The most interesting political contest which has taken place in the
State of Illinois since the days of Lincoln and Douglass, was that which
ended with the election of General John M. Palmer to the United States
Senate, on the 11th day of March, 1891. The contest was of historic
interest because it elevated to the Senate, a man who had long been a
conspicuous figure in American politics, and who had for many years
cherished an ambition to occupy a seat in the Upper Bench of the national
Legislature. It was of interest also because it gave to the Democratic
party of Illinois, for the first time in many years, a representative in
the United States Senate. It was moreover an intensely interesting and
exciting contest—and greater interest attached to it on this than on any
other account—because it developed a crisis in the political affairs of
the State.
It is no harsh criticism of the Republican management of the State
campaign of 1890, in Illinois, to say that the campaign was lazily
conducted. At the Democratic Convention, held some months before the
election, General John M. Palmer had been formally endorsed as the
choice of his party for United States Senator, and his adherents at once
entered upon a determined and aggressive campaign. The result of this
spirited Democratic campaigning, of Republican apathy, and of disturbing
“side issues,” was, that when the roll of the Thirty-seventh General
Assembly was made up, it was ascertained that there were 101 Democratic
members elect, 100 Republicans, and three representatives of the Farmers’
Alliance organization.
This being the political status of the body which was to choose a United
States Senator, it was evident that the three independent or Farmers’
Alliance members held the balance of power as between the two great
political parties. These three legislators thought they saw before them
great opportunities for the advancement of their interests, and starting
a political revolution. Once before it had happened in the history of
the State, that a little band of five legislators—the representatives of
the “Anti-Nebraska” party—had placed in the field a candidate for United
States Senator, of their own choosing, and in full sympathy with their
political views, and at the end of a long contest that candidate had been
triumphantly elected, and a new political party had been brought into
existence.
The triumvirate of the Thirty-seventh General Assembly of Illinois,
hastily jumped to the conclusion that there was to be a repetition of
history, and that what the “Anti-Nebraska” legislators had accomplished
in 1885, could be accomplished by the representatives of the Farmers’
Alliance in 1891.
When the Legislature convened they accordingly placed in nomination as
their candidate for United States Senator, Alanson J. Streeter, a farmer
by occupation, whose large wealth had enabled him to take up politics
as a diversion, and whose views had been of a sufficiently variegated
character, to enable him to claim political kinship with any of the
existing partisan organizations.
General Palmer was already in the field as the Democratic candidate for
Senator, and the Republicans named ex-Governor Richard J. Oglesby as
their nominee. Balloting began on the 20th day of January and continued
from day to day—when the Legislature was in session—until the 11th of
March, when the contest ended as already stated.
The attitude of the Farmers’ Alliance members, from start to finish,
toward the Republican minority, was in effect, that they presented to
them the alternative of electing the Alliance nominee with Republican
votes, or of allowing the Democratic nominee to be elected by Alliance
votes. The proposition was one as humiliating to the great political
organization to which it was made, as it was inconsistent in those who
made it. Nevertheless, it was adhered to and all counter-propositions
were rejected. Republican diplomacy was tried without result, the
Alliance members refusing to vote for a leading representative of their
own interests when he was put forward as the Republican nominee.
As the contest was prolonged, the feeling between Republicans and
Democrats became more intensely antagonistic, and a point was finally
reached where some of the Republican leaders apparently determined to
defeat General Palmer at any cost. To do this they determined to throw
the support of the entire Republican membership of the Legislature to
Streeter, thereby securing his election by a majority of two votes.
Principles were for the time being lost sight of by those who favored
this movement. Political trusts were relegated to the region of barren
idealities, and rank heresies were to be swallowed without a grimace
for the sole purpose of compassing the defeat of an old time political
adversary.
That the dominant party of the third State in the Union was not in a
sense, committed to the vagaries of a nondescript political organization,
and made directly responsible for the acts of one of its most erratic
representatives, was due to the sound judgment and positive convictions
of a very small number of Republican Legislators, of whom Hon. Henry
H. Evans, representing the Fourteenth Senatorial District, was the
acknowledged leader.
While Colonel Evans had long been prominent in the politics of the State
and had had much to do with shaping its legislatures for a dozen years
or more, no other event in his life has brought him so conspicuously
before the public as the determined stand which he took against, what
could not have been regarded in the future, as anything else than a
sacrifice of the political integrity of his party. While those who were
engineering this movement may have been mistaken in their calculations,
they frequently affirmed that they could deliver to the Alliance
candidate for Senator, the entire Republican vote of the Legislature,
provided Senator Evans would consent to have this vote so recorded, and
it is reasonably certain that his colleagues of the opposition were
largely influenced by him. The pressure brought to bear on him, to
induce him to become a party to the combine with the Alliance, was of
the most powerful kind, but to entreaties, arguments and threats alike,
he returned the same answer, the gist of which is contained in a brief
statement of his intentions, to which he gave utterance at one of the
numerous Republican caucuses, at which this matter was considered. On
that occasion he said: “I want to say to this caucus, that I will never
vote for any of these men for United States Senator, no matter what this
caucus may think. I am a Republican, and I am for a Republican. I was
elected and sent here to vote for a Republican for United States Senator,
and that I will do to the end of this contest. But I do not think we
should humiliate the glorious old Republican party of Illinois, by
bartering away our independence for the sake of sending to the Senate a
political nondescript for whose official action we must be responsible.”
This was the ringing declaration of an honest and courageous
representative of well defined political principles. It was a declaration
of his purposes from which he did not deviate during the contest, and no
public servant ever made a better record for consistency and a strict
observance of his obligations to his constituency.
The prominence which he attained in this honorable contest, and through
public services previously rendered, have made him one of the prominent
figures among the public men of Illinois, and the story of his life
becomes interesting.
Born at Toronto, Canada, March 9, 1836, he has been essentially the
architect of his own fortune. His father, Griffith Evans, and his wife,
(Elizabeth Weldon), were both natives of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, being
descendants of families ante-dating the Revolution—so that, although born
on Canadian soil, Colonel Evans is of thoroughly American ancestry.
His father was a millwright by trade, who with his wife and family
settled at Aurora, Illinois, in 1841. Colonel Evans was next to the
eldest of ten children. The father was an industrious and intelligent
mechanic who had more or less to do with the erection and equipment
of several large mills in the neighborhood of Aurora, but he never
accumulated any considerable amount of property, and his children had to
depend mainly upon their own resources.
Col. Evans received his education in the public schools of Aurora,
grew to manhood there, and then married Alice M. Rhodes, a lady of
English birth and parentage. Soon after his marriage, he engaged in the
restaurant business and continued in this business until September,
1862, when he enlisted in the One Hundred and Twenty-fourth Regiment
of Illinois Volunteer Infantry. He was mustered into the service at
Springfield, Illinois, went into action first at Jackson, Tenn.,
participated in the siege of Vicksburg and in successive campaigns, being
mustered out of service at the end of three years days from the date of
his enlistment.
Immediately after his retirement from the military service, he returned
to his old business in Aurora. Enterprising, shrewd and capable, his
business expanded and he became the proprietor and then owner of the
leading hotel of the city, and one of its most enterprising and public
spirited citizens. He became largely interested in real estate, laying
out several large additions to the city, and realizing handsome profits
from his investments. In 1882, he organized the Aurora Street Railroad
Company, took charge of the construction of the road, and pushed to
completion, an enterprise which has since been developed into one of
the most perfect electric railroad systems in the West. He was also the
projector of the Joliet and Aurora Northern Railroad, an enterprise
with which he was most actively identified up to the date of its going
into operation, and at a late date as one of its leading officials.
In everything calculated to contribute in any way to the growth and
prosperity of Aurora he has taken a most active interest, and as a
natural consequence of this, coupled with a cheering geniality, he has
always enjoyed great popularity.
His political life began in 1876, when he was elected an Alderman for
one of the wards of Aurora. In the fall of the same year he was elected
a member of the State Legislature. After serving one term in the House
of Representatives, he was elected, in 1880, a member of the State
Senate, and has been twice re-elected since that time. As a member of the
General Assembly, he has become recognized as a careful and conscientious
legislator, with a large stock of practical ideas, and a capacity for
energetic and persistent efforts, which have made his services peculiarly
valuable to his constituents. While serving his first term in the
Legislature he introduced and succeeded in having enacted into a law,
the bill providing for the establishment of a State Soldier’s Home in
Illinois—an institution which does great credit to the State.
He was also the author of the law under which the National Guard is now
organized, a measure which met with determined opposition at the time of
its introduction. Despite the opposition however, it became a law, and
the wisdom of the act has since been demonstrated on numerous occasions.
In recognition of his services in perfecting the organization of and
rendering effective the State Militia, Governor Shelby M. Cullom made
him a member of his military staff, with the rank of colonel. He was
appointed to the same position on the staff of Governor Hamilton and
Governor Oglesby, and is now serving on the staff of Governor Fifer.
The Police Pension bill was another of the important measures which had
his successful advocacy.
The life of Col. Evans strikingly emphasizes the marvelous industry,
tireless energy, and broad spirit of enterprise that are to-day so
characteristic of the American man of affairs.