the fears of further slavery extension. The repeal had once more brought the slavery question to the fore as the chief issue in the politics of the nation.

In the year 1854 the population of Chicago was nearly sixty-six thousand, having more than doubled in the four years under review. The raising of the grades in the streets, so marked a feature of city improvements in later years, had not yet been attempted. The principal streets were dusty in dry periods and muddy in wet, and were often almost impassable. Ineffectual attempts to better conditions were resorted to by means of planking the streets, but the planking needed constant repair and soon became useless. The city was then reached by a number of railroads, the Galena and Chicago Union and the Chicago and Rock Island from the west, the Chicago and Alton from the southwest, the Michigan Southern and Northern Indiana, and the Michigan Central, from the east. The Illinois Central and the Chicago and Milwaukee railroads were not completed until the following year.

The newspaper press of the city was represented by the Chicago Democrat, John Wentworth's paper, William Bross' paper, the Chicago Democratic Press, the Chicago Journal and the Chicago Tribune. The telegraph had been in use for some years.

THE NORTH MARKET HALL MEETING

In August, 1854, Senator Douglas arrived in Chicago from Washington, and soon after he was asked to address the citizens on the questions of the day. The meeting was to be held at North Market Hall, on the evening of the first of September. William Bross was at this time editor of the Chicago Democratic Press, and though bitterly opposed to Douglas on the question of the extension and perpetuation of slavery, was extremely anxious that the senator should be heard, and an opportunity given him to explain his position. There was a strong tendency among the people of Chicago to break away from his leadership, and the growing anti-slavery element were only too glad to have him among them so that he, as one of the most influential statesmen in the Democratic party, could be made aware in the most direct manner of the sentiments of his constituents, on the burning issues of the time.

Mr. Bross in later years related in detail the particulars of this great meeting, in an article printed in the Chicago Tribune, for August 25th, 1877. "Three or four days before the meeting," wrote Governor Bross, "I called upon him [Douglas] at the Tremont House, and requested him to write out a copy of his speech for me, and I would publish it in full. Though the Press had persistently opposed, and perhaps denounced him bitterly at times, he received me with great courtesy and politeness, thanked me for my offer, but said he never wrote out his speeches before delivery; he let the reporters write them out, and then corrected them where necessary." It was learned that the Democracy had determined to fill North Market Hall at an early hour with their partisans, "thus preventing other people from gaining admittance, pass resolutions strongly endorsing the repeal of the Missouri Compromise and Senator Douglas, and have that go out as the opinion of the people of Chicago."

MR. BROSS UNDERTAKES TO REPORT DOUGLAS' SPEECH

"The substantial and order-loving people were urged to turn out early," said Governor Bross in the article referred to, “and thus defeat the schemes of the polit

ical tricksters. The meeting was held in the open air on account of the hot weather, and there was an immense gathering of people, perhaps the largest up to that evening ever held in the city. We then had no shorthand reporters here, and unwilling to trust any one else, I went there myself to report it. I was at once invited upon the stage, perhaps by Mayor Milliken, who presided, and, receiving a pleasant greeting from Senator Douglas, I sat down and composed myself for the work before me.

"The very first sentence he uttered was considered an insult to the people and the press of the city. He charged them with not understanding so plain a proposition as the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, and the press with persistently misrepresenting and maligning him. The statement was received with groans and hisses, and for perhaps two or three minutes nothing else could be heard. When comparative quiet was restored, he spoke for perhaps eight or ten minutes, and then the laughing and hooting were repeated. This thoroughly enraged the senator, and his language and manner became exceedingly offensive.

"Finding no use for my pencil during the uproar, I slipped down from the stage and circulated among the people, to see in what temper they were. This I did several times, and always found them happy and in the best possible humor. Never before or since have I seen a larger proportion of our solid, substantial, leading citizens at a public meeting. I knew as well as I could know without being told it, there were more than a thousand revolvers in the crowd. All would laughingly tell me, 'Bross, we shall have no mob.' And yet, I feared it, for had some Democrat told one of our respectable citizens he lied, he would have instantly been knocked down; and when once a fuss began the pistols would have done their work fearfully. I knew that the human mind is so constituted that the change from the best of humor to the most intense anger requires but an instant.

TROUBLE ARISES BETWEEN DOUGLAS AND BROSS

"Little did I suppose that I was so soon to illustrate this principle myself, for on returning from one of my short visits through the crowd, and while the hooting and yelling were loud and long, Judge Douglas turned round, and paused for a moment. Knowing he could not and would not be heard, with the best of motives. and the politest and most pleasant language I could command, I said, 'Judge, would it not be best to print your speech? You cannot be heard; allow me to suggest that you retire.' With all the force and power he could command, he said: 'Mr. Bross, you see that your efforts in the Democratic Press to get up an armed mob to put me down have been entirely successful.' In an instant, I sprang to my feet and with very emphatic gestures, said, 'Judge Douglas, that's false-every word of it false, sir!' 'It will do very well,' he replied, for you, with your armed mob about you, to make an assertion like that.' 'It's false, sir-not a word of truth in it,' I replied; and, a little quiet being restored, he turned to address the people.

"I have often wondered at myself for the part I acted in this little drama. There was not more than one or two besides myself on the stage who were not warm personal friends of Judge Douglas, and to hurl the word 'false' at him might have cost me my life; but I knew I had done all I could to give him a quiet

hearing, and I took not a moment's thought, and repelled the charge on the spot. After continuing his efforts to be heard for half an hour longer, with no success, his friends put him in a carriage, and he rode away amid the jeers of the crowd."

A DOUGLAS SYMPATHIZER'S ACCOUNT

The biographer of Douglas, James W. Sheahan, says in writing of the meeting at the North Market: "We never saw such a scene before, and we hope never to see the like again. Until ten o'clock he stood firm and unyielding, bidding the mob defiance, and occasionally getting in a word or two upon the general subject. Had he exhibited fear, he would not have commanded respect; had he been craven, and entreated, his party would in all probability, have been assaulted with missiles, leading to violence in return. But, standing there before that vast mob, presenting a determined front and unyielding purpose, he extorted an involuntary admiration from those of his enemies who had the courage to engage in a personal encounter; and that admiration, while it could not overcome the purpose of preventing his being heard, protected him from personal violence. The motive, the great ruling reason, for refusing him the privilege of being heard, was that as he had, in 1850, carried the judgment of the people captive into an endorsement of the fugitive slave law, so, if allowed to speak in 1854, he would at least rally all Democrats to his support by his defense of the Nebraska bill. The combined fanatics of Chicago feared the power and effect of his argument in the presence and hearing of the people. They therefore resolved that he should not be heard. far as this occasion was concerned, the object was successfully attained, and if there were any doubts as to the fact that the course agreed upon had been previously concerted, the experience of the following few weeks served to remove all question on that head."

BROSS' REVIEW OF THE MEETING

So

In the next issue of the Democratic Press, Editor Bross stated that the people present at the meeting "did not mob Judge Douglas," as it had been charged, that "the people were noisy and refused to hear him, thereby resenting the imputations he cast upon them," and that the fault lay with Douglas himself, who "lost his balance and forgot that he was the representative of the people. Mr. Douglas came before his constituents rather as a master than as a servant. The spirit of a dictator flashed out from his eyes, curled upon his lip, and mingled its cold irony in every tone of his voice and every gesture of his body."

OTHER NEWSPAPER COMMENTS

The Illinois Journal, of Springfield, commenting on the meeting said, “We have heard from private sources that there were ten thousand people present; and that they evidently did not come there to get up a disturbance, but simply to demonstrate to Senator Douglas their opinion of his treachery to his constituents. This they did effectually, and Mr. Douglas now fully understands the estimate in which his conduct is held by his townsmen at Chicago. It is said that Mr. Douglas felt intensely the rebuke he had received."

The same paper gives a report of the speech, at least such portions as he was able to deliver between the interruptions. It is interesting as a specimen of "stump oratory," and as showing the excited state of public opinion on the burning questions of that day. "You have been told," said Douglass, "that the bill legislated slavery into territory now free. It does no such thing. [Groans and hisses-with abortive efforts to cheer.] As most of you have never read that bill [groans], I will read to you the fourteenth section. [Here he read the section referred to, long since published and commented on in this paper.] It will be seen that the bill leaves the people perfectly free. [Groans and some cheers.] It is perfectly natural for those who have misrepresented and slandered me, to be unwilling to hear me; I am here in my own home. [Tremendous groans, a voice—that is, in North Carolina'-'in Alabama'-'go there and talk,' etc.]

"I am in my own home, and have lived in Illinois long before you thought of the state. I know my rights, and, though personal violence has been threatened me, I am determined to maintain them. [Much noise and confusion.]" These fragmentary remarks are continued to a considerable length in the report, which is concluded as follows: "The questions now became more frequent and the people more noisy. Judge Douglas became excited, and said many things not very creditable to his position and character. The people as a consequence refused to hear him further, and, although he kept the stand for a considerable time, he was obliged at last to give way and retire to his lodgings at the Tremont House. The people then separated quietly, and all, except the office-holders, in the greatest of good humor."

In the store of splendid memories of the men and the movements of the war period and of the period preceding the war, Mr. Carr recalls the following picture of the great Senator: "The author of this work," he says, referring to his Life of Douglas, "remembers Senator Douglas as what the politicians of to-day would call a good mixer. There was no company in which he could not be a congenial companion. In company of the great at Washington and in the cabin of the frontier, with grave senators, with cabinet officials, and with the plain people-farmers and mechanics and laboring men—he was equally at home. He was genial and cordial, interested in everything that concerned those with whom he came in contact, to such a degree as to make them feel that he was one of them.

"Genial as he was, cordial as he was, entering into and enjoying all the social relations and sports of those early days, he was always dignified. While he was amused at the vagaries and the excesses of those who took part in the social gatherings of the time, and their extravagant demonstrations, and enjoyed them, he himself never gave way to them to such a degree as to be a leader in them. He maintained such reserve as was becoming in one of such character and attainments. He would enjoy and laugh at stories, but there is no record of his having told He appreciated and enjoyed a pun, but he never made one."

one.

EARLY PAVING AND GRADING

As the city emerged from primitive conditions, the increase of street traffic required improved roadways. The general level of the city's site was but a few feet above the level of the lake and river, and in times of floods or even in ordinary wet

weather the soft and yielding soil was soon changed into quagmires, through which it was difficult to drive a wagon or carriage. In Bross' History of Chicago, he says:

"We had no pavements in 1818. The streets were simply thrown up as country roads are. In the spring, for weeks, portions of them would be impassable. I have, at different times, seen empty wagons and drays fast in the mud on Lake Street and Water Street on every block. Of course there was little or no business doing, for the people of the city could not get about much, and the people of the country could not get in to do it. As the clerks had nothing to do, they would exercise their wits by putting boards from dry goods boxes in the holes where the last dray was dug out, with significant signs, as 'No bottom here,' "The shortest road to China,' etc. Sometimes one board would be nailed across another, and an old hat and coat fixed on it, with the notice, 'On his way to the lower regions.' In fact there was no end to the fun; and the jokes of the boys of that day-some were of larger growth-were without number."

A story is told of General Hart L. Stewart, a citizen of early Chicago. One day as he was going along Lake street, his head and well known hat appeared above the surface of the mud. Some one called out to him, "General, you seem to be in pretty deep!" "Great Scott," he replied, "I've got a horse under me!"

1849.

The planking of Lake street was ordered by the Common Council January 22d, The planked roadway was forty-eight feet wide. Even before that time it had been found utterly useless to lay a stone pavement, which would soon sink in the yielding earth. The experiment of laying plank roadways had proven successful in many places, and the Common Council determined to plank the principal streets of the city. In 1849 and 1850 planking was laid down on Market, State, North and South Clark, La Salle, Wells, East and West Madison, and West Randolph streets, in all about three miles of planking, at a cost of thirty-one thousand dollars. But the plank roadways were short-lived, and the street paving problem soon came to be a leading public issue.

Intimately associated with the paving problem was that of the raising of the grades of the streets; indeed, from the earliest days street paving, whenever there was occasion to relay it, was usually accompanied by the raising of the level of the surface. In 1855 the grade was raised sufficiently to cover sewers. Again in 1857 another elevation of the surface was found necessary. After much public discussion it was decided to fill the streets to a height of ten feet above the lake or river level, with some slope towards the water. Even so there was a strong sentiment in favor of a still greater height, but it was supposed that difficulty would be experienced in obtaining the requisite earth for the filling. As a matter of fact there has always been found in the subsequent building operations more earth from excavations for foundations and basements than was necessary for street filling. This excess has supplied much of the filling required for the lake front east of Michigan avenue. The whole space between Michigan avenue and the piling upon which the Illinois Central Railroad was carried from Twelfth street to the terminal station at the foot of Lake street, a space of considerable width as all the old maps show, has been gradually filled with surplus earth taken from the excavations for buildings. The debris from the ruins of buildings after the great fire of 1871 also added largely to the material used for filling the lake front.