s return to Belleville a year or two later, Bennett was immediately
arrested, placed upon trial, convicted, and executed.

In more than one instance, at a later day, while well-known
Illinoisans have been parties to actual or prospective duels, no
instance has occurred of a hostile meeting of that character within
the limits of the State. A late auditor of public account, but
recently deceased, killed his antagonist in a duel with rifles
nearly half a century ago in California.

William I. Ferguson, one of the most brilliant orators Illinois
has known, in early professional life the associate of men who have
since achieved national distinction, fell in a duel while a member
of the State Senate in California.

During the sitting of the Illinois Constitutional Convention of
1847, two of its prominent members, Campbell and Pratt, delegates from
the northern tier of counties, became involved in a bitter personal
controversy which resulted in a challenge by Pratt to mortal combat.
The challenge was accepted and the principals with their seconds repaired
to the famous "Bloody Island" in the Mississippi, when by the
interposition of friends a peaceable settlement was effected. The sequel
to this happily averted duel was the incorporation in the Constitution,
then in process of formulation, of a provision prohibiting duelling in
the State, and attaching severe penalties to sending or accepting
a challenge.

The earliest hostile meeting of Illinoisans was upon the island
last mentioned before State organization had been effected. The
principals were young men of well-known courage and ability--one
of whom, Shadrack Bond, upon the admission of Illinois was elected
its Governor. His adversary, John Rice Jones, was the first lawyer
to locate in the Illinois country, and was the brother of the second
of the unfortunate Cilley in the tragic encounter already related.
The late Governor Bissell of Illinois was once challenged by
Jefferson Davis. Both were at the time members of Congress, and
the _casus belli_ was language reflecting upon the conduct of some
of the participants in the then recently fought battle of Buena
Vista. After the acceptance of the challenge, mutual friends of
Davis and Bissell effected a reconciliation, just before the hour set
for the hostile meeting.

So far as Illinois combatants are concerned, the historic island
mentioned above has little claim to its bloody designation, inasmuch
as the "affair