Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 10.djvu/540

ILLINOIS.

The average number of inmates in the charitable institutions for the two years ending in June, 1900, was 9615. The ordinary expense to the State for the last year was $1,416,000, being an average per capita cost (gross) of: $158.71. The above charitable institutions, together with the county jails and almshouses, and every association receiving dependent, neglected, and delinquent children, are subject to inspection by the State Board of Charities, consisting of five unsalaried members. While the board exercises a great influence its power is merely advisory, and not executive. The paupers in the almshouses of the State in 1900 numbered nearly 9000. Of these, 3100 were insane. The county system of outdoor relief is in vogue, and as a result the township officer distributes alms with rather more generosity than judgment, making an average county expenditure of 20 cents per capita, while in several counties the combined outdoor and indoor relief consumes half the total county tax. In some respects the State has been exceptionally progressive. Especially noteworthy is the establishment of a juvenile court in counties exceeding 500,000 population, and a system of unsalaried parole officers, the working of which has resulted in a large number of children being cared for outside of prisons or institutions to which they would otherwise have been doomed. Reform methods have also been introduced in the penal institutions, supplemented by a wise parole system.

. In 1673 Father Marquette ascended the Illinois River, and two years later established a Jesuit mission at the Indian village of Kaskaskia. La Salle entered the river in 1679, named it Illinois from the tribes inhabiting the region, and built Fort Crèvecœur at the foot of what is now called Lake Peoria. His explorations were continued by Tonty, whom he left behind in 1680 when he returned to Canada. Fort Saint Louis on Starved Rock was built in 1682, and between 1683 and 1690 French traders established themselves at Kaskaskia, Cahokia, and other Indian villages, though the actual settlement of Kaskaskia, the oldest town in Illinois, probably did not occur before 1700. By 1751 there were six important settlements within the present limits of the State. The French showed a remarkable aptitude for controlling the Indians and adapting themselves to their mode of life. Intermarriage between French and Indians was common, and ties of friendship were established which lasted after the power of France had passed away. Pontiac's rising prevented the English for two years from taking possession of the Illinois country ceded to them in 1763. In general, conditions remained unaltered after the English occupation, but many prominent French settlers fled from English rule to Saint Louis, Natchez, and other towns in the valley of the Mississippi. In 1778-79 a force of Virginians under (q.v.) captured Kaskaskia and subdued the province. Virginia ceded its claims to the southern part

of the region in 1784, Massachusetts and Connecticut gave up their rights in the following year, and in 1787 the region became a part of the Northwest Territory. Ohio was set off in 1800, Indiana in 1802, and Michigan in 1805; what remained was organized as Illinois Territory on prevented rapid settlement in the north. On August 15, 1812, the garrison at Fort Dearborn (Chicago) was massacred. On August 18, 1818, the first Constitution was adopted. On December 3 Illinois was admitted into the Union with boundaries so extended to the north as to include the port of Chicago. By 1805 most of the Indian titles to land within the Territory had been extinguished. There ensued a period of wild land speculation, marked by stupendous frauds. The early immigrants, who came chiefly from the South, brought with them a decided predilection for slavery. The first Legislature passed stringent laws to protect the few slaveholders in the State, and from 1818 to 1865 a harsh code of anti-negro laws, known as the ‘Black Laws,’ was in force. In 1824 an attempt was made to call a convention for the purpose of legalizing slavery in spite of the ordinance of 1787, but the project was quickly and definitely defeated. The murder of (q.v.), at Alton, in 1837, however, showed the persistence of a strong pro-slavery sentiment. After 1820 the people were hurried into an unhealthy state of precarious prosperity. Banks were established at Edwardsville and Shawneetown, entirely on paper credit, and an elaborate system of internal improvements was begun. As the northern part of the State, after the Black Hawk War, commenced to fill up with immigrants from New England and the Middle States, the process of economic development was accelerated. The Illinois and Michigan Canal was begun in 1834, and was built with the proceeds of the sale of public lands granted by Congress. The inception of other public improvements was followed by a panic in 1842, when the State bank suspended specie payments. The people, however, recovered quickly, and in 1850 Congress made an extensive cession of public lands to aid in the construction of the Illinois Central Railroad, an enterprise which contributed greatly to the development of the State. In 1840 the Mormons, who had immigrated from Missouri and founded Nauvoo, began to figure in the politics of Illinois. Welcomed at first, they became in the course of a very few years obnoxious to the mass of the inhabitants. Acting as a unit, under autocratic direction, they succeeded in obtaining exclusive privileges from the Legislature. Their religious practices jarred with the feelings of their neighbors; they were inclined to look upon Gentiles with superciliousness; they were prosperous. Bitter feelings led to hostile action in 1844, when Joseph Smith, founder of the sect, while in prison at Carthage on the charge of treason, was murdered by a mob. In the following year the Mormons left Illinois. In 1858 occurred the great contest for the United States Senatorship between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas. At the outbreak of the Civil War Illinois was in an extremely prosperous condition. It produced three-fifths of all the grain exported to Europe, and was the second State in the Union in railway mileage. During the war the State readily furnished its quota of troops, sending