" Some day," remarked an observant, far-sighted friend of
Abraham Lincoln, not long after he had quit railmaking, " I
expect to see this young man Governor of Illinois." The compli-
ment was a high one ; it fixed a destiny that, no doubt, was far
beyond that which the future emancipator then had the hope of
attaining. Years afterward, in February, 1856, when a handful
of Illinois editors met in Decatur to start the organization of the
new Republican party, and the question of naming a candidate
for Governor arose, they instinctively turned to Lincoln ; and
Lincoln discouraged the suggestion of his name, not because he
did not esteem the office, but because the political conditions
18 THE BREAKING OF THE DEADLOCK.
which confronted the new party made his election, in his -cahn,
unselfish judgment, an impossibility.
Higher than the Governorship of their State, in the minds of
the people of Illinois, were but two other offices ā the Presidency
and the United States Senatorship ; even the superiority of the
latter was conceded rather doubtfully and grudgingly. So long
ago as the early fifties, a block of ground in Springfield had been
purchased by the State, and on it had been erected an official resi-
dence ā a sort of White House. The Executive Mansion, in
which, in 1857, the first Republican Governor was inaugurated,
was, for that day, a most stately edifice ; and the people, though
jealously suspicious of everything akin to extravagance, cheerfully
paid its cost, in order that their Chief Executive might have a resi-
dence in keeping with the dignity of his office.
It was inevitable that an office so highly esteemed should ever
be eagerly sought ; and one has but to glance back over eighty odd
years to see what an array of distinguished men either have sought
or have occupied the office of Governor of Illinois. The office
attained in 1861, and in the years immediately following, a dig-
nity and importance even greater than it had ever had before ;
for that was the period of the Civil War, and fortunately the State
had elected, in the person of Richard Yates, a Governor who was
equal to every emergency and responsibility which that great
struggle brought upon the State. The State Constitution, as it
then existed, made a Governor ineligible to be his own successor.
Except for this barrier, the " War Governor " would, of course,
have been reelected in 1864. The man chosen for the succession
was one who was then a hero and a popular idol ā Richard J.
Oglesby, who had risen in the volunteer military service of his
country to the rank of major-general. Oglesby, for the same
reason that had prevented the " War Governor " from filling a
second term, could not aspire to a reelection in 1868. He was
succeeded, however, by a man no less distinguished, in the person
of John M. Palmer, who had been nominated over the brilliant
Robert G. Ingersoll.
The prohibition against two successive terms of the Governor-
ship was removed by the Constitution of 1870; and this change
marked the beginning of the custom of a Governor seeking a
second term. In 1872, Governor Palmer did not seek reelection ;
he had become estranged from his party and so could not have
PART ONE: THE CAMPAIGN.
19
HON. RICHARD YATES.
(SPRINGFIELD.)
GOVERNOR OF ILLINOIS, WHO WAS A CANDIDATE FOR RENOMINATION IN I904.
Born in Jacksonville, Illinois, December 12, i860, about one month after his
father, Richard Yates, Sr., had been elected to the position he was to occupy as the
" War Governor " of Illinois. He entered Whipple Academy, the preparatory school
for Illinois College, in 1873, and matriculated in the college three years later, gradu-
ating as class orator in 1880. He then entered the law school of the University of
Michigan and graduated therefrom after a four years' course, being admitted to the
practice of law immediately thereafter in the States of Michigan and Illinois. Imme-
diately upon attaining his majority, Mr. Yates became active in the public life of the
community, and especially so in church and secret society work. He has often been
''Continued at bottom of tiext page.)
20 THE BREAKING OF THE DEADLOCK.
consistently sought a reelection at the hands of tlie RepubUcans.
He was succeeded by Richard J. Oglesby, who, however,
remained in the office but a few days, when he was elected
United States Senator. Oglesby's successor, Lieutenant-Governor
John L. Beveridge, after filling out his term, wanted a second one
in 1876. He was unsuccessful in this ambition, the nomination
going to Shelby M. CuUom. In 1880, Governor Cullom sought a
second term and secured it ā though renomination was won only
after a sharp contest, in which six other distinguished Republicans
participated as candidates and in which the Governor narrowly
escaped defeat ā the contest being the most notable one which
the State had witnessed up to that time. In the middle of his term.
Governor Cullom was elected to the United States Senate, being
succeeded in the Governor's office by the Lieutenant-Governor,
John M. Hamilton.
Governor Hamilton made a vigorous but unsuccessful fight
for renomination in 1884. He was defeated by ex-Governor
Oglesby, who was that year elected to the office for the third
time. Advancing years, and the fact that he had had the unique
honor of being three times elected Governor, caused Governor
Oglesby to entertain no thought of succeeding himself in 1888.
The nomination that year went to Joseph W. Fifer ā " Private
Joe." Governor Fifer sought and easily secured a renomination
in 1892 ; but that was the year of the Democratic " landslide " all
over the country, and Fifer was succeeded by Altgeld. Governor
Altgeld, like nearly all of his predecessors in a quarter of a cen-
tury, aspired to another term. He defeated all comers for renom-
ination, but was beaten at the polls. His successor, John R.
Tanner, before the close of his term, decided not to be a candidate
(Continued from preceding page.)
called upon to speak at public celebrations in various parts of the State and in all
municipal, State and national campaigns since 1880 he has been one of the speakers
regularly at the command of the party. In 1896 he was sent by the National Republi-
can Committee into Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Ohio and Kentucky, where he
did valuable service for the party on the stump.
Mr. Yates was city attorney of Jacksonville from 1885 to 1891. He was a candi-
date for Congressman-at-Large n\ 1892, but was buried in the Democratic landslide of
that year, although he received a larger vote than was cast for the Harrison electors.
In 1894 he was elected county judge of Morgan county, which position he held for
three years, resigning to accept an appointment by President McKinley to the office of
collector of internal revenue for the second district. During his term on the bench he
was called to Chicago by Judge Carter and held a branch of the County Court of
Cook County for a considerable time.
In September, 1899, he made the first public announcement of his candidacy for
the nomination for Governor, and at the close of a memorable campaign he was nomi-
nated at Peoria in May, 1900, his election following with that of the rest of the Repub-
lican ticket of that year. He was inaugurated Governor, January 14, 1901.
He was married in 1888 to Miss Helen Wadsworth, and they now have two chil-
dren, Catherine, aged twelve, and Dorothy, aged eight years.
PART ONE: THE CAMPAIGN. 21
for renomination, for the reason that he believed that he could be
elected United States Senator.
A PRECEDENT OF THIRTY YEARS.
Such was the record of thirty years which the second Richard
Yates found back of him when he was inaugurated Governor in
January, 1901. The almost invariable rule had been for Governors
to seek reelection. The only exceptions, as already stated, had
been Governor Palmer, who had made renomination impossible
by becoming separated from his party ; Governor Oglesby, who
found a conclusive reason for departing from the custom in the
fact that he had already been elected to the office three times ; and
Governor Tanner, who refrained from a second-term candidacy
because he sought promotion to the Senate. It was true, of course,
that in the thirty years that had elapsed since the bars in the way
of succession had been thrown down by the new Constitution,
only one Governor had succeeded in securing a reelection. That
was Governor Cullom. But a study of the circumstances of each
particular case made it clear that these results were due largely to
special reasons which might not apply to the present or to the
future. Thus, two > of the Governors had obtained the office
through the lieutenant-governorship, while two others (Fifer and
Altgeld) had been defeated at the polls solely because of the gen-
eral political conditions that had prevailed at the time they sought
reelection. The failure, therefore, which had come to Governors
in the past in their efforts at self-succession did not count for
much as precedents. The case of Governor Cullom was sufficient
to offset all of the others : for he had been singularly successful
in his political career : he had not only succeeded himself as
Governor, but, stepping from the Executive Mansion to the
United States Senate in the middle of his term, he had remained
continuously ever since in the highest legislative body of the
nation. It was well to remember, also, that the Governorship was
worth seeking a second time, not only for itself, but because it was
the logical and customary stepping-stone to the Senate. In a
period of forty years, nine men had occupied the Executive
Mansion, and four of them had subsequently been elected to the
Senate.
It is not surprising, therefore, that his term of office Avas
scarcely more than half completed when the second Richard Yates
22 THE BREAKING OF THE DEADLOCK.
began making plans to secure a renomination at the hands of his
party. He had been nominated for Governor by the State con-
vention at Peoria in 1900, under conditions that had rarely, if
ever, prevailed before in a State convention in Illinois. In that
year the party had been divided into two principal factions ā one
led by Senator Cullom, the other by Governor John R. Tanner.
The strength of the factions when the convention convened proved
to be almost equal. Judge Elbridge Hanecy, of Chicago, had
been the gubernatorial candidate of the Tanner or administration
wing. The opposition had divided its support between Congress-
man Walter Reeves, of Streator, and Judge O. N. Carter, of
Chicago. Richard Yates, son of the noted " War Governor," had
launched his candidacy for the Governorship in the previous Sep-
tember and had made a campaign which had embraced nearly the
entire State. He had secured something like 275 delegates,
either pledged or instructed, well distributed geographically. The
leading candidate was Judge Hanecy, who had approximately
575 delegates, and apparently there was little chance for an aspir-
ant who could muster less than half of that number. Yates, how-
ever, occupied a unique position. He had all through his cam-
paign studiously avoided mixing in the factional fight, and now
he was the only one of the four candidates who was not embar-
rassed by an entanglement with one or the other of the hostile
elements. His supporters were largely men that hitherto had
not been prominent in politics, though some of them were veterans.
He had developed several elements of strength. Memory of the
first Richard Yates was still living and strong with the older
generation, particularly with the veterans of the Civil War. Of
this sentiment his son to a large extent was a beneficiary. But it
was not his father's record alone that attracted support. He had
proven a good campaigner. His appeals from the platform had
been effective. The impression that he had created, stronger than
all others, was that, no matter what might be said in criticism of
his want of experience, he would discharge the duties of his office
with integrity of purpose.
Richard Yates, when he started out for the Governorship in the
autumn of 1899, '^'^s still under thirty-nine years of age. He was
then United States Internal Revenue Collector, with headquarters
at Springfield, by appointment of President McKinley. The only
other office of importance that he had previously held was that of
PART ONE: THE CAMPAIGN.
23
COL. FRANK ORREN LOWDEN.
(CHICAGO.)
CANDID.-^TE FOR THE NOMINATION FOR GOVERNOR.
Born at Sunrise, Chesago county, Minnesota, January 26, 1861. His father,
Lorenzo O. Lowden, was born in Pennsylvania, of Scots and Dutch stock, and emi-
grated to Minnesota in 1853, Chesago county being at that time one of the outposts
of civilization in the Northwest. In 1868 the family removed to Hardin county, Iowa,
and the early life of young Lowden was much the same as that of boys similarly
situated ā the rural cross-roads school in winter, farmwork in summer. At the
age of fifteen years, he began to teach school in Hardin county, and, his ambition
having been aroused by his slight foretaste of knowledge, he determined to get a
collegiate education, using the nights and other leisure hours in perfecting himself for
the entrance examinations. During this time he took a partial course in the Iowa
Agricultural and Mechanical College at Ames. At the end of five years of farming,
teaching and studying he succeeded in passing the examination for entrance into the
(Continued at bottom of next page.)
24 THE BREAKING OF THE DEADLOCK.
county judge of Morgan county. Thus he was ranked as a young
man ā younger than most of the men who ever before had aspired
to the governorship ; and there were some misgivings about his lack
of experience in public affairs. Many there were, indeed, who
at the outset refused to accept his candidacy as serious or impor-
tant ; for nearly all of the influential party leaders, the men who
were accustomed to " deliver " the delegates from their respective
counties, were to be found lined up with one or the other of the
three other candidates.
THE NOMINATION AT PEORIA.
These were the conditions that made the success of Richard
Yates at the Peoria convention in 1900 altogether logical. Indeed,
if the leaders who were allied with the other candidates had been
able to make a careful and unbiased study of the situation they
would have seen that his nomination was well-nigh inevitable.
The reason of this was to be found in the fact that the feeling
that had been engendered between the two hostile factions was
such that neither would permit the candidate of the other wing
(Continued from preceding page.)
freshman class at Iowa State University at Iowa City. His funds running low after
two years at college, he was forced to remain away during his junior year, obtaining
a position as principal of the school at Hubbard, Iowa, meanwhile keeping up the
studies of the junior university year. He reentered college at the beginning of the
senior vear and graduated with his class as valedictorian in 1885. During his college
career he took an active interest in every phase of life at the institution and since his
graduation has delivered many addresses before the undergraduates, among them
being one, the commencement address to the class of 1894, on " The Lawyer's Alle-
giance to the Law," and the Phi Beta Kappa address in 1901 on " Some Phases of the
Industrial Question," both of which have been widely quoted. The college course
completed, a position as teacher of Latin and mathematics in the high school of
Burlington, Iowa, was accepted and held for a year, the study of the law occupying all
spare time. With the end m view of eventually becoming a lawyer, Mr. Lowden went
to Chicago in 1886 and secured a position as stenographer in the law office of Dexter,
Herrick & Allen, and in September of the same vear he entered the Union College of
Law, now Northwestern University Law School. He did what arnounted to three
years' work in one at this institution, still holding down his position in the law office,
and graduated in 1887 as valedictorian, receiving at the same time the first prize on
his oration and the first prize for scholarship. His connection with this college has
been kept up since his graduation, and for some time he filled the chair of federal
jurisprudence. In recognition of his services in aid of the school the student assembly-
room in the new professional school building has been named " Lowden Hall." He
has been for several years president of the Alumni Association as well as a member of
the several bar associations and various civic and economic leagues, local and national.
After his admission to the bar Mr. Lowden remained three years with the firm
which first gave him employment in Chicago, and has since been connected in partner-
ship with some of the best lawyers in that city. He has been prominent in politics,
tliough he has never held an;y official position. His name has been prominently con-
nected with many of the civic reform associations of Chicago for several years. He
is also actively interested in farming and in the raising of chickens and live stock on
his large and model farm, " Sinnissippi," near Oregon. Ogle county.
In April, 1896, Mr. Lowden was married to Miss Florence Pullman, and they have
four children ā Pullman, Florence, Harriet Elizabeth and Frances Orren.
During the Spanish-American War, Mr. Lowden was chairman of a citizens' com-
mittee organized for the purpose of caring for soldiers in the field, and in the fall of
1898 he was elected Lieutenant-Colonel of the First Regiment of Illinois Infantry.
At the Republican National Convention, in Tune, 1904. Colonel Lowden was made
National Committeeman for Illinois.
PART ONE: THE CAMPAIGN. 25
of the party to be nominated. Yates, with his handful of dele-
gates, held the balance of power. Hanecy would not go to Reeves
or Carter ; nor would Reeves or Carter go to Hanecy. Rather
than do this, either would prefer to transfer his support to
some man who had not mixed in the war of the factions. But
there was no man of this description available, with the single
exception of Richard Yates, who sat there with his 275 dele-
gates, all " standing pat " and ready to go to the ditch with their
candidate.
Out of this situation came the nomination of Richard Yates in
1900 through the transfer to him of the delegates that were allied
with the Tanner-Hanecy wing of the party. The events attending
that nomination ā ā¢ the change on the third ballot of a Chicago
ward from Carter to Reeves ā the Yates stampede that followed
when Congressman William Lorimer, of Chicago, leader of the
Hanecy forces, leaped upon the platform and frantically waved a
Yates banner ā the rapidly changing votes of the counties that
ended in victory for the young man from Jacksonville ā made
that convention historic. No such convention had ever been held
before in the State of Illinois, and those who witnessed the remark-
able and dramatic proceedings were of the opinion that never
again would they have an opportunity to attend a convention so
replete with thrilling interest.
26 THE BREAKIXG OF THE DEADLOCK.
CHAPTER II.
HOW AND WHEX THE CAAIPAIGN BEGAN ā PRESIDENT
ROOSEVELT IN SPRINGFIELD ā NORTHERN
ILLINOIS MOVEMENT.
The campaign for the Republican nomination for Governor
which cuhiiinated in the convention of 1904 was by far the most
remarkable in the political history of Illinois. It had its beginning
in the summer of 1903. It was practically a foregone conclusion
as early as June of that year that Governor Yates would seek
renomination. As has been shown, not many Governors had
found renomination a thing easily secured. Nearly all had had
to fight for it and to fight hard : and at least two of them had
been unsuccessful in their ambition. Now Governor Yates was
confronted by conditions that to most men would have appeared
discouraging. The factional division of the party which had
started before his election to office had been maintained in a
modified form, and now he found a large element of his party
arrayed against him and determined to defeat his renomination.
The opposition had been increased by the hostile attitude of a
number of Chicago newspapers. He received advice from some
professedly friendly sources that it would be unwise to make a
fight for a second term. But in the face of all this, the resolution
was early reached that whatever might happen he would make a
fight for renomination ā that he would go before the people of the
State and present his case to them, appealing for the vindication of
his official conduct.
Plans for the approaching contest were started before the
close of the session of the Legislature in May, 1903. The fol-
lowers of L. Y. Sherman, then a member of the lower house ā
" The 39," as they came to be called ā had a meeting and pledged
themselves to stand together in the coming campaign. This was
largely a pledge of personal loyalty to Judge Sherman, though
it was not then known whether or not he would become a candi-
date for Governor.
PART OXE: THE CAMPAIGN.
27
HON. CHARLES S. DENEEN.
(CHICAGO.)
CANDID.\Ti FOR GOVERNOR.
Born at Edwardsville, Madison county, Illinois, May 4, 1863. He comes from one
of the oldest families of the State, his grandfather, Risdon Moore, having come to
Illinois in 1812 from Georgia. Mr. Moore was a hero of the Revolutionary War and
removed to Illinois on account of his hostility to slavery. He brought all his slaves
with him when he came north and immediately gave them their freedom and assisted
in establishing them on a self-supporting basis. Mr. Moore was speaker of the House
of Representatives in the Territorial Legislature of 1814 and a member of two subse-
quent Legislatures. In 1823 he was one of two men who signed the minority report
which opposed calling a constitutional convention, the purpose of which was to make
Illinois a slave State.
Charles S. Deneen was educated in the public schools of Lebanon and at McKen-
dree College, where he graduated in the classical course in 1882 and in the law course
(Continued at bottom of next fge.)
28 THE BREAKING OF THE DEADLOCK.
The 4th of June brought to Springfield the President of the
United States, Theodore Roosevelt, who came to participate in
the dedication of the new State Armor}-. The occasion was a
notable one and it attracted to the Capital many of the leading
politicians of the State. In the street parade that day. Senator
Cullom and Governor Yates occupied a carriage with President
Roosevelt : and as they drove through the streets of Springfield
they talked of Illinois politics. The President was impressive
in urging harmony in the party ; he went so far as to say that in
the East. Illinois was regarded as a doubtful State. The Senator
and the Governor, it is said, each pointed to the other as being
responsible for the factional division that then existed. The Gov-
ernor said that his friends were willing to meet the Senator's
friends half way. The Senator said that he had always been for
harmony and for a united party. There was more of the conversa-
tion ; but that was about the nearest approach to an understand-
ing that was reached in the direction of harmony.
The President departed for Washington in the afternoon.
That night the Governor had a meeting with a number of his
political friends at the Executive Mansion. The situation was
talked over. The Governor was not yet ready to make an
announcement of his candidacy, but he gave those present to
understand that they were to regard him as a candidate for
renomination.
GOVERNOR YATES GOES ABROAD.
The Governor, who had not been in robust health since the
previous autumn, had planned a trip abroad, and that night at
(Continued from preceding page.)
in 1885. He is now one of the trustees of his alma mater. After his graduation he
taught school in Jasper and Madison counties, studying law and going to Chicago to
complete his legal education. He attended the Union College of Law (later the
Northwestern Law School), but was unable to complete his course for lack of means.
He went to St. Paul and did work in a law office for nearly a year, returning to
Chicago to accept a position as teacher in one of the night schools. He spent four
years at this work, meanwhile establishing himself in the legal profession. He was
married to Miss Bina Day Maloney in 1891, and they have three children, a son and
two daughters.
Mr. Deneen has represented his ward in the city and county committees of his