l, involuntary, hereditary slavery."

[23]The church, properly speaking, never entered politics, but
presently, when it became strong, the members all formed what they
called "The Illinois Anti-Slavery League," and it was this body that
conducted the anti-slavery contest. It always kept one of its members
and several of its friends in the Territorial Legislature, and five
years before the constitutional election in 1818 it had fifty resident
agents--men of like sympathies--in the several settlements throughout
the territory quietly at work, and the masterly manner in which they
did their duty was shown by a poll which they made of the voters some
few weeks before the election, which, on their side only varied a few
votes from the official count after the election. [17]With people
familiar with all the circumstances there is no divergence of views
but that the organization of the Bethel Church and its masterly
anti-slavery contest saved Illinois to freedom; but much of the credit
of the freedom of Illinois, as well as for the balance of the
territory, was due to Thomas Jefferson's faithful and efficient aid.
True to his promise to Mr. Lemen that slavery should {p.37} never
prevail in the Northwestern Territory or any part of it, he quietly
directed his leading confidential friends in Congress to steadily
defeat Gen. Harrison's pro-slavery petitions for the repeal of the
anti-slavery clause in the Ordinance of 1787, and his friendly aid to
Rev. James Lemen, Sr., and friends made the anti-slavery contest of
Bethel Church a success in saving the state to freedom.

In the preparation of this history, to insure perfect reliability and
a well-connected statement, I have examined, selected, and read the
numerous family notes myself, dictating, while my secretary has done
the writing, and after all was completed we made another critical
comparison with all the notes to insure perfect accuracy and
trustworthiness.

I have had one copy prepared for Rev. James Lemen, Jr., and one for
myself. I should have added that of the one hundred dollars of the
Jefferson funds given him Rev. James Lemen, Sr., used none for his
family, but it was all used for other good causes, as it was not Mr.
Lemen's intention to appropriate any of it for his own uses when he
accepted it from Jefferson's confidential agent in Virginia.

III. "HOW ILLINOIS GOT CHICAGO"

(Communication from Joseph B. Lemen, under head of "Voice of the
Peo