Black Republican State Convention of Illinois.2

Your readers would probably like to know something about the abolition convention, which met, at this place yesterday, for the purpose of nominating their candidates for the different state offices, and appointing presidential electors and delegates to the Philadelphia convention. They would, also, perhaps like to know who were there, and what they did &c. [etc.] We will tell them a part of what was done.

On Wednesday evening quite a number arrived on the different trains, among’st whom we noticed Messrs. [Messieurs] Lovejoy, Codding, Lincoln, Yates, Wentworth, Palmer, Browning, Williams, Washburne and Norton, the two last named being members of congress.

In the evening a meeting was held in front of Pike House, and several speeches were made. The speakers were Lincoln, Washburne, Palmer, Swett, Lovejoy and Wentworth.

Lincoln led off; said he did’nt expect to make a speech then; that he had prepared himself for one, but ’twas not suitable at that time; but that after awhile he would make them a most excellent one. Notwithstanding, he kept on speaking, told his old story about the fence (meaning Missouri restriction) being torn down and the cattle eating up the crops,3 then talked about the outrages in Kansas; said a man could’t think, dream or breathe of a free state there, but what he was kicked, cuffed, shot down and hung; he then got very pathetic over poor Delahay and Tom Shoemaker. By the way, Mr. Register, I wonder if any one in this community knows Delahay and Shoemaker;4 if so we pass them and also Lincoln’s speech, and come next to that of Washburne, which was celebrated only for the vehement and uproarious manner with which it was delivered. Then came Mr Palmer, one of the new converts, who like all other young beginners in the cause, showed his devotion to it by the zeal he manifested.5 He was exceedingly witty, told several stories &c.; said he was in the same predicament— with the democrats on one side and the k. n.’s on the other— that the darkey was when he heard the preacher say there were but two roads, one leading to hell, the other to damnation; “then,” said Mr. Palmer, “this nigger takes to the woods,” and we suppose from the woods he wil take to Africa. Codding and Lovejoy were next called, a loud cry was made for Lovejoy, but the leaders were afraid to let Mr. Lovejoy speak for fear of damaging the cause.6 One or two called for Swett, who immediately made his appearance, and said that he expected to be excused from making a speech in his own town, upon the plea of “the poor ye have with ye always.” We regarded his speech as a lame affair and thought, with him, that if all others there were like him, they certainly had the poor with them always.7

After Swett’s speech, another call was made for Lovejoy, when Mr. Arny, who seemed to be grand officer of the proceedings,8 said that ’twas time for the meeting to adjourn, but he was cried down, and Lovejey again called for; “we must have him” said the crowd. He then appeared amid great cheering, made but few remarks, and retired.9 John Wentworth was then called upon who made a long speech, the whole of which was directed against Judge Douglas personally. He said Douglas married two hundred negroes down south; that he wanted to extend slavery to make them more valuable, for the purpose of putting money in his pocket, and consequently introduced the Nebraska-bill.10 He (Wentworth) also said— which should be taken notice of by every one who desires to see the Union lost— that “so far as we are concerned, the Union might as well be dissolved,” “if one portion are going to rule over another, it ought to be.”

Thus ended the entertainment on Wednesday evening. It was quite late when the crowd dispersed.11