$3,648,233.41 $1,212,930.48 $4,861,163.89

Total amount in the treasury, Dec. 1, 1864,

$1,212,930.48

Notwithstanding the withdrawal of 200,000 of her citizens to the scene of war, the population of the State had steadily increased during the last four years-over 10,000 more votes having been polled in 1864 than in 1860. Although, for the first months of the war, the channels of trade were interrupted and all plans for improvement were deranged by the withering pall of civil strife which hung over the country, the people gradually arose to the demands of the hour and with renewed energies had developed the natural resources of the State to an unprecedented degree. Agriculture, with increasing demands from the army and aided by the improved machinery which the inventive genius of her people had supplied to take the place of manual labor withdrawn to her armies, received a new and marvellous impetus. Prices had steadily advanced each year* and farmers were never before so prosperous. Currency, was now abundant-greenbacks and national-bank notes-and although gold was high, being at a premium of $1.40, quoted at $2.40, manufactures increased and every department of business was active and remunerative.

CHAPTER XXXVIII.

Administration of Gov. Oglesby, 1865-9-Twenty-fourth General Assembly-Yates Elected to United-States Senate-The Thirteenth Amendment-Laws-Close of the War-Assassination of President Lincoln.

R

ICHARD James Oglesby, the governor elect, was born in Oldham County, Kentucky, July 25, 1824. He came to Illinois with an uncle in 1836, and was apprenticed to the carpenter's trade, which, with farming and rope-making, engaged his attention until he became of age. Having studied law during his leisure hours, he was admitted to the bar and began the practice of his profession at Sullivan, Moultrie County. No advantages of a liberal education or family influence contributed to his subsequent success in life. He began his political career in 1852, as a Scott elector, and in 1858 was an unsuccessful candidate for congress in the Decatur district. He took an active part in the campaign of 1860 and was elected to the State senate. When the civil war broke out, resigning his office, he tendered his services to the government the very day on which the president issued his first call for troops. Having had a previous and valuable experience as lieutenant of an Illinois company in the Mexican war, his promotion from the colonelcy of the Eighth regiment to the rank of major-general was as rapid as it was deserved by faithful service and gallant conduct in the field. At the bloody battle of Corinth, while leading a charge against the enemy, he was shot through the left lung so severely that he was reported to be fatally injured. Partially recovering from his wound, he was appointed commander of a corps, but finding himself physically unable to discharge the duties of the arduous position he resigned his command in May, 1864.

He was the first fruit of the war in this State garnered into the great harvest of politics. His naturally strong mind had been enriched and broadened by travel in Europe, as well as by military experience; and the inartificial but impetuous

eloquence of his speeches throughout the State during the late canvass had aroused an enthusiasm which was equally beneficial to his party and to the cause of the Union. His strong feelings and resonant voice, his homely metaphors and vigorous denunciations, his humorous sallies, forcible reasoning, and earnest, even passionate manner, carried his hearers along the current of his thoughts as does the Mississippi's flood the driftwood floating upon its surface. He entered into no glove contests but with bare hands administered effective "punishment" to his antagonists.

His mobile features, his clean-shaven, expressive face, and his bluff, hearty, western manner combined to impart to his appearance a charm, which was heightened by a physique of symmetrical and commanding proportions. With this combination of intellectual and physical gifts, it must be conceded that a man of no ordinary powers had been placed in the chair of

state.

William Bross,* the lieutenant-governor elect, was selected as a representative of the loyal press, as a deserved recognition of its powerful influence in upholding the cause of the Union and sustaining the army in the field. He was born in Sussex County, New Jersey, Nov. 4, 1813. At the age of nine years, his family removed to Pennsylvania, where he lived until the attainment of his majority. After graduating with honor from Williams College in 1838, he enlisted in the great army of teachers, in whose ranks he worthily served for many years. Soon after his removal to Chicago in 1848, he entered upon his life-work, as one of the conductors of the Democratic Press, subsequently and now the Chicago Tribune. His experience in this responsible position had made him so familiar with the political questions of the day that he was called to the stump in 1856, where facts and figures were handled by him with such ability as to contribute very largely to the success of the republican party. He also spoke effectively in the great * Gov. Bross died in Chicago, Jan. 27, 1890. Up to the time of his decease, he was a hale and hearty veteran of the busy past. After his retirement from public and official life, he devoted himself largely to literature, and published many valuable papers, some of which were read before the Chicago Historical Society. He was the author, among other works, of a brief "History of Chicago," "History of Camp Douglas," and of "Tom Quick."