Edward Coles
|
Edward Coles
|
|
|---|---|
 |
|
| 2nd Governor of Illinois | |
| In office December 5, 1822 – December 6, 1826 |
|
| Preceded by | Shadrach Bond |
| Succeeded by | Ninian Edwards |
| Personal details | |
| Born | December 15, 1786 Albemarle County, Virginia |
| Died | July 7, 1868 (aged 81) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |
| Political party | Independent |
| Spouse(s) | Sally Logan Roberts (1809 to 1883) |
| Alma mater | College of William and Mary |
| Signature |  |
Edward Coles (December 15, 1786 – July 7, 1868) manumitted his slaves in 1819, was secretary to James Madison (1810 to 1815), neighbor and anti-slavery associate of Thomas Jefferson and was the second Governor of Illinois, serving from 1822 to 1826. He is credited with leading a political campaign that was successful in preventing the legitimization of slavery in the Illinois constitution. His brothers-in-law were John Rutherfoord, who served as governor of Virginia, and Andrew Stevenson, who served as Speaker of the United States House of Representatives and American minister to the United Kingdom. He corresponded with and advised both Thomas Jefferson and James Madison to free their slaves. He inherited a plantation and slaves from his father but because he was opposed to slavery journeyed to Illinois to set them free.
Contents |
Early years [edit]
Edward Coles was born (December 15, 1786) at Enniscorthy, a plantation in Albemarle County (central Virginia). He was the youngest male among ten surviving children of John (1745–1808) and Rebecca (1750–1826) Coles. His schooling included terms at Hampden-Sydney College (Hampden-Sydney, Virginia) and the College of William and Mary (Williamsburg, Virginia), remaining there until the summer of 1807. While at William and Mary, Coles was strongly influenced by the enlightenment ideals taught by the Rev. James Madison (fist Episcopal Bishop of the Diocese of Virginia and President of the College). He determined not to be a slaveholder and not to live where slavery was accepted and kept these views from his father. This subterfuge ensured that he would receive slaves through inheritance, thus providing him with the opportunity to give freedom.[1][2]
When his father died in 1808, Coles received 12 slaves and a 782-acre plantation farm on the Rockfish River, (Nelson County, Virginia). Coles revealed his views to his family, resulting in a stressful family controversy.[3] Coles’ early plan to free his slaves in Virginia was abandoned as he sorted through the legal, social and practical challenges posed by Virginia law and family resistance. He placed his plantation for sale and began to plan for a move to the west, but at the request of his family he kept his plans secret from his slaves.
Service in the White House [edit]
Some months after taking office President James Madison invited Coles to fill the role of private secretary where he served from January 1810 to March 1815. Among other things his duties involved the copying of the president's official correspondence into the national archives.[4] (Dolley Madison was Coles’ first cousin and Edward’s brother, Isaac Coles, had been secretary to both Thomas Jefferson and James Madison during their administrations.) He had a good relationship with Madison, with whom he would often speak with "perfect candor" and as such formed a lasting admiration for the president. It was while he was secretary when he initiated correspondence with Thomas Jefferson over the issue of slavery.[5]
Coles' term as secretary delayed his plans to free his slaves. He gained political experience as a Madison advisor, served as Madison’s primary emissary to Congress and managed much of the patronage flowing from the executive branch. A tour of northeast states in 1811 brought him in contact with John Adams, the result of which was the start of warming relation between Adams and Thomas Jefferson.[6] After the War of 1812 Coles toured the Northwest Territory (Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois) in June 1815 in search of land he could purchase and use as a settlement that would be suitable for a home for himself and a place for the slaves he still proposed to free.[7]
Correspondence with Jefferson [edit]
In 1814 Coles wrote a letter to his Albemarle County neighbor Thomas Jefferson, asking the former President to once again embark on a campaign of emancipation and publicly work for an end to slavery in Virginia.[8] Jefferson’s response has become a signal document in the study of Jefferson’s troubling and complex relationship with the institution of slavery.[9] At age 71 and generally retired from politics and because Virginia law did not allow for emancipation of slaves, Jefferson declined Cole’s request, advising his young friend and associate to stay in Virginia to help in the long-term demise of slavery. Coles’ disappointment is clear in his return letter of September 26, 1814.[10] [11][12]
Coles was delayed again in fulfilling his covenant with freedom by a diplomatic trip to Russia (1816–1817) at the request of President Madison. Returning to America, Coles embarked on a second reconnaissance mission to the Northwest Territories (1818) and participated in the Illinois Constitutional Convention at Kaskaskia.[13][14]
| Correspondence between Edward Coles and Thomas Jefferson, 1814 |
|---|
|
July 31, 1814 Washington Dear Sir, I never took up my pen with more hesitation or felt more embarrassment than I now do in addressing you on the subject of this letter. The fear of appearing presumptuous distresses me, and would deter me from venturing thus to call your attention to a subject of such magnitude, and so beset with difficulties, as that of a general emancipation of the Slaves of Virginia, had I not the highest opinion of your goodness and liberality, in not only excusing me for the liberty I take, but in justly appreciating my motives in doing so. I will not enter on the right which man has to enslave his Brother man, nor upon the moral and political effects of Slavery on individuals or on Society; because these things are better understood by you than by me. My object is to entreat and beseech you to exert your knowledge and influence, in devising, and getting into operation, some plan for the gradual emancipation of Slavery. This difficult task could be less exceptionably, and more successfully performed by the revered Fathers of all our political and social blessings, than by any succeeding statesmen; and would seem to come with peculiar propriety and force from those whose valor wisdom and virtue have done so much in meliorating the condition of mankind. And it is a duty, as I conceive, that devolves particularly on you, from your known philosophical and enlarged view of subjects, and from the principles you have professed and practiced through a long and useful life, preeminently distinguished, as well by being foremost in establishing on the broadest basis the rights of man, and the liberty and independence of your Country, as in being throughout honored with the most important trusts by your fellow-citizens, whose confidence and love you have carried with you into the shades of old age and retirement. In the calm of this retirement you might, most beneficially to society, and with much addition to your own fame, avail yourself of that love and confidence to put into complete practice those hallowed principles contained in that renowned Declaration, of which you were the immortal author, and on which we bottomed our right to resist oppression, and establish our freedom and independence. I hope that the fear of failing, at this time, will have no influence in preventing you from employing your pen to eradicate this most degrading feature of British Colonial policy, which is still permitted to exist, notwithstanding its repugnance as well to the principles of our revolution as to our free Institutions. For however highly prized and influential your opinions may now be, they will be still much more so when you shall have been snatched from us by the course of nature. If therefore your attempt should now fail to rectify this unfortunate evil—an evil most injurious both to the oppressed and to the oppressor—at some future day when your memory will be consecrated by a grateful posterity, what influence, irresistible influence will the opinions and writings of Thomas Jefferson have on all questions connected with the rights of man, and of that policy which will be the creed of your disciples. Permit me then, my dear Sir, again to intreat you to exert your great powers of mind and influence, and to employ some of your present leisure, in devising a mode to liberate one half of our Fellowbeings from an ignominious bondage to the other; either by making an immediate attempt to put in train a plan to commence this goodly work, or to leave human Nature the invaluable Testament—which you are so capable of doing—how best to establish its rights: So that the weight of your opinion may be on the side of emancipation when that question shall be agitated, and that it will be sooner or later is most certain—That it may be soon is my most ardent prayer—that it will be rests with you. I will only add, as an excuse for the liberty I take in addressing you on this subject, which is so particularly interesting to me; that from the time I was capable of reflecting on the nature of political society, and of the rights appertaining to Man, I have not only been principled against Slavery, but have had feelings so repugnant to it, as to decide me not to hold them; which decision has forced me to leave my native state, and with it all my relations and friends. This I hope will be deemed by you some excuse for the liberty of this intrusion, of which I gladly avail myself to assure you of the very great respect and esteem with which I am, my dear Sir, your every sincere and devoted friend
August 25, 1814 Monticello DEAR SIR,-- Your favour of July 31, was duly received, and was read with peculiar pleasure. The sentiments breathed through the whole do honor to both the head and heart of the writer. Mine on the subject of slavery of negroes have long since been in possession of the public, and time has only served to give them stronger root. The love of justice and the love of country plead equally the cause of these people, and it is a moral reproach to us that they should have pleaded it so long in vain, and should have produced not a single effort, nay I fear not much serious willingness to relieve them & ourselves from our present condition of moral & political reprobation. From those of the former generation who were in the fulness of age when I came into public life, which was while our controversy with England was on paper only, I soon saw that nothing was to be hoped. Nursed and educated in the daily habit of seeing the degraded condition, both bodily and mental, of those unfortunate beings, not reflecting that that degradation was very much the work of themselves & their fathers, few minds have yet doubted but that they were as legitimate subjects of property as their horses and cattle. The quiet and monotonous course of colonial life has been disturbed by no alarm, and little reflection on the value of liberty. And when alarm was taken at an enterprize on their own, it was not easy to carry them to the whole length of the principles which they invoked for themselves. In the first or second session of the Legislature after I became a member, I drew to this subject the attention of Col. Bland, one of the oldest, ablest, & most respected members, and he undertook to move for certain moderate extensions of the protection of the laws to these people. I seconded his motion, and, as a younger member, was more spared in the debate; but he was denounced as an enemy of his country, & was treated with the grossest indecorum. From an early stage of our revolution other & more distant duties were assigned to me, so that from that time till my return from Europe in 1789, and I may say till I returned to reside at home in 1809, I had little opportunity of knowing the progress of public sentiment here on this subject. I had always hoped that the younger generation receiving their early impressions after the flame of liberty had been kindled in every breast, & had become as it were the vital spirit of every American, that the generous temperament of youth, analogous to the motion of their blood, and above the suggestions of avarice, would have sympathized with oppression wherever found, and proved their love of liberty beyond their own share of it. But my intercourse with them, since my return has not been sufficient to ascertain that they had made towards this point the progress I had hoped. Your solitary but welcome voice is the first which has brought this sound to my ear; and I have considered the general silence which prevails on this subject as indicating an apathy unfavorable to every hope. Yet the hour of emancipation is advancing, in the march of time. It will come; and whether brought on by the generous energy of our own minds; or by the bloody process of St Domingo, excited and conducted by the power of our present enemy, if once stationed permanently within our Country, and offering asylum & arms to the oppressed, is a leaf of our history not yet turned over. As to the method by which this difficult work is to be effected, if permitted to be done by ourselves, I have seen no proposition so expedient on the whole, as that as emancipation of those born after a given day, and of their education and expatriation after a given age. This would give time for a gradual extinction of that species of labour & substitution of another, and lessen the severity of the shock which an operation so fundamental cannot fail to produce. For men probably of any color, but of this color we know, brought from their infancy without necessity for thought or forecast, are by their habits rendered as incapable as children of taking care of themselves, and are extinguished promptly wherever industry is necessary for raising young. In the mean time they are pests in society by their idleness, and the depredations to which this leads them. Their amalgamation with the other color produces a degradation to which no lover of his country, no lover of excellence in the human character can innocently consent. I am sensible of the partialities with which you have looked towards me as the person who should undertake this salutary but arduous work. But this, my dear sir, is like bidding old Priam to buckle the armour of Hector "trementibus aequo humeris et inutile ferruncingi." No, I have overlived the generation with which mutual labors & perils begat mutual confidence and influence. This enterprise is for the young; for those who can follow it up, and bear it through to its consummation. It shall have all my prayers, & these are the only weapons of an old man. But in the mean time are you right in abandoning this property, and your country with it? I think not. My opinion has ever been that, until more can be done for them, we should endeavor, with those whom fortune has thrown on our hands, to feed and clothe them well, protect them from all ill usage, require such reasonable labor only as is performed voluntarily by freemen, & be led by no repugnancies to abdicate them, and our duties to them. The laws do not permit us to turn them loose, if that were for their good: and to commute them for other property is to commit them to those whose usage of them we cannot control. I hope then, my dear sir, you will reconcile yourself to your country and its unfortunate condition; that you will not lessen its stock of sound disposition by withdrawing your portion from the mass. That, on the contrary you will come forward in the public councils, become the missionary of this doctrine truly Christian; insinuate & inculcate it softly but steadily, through the medium of writing and conversation; associate others in your labors, and when the phalanx is formed, bring on and press the proposition perseveringly until its accomplishment. It is an encouraging observation that no good measure was ever proposed, which, if duly pursued, failed to prevail in the end. We have proof of this in the history of the endeavors in the English parliament to suppress that very trade which brought this evil on us. And you will be supported by the religious precept, "be not weary in well-doing." That your success may be as speedy & complete, as it will be of honorable & immortal consolation to yourself, I shall as fervently and sincerely pray as I assure you of my great friendship and respect.
September 26, 1814 Washington Dear Sir, I must be permitted again to trouble you, my dear Sir, to return my grateful thanks for the respectful and friendly attention shown to my letter in your answer of the 25th ulto. Your favorable reception of sentiments not generally avowed if felt by our Countrymen, but which have ever been so inseparably interwoven with my opinions and feelings as to become as it were the rudder that shapes my course even against a strong tide of interest and of local partialities, could not but be in the highest degree gratifying to me. And your interesting and highly prized letter, conveying them to me in such flattering terms, would have been called forth my acknowledgments before this but for its having been forwarded to me to the Springs, and from thence it was again returned here before I received it, which was only a few days since. Your indulgent treatment encourages me to add—that I feel very sensibly the force of your remarks on the impropriety of yielding to my repugnancies in abandoning my property in Slaves and my native State. I certainly should never have been inclined to yield to them if I had supposed myself capable of being instrumental in bringing about a liberation, or that I could by my example meliorate the condition of these oppressed people. If I could be convinced of being in the slightest degree useful in doing either, it would afford me very great happiness, and the more so as it would enable me to gratify many partialities by remaining in Virginia. But never having flattered myself with the hope of being able to contribute to either, I have long since determined, and should, but for my bad health ere this, have removed, carrying along with me those who had been my Slaves, to the Country North West of the river Ohio. Your prayers I trust will not only be heard with indulgence in Heaven, but with influence on earth. But I cannot agree with you that they are the only weapons of one at your age, nor that the difficult work of cleansing the escutchion of Virginia of the foul stain of slavery can best be done by the young. To effect so great and difficult an object great and extensive powers both of mind and influence are required, which can never be possessed in so great a degree by the young as by the old. And among the few of the former who might unite the disposition with the re-quisite capacity, they are too often led by ambitious views to go with the current of popular feeing, rather than to mark out a course for themselves, where they might be buffetted by the waves of opposition; and indeed it is feared these waves would in this case be too strong to be effectually resisted, by any but those who had gained by a previous course of useful employment the firmest footing in the confidence and attachment of their Country. It is with them, therefore, I am persuaded, that the subject of emancipation must originate; for they are the only persons who have it in their power effectually to arouse and enlighten the public sentiment, which in matters of this kind ought not to be expected to lead but to be led; nor ought it to be wondered at that there should prevail a degree of apathy with the general mass of mankind, where a mere passive principle of right has to contend against the weighty influence of habit and interest. On such a question there will always exist in society a kind of vis inertia, to arouse and overcome which require a strong impulse, which can only be given by those who have acquired a great weight of character, and on whom there devolves in this case a most solemn obligation. It was under these impressions that I looked to you, my dear sir, as the first of our aged worthies, to awaken our fellow Citizens from their infatuation to a proper sense of Justice and to the true interest of their country, and by proposing a system for the gradual emancipation of our Slaves, at once to form a rallying point for its friends, who enlightened by your wisdom and experience, and supported and encouraged by your sanction and patronage, might look forward to a propitious and happy result. Your time of life I had not considered as an obstacle to the undertaking. Doctor Franklin, to whom, by the way, Pennsylvania owes her early riddance of the evils of Slavery, was as actively and as usefully employed on as arduous duties after he had past your age as he had ever been at any period of his life. With apologizing for having give you so much trouble on this subject, and again repeating my thanks for the respectful and flattering attention you have been pleased to pay to it, I renew the assurances of the great respect and regard which makes me most sincerely
|
Manumission of slaves [edit]
Coles having deep moral objections to slavery planned to manumit the slaves he inherited from his father and so embarked from his plantation in April 1819; his 17 slaves (6 adults; 11 children) traveled separately by wagon. They met at Brownsville, Pennsylvania, where the party boarded a pair of flatboats and began a water-bound journey north to Pittsburgh, then west along the Ohio River toward Illinois. Coles had let the slaves ride on ahead, none of them knowing his plans to free them at that time.[15] While descending the Ohio River Coles selected a point west of Pittsburgh to announce to his slaves their immediate freedom and also his plan to provide land to each head of a family.[16][17][18] The scene is captured in a biographical letter written by Coles some 25 years later.[19] It is also the subject of a mural in the first floor (south hall) of the Illinois State Capitol. Coles gave each head of family 160 acres (0.65 km2) of land.[20] The Coles party arrived in Edwardsville, Illinois, early in May 1819.[21] Coles provided employment and other ongoing support for those he had freed. He had been granted the position of Register of Lands by President James Monroe (also a neighbor of Coles from Albemarle County, Virginia) and served in that capacity from 1819 through 1822.[22]
Coles’ term as Governor [edit]
Edward Coles ran for governor in the election of 1822.[23] He won the election by a very tight margin. Coles’ inaugural address included a clear call for the end of slavery in Illinois and revision of the Black Code.[24] A proslavery faction had hoped to strengthen the legality of slavery in the new state of Illinois; Coles’ bold call for an end to slavery stiffened their resolve and led to a rancorous legislative effort (the Shaw-Hansen Affair)[25] to force passage of a bill approving a referendum to hold a constitutional convention. Governor Edward Coles led the opposition to the convention, recognizing it as a dishonest attempt to more clearly legalize slavery in the state. He committed the entirety of his income as governor to the project and led a committee of anti-slavery citizens and legislators in a public campaign to defeat the call for a constitutional convention. The resulting 18-month political struggle resulted in defeat of the proposal.
After his term as Governor had expired Coles retired to his farm outside of Edwardsville and became involved in agricultural pursuits, organizing the first State Agricultural Society in Illinois. Coles made his last appearance in State politics in 1831 and became a canddidate for Congress, running against Sidney Breese and Joseph Duncan, however Jacksnan sentiment being strong in that state Coles lost the election to Duncan.[26]
Assists Madison in manumitting slaves [edit]
Coles ran for the U.S. Senate in the election of 1831 but had been out of public view for some years and was unwilling to align himself with any political party. He lost the election and decided to leave the state. At the end of 1831, while visiting James and Dolley Madison at Montpelier (Orange County, Virginia), Madison confided in Coles his wish to manumit his own slaves and called on Coles’ experience in trying to sort out the challenge of finding the right way in which to do this. Madison had died without freeing any of his slaves qwhich were left in a will to his wife Dolley. Believing that Madison had committed to freeing his slaves in his will, Coles was devastated when, after the passing of James Madison, the terms of the will were made known and the slaves had not been freed but passed to his wife, Dolley Madison, who was also Coles' cousin.[27][28]
Later years [edit]
Edward Coles married Sally Logan Roberts (1809 to 1883) on November 28, 1833. Sally Coles bore three children, Mary Coles, Edward Coles, Jr., and Roberts Coles (who died during the Civil War at the Battle of Roanoke Island, February 8, 1862). Coles was recognized as one of the few remaining men with close personal knowledge of both Madison and Jefferson and burnished their reputations as champions of the republican ideals that had motivated Coles during his entire life.[29]
Edward Coles died at the age of eighty two in his home in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on July 7, 1868.[30]
Legacy [edit]
Edward Coles was among the very few slaveholders who manumitted his slaves entirely as a testament to the republican ethos that was at the heart of the American enlightenment. His efforts to end slavery in Illinois were decisive in setting that state on a slow road toward greater racial justice. He is also noteworthy for his attempts to pressure Thomas Jefferson to work for the end of slavery in Virginia and James Madison to free his slaves.
Coles County, Illinois was named for him. An elementary school on the south side of Chicago is also named after him.
The Governor Coles State Memorial, dedicated to Coles, is located in Edwardsville, Illinois
Footnotes [edit]
- ^ Document:Coles, Edward. "Autobiography." April 1844. Coles Collection, Historical Society of Pennsylvania
- ^ Washburne, 1882 Chapter II, p.16
- ^ Document:Coles, Edward. "Autobiography." April 1844. Coles Collection, Historical Society of Pennsylvania
- ^ Washburne, 1882 pp.9-10, 19, 38
- ^ Washburne, 1882 p.21
- ^ Document:Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Rush, December 5, 1811, in Ford, Writings of Thomas jefferson, 298.
- ^ Norton, 1920 p.12
- ^ Document:Edward Coles to Thomas Jefferson, July 31, 1814, E. Coles Papers, Princeton University Library
- ^ Document:Thomas Jefferson to Edward Coles, August 25, 1814, E. Coles papers, Princeton University Library
- ^ Document:Edward Coles to Thomas Jefferson, September 26, 1814, E. Coles Papers, Princeton University Library
- ^ Crawford, 2008 pp.98-106
- ^ Washburne, 1882 pp.21-31
- ^ Washburne, 1882 pp.38-39
- ^ Norton, 1920 pp.10-11
- ^ Res, 2006 p.12
- ^ Leichtle, 2011 pp.60-52
- ^ Washburne, 1882 pp.47-49
- ^ Bateman, 1918 p.110
- ^ Document:"The Emancipation of the Slaves of Edward Coles." October 1827, Folder 21, Box 3, Coles Family Papers, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.
- ^ Bateman, 1918 p.259
- ^ Washburne, 1882 pp.44-46
- ^ Washburne, 1882 pp.54-55
- ^ Washburne, 1882 p.92
- ^ Washburne, 1882 pp.238-239
- ^ Document:"The Shaw-Hansen Election Contest." Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society. Vol. 7, No. 4, Jan., 1915
- ^ Norton, 1920 p.271
- ^ Leichtle, 2011 pp.161-162
- ^ Document:Edward Coles to James Madison, January 8, 1832, folder 30, box 1, E. Coles Papers, Princeton University Library.
- ^ Document:Guasco, Suzanne Cooper. "Mamging Memory: The Cultivation of Elite Authority in Jacksonian America." paper presention, annual conference, Society for Historians of the Early American Republic (SHEAR) Conference, Buffalo, NY July 20–23, 2000.
- ^ Washburne, 1882 p.248
Bibliography [edit]
- Bateman, Newton; Selby, Paul (1918). Historical encyclopedia of Illinois, Volume 1.
Munsell Pub. Co., Chicago. p. 621. Url
- Crawford, Alan Pell (2008). Twilight at Monticello: The Final Years of Thomas Jefferson.
Random House Digital, Inc. p. 352. Url
- Leichtle, K.E.; Carveth,, Bruce G. (2011). Crusade Against Slavery: Edward Coles, Pioneer of Freedom.
Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press. p. 268. ISBN 9780809389445. Url
- Norton, Wilbur Theodore (1911). Edward Coles: Second Governor of Illinois. 1786-1868.
Washington Square Press. p. 30. Url
- Res, David (2006). Gov. Edward Coles and the Vote to Forbid Slavery in Illinois, 1823–1824.
McFarland Publishers. Jefferson, NC. p. 203. ISBN 9780786426393. Url
- Washburne, Elihu Benjamin (1882). Sketch of Edward Coles.
Negro Universities Press. p. 253. Url
Further reading
- Alvord, Clarence Walworth, Ed., Kaskaskia records, 1778-1790, Volume 19 (1909).
- The Trustees of the Illinois State Historical Library, pp.681, Url
- —— (1920). Governor Edward Coles
Springfield, IL: Illinois State Historical Library, Url - Coles, Edward, (1856). History of the Ordinance of 1787, (primary source) Historical Society of Pennsylvania, pp. 33, Url
External links [edit]
- The Coles Family papers, containing correspondence, various papers and materials belonging to Edward Coles, are available for research use at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
- Edward Coles, Patrician Emancipator
- Governor Edward Coles Fellowship – Illinois Human Rights Commission
- Edward Coles at Find a Grave
See also [edit]
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Shadrach Bond |
Governor of Illinois 1822–1826 |
Succeeded by Ninian Edwards |
