

ILLINOIS. 



390 



in setting up an illegal Legislature in South Caro- 

 lina, tho concentration of troops and munitions of 

 war at convenient points elsewhere, and tliruats in 

 tin- partisan press that member* of the House of 

 Representatives will bo arrested and imprisoned if 

 tin' House exercises its constitutional prerogatives 

 in regard to the count of the electoral votes, estab- 

 lish the existence of a conspiracy by force and fraud 

 to proclaim and inaugurate a President and Vice- 

 1'r. M.lent of the United States contrary to the con- 

 stitutionally expressed will of the American people. 



Ruotrei^ That it is tho duty of the House of Rep- 

 resentatives, the grand inquest of the nation, to in- 

 quire into said conspiracy, and if officers of the Qov- 

 erument have been engaged in the conspiracy, and 

 have committed overt acts in furtherance of the plot, 

 by the illegal use of the army, or otherwise, to take 

 immediate action to defeat the conspiracy, and to 

 bring the conspirators to trial at the bar of the Sen- 

 ate. 



Resolved, That the president of this convention 

 send a copy of these resolutions to the President of 

 the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Repre- 

 sentatives of tho United States, with a request that 

 each lay the same before the bodies over which 

 they respectively preside. 



In his inaugural address to the Legislature 

 of 1877, Governor Cullom used the following 

 language in reference to the same subject as 

 that considered by the Democratic conven- 

 tion: 



Eleven years have passed since that struggle 

 ended. Just at the time when all hoped and be- 

 lieved that the era of good-will and prosperity had 

 come with the beginning of our new national cen- 

 tury, a presidential election occurred which has left 

 the country in an excited condition, owing to the 

 unprecedented closeness of the electoral vote, and 

 the discussion of questions arising from the unfor- 

 tunate omission of the national Constitution and 

 the laws to provide with particularity the manner 

 of counting the returns contained in the certificar.es 

 of the electoral colleges. The contest must now be 

 settled by the light of the Constitution. It must be 

 settled according to the Constitution. It must be 

 settled by reason, and not by violence. Tho peo- 

 ple of the nation must listen to the voice of history, 

 so fresh in all our memories, and stamp with prompt 

 and positive condemnation any movement if any 

 shall be made looking to an appeal from a consti- 

 tutional decision of the contest, by those in whose 

 hands it is placed, to force, involving the American 

 people in another war. One attempt has been made 

 to destroy this country and dissolve the Union by a 

 portion of tho people when they were dissatisfied 

 with the result as declared at the polls. That strug- 

 gle cost the country ten thousand million dollars in 

 Eroperty and labor, and a million men in battle, a 

 jarful price for refusal to abide the decision of the 

 ballot. 



^ As citizens of the State of Illinois, we claim the 

 right to hold our elections in our own way ; giving 

 all our people a fair and equal chance to cast their 

 votes. We claim the right to prescribe the manner 

 in which our polls shall be purged of fraudulent 

 votes, and how and by whom the result of our elec- 

 tions shall be ascertained and announced. All these 

 things we regulate by the laws made by our State 

 Legislature, and when the result is so ascertained 

 and announced we expect it to be respected, as well 

 by our own citizens as by others. While we claim 

 these rights for our own State, we concede the same 

 to every other State in tho Union ; and insist that 

 when the people of any State have held an election, 

 and tho result has been ascertained and announced 

 by the persons and in the manner provided by the 

 laws of such State, that result shall be respected 

 everywhere as the will of the people of that State. 



The people, without regard to party, owe it to them- 

 selves and the country to purify the ballot-box, and 

 protect it from fraud; the people owe it to 

 solves, in the interest of good government, to favor 

 all lawful means, the object of which IM to secure a 

 free and honest ballot and the protection of the citi- 

 zen in his right to cast it. Fraudulent voting is 

 worse than no voting, and, unless a man i allowed 

 to vote his sentiments, his vote is a falsehood and u 

 fraud. 



As a citizen, I confidently believe that the tw 

 distinguished statesmen for whom the electoral vote 

 of Illinois was cast for President and Vice- President 

 have received a constitutional majority of tiie elec- 

 toral colleges. I have an equal confidence and cer- 

 tainty that when the votes shall have been counted 

 in the presence of the two Houses of Congress, and 

 the result announced in accordance with the Con- 

 stitution and the usage under it, whatever that re- 

 sult may be, it will be accepted and cheerfully ac- 

 quiesced in by the people. 



Hon. Shelby M. Cullom, the present Gov- 

 ernor of Illinois, was born in Wayne County, 

 Ky., November 22, 1829. The following year 

 his father removed to Tazewell County, 111. 

 Young Cullom worked on a farm, and attended 

 a district-school during his early years, and at 

 the age of nineteen went to the Rock River 

 Seminary, at. Mount Morris. After two years' 

 study his health failed, and he returned to the 

 farm, but he subsequently studied law at 

 Springfield, and was admitted to the bar in 

 1854, being almost immediately after elected 

 city attorney. In 1856 he was candidate for 

 elector on the Fillmore ticket, and at the same 

 time ran for the Legislature, and was elected. 

 He was chosen again in 1860, and became 

 Speaker of the House. In 1864 he was elected 

 to Congress from the Springfield district, and 

 served for three successive terms. As a mem- 

 ber of Congress he displayed not only energy 

 and tact, but considerable ability as a speaker. 

 In the Fortieth Congress he was chairman of 

 the Committee on Territories, and took a 

 prominent part in support of the bill for the 

 suppression of polygamy in Utah. Since 1870 

 he has devoted himself chiefly to private busi- 

 ness and his duties as President of the State 

 National Bank at Springfield, but consented 

 both in 1872 and 1874 to be elected to the 

 Legislature of the State. He was Speaker of 

 the House during the session of 1873. 



A decision of the Supreme Court of the 

 United States, rendered at Washington in 

 April, reversed the decrees of the Circuit 

 Court in Northern Illinois in several cases in 

 which an injunction had been granted against 

 the collection of taxes by counties under the 

 law of 1872 for the taxation of railroads. 

 The validity of the law was sustained, and the 

 cases sent back to the Circuit Court with 

 directions to dissolve the injunctions. The 

 opinion of the court was delivered by Mr. 

 Justice Miller, and established the following 

 points : 



1. While this court does not lay down any abso- 

 lute rule limiting the powers of a court of equity in 

 restraining the collection of taxes, it declares that it 

 is essential that every case be brought within some 

 of the recognized rules of equity jurisdiction, and 



