Ninian Edwards (March 17, 1775July 20, 1833) was an American political figure who was prominent in Illinois. He served as the first and only governor of the Illinois Territory from 1809 to until the territory earned statehood in 1818. He was then one of the first two United States senators from the State of Illinois from 1818 to 1824, and the third governor of Illinois from 1826 to 1830. In a time and place where personal coalitions were more influential than parties, Edwards led one of the two main factions in frontier Illinois politics.Richard J. Jensen (1978), Illinois: A History, University of Illinois Press, 27.
Born in Maryland, Edwards began his political career in Kentucky, where he served as a legislator and judge. He rose to the position of Chief Justice of the Kentucky Court of Appeals in 1808, at the time Kentucky's highest court. In 1809, U.S. President James Madison appointed him to govern the newly created Illinois Territory. He held that post for three terms, overseeing the territory's transition first to democratic "second grade" government, and then to statehood in 1818. On its second day in session, the Illinois General Assembly elected Edwards to the U.S. Senate, where conflict with rivals damaged him politically.Robert P. Howard (1988), Mostly Good and Competent Men: Illinois Governors, 1818–1988, Illinois Issues and the Illinois State Historical Society, 33.
Edwards won an unlikely 1826 election to become Governor of Illinois.Howard, 35. Conflict with the legislature over state bank regulations marred Edwards' administration, as did the pursuit of Indian removal. As governor or territorial governor he twice sent Illinois militia against Native Americans, in the War of 1812 and the Winnebago War, and signed treaties for the cession of Native American land. Edwards returned to private life when his term ended in 1830 and died of cholera two years later.
Early life Ninian Edwards was born in 1775 to the prominent Edwards family in Montgomery County, Maryland. His mother, Margaret Beall Edwards, was from another prominent local family. His father Benjamin Edwards served in the Maryland House of Delegates, in Maryland's state ratifying convention for the U.S. Constitution, and in the United States House of Representatives, filling a vacant seat for two months."EDWARDS, Benjamin", Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, Senate Historical Office and House Legislative Resource Center, . Retrieved July 16, 2010. He was of Welsh descent. Ninian was educated by private tutors, one of whom was the future U.S. Attorney General William Wirt. He attended Dickinson College from 1790 to 1792 but did not graduate, leaving college to study law. His son Ninian Wirt Edwards wrote later that Edwards spent some of his time at Dickinson reading medicine, a field to which he devoted considerable time in his later years.Howard, 38.
In 1794, at the age of 19, Edwards moved to Nelson County, Kentucky to manage some family land. He showed a great aptitude for business and leadership and was soon elected to a seat in the Kentucky House of Representatives, before he was even eligible to vote."Ninian Edwards" (n.d.) Encyclopedia Dickinsonia, Dickinson College. . Retrieved July 9, 2010. In 1802 he was awarded the rank of major in the militia. In 1803 he moved to Russellville, Kentucky, and won a succession of public offices: circuit court judge in 1803, presidential elector in 1804 (voting for Thomas Jefferson), and judge and finally chief justice of the Kentucky Court of Appeals, which at the time was Kentucky's highest court. He joined the high court in 1806 and won the leadership position in 1808.Howard, 39.
A well-educated landowning aristocrat, Edwards deliberately cultivated the image of the natural leader. Thomas Ford writes that he continued to dress like an 18th-century gentleman long after such fashions had gone out of style, and that his public speaking was marked by showy eloquence.Thomas Ford, quoted in Howard, 34. Edwards consciously positioned himself in the select class of men who dominated Kentucky and, later, Illinois politics.Jensen, 27. In 1803 in Russellville, Edwards married Elvira Lane, a relative from Maryland.
Territorial governorship
The Illinois Territory was created in 1809. It included all of what today are the states of Wisconsin and Illinois, as well as parts of Minnesota and Michigan. Its European-American and African-American populations were almost entirely concentrated in the south, in the region later known as Egypt. President James Madison first appointed Kentucky politician John Boyle as its governor. Boyle collected his salary for the position for 21 days but then resigned to take Edwards' job as Kentucky Chief Justice, while friends in Washington helped secure Edwards' appointment as territorial governor. In the meantime, Territorial Secretary Nathaniel Pope, a cousin of Edwards, had to assume the powers of acting governor, creating Illinois' first counties and appointing officials to form the new government.Howard, 39–40. Only 34 years old at the time of his appointment, Ninian Edwards is the youngest man ever to govern Illinois as either a state or a territory.
Edwards settled in the American Bottom on land he received as a grant upon his appointment as governor. He named his new farm Elvirade, after his wife. Along with his family, Edwards brought a number of slaves, whom he did not free even though the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 had made slavery illegal in the territory. An 1803 "Law Concerning Servants" had been promulgated for the Indiana Territory by then-Governor William Henry Harrison that maintained the status of people brought into the territory "under contract to serve another in any trade or occupation." The law, which remained in force in the Illinois territory, permitted slavery to persist for decades under the guise of indentured servitude.Solon J. Buck (1917), Illinois in 1818, University of Illinois Press, 185. Ed. Bill Thayer, . Retrieved July 9, 2010; Hammond, J.C., (2007), Slavery, Freedom, and Expansion in the Early American West. Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia Press, Jeffersonian America Series. Most of Illinois' early governors were slaveowners, and Edwards was no exception. In 1812, Edwards offered for sale, "several likely young negro men and women." Later, he made extra income by renting some of his "indentured servants" out for labor in Missouri. In 1814, he "sold my mulatto boy slave named Wallace now in possession of Harry of Ste. Genevieve Missouri Territory to Theodore Hunt. In 1815, he was seeking to sell his "Mulatto Boy" for $400.Howard, 34' Missouri Gazette, Dec. 12, 1812; 1814 May 25 Bill of Sale Between Ninian Edwards and Theodore Hunt for Enslaved child Wallace, May 25, 1814, Lucas Collection, Missouri History Museum, Archives; Thomas Forsyth (St. Louis) to Governor Edwards, in Clarence E. Carter, ed., The Territorial Papers of the United States, 17:260
The new territorial governor was sworn in on June 11, 1809.Ninian W. Edwards (1870), History of Illinois, from 1778 to 1833; and Life and Times of Ninian Edwards, Illinois State Journal Company, 27. Google Books, . Retrieved August 3, 2010. At first Edwards tried to avoid partisanship but soon found that faction was an inevitable result of his power to appoint officials and distribute government jobs.Howard,40. Although the First Party System continued to define national politics, the Federalist and Republican Parties never took hold in frontier Illinois. Rather, factional loyalties were created by personality, personal bonds such as kinship and militia service, and especially the distribution of patronage.Jensen, 27–28. In the early territorial years, two rival factions grew up around Edwards and Judge Jesse B. Thomas.Buck, 193. These two factions formed Illinois' political landscape during its time as a territory and for its first several years of statehood.Howard, 24; Buck, 206.
Democratic government Throughout Edwards' three terms as governor, he showed a willingness to surrender his own considerable powers in order to expand participatory government in the Illinois Territory. Before 1812, while Illinois had a first-grade territorial status, Edwards had vast powers to appoint county and local officials; however, he made it his practice to consider local opinion as much as he could when making appointments, often giving weight to petitions signed by local residents.Buck, 194. He attempted to do the same for militia officers for a time, letting the men of a unit elect their leaders, but he soon abandoned this policy as impractical.Howard, 40.
In 1812, Edwards successfully persuaded Congress to modify a provision of the 1787 Ordinance limiting voting rights to freeholders of of land. Due to long-running disputes over fraudulently sold lands, very few Illinois frontiersmen could qualify. At Edwards' urging, Congress granted the Illinois Territory universal white male suffrage, making it the most democratic U.S. territory at the time.Howard, 41. In April, Edwards held a referendum on moving to second-grade government, allowing the people of Illinois to elect a legislature and a non-voting delegate to Congress. The referendum passed, and elections were held in October that sent Shadrach Bond to Washington as Illinois' first congressional delegate.Buck, 195.
War of 1812 Edwards had not been governor long when Illinois became the scene of fighting during the War of 1812. Relations between Illinois settlers and Native Americans worsened throughout the territory during 1810 and 1811. By June 1811, Governor Edwards ordered the construction of a series of blockhouses and called out three companies of militia.Holden, Robert J. (2004). "Edwards, Ninian," Encyclopedia of the War of 1812, ed. Stephen Heidler and Jeanne T. Heidler, Naval Institute Press, 163. Google Books, . Retrieved August 14, 2011.
This action was the result of tensions that were created from a brutal murder that occurred on June 2, 1811, at a settlement cabin two miles northeast of Pocahontas, Illinois. Three Potawatomi Natives stormed the home and found twenty-year-old Elijah Cox and his younger sister, Rebecca. The assailants sliced the scalp from Elijah and removed his heart. The raiding party was looking for money after a failed raid on the nearby tribe of Osage. The men captured Rebecca, robbed the home and set out north for tribal controlled lands. A militia was sent to intercede and rescued Rebecca shortly south of Springfield. One more violent interaction occurred prior to the end of the month to stoke the flames of war. On June 20, 1811, in what is now Lower Alton, five Menominee Natives approached two locals, Price and Ellis. Price, believing the Natives to be friendly allowed them into their camp. Unfortunately, Price was killed; Ellis was able to escape on horse to the Wood River settlement. These murders brought panic to frontier families and fueled unfounded rumors of more murder and mayhem in the territory. This fear did result in the death of at least one Native chief. A group of five Potawatomi Natives were traveling down river at Alton when they were viewed by Michael Squires, a ferry operator. He opened fire on the group when they approached too closely.Ferguson, Gillum. (2012). Illinois in the War of 1812. Urbana, Chicago, Springfield: University of Illinois Press. p. 31-32