FORGOTTEN STATESMEN OF ILLINOIS.

(Dr. J. F. Snyder.)

HON. JESSE BURGESS THOMAS.

Jesse Burgess Thomas. youngest son of Jesse and Sabina (Symmes) Thomas, was born in Hagerstown, Maryland in 1777, where the Thomas family had long resided, and was descended from Lord George Calvert, of the Irish peerage created in 1624, to whose son, Sir Cecilius Calvert, Baron of Baltimore, the Maryland patent was issued by Charles the Second on June 20, 1632.

The parents of young Thomas left Maryland in 1779, when he was two years old, and settled in Bracken county, Kentucky; there he grew up, working on the farm and attending such schools as the backwoods then afforded Then going to Washington, Mason county, Kentucky, he served for a time in the county clerk's office there, and in the mean time studied law with his elder brother, Richard Symmes Thomas, a distinguished lawyer who subsequently located in Lebanon, Ohio. After his admission to the bar, Jesse B. Thomas commenced the practice of law at his home town, Brookville, the county seat of Bracken county, and shortly afterwards married an estimable young lady of that place.

His married bliss, however, was of short duration, as before the year had passed his wife died That sad event blighted his life plans and bright anticipations of the future. He left Kentucky and sought a new home in Lawrenceburg, the county seat of Dearborn county, in Indiana Territory, and again devoted himself to the practice of his profession. On the 3rd of January, 1805, he was elected to represent his county in the territorial legislature that convened at Vincennes on the 1st of February, following. On organization of the House Mr. Thomas was chosen to preside over it as speaker. During that session of the legislature he was appointed a captain of militia by the territorial governor, William Henry Harrison, between whom and himself a warm friendship had been formed that continued throughout life. He was re-elected speaker at the second session, serving in that capacity three years and one month when he was elected delegate to represent Indiana Territory in Congress.

While serving the second term in the legislature he married the widow of Major John Francis Hamtramck, the former commander at Post Vincennes, and then changed his residence from Lawrenceburg to Vincennes. Indiana Territory, embracing the present states of

Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin, was organized after admission of Ohio, in 1802, and General Harrison, then a Virginia member of Congress, was appointed its governor by President Jefferson. In a few years, division of the territory began to be agitated by the residents of Illinois, whose sparse settlements were on the Mississippi river far remote from their territorial capital. The question of separation was made the issue in the election of their representatives to the Vincennes legislature in 1808. A majority of the Indiana members were decidedly opposed to separation, as was also Benjamin Parke, at that time the delegate to Congress.

In that year, however, 1808, Mr. Parke resigned, and an opportunity was offered the Illinoisans to elect his successor in their interest. Speaker Thomas, an active politician, and ambitious for higher honors, decided to succeed Mr. Parke in Congress, but could not be elected without the solid support of the Illinois representatives, and they would vote for him only on condition that he would pledge himself, if elected, to secure from Congress an act for division of the territory. That pledge he gave without hesitation, but the Illinoisans at that early day had so little confidence in pledges of office seekers that they exacted of him a written bond for the faithful performance of his promise, and that he gave them. He was elected by a bare majority, and at that, it was said, by voting for himself, as he received but little, if any, support from the Indianans. His term in Congress, to fill a vacancy, was brief, extending from the 1st of December, 1808 to the 3d of March, 1809. But he fulfilled to the letter his obligation to the Illinoisans, securing passage of the bill providing for organizing the separate Territory of Illinois with its capital at Kaskaskia, which was approved March 7, 1809. The citizens of Vincennes were so incensed at his perfidy-as they viewed it-they hung him in effigy, and heaped upon him, on his return from Washington, the vilest abuse and reproach.

Knowing that the service he had rendered the Illinoisans was fatal to his further political aspirations in Indiana, he shrewdly made provision for the future by obtaining from President Madison, before leaving Washington, the appointment to one of the three federal judgeships for the new Territory of Illinois. His colleagues on the district bench were Obediah Jones and Alexander Stuart, with whom he lost no time in reaching their distant field of labor. Judge Thomas settled on the American bottom in the vicinity of Prairie du Rocher, ten miles north of Kaskaskia. Nathaniel Pope, of Kentucky, who had received the appointment of territorial secretary, had preceded the judges and was located in Kaskaskia, the designated capital. The newly appointed governor of Illinois territory, Ninian Edwards, arrived shortly after, from Kentucky, with a number of negro slaves, and herds of live stock of various kinds, and located on the alluvial plain in near proximity to Judge Thomas, and there established an extensive farm that he named "Elvirade" in honor of his wife, Elvira. As an inducement to those very competent men to accept, with their offices and meagre salaries, social exile and many privations on the far western frontier, Congress granted to the Governor 1,000 acres

of land, and to each of the other Territorial officers 500 acres, to be selected by them from any part of the public domain within the Territory not reserved for ports, or already occupied by settlers.

Judge Thomas did not long remain in that locality, but removed up to Cahokia, the county seat of St. Clair county, and identified himself with the society and interests of that old village. Judge Stuart was soon transferred to Missouri territory, and Stanley Griswold appointed in his place. Judge Jones resigned and was replaced by Wm. Sprigg. In the division of judicial labors Judge Thomas was assigned to hold court in St. Clair and Randolph counties; Judge Sprigg in the central counties and Judge Griswold in the counties on the Wabash and Ohio rivers.

Governor Reynolds remarks, in his Pioneer History, of Judge Thomas, "he was a man of talents, but did not particularly employ his mind on the dry subtilties of the law," by which may be inferred that he was not only a wide awake politician, but an energetic and sharp business man. He dealt in lands, carried on farming and other industries, and was always ready to embark in any enterprise promising adequate returns upon his investments. Among other schemes for increasing his revenues he established in Cahokia the first wool carding machine put in operation in Illinois. It was moved by the tread of oxen on a large incline wheel in the basement of the building. All its machinery and fixtures were purchased by himself in Pittsburg, Pa., and brought to Cahokia by keel boat.

For nine years Jesse B. Thomas discharged the duties of Territorial judge with such ability and fairness as to earn the reputation of a superior jurist. He was not a profound scholar, or deeply learned in in either law or literature; nor was he at any time a student of close application; but he possessed the quickness of perception, clear intellect, sound judgment, and knowledge of human nature constituting strong common sense. He was not gifted with oratory, but expressed his views in plain language with the force and earnestness that generally carried conviction.

Though he acquitted himself well as a judge, the restrictions and exactions of that dignified position were not in harmony with his tastes and temperament; his order of talents fitting him better for the arena of politics and statesmanship. He was one of the peopleplain in dress, in language and manners, exceedingly social and affable, and consequently popular with all classes. Of jovial, cheerful disposition he was fond of mirth and pleasure, but his deportment and habits never transcended the bounds of striot decorum and morality. Very prominent in all public affairs affecting the Territory and the community in which he lived, broadminded and farseeing in all questions of local or national policy, he was among the first to commence the movement for raising Illinois to the rank of statehood, and was one of the ablest and most conspicuous leaders in that movement.

In pursuance of the act of Congress approved April 18, 1818, enabling the people of the Territory of Illinois to form a state govern