n and personal abuse--one of the
most bitter, prolonged, and memorable in the history of the State
--and the question of making Illinois permanently a Slave State
was put to rest by a majority of about two thousand votes. The
census of 1850 was the first that enumerated no slaves in our State.

In this connection I cannot avoid giving a little account of
Frederick Adolphus Hubbard, who was Lieutenant-Governor when Coles
was Governor. Hubbard seemed to be a very ignorant man, but
ambitious to become Governor of the State, or to attain some other
position that would give him reputation.

"It is related of him that while engaged in the trial of a lawsuit,
involving the title to a certain mill owned by Joseph Duncan [who
afterwards became Governor], the opposing counsel, David J. Baker,
then recently from New England, had quoted from Johnson's New York
reports a case strongly against Hubbard's side. Reading reports
of the decisions of courts before juries was a new thing in those
days; and Hubbard, to evade the force of the authority as a precedent,
coolly informed the jury that Johnson was a Yankee clock-peddler,
who had been perambulating up and down the country gathering up
rumors and floating stories against the people of the West, and
had them published in a book under the name of 'Johnson's Reports.'
He indignantly repudiated the book as authority in Illinois, and
clinched the argument by adding: 'Gentlemen of the jury, I am sure
you will not believe anything that comes from that source; and
besides that, what did Johnson know about Duncan's mill anyhow?'"( 1)

Hubbard, in 1826, became a candidate for Governor of Illinois. He
canvassed the State, and the following is a sample of his speeches,
recorded by Ford:

"Fellow-citizens, I offer myself as a candidate before you for the
office of Governor. I do not pretend to be a man of extraordinary
talents, nor do I claim to be equal to Julius Caesar or Napoleon
Bonaparte, nor yet to be as great a man as my opponent, Governor
Edwards. Nevertheless I think I can govern you pretty well. I do
not think it will require a very extraordinary smart man to govern
you; for to tell you the truth, fellow-citizens, I do not believe
you will be very hard to govern, nohow."( 2)

In 1825, Governor Coles notified Lieutenant-Governor Hubbard that
he had occasion to leave the State for a time and required the
latter to take charge of affairs. Hubbard did so, and when Governor