The Heroic and the Notorious: U.S. Senators from Illinois

10. A System in Transition

98 ★ A SYSTEM IN TRANSITION 10 ★A System in Transition The new century brought with it a new sort of figure to the White House and changes in the way that U.S. senators were chosen. Theodore Roosevelt, vice president when President William McKinley was assassinated in 1901, was the first chief executive in many years whose thinking and emotions were not shaped by the Civil War. Soon a new kind of politician began to appear in the senatorial chair, one dependent on the will of the voters, rather than the judgment of the legislature. It was the Seventeenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, approved by the states in 1912 and proclaimed to be effective in 1913, that mandated the popular election of U.S. senators. Sentiment for this change had been building for several years as a part of the Progressive movement. Adoption of the Seventeenth Amendment did nothing to interrupt the full terms of senators who had earlier been put in office by actions of the state legislatures. For such terms that were ending in 1915, election by the voters was first required in 1914. In Illinois, in 1914, the voters opted to return Lawrence Y. Sherman to a full term in the Senate. Previously, he had been chosen by the legislature to fill the vacancy left by the expulsion of William Lorimer. 99 ★ Albert Jarvis Hopkins (1903–9) The first new face to be sent to the Senate from Illinois after the turn of the century was Republican Albert J. Hopkins, a lawyerpolitician from Aurora who had served for eighteen years in the U.S. House of Representatives. Earlier he had practiced law and spent four years as state’s attorney for Kane County. Hopkins was one of the few Illinois senators in his time and before who was completely native to the state. He was born in DeKalb County on August 15, 1846. After graduating from Hillsdale College in Michigan in 1870, he was admitted to the Illinois bar in the following year. The selection of Hopkins by the legislature to replace Senator William Mason in 1903 was the result of an agreement between Republican Governor Richard Yates, son of the Civil War governor , and Congressman William M. Lorimer, the “blond boss” of Chicago, styled by Robert Howard as “the evil genius of Illinois Republicanism” (Illinois 420). Hopkins was also favored by President Theodore Roosevelt. His selection was “boss directed” and a surprise to many citizens. Only the year before, in an advisory referendum on public policy, the electorate had voted overwhelmingly for the direct election of senators. Too often in the past, it seemed to the people, the choice of senators had reflected political manipulations that had little to do with merit and ability. Hopkins chaired the Committee on Fisheries while serving in the Senate, not the most significant assignment. Other than that, his record was quite modest. Still, with his term running out in 1909, he was endorsed by the Republican state convention and given the nod, though not a majority, in an advisory primary election. Then one of the most scandalous and corrupt episodes of Illinois political history took place. There were a number of aspirants to the position, including former Senator Mason as well as the incumbent Hopkins, and with a near-even balance of the major parties in the legislature, balloting went on during 126 days. When deadlock seemed inevitable, Congressman Lorimer insinuated himself into the running and, on the ninety-fifth ballot, was given the nod with the vote of fifty-five Republicans and fifty-three Democrats. The explanation coming from the latter was that Lorimer was “less offensively Republican” than the other candidates of that party. In view of his past, that is improbable. ALBERT JARVIS HOPKINS 100 ★ A SYSTEM IN TRANSITION While Lorimer moved his things from one end of the Capitol to the other, Hopkins moved back to his law practice in Aurora and Chicago. He must have marveled at the strange disclosures of the first few years that followed his retirement from the Senate. He died on August 23, 1922. William H. Lorimer (1909–11) Congressman William H. Lorimer, who was serving his sixth term in the House at the time he was advanced to the Senate, had played a key role in the elevation of Richard Yates to the governor’s mansion in 1901. Yates returned the favor by helping...