THE GEORGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLERY 765 



and Illinois," by Mr. Beckwith, Fergus historical series No. 27, Chi- 

 cago, 111., 1884. 



The writer feels it a duty to recur to the obligation the West, and particularly Illi- 

 nois, owes to the memory of the late Judge James Hall, the pioneer of our early lit- 

 erature, who was born at Philadelphia, P., August 19, 1779; died at Cincinnati, Ohio, 

 July 5, 1868 ; served in the war of 1812, on the Niagara frontier ; was with Commo- 

 dore Stephen Decatur in the expedition against Algiers in 1815 ; resuming his law 

 studies at Pittsburgh in 1818 and in 1820 located at Shawneetown, 111., and began to 

 practice. The next year he was made State's attorney for the judicial circuit, em- 

 bracing some ten counties in Southeastern Illinois. This section was at that time 

 overrun with horse-thieves, slave-stealers, counterfeiters, and desperadoes, many of 

 whom had fled hither from other States to escape punishment for their crimes. By 

 their numbers and organized bold actions they set all law at defiance, and terrorized 

 over honest citizens. Mr. Hall, aided by the law-abiding, prosecuted these criminals 

 with such unrelenting vigor that he broke up their gangs and restored security to life 

 and property. In 1825 he was elected judge of the same circuit, hence the prefix to 

 his name. The honor was all the more creditable to his abilities and moral worth 

 when it is remembered that the legislature (of 1824-'25) conferring it was largely 

 " anti-convention," while he was classed with the " convention party," as those were 

 designated who had favored the call of a convention to so amend the constitution as 

 to convert Illinois into a slave State. [ Vide " Ford's History of Illinois."] His term 

 was short ; for the next legislative session of 1826-'27 repealed the law creating the 

 office, and turned out all of the judges holding commissions under it. Within the 

 next two or three years he removed to Vandalia, then the State capital, where he 

 early associated with Robert Blackwell, State printer, in publishing the Illinois In- 

 telligencer. The legislature of 1830-'31 elected him State treasurer. In the mean time, 

 he and Mr. Blackwell arranged to bring out "The Illinois Monthly Magazine," it 

 being the first attempt at periodical literature in the State. 



Judge Hall's reputation as a writer was already established. Beginning in 1820,many 

 of his contributions, descriptive of the West and its people, appeared in The Portfolio, 

 a monthly, conducted by his brother, John E. Hall, at Philadelphia, from which they 

 were copied by papers in America and England, and received a wide circulation. 

 A residence afterward of several years in the country described so enlarged his op- 

 portunities that to a number of the original articles was added much new matter, 

 and the whole was published in 1828 in London, England, in a volume entitled " Let- 

 ters from the West, containing sketches of scenery, manners, customs, and anecdotes 

 connected with the first settlements of the western sections of the United States,"&c. 



The first number of the Illinois Magazine appeared for October, 1830. It run for 

 two years. The second volume was published in part at Saint Louis and part at Cin- 

 cinnati, owing to the difficulty of getting material and labor at Vandalia, which, at 

 that time, stood on the verge of a primitive population, isolated from the literary world, 

 and not possessing even the conveniences of country roads that were passable for more 

 than a few months during the year. Commencing with January, 1833, Judge Hall 

 resumed his periodical at Cincinnati under the name of the Western Monthly Maga- 

 zine, a continuation of the Illinois Monthly Magazine, remaining with it here for 

 three years. In 1833 he went to Cincinnati and resided there until his death, July 5, 

 1868. His other principal literary labors are as follows : " Legends of the West," 

 1832 ; second edition the next year; " The Soldier's Bride," 183:*; " The Harp's Head, 

 a Legend of Kentucky," 1833; " Tales of the Border," 1835; "Sketches of History, 

 Life, and Manners in the West," 1835 ; " Statistics of the West," &c, 1836. This last 

 was reissued in 1838 (from the same plates, with a few pages of addenda relating to 

 steamboat navigation), under the better title of " Notes on the Western States ; con- 

 taining Descriptive Sketches of their Soil, Climate, Resources, and Scenery." Sub- 

 stantially the same matter appeared in 1848, under the name of " The West, its Com- 



