ran on a slate that the Times termed “anti-machine.” After a credentials challenge, the Bliss delegation was seated at the county convention and Thomas was chosen as one of five Second Ward delegates to the county judicial convention, which nominated Benjamin Magruder for judge of the state Supreme Court.4 Unfortunately for Thomas...

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