our early constitutional statesmen, was painfully insignificant when the country became involved in war.

"When General Logan, after the war, returned to the pursuits of civil life, he found a party already organized which possessed the confidence of the country, from the results of the war. He shared its temper and spirit and at once became one of its leaders, a position he retained until his death. He was not a doctrinaire in politics, but essentially a man of action and a leader. He cooperated with his party in its efforts to maintain its ascendancy, and accepted its economic and financial theories; and I can remember but two instances in which he displayed his own personal characteristics without reference to his party. One, and the most sig nificant of these instances is that of his intense, persistent and almost obstinate resistance to the restoration of General Porter to the rolls of the army. The story of the trial and conviction of General Porter by a courtmartial is well known to the country, and his efforts to obtain from congress a reversal of the sentence, are equally familiar. The burden of General Porter was to prove to military men that he had sufficient reasons for failing to execute an order from his commanding officer to move forward and prepare to take part in the battle.

"General Grant (and there is no better authority) after a careful examination of the evidence now before the country, has decided that General Porter's reasons are sufficient; but I will always believe that if the 15th Army Corps under the command of Logan had been at the time in the exact situation of General Porter and his corps, he and his corps would have furnished more satisfactory evidence of their disposition to move forward and take part in the impending battle.

"In a later instance General Logan refused to take part in the local disputes of Ohio politicians over the charge that one of the senators in congress from that state had obtained his election by corrupt means. I know nothing of the facts of this case, but Logan de

clined to be dragooned into the controversy, and learned as a consequence, that no service to the country will protect a public man from the fangs of angry, disappointed politicians.

"But he is gone. He is deaf alike to the voice of praise or censure; his comrades, many of them older than he, will soon follow him, and they ask for him, and for themselves, no other epitaph than 'here lies one who deserves to be remembered by his countrymen.'"

CHAPTER XXVII.

Marriage of the author-Nomination and canvass for Governor of

Illinois.

On April 4, 1888, I was married a second time, to Mrs. Hannah L. Kimball, the daughter of Mr. James L. Lamb, of Springfield, Illinois. Mrs. Kimball was the widow of Mr. L. R. Kimball, who died in May, 1865. She is my companion and amanuensis, and has rendered me valuable assistance in the preparation of this volume.

On May 22, 1888, the evening before the meeting of the Democratic convention, I called upon the delegates and candidates for the nomination for the different offices of the state, including that of governor, from mere courtesy, and visited Mr. Sparks, of Clinton county, who was a prominent candidate, the Macoupin delegation, and Judges Anthony Thornton and S. B. Moulton, and was surprised by the suggestion that I should become a candidate for the nomination by the convention for governor. I declined to do so, alleging my age as an apology for my declination, when I was told by the gentlemen who had solicited me to become a candidate, that I would only be required to make a few speeches for publication, and "go through the motions."

I told them that the Democratic party would expect more of me than to be a nominal candidate, and that, if a candidate, I must try to be elected, but that I would take an hour or two to consult my friends and consider the matter, and would inform them of my decision before ten o'clock at night. After a brief consultation with a few friends, and those who had a right to advise me, I reported to the gentlemen who had proposed the nomination to me, that, "if the convention made the nomination with anything like unanimity, I would accept it, but that I would not engage in a struggle for the nomination."

The convention met the next day (May 23d), with General Jesse J. Phillips as president, and nominated me as a candidate for governor on the first ballot. I did not expect the nomination, and had only promised to accept it if conferred with unanimity, but I appeared before the convention and accepted it. I made my own issues in a speech which was reported as follows:

"MR. CHAIRMEN AND GENTLEMEN OF THE CONVENTION-My days of office-seeking for the gratification of ambition are over. I owe services to the Democratic party of the state and to the people, and to them I am willing and anxious to be useful.

"Without preface, therefore, I gratefully accept the nomination conferred upon me, and I will exert my best efforts to give your whole ticket success. I do not suppose you have nominated me for the presidency; I suppose you are satisfied with the man who was nominated four years ago, when the Democratic party vindicated its wisdom by placing in nomination for the presidency its present incumbent, one of the most sensible, practical, earnest, patriotic men of the age; nor do I suppose that you have nominated me for the senate of the United States. I suppose you believe, and that you know I believe, that the constitution of the State of Illinois is of binding obligation; and, when that constitution declares that the governor of the state shall not be eligible to any office during the term for which he was elected, and he takes an oath to support that constitution, you expect it to be obeyed. When I had the honor to be governor of this state years ago, I said 'I was the independent governor of the State of Illinois.' I asked nothing of the legislature. I asked them to do their duty to the people; I would do mine. If I shall be elected governor again, I will again be the independent governor of the State of Illinois; and I will ask no favors of anybody. I gave four honest years of service before, and I will do so again if the people of this state shall honor me with their confidence. And, gentlemen of the convention, let

canvasses.

me say to you that the time has come when the people of the State of Illinois should be considered in our political We have devoted years to the making of presidents. Now, Illinois must have some friends, and we must now appeal to the people of the State of Illinois to look after their own interests, and inquire why things are as they are to-day.

"We must inquire why it is that taxation has increased and is increasing. They must be told why it is. They must be asked why it is that the state has become an object of such contempt, that standing armies are raised in its midst to furnish mercenaries to Pennsylvania and Iowa-wherever and under what authority they act; how it is that private men may organize soldiers in the state, hirelings, to go with their Winchesters and overawe the people. If I am elected governor the people of this state shall have firm government, so far as it depends upon me; as firm as the law and no firmer; as weak as the law and no weaker.

"The government of the State of Illinois shall not under my administration, if I am elected, tempt by its feebleness weak men to crime, and then hang them for it; and men shall be told that the laws are supreme, that the law will furnish redress for every wrong, that the law deserves their respect, and that the State of Illinois deserves obedience to its legislation. The interests of the people of Illinois have been disregarded. We have been but a mere electoral district. The governors of the state have only regarded this honorable place to which you have nominated me as a stepping stone to other places. They have filled up all the state boards, penal, educational, reformatory and benevolent, with rings that are controlled by members of the legis lature, and the members of the legislatures in turn make senators of the governors. That must be stopped. Gentlemen of the convention, if I shall have the strength to make a canvass of the state this year I will leave the making of presidents to those to whom you have assigned