Illinois and the Saving of the American Republic

IT WAS IN THE YEARS 1860 TO 1865 that Illinois played its greatest role in American history. When the sectional dispute over the extension of slavery to the western territories resulted in treason and secession, Illinoisans played a determinative role in saving the country and giving it a new birth of freedom.Memorials to the Civil War are found across the Prairie State, in the courthouse squares of county seats, in rural cemeteries, under Springfield's marble rotunda, and in Chicago's lakefront parks. Fittingly, Abraham Lincoln is featured prominently, and Ulysses S. Grant is not neglected. What is most touching, however, are the modest granite gravestones and monuments that mark the sacrifice of the ordinary people who put aside the pursuits of peace to frustrate the slaveholder's rebellion. For Illinois, the conflict over slavery was a people's war. Virtually the entire population was engaged in the struggle, although not always on the same side. Powerful ideological currents surged through the farms, towns, and cities of the state, sweeping aside past political orthodoxies and legal strictures. The Civil War was America's second revolution, and Illinoisans were as central to that struggle as the Virginians Thomas Jefferson and George Washington were to the break with Britain.The 1860 presidential election triggered the creation of the Southern Confederacy. The key figures in that race were the Illinoisans Stephen A. Douglas for the Democrats and Abraham Lincoln of the upstart Republican Party. In contrast to contemporary political leaders, these men, who were rivals for decades before the war, nonetheless maintained a cordial and respectful relationship. In the race, Douglas broke with convention and openly campaigned for the presidency. His nationwide travels broke his health as he vainly tried to beat back the secessionists who had sundered his beloved Democratic Party. When the divisive election concluded, Lincoln's victory was made possible only by northern votes. In defeat, Douglas showed his character when he supported Lincoln's efforts to hold the nation intact. In the wake of the firing on Fort Sumter, Douglas hurried to Illinois, and in a series of rousing speeches, he helped to unite the state's Democrats and Republicans when he thundered, “There can be no neutrals in this war: only patriots and traitors.” Douglas was no Lincoln, but few politicians ever did more than the “Little Giant” to build Illinois. It seems posterity has been hard on his legacy, especially the recent removal of his name from public facilities and the banishment of his statue from the state capitol.1Lincoln was the central figure in the four-year struggle that followed. His greatness was demonstrated not by any clear-sighted vision of how the country could be saved, but rather by his flexible, pragmatic, but always principled ability to evolve to meet the escalating challenges of civil war. The Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, passed in 1865, that ended slavery is often seen as his greatest accomplishment. That accomplishment is more noteworthy when it is remembered that in 1861, before Fort Sumter, Congress crafted, and Lincoln sent to the states for consideration, a vastly different Thirteenth Amendment, which proposed to enshrine in the Constitution American slavery in perpetuity. A great leader grows in office, is flexible, and finds a way to successfully appeal to the people's “better angles.” It is a testament to Lincoln's role in leading Illinois and the nation to social justice that he brought the majority of Union men to accept the end of slavery. In 1865, Illinois was the first state to ratify the Thirteenth Amendment, and it revoked the infamous Black Codes that for a generation had denied African Americans basic civil rights.2Over the years, both professional historians and the public have not wavered in their admiration of Lincoln's leadership. Ulysses Grant, the George Washington of the Civil War, has had a rougher passage through the nation's historical imagination. His contemporaries lauded his greatness and twice elected him chief-of-state, but the textbooks of later generations tended to diminish his military reputation. This was the pernicious influence of the Southern “Lost Cause” school of history that lauded Robert E. Lee as a military genius and necessarily had to dismiss Grant as a bloody butcher who only won by overwhelming resources. The reality, of course, was quite different. Lee's rash attacks led to many more casualties than Grant's operations. Grant supervised military campaigns that spanned half the continent, and which included complex combined arms operations, while Lee never won a battle outside his home state of Virginia. Three times in the conflict Grant forced the complete surrender of the rebel armies he faced. In addition to these major accomplishments, Grant's calm self-confidence, unostentatious demeanor, and resilience in the face of setbacks endeared him to his fellow Midwesterners.3Grant began his Civil War career as the obscure colonel of the unruly Twenty-First Illinois Infantry. As he rose to prominence, a special bond was built with volunteer troops from Illinois. At Shiloh, Grant commanded more than thirty Illinois units. His brilliant operations in the Vicksburg campaign included thirty-six thousand Illinoisans.It is useful to remember as we approach the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution that Grant and his fellow Illinois soldiers went to war very much in defense of the ideals of 1776. One volunteer mirrored the sentiment of thousands of comrades when he wrote, “Freedom is just as dear to us now as it was to our forefathers in revolutionary times.” Soldiers endured great hardships for years on end to keep the democratic and united republic bequeathed by the founders. To that end more than 250,000 Illinois men put their lives on the line and 34,834 gave the “last full measure of devotion” to that cause. The men and women of Civil War Illinois recognized and acted against the Southerner's threat to the constitutional order. They appreciated Benjamin Franklin's answer to the question of what type of government had come out of the 1787 constitutional convention: “A republic if you can keep it.”4The Civil War generation's appreciation that republican government required civic vigilance is reflected in the monument the state erected on the Shiloh battlefield. On the site, where in 1862 the state's soldiers endured 3,957 casualties, is a bronze female figure representing Illinois facing “enemy territory to the south.” In her hand is a partially sheathed sword held in readiness should the republic again be threatened.