ILLINOIS. 



The troops were withdrawn accordingly, 

 and on the next day the volunteer regiment 

 was disbanded. General Sheridan had pre- 

 viously reported from day to day that no 

 violence or disorder had occurred. The only 

 serious casualties had been the wounding of 

 one of the State militia by the accidental dis- 

 charge of a musket in the hands of a comrade, 

 the killing of a soldier by a railroad accident, 

 and the shooting of Colonel Thomas "W. Gros- 

 venor by a sentinel of the Chicago Volunteers. 

 The sentinel was Theodore N. Treat, a student 

 in the Chicago University, who had challenged 

 Colonel Grosvenor several times, and, receiv- 

 ing no answer, had fired, in accordance with 

 orders, and killed him. Governor Palmer, 

 learning of this incident on the 22d of October, 

 the day after it occurred, set out for Chicago 

 to investigate the facts, and on the 27th ad- 

 dressed a letter to the Attorney-General of the 

 State, Hon. Washington Bushnell, in which 

 he uses the following language: "No one 

 will pretend that the power to raise, or- 

 ganize, and employ troops, or to call the 

 organized militia of the States into service, 

 pertains to the office of lieutenant-general in 

 the Army of the United States. Nor will it 

 be easy to find defenders for the opinion, if it 

 should be expressed, that the mayor of a city 

 can either exercise or impart such power to 

 another. And I will not, with you, discuss 

 the dangerous and deceptive theory of neces- 

 sity or emergency that has been so often in- 

 sisted upon to justify acts of lawless usurpa- 

 tion. It is answer enough that the constitu- 

 tion of the State has not intrusted to the mayors 

 of its cities, or to military officers, the delicate 

 duty of determining when its forces may be 

 called into service, or its laws be suspended. 

 If these conclusions are correct, I think you 

 will perceive that it is now the duty of the 

 Governor and the Attorney-General, and of all 

 other officers of the State, to exert themselves 

 to see that the laws are enforced against all the 

 parties concerned in these illegal and danger- 

 ous acts. It is not necessary, in determining 

 upon the line of duty to be adopted, to inquire 

 whether the Mayor of Chicago, Lieutenant- 

 General Sheridan, Frank T. Sherman and his 

 associates, and supposed subordinates, who 

 were the agents by which the death of Thomas 

 W. Grosvenor was produced, in assuming pow- 

 ers they did not possess, and that while free 

 government endures cannot be conferred upon 

 them, were influenced by proper or improper 

 motives or purposes. They assumed to suspend 

 the operation of the constitution and laws of 

 the State, and substitute in their stead the law 

 of military force, to be defined and applied by 

 themselves. They, by their lawless acts, at- 

 tacked and insulted the dignity and authority 

 of the State, and have, by their dangerous ex- 

 ample, weakened public confidence in the con- 

 stitution and the laws, and in their attempt to 

 enforce usurped and lawless authority they 

 have sacrificed the life of a peaceable citizen. 



Animated by the convictions I have thus ex- 

 pressed, and confident in the belief that the 

 State of Illinois, acting through the proper 

 departments of its government, is capable of 

 protecting its own people, and of enforcing 

 the dignity and authority of its own laws, I 

 have to request that you, in conjunction with 

 the State's attorney of the Seventh Judicial 

 Circuit, will bring all the facts before the 

 grand-jury of Cook County, in order that all 

 persons concerned in the unlawful killing of 

 Thomas "W. Grosvenor may be brought to a 

 speedy trial." 



Three days later he wrote to Charles H. 

 Reed, the District Attorney for the Seventh 

 Judicial Circuit, forwarding the letter to the 

 Attorney-General, and saying: "The matter 

 has occasioned me a great amount of anx- 

 iety, and, after the most mature reflec- 

 tion, I am forced to the conviction that the 

 indictment against Treat, the person who 

 inflicted the wounds upon him, should also 

 include Philip H. Sheridan, Frank T. Sher- 

 man, and the other persons who claimed to be 

 officers of the reputed ' Company L, First 

 Regiment of Chicago Volunteers.' * * * It 

 would be simply dishonorable to you and to 

 the State, to prosecute young Treat alone, to 

 conviction, when you, and every one besides 

 that is supposed to know what the law is, 

 are bound to confess that, if he is guilty ot a 

 legal offence, so are those who placed him in a 

 position to do mischief; and neither you noi 

 the State authorities can find a legal excuse 

 for discharging Treat without a trial. No 

 course is open to us but to boldly and squarely 

 stand up to the line of duty. I have written 

 this to you because I can well understand that 

 you may feel a degree of hesitation in advising 

 the grand-jury to find an indictment against 

 such persons as R. B. Mason, P. H. Sheridan, 

 and Frank T. Sherman; and, as this case con- 

 cerns the State in its political capacity as much 

 as in other respects, I think it proper that the 

 Governor should take the responsibility of 

 what is done. And, while I have the utmost 

 confidence in you, I do advise the indictment 

 and trial of all concerned." 



The subject was brought before the grand- 

 jury at the November term of the court, and 

 Judge Williams in his address alluded to the 

 killing of Grosvenor and to the letter of the 

 Governor in these terms: "You should find 

 no bill against any party except on the in- 

 formation of two of your members who 

 have a personal knowledge of the facts. 

 Neither the prosecuting attorney nor the 

 court has a right to instruct you as to whom 

 you should indict. It would be dangerous 

 to private rights and an invasion of your 

 prerogatives if ever the court should ad- 

 vise you whom you should indict, and if this 

 court may not do it, far less may any per- 

 son who does not sustain to you any official 

 relations. Should any one not of your body 

 seek to influence you by written, printed, or 



