LIFE OF
MAJOR-GENERAL
JAMES SHIELDS
---------------
HERO OF THREE WARS
AND
SENATOR FROM THREE STATES
-------------------------
BY
HON. WILLIAM H. CONDON
President of the Chicago Lawyers' Club
PRESS OF THE BLAKELY PRINTING CO.
CHICAGO
COPYRIGHT, 1900
BY WILLIAM H. CONDON
CHICAGO, ILL.
DEDICATION
TO THE RACE HE SPRUNG FROM
AND THE NATION HE FOUGHT
FOR IN MEXICO AND IN THE
SHENANDOAH VALLEY, AS
WELL AS THE VOLUN-
TEERS HE FOUGHT
WITH
I
RESPECTIVELY DEDICATE THIS
LIFE OF THE HERO OF THREE
WARS AND THE SENA-
TOR FROM THREE
STATES
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE
1. Room in Which General Shields Was
Born.................11
2. His Brother
Patrick....................................12
3. His Brother
Daniel.....................................13
4. Drawing of Shields'
Cottage............................16
5. Scene of Shield's First
Duel...........................25
6. Illinois' First Capitol at
Kaskaskia...................31
7. Chenue House, Where Lafayette was
Banqueted............37
8. Capitol at Vandalia, in Which Shields
Served...........40
9. General Shields as He Appeared in
Mexico...............56
10. Battle of Cerro
Gordo..................................59
11. Size of Ball That Passed Through His
Body..............69
12. General Shields at Battle of
Chapultepec...............90
13. The Swords of Cerro
Gordo.............................173
14. The Battle of
Winchester..............................176
15. General Shields as He Appeared at
Winchester..........181
16. Charge of Tyler's Brigade at
Winchester...............210
17. General Shields at the Battle of Port
Republic........216
18. General Stonewall
Jackson.............................228
19. Map of Winchester and Port
Republic...................231
20. Rev. Walter
Elliott...................................234
21. Robert D. McCarter, Boy and
Man.......................239
22. Colonel Vorris at
Winchester..........................240
23. Colonel Sprigg Carroll at Port
Republic...............262
24. Statehouse in Springfield, Ill., [Illinois?] in
Which General Shields Was Elected
Senator.............268
25. General Shields When Senator from Missouri - His
Autograph.............................................272
26. Capt. M.H. Hogan, of Rochester,
N.Y...................274
27. General Shields' Last
Picture.........................302
28. General Shields' Unmarked Grave at Carrollton, Mo.
[Missouri?]...........................................330
29. Patrick Donahoe, Editor of the
Pilot..................338
30. Present Capitol of
Illinois...........................343
31. Shields' Statue in Statuary Hall, Washington
D.C......345
32. Governor Altgeld and Others at
Unveiling..............362
33. General Shields
Statue................................365
34. William J. Onahan, LL.
D..............................376
CONTENTS
--------
CHAPTER I.
Ancestry - Birth - Celtic Name - Early Education - His Military
Genius
Shown When Ten Years of Age - How He Planned and Won His First
Battle
- Great Men of the Present Century.
9
-------------
CHAPTER II.
How Shields Planned and Won His First Battle - Shrewdness and
Valor
When Ten Years Old - How He Thrashed a Swell - Arrival of Uncle,
a
Veteran of the Revolutionary War and of the War of 1812 - His
Influence on Shields' Career - the Youth's Taste for Books -
Association with Wellington's Veterans - Taught Sword Exercise -
Acquisition of Military Knowledge.
18
-------------
CHAPTER 111.
Shield's First Duel - Its Cause - As a Boy He Met at Dawn a
Veteran of
Napoleonic Wars in Deathly Conflict - His Opponent's Last Will -
The
Sequel.
22
-------------
CHAPTER IV.
His Mother's Desire to Prepare Him for the Bar Frustrated by His
Uncles' Influence - Emigration to America - Arrival at Quebec -
Failure to Find His Uncle - Shields' Experience as Mate of a
Ship -
Serious Injury by Fall While at Sea - Arrival in New York
Unconcious
- Shipwreck on Coast of Scotland - Experience as Teacher There -
Value of Nautical Skill Forty Years Afterward - He Goes West -
Teaches
School - Studies Law in Illinois - Settles in Kaskaskia - the
Quaint
Old Town, and Its Decay - Elected to the Legislature, Where He
Served
with President Lincoln, Senator Douglas, General Hardin and
Other
Senators and Generals - Pen Pictures of Lincoln and Others -
Lawyers
the Greatest Patriots.
26
------------
CHAPTER V.
State Auditor - How He Saved the State Credit and Made Political
Enemies Thereby - How Lincoln Attacked Him Anonymously, and How
Miss
Todd, the Future Mrs. Lincoln, and Miss Jayne, the Future Mrs
Trumbull, Also Ridiculed Him Through the Press Anonymously -
Lincoln's
Espousal of the Paternity of the Articles in Question - His
Refusal of
a Retraction Upon Shields' Demand - Shields' Challenge of
Lincoln -
Actions of His and Lincoln's Seconds - Intervention of Friends -
Start
for the Place of Meeting, and the Sequel.
43
------------
CHAPTER VI.
Shields Justice of the Supreme Court of Illinois - His
Illustrious
Associates - Distinguished Practitioners and Leaders of the Bar
of
Illinois - Appointed Commissioner of the General Land Office at
Washington by President Polk - His Plan for an Irish Colony in
Iowa -
Resignation as Land Commissioner.
50
------------
CHAPTER VII.
Resignation as Land Commissioner - Commission As
Brigadier-General -
Assigned to Command the Illinois Regiments - Transfer from
Taylor to
Scott - At Cerro Gordo a Grapeshot Passes Through His Body -
Extraordinary Means Adopted to Save His Life - Irish Surgeon and
French Doctor Push a Silk Handkerchief on a Ramrod Through His
Right
Lung and Out of His Back Near the Spine.
55
-------------
CHAPTER VIII.
Contreras - Churubusco and Chapultepec - Key to Painting in
Capitol at
Washington, D.C. - Bravery Shown in Each Battle and Wounds
Received
When Shields Was Nearest Death.
75
------------
CHAPTER IX.
Noble Rescue of Women on the Eve of the Capture of the City of
Mexico
- Poem on His Noble Deed - Unparalleled in Any General's Career
Under
Similar Circumstances - Election to the United States Senate.
117
------------
CHAPTER X.
Army Disbanded - Elected United States Senator from Illinois for
Term
of Six Years - Appointed on Several Very Important Committees -
Favored [Favoured?] Land Grants to Soldiers and Sailors, to
Agricultural
Colleges and Railroads to Develop the West - Homestead Law -
Against Slavery.
122
------------
CHAPTER XI.
Shields' Welcome to Kossuth - Resolution and Speech Against
British
Interference in Central America - Sound Monroe Doctrine - Bounty
Lands
Not a Gratuity But a Reward for Honorable [Honourable?]
Services. 147
-------------
CHAPTER XII.
Commission of California - Senator Shields' Greatest Speech - It
Stamps His as a Statesman as Well as a Prophet - would Not Widen
the
Breach Between the North and South or Excite the Passions or
Prejudices of One Section Against the Other - If a Republican
Form of
Government Fails Here, It Need Never Be Attempted Again - Where
Compromise Ends Force Begins, and Where [Force ?] Begins War
Begins -
Gold the Cause of More Than Half Evils of Civilized Society - No
Southern Slave Owner Will Ever Venture to Carry His Slaves to
That
Country - The Whole Country United Cannot Force Slavery on
Californians, Who Will Carry Your Flag Some Day Into Asia and
Through
China - Slavery Was Never Intended by God to Be There and Will
Not Be
Permitted by Men - You Might as Well Attempt to Plant Orange
Groves in
Siberia as Establish slavery in California or New Mexico - It Is
Inevitable That the Power of the Free States Will Preponderate
Over the
[Preponderate?] Power of the Slave States - You Can No More
Equalize the
States Than You Can Equalize Their Population - The North Will
Never Consent
to See One Foot of Free Soil Converted Into Slave Soil - As Well
Attempt to
Convert a Free Man Into A Slave - No Human Law Can Give Absolute
Property in
Man - An Attempt at Dissolution of the Union Would Be War of
Extermination
and Desolation of Which None But God Could Foresee the End - The
Idea of
Quietly and Peaceable Submitting to See a Separate Confederacy
Is
Preposterous - Very Little Short of
Insanity.
160
--------------
CHAPTER XIII.
Defeat of Stonewall Jackson Described in Leslie's Pictorial
History of
the War - General Shields' Official Report - Colonel Kimball's
and
Tyler's Reports - Captain Schriber's Report - Colonel Carroll
Driven
from Bridge by Jackson.
176
--------------
CHAPTER XIV.
How Shields Decoyed Stonewall Jackson Into the Battle of
Winchester in
Harper's Pictorial History of the Civil War - Account of It in
Woods'
History of the Seventh Ohio - His Account of the Battle of Port
Republic - General Taylor's Account in "Destruction and
Reconstruction".
206
------------
CHAPTER XV.
Typical Volunteers of 1861 - Small Acorns Then Gigantic Oaks Now
-
renowned for Virtue in Peace as They Were for Bravery in War -
Clergyman - Merchant - Judge.
233
-------------
CHAPTER XVI.
Stanton Reviled Lincoln and Then Accepted Office from Him - His
Injustice to Shields - Duplicity with McClellan and Unwarranted
Reflections upon Sherman.
--------------
CHAPTER XVII.
Shields a Political Martyr - More Proof of Colonel Carroll's
Failure
at Port Republic - Colonel Haycock's Conclusive Evidence -
General
Jones an Unwilling Corroborator of colonel Haycock - General
Coppinger's Opinion - General Sheridan's Rank When General
Shields
Defeated Stonewall Jackson - Extract from General Oates' Speech
- but
for Carroll's Disobedience General Shields Would Have Been One
of the
Most Successful Generals in the Civil War.
260
---------------
CHAPTER XVIII.
Senator Shields in Minnesota - One of the Founders of Faribault
and
Shieldsville - His Election as One of Its First Senators -
Departure
for California - Marriage There - His Children - Small Pension
Until
Just Before His Death.
267
--------------
CHAPTER XIX.
Celebration of the Twenty-fifth Anniversary of the Organization
of the
Shields Guard at Auburn, N.Y., in 1877 - Welcome by Colonel
Kennedy -
Response by General Shields - Procession - Flag of the Palmetto
Regiment of South Carolina Carried Through the Mexican War -
Speaker
Pomeroy's Address - Governor Robinson's Welcome - Governor Wade
Hampton's Response - General Shields' Enthusiastic Welcome and
Brilliant Speech.
273
------------
CHAPTER XX
Speech at Banquet Given by Meagher's Irish Brigade on the
Potomac - At
the Tabernacle in Chicago - Great Political Address Delivered in
Kansas
City on Greeley and Brown - Letter on Home Rule in Ireland -
Introduction of Jefferson Davis at Sisters of Charity Fair.
283
-------------
CHAPTER XXI
Lecture at St. Joseph, Mo., on St. Patrick's Day - Lecture in
Steinway Hall,
New York, on St. Patrick's Day - Speech at St. Joseph, Mo., on
the Fourth of July.
292
-------------
CHAPTER XXII
Lecture in Brooklyn on Behalf of Yellow Fever Sufferers - His
Graphic
Discriptions of Jackson, Webster, Clay and Calhoun - Eloquent
Speeches
by Other Prominent Citizens.
301
---------------
CHAPTER XXIII
General Butler, a True Friend of General Shields, One of
America's
Greatest Lawyers - Heroic Method Adopted to Reduce Hours of
Labor
[Labour?] in Factories - splendid Address by a Brave Lawyer -
His
Efforts to Secure Justice for the Destruction of a convent and
to Wipe
Out a Stain on the Escutcheon of Massachusetts - Senatorial
Duplicity
and Parsimony.
324
--------------
CHAPTER XXIV
Death of General Shields on a Lecturing Tour, at Ottumwa, Iowa,
on
Sunday, June 1, 1879 - Funeral at Carrollton, Mo., Attended by
Prominent Citizens from St. Louis - Military Escort - Religious
Services - His Unmarked Grave - Attempt to Induce Fellow
Townsmen to
Erect a Monument to His Memory.
329
-------------
CHAPTER XXV
General Shields' Greatest Journalistic Friends - Their Struggles
and
Triumphs - Vast Influence for Good, for God, Race and Country -
Glorious Records of Patrick Ford, of the Irish World, and
Patrick
Donahoe, of the Pilot.
332
--------------
CHAPTER XXVI
Illinois Legislature Instructs Its Senators to Vote for the
Purchase
of Shields' Swords - Nine thousand Dollars Appropriated for
Shields'
Statue - Who Obtained It - The commissioners - Unveiling of
Statue at
Washington, D.C., December 6, 1893 - Speeches of Hon. William H.
Condon, governor Altgeld, John C. Tarnsey, M.C., and Senator
Turpie -
Poem "Sword of Cerro Gordo" - Over Twenty-nine Millions
Represented at
the Ceremony.
342
---------------
CHAPTER XXVII
Banquet at National Hotel - Large Attendance - Poem "The Shields
Statue" - Long List of Toasts and Eloquent Responses - Donahoe's
Magazine - Beattie, the Poet, a Mexican War Veteran.
360
----------------
CHAPTER XXVIII
Striking Incidents in General Shields' Life - Eloquent tributes
Paid
Him by Leading Statesmen, Bishops, Scholars and Journalists -
Interesting Sketch of His Life by Dr. Onahan.
367
--------------
CHAPTER XXIX
My Interesting Friend of the Confederate Army - Efforts to Erect
Statues to General Shields and Frances E. Willard in Illinois -
Appeal
to the Ladies - Opposition of Some of the Press - Indifference
of
Judges and Opposition of South Park Commissioners - Manly
endorsement
by Colonel John F. Finerty in the Citizen, and Favorable
[favourable?]
Notice by the Milwaukee Catholic Citizen - Hon. Wm. H. Harper's
Broad
Americanism.
379
PREFACE
---------
Doubting my ability to do justice to the career of such a
triple crowned warrior, jurist and statesman as General James
Shields,
yet, as more than a score of years have passed since his death,
and no
one has published a record of his public services, civil and
military,
and since they cannot be appreciated unless they are known, I
undertake the pleasant duty of presenting them to the world.
I had the honor [honour?] of the hero's acquaintance,
attended
several of his lectures in Chicago, met him frequently, often
corresponded with him and was one of his ardent admirers. After
his
death I assisted in securing congressional legislation which
resulted
in the sale of his swords to the nation, the money realized
therefrom
materially aiding his widow in the support and education of his
sons
and daughter.
Having conceived the idea of Illinois declaring Shields one
of
her immortals, and having prevailed upon its Legislature to
appropriate nine thousand dollars for a bronze statue of him to
perpetuate his heroic deeds, which stands in the Capitol at
Washington, while engaged in this work I learned many
interesting
incidents in General Shields' life of his contemporaries and
friends.
Believing that he was not treated justly when practically
removed from command, after his victory over Stonewall Jackson
at
Winchester, and that his wisdom as a statesman is comparatively
unknown, I resolved to place it and his military achievements
before
readers of all classes in a plain, economical form, convinced
that a
perusal of his record will tend to raise the General in the
estimation
of his countrymen and the world at large. I have spared neither
time,
labor [labour?] nor expense in gathering material with which to
weave
a faithful narrative of his life and character. I make no claim
to
merit for this production. It will be found to be just and
truthful
as well as fearless in its criticism of those who wronged the
hero of
three wars and the Senator from three states.
I have no pride or ambition of authorship. If this work
shall
make the youth of our country emulate the example of this great
American and induce them to adopt his high sense of honor
[honour?],
his nobility of purpose and to be ever ready like him to respond
to
their country's call, my object will be attained and I shall be
amply
rewarded.
WILLIAM H. CONDON.
Chicago, August 11, 1900.
LIFE OF
MAJOR GENERAL JAMES SHIELDS
--------------
CHAPTER I
--------------
Ancestry - Birth - Celtic Name - Early Education - His Military
Genius
Shown When Ten Years of Age - How He Planned and Won His First
Battle
- Great Men of the Present Century.
James Shields was born in Ireland, a country renowned in
song
and story for the brilliancy and bravery of its sons and the
beauty
and purity of its daughters. Its hills and valleys have
resounded
with shouts of armies contending for supremacy on many a
sanguinary
field. The wail of the disconsolate widow and the cry of the
famished
orphan have often been heard in the land. Famines caused by
foreign
legislation and prolonged by unfeeling landlords, whose
fiendishness
is without parallel among civilized people, have caused millions
of
the Irish to seek in other lands freemen's homes. Cattle now
graze
where cottagers once dwelt in peace and comparative plenty.
Irish poets, statesmen and warriors of renown have made
their
impress on the history of the world. Her Moores, Goldsmiths and
Davises live where poetry is admired and love and patriotism
have
votaries. Her Burkes, Grattans, O'Connells and Parnells were
statesmen seldom equaled and never excelled, while her Emmets
and
Tones stand in the front rank of martyrs for liberty wherever it
is
known and cherished.
In religious circles no race has shown more fervor
[fervour?] or zeal
than the Irish. Her saints, cardinals, archbishops, bishops,
priests,
monks, ministers and last, but most beloved of all, her sisters
have
won the plaudits of sectarian and infidel, as well as Christian,
by
their heroism on tented field, amid the pestilential air of the
hospital and in the highways and byways where want and woe lurk,
as
well as "beside the bed where parting life is laid". Their
students
the world over bear the ineffaceable impress of the sisters'
endeavours to "allure to brighter worlds and lead the way." In
the salons
of the learned and in the parlors [parlours?] of the cultured,
the grace,
refinement and purity taught by precept and example lend a charm
above
and beyond all other accomplishments to the graduates of their
academies and convents.
But while some may question the superiority of the Irish
race
in all these walks of life, few will be found to contend that
the
Irishman can be outclassed as a soldier. His valor, [valour?]
his
self-sacrificing bravery, in countless forlorn hopes, on land
and sea,
entitle the Irish soldier to a proud position among the "bravest
of
the brave". No proof is necessary to sustain this assertion.
The
historians of nearly every nation have adorned their brightest
pages
with sublime examples of the heroism of Irishmen in ancient and
modern
times. To recount their perilous feats of bravery, which the
world
knows by heart, would be a needless waste of time, while to call
the
roll of those who have written their names in letters of living
light
high upon the scroll of fame would transcend the limits of an
introduction to the life of the greatest Irishman who ever trod
American soil, whose name shines in the judicial, legislative
and military
records of Illinois, Minnesota, and of the United States of
America.
James Shields was born at Altmore, in a mountainous district
of the County of Tyrone, Ireland, on May 6, 1806, of Catholic
parents.
His father was Charles Shields, and his mother was Anne
McDonnell, who
died in 1842, after her son James had won renown in Illinois.
Her
husband died in 1812. There were but three children born to
them -
James, at the date aforesaid; Daniel, on April 2, 1808, and
Patrick on
March 17, 1810. Patrick died two years after the General's
death and
Daniel two or three years later. General Shields' father is
buried in
an ancient graveyard at Donaghmore, in the County of Tyrone.
His
mother is buried at Galbally, in the same parish, and his
brother lies
in one grave at the little chapel on Altmore Mountain.
Tradition is
to the effect that the McDonnells, Shields' mother's family,
came from
Limerick and settled in the County of Antrim. The General's
father
was being "waked" when the news of the battle of Waterloo was
received. ([?] [?] Waterloo was in 1815 not 1812)
Like causes produce like effects. There is much truth in
saying that "blood will tell," and Shields' remarkable career is
a
verification of it. That his brothers followed peaceful
avocations
in their native country is much more strange that James should
have
sought in other lands a chance to improve his condition in life,
which
was denied him on his native soil. No Catholic then could be a
member
of Parliament.
There is much in heredity. His paternal ancestors for many
generations had been imbued with military spirit. They lived at
Shanes Castle in the County of Antrim. The father and four sons
of
one of the earliest ancestors of which any record can be found
and
authenticated espoused the cause of King James of England
against
William. At the battle of the Boyne the father and one son were
killed. Daniel, the youngest son, found their bodies the night
after
the battle and buried them. He then rejoined the Irish army and
fought at Aughrim, Athlone and at the siege of Limerick. After
its
surrender the surviving brothers separated never to meet again.
The two eldest went with some of the Irish soldiers to
Spain,
where one rose to a high grade as an officer and finally became
governor-general of Cuba. The youngest, Daniel, returned to his
home
in the north of Ireland, amid the mountains of Tyrone, then
about the
only refuge for Catholic patriots, misnamed rebels. Secretly he
visited the home of his childhood, to find all his father's
estate
confiscated and granted to a follower of King William.
One son escaped to France and emigrated to Jamaica, where he
died. Daniel found it no easy task to avoid arrest on his way
home,
and reached it in safety by hiding in the fields by day and
traveling
at night. From a hiding-place in a field near the
historic banks of Lough Neagh he saw a boat capsize in which two
young
ladies were sailing; swam to their assistance and rescued them
from a
watery grave. They proved to be daughters of Captain Morris,
the
military governor of Mount Joy fortress, a strong British
garrison at
Lough Neagh. The father gratefully thanked young Shields for
his
noble act and invited him to his family circle where his bravery
and
gallantry were highly appreciated and eventually rewarded by the
hand
and heart of one of the accomplished young ladies he had saved
from
death. She became his wife, and from such noble blood descended
the
warrior, jurist and statesman whose experiences will be found in
the
following pages. Well might the wise predict brave acts and
heroic
deeds of the children of such parents. The young lady who was
rescued
from a watery grave by the gallant soldier was the
great-great-great-grandmother of General James Shields.
Of the plantations of Ulster, Sir Toby Caulfield had
assigned
to him the Castle Caulfield estate, on condition that he build a
fortress on the Altmore Mountains to protect Scotch planters
from
disinherited Irish gentlemen, or Rapparee, who had organized and
were
intrenched [entrenched?] in those mountains.
British soldiers for years occupied the fortress erected by
Sir Toby Caulfield, and when at last those chiefs of the
mountains and
their gallant followers were exterminated in true English style,
and
"o'er their cold ashes upbraided" by the name of robbers, the
soldiers
were withdrawn to take part in the battle of Culloden Moor and
the
garrison finally abandoned.
Charles Shields, grandson of Daniel, leased the
barracks, and it was in his portion of it that General Shields
was
born. The Shields have lived there over two hundred years.
Many of
Charles' forefathers repose in an old graveyard at Donaghmore,
in the
County of Tyrone. A tombstone therein records the death of his
ancestor who was buried there in 1771. The ancient names
appears to
have been O'Shiel, anglicized into Shields.
The General's grandfather and father are also buried in that
grave, it being the custom to bury descendants in the graves of
their forefathers. In 1770 the Shields family were four in
number,
James, Patrick, Daniel and Bessie. James, the eldest,
was intended for the priesthood, and went to France
to complete his studies, but finally abandoned them and
emigrated to
America. Daniel married, but died at Altmore without issue.
Patrick
also died there childless. Charles married Miss Katharine
McDonnell,
a lineal descndant of the Glencoe McDonnells. She was a woman
of
superior education and varied accomplishments, who gave her sons
all
the educational advantages then allowed Catholics by English
laws.
The present century saw the largest number of great men ever
living at one time. It is certain that there is no period to
rival
the first years of the nineteenth century in its number of great
men,
no period even to compare with it except the fifth century
before the
Christian era. In the year 1821, the year in which Napoleon
died, the
following were alive: In literature, Byron, Shelly, Keats,
Coleridge,
DeQuincey, Wordsworth, Lamb, Landor, Tennyson, the three
Brontes,
Victor Hugo, Heine, Goethe, Holmes, Dickens, Thackeray, Clough
and
Blake. Among soldiers were living the Duke of Wellington,
Napoleon
and Moltke, besides a number of great generals who had either
seen the
Napoleonic wars or were to see the Crimea and the Indian mutiny.
Among philosophers and men of science were Hegel, Darwin, the
two
Herschels, Owen, Cuvier, Daguerre, Wheatstone, Faraday and
Simpson.
The painters included Wilke, Landseer, Turner and Meissonier,
Mendelssohn, Beethoven and Wagner represented music. Lesseps,
Brunel
and the two Stephensons represented engineering. Among
statesmen or
orators were Gladstone, Bright, Bismarck, Russell, Cavour,
Garibaldi,
Abraham Lincoln, Thiers and Victor Emmanuel. Among historians
were
Grote, Niebuhr, Mommsen and Guizot; and of a countless host of
men who
were famous in other directions were sir Richard Burton, Speke,
Le
Verrier, Rowland Hill, Cornelius Vanderbilt, John Walter,
Wilberforce
and Mccaulay.
William E. Gladstone got into the year of great babies,
1809,
only by a scratch. If he had been born three days later he
would be a
child of a year which was not so memorable for its births.
Among the
great personages who were born in 1809 were Darwin, Tennyson,
Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Edgar A. Poe, the historian,
Kinglake,
Mendelssohn, Jules Favre, Lincoln, Hamlin, Oliver Wendell Holmes
and
ex-speaker and ex-governor Robert C. Winthrop.
James H. Gibbert, Lindgren & Haugan; Merchants Phelps, Dodge
&
Palmer, Charles P. Kellog & Co., George J. Brine of Armour & Co;
Lawyers Simeon P. Shope, ex-justice of Illinois Supreme Court,
ex-Attorney General McCartney, Roy C. West, J.B. Gascoigne,
Hotel
Proprietor Eden of Hotel Northern; Edward Grace of Hotel Grace;
William McCoy of McCoy's Hotel; S. Gregston of Hotel Windsor,
and
scores of other prominent citizens have petitioned for so small
a
space within which to honor [honour?] so eminent a man, yet the
Commissioners have hitherto resisted all such appeals, while
they have
by word and act favored [favoured?] every project calculated to
absorb
large portions of said Park for avaricious purposes, evidently
with
the tacit consent of the Circuit Judges, whose relations and
friends
crowd their pay rolls.
Since small parks are to be established, where the poor will
not by their garb, offend the rich or otherwise mar their
pleasures,
there is no doubt leave can be obtained to commemorate one of
the
Grandest types of Manhood Americans ever honored [honoured?] and
trusted, one who was ever true and brave.
The book will be printed on good paper, bound in green and
gold and will be sold for Two Dollars and a Half by the author
and his
agents.
WM. [WILLIAM?] H. CONDON,
Suite 511, 160 Washington Street,
January 20, 1900. CHICAGO, ILLS. [ILLINOIS?]
___________________________________
WM. [WILLIAM?] H. CONDON.
511 JOURNAL BLDG., [BUILDING?] CHICAGO, ILL. [ILLINOIS?]
Please send me a copy of your Life of Gen. [General?]
James Shields.
