Edward Coles was born on December 15, 1786 on a plantation, “Enniscorthy, ” in Albemarle County, Virginia, United States. His father, Colonel John Coles, who was a slaveholder and of good family, had served in the Revolution and enjoyed the friendship of many of the foremost Virginia statesmen of the time.
Edward was given an exceptional education and training, even for an aristocratic Virginian of that period. After being prepared by private tutors, he first attended Hampden-Sidney College, and later William and Mary, where he failed to graduate, however, owing to a physical injury.
From 1809 to 1815 Coles served as private secretary to President Madison and in 1816 he was sent by the President to Russia on a diplomatic mission. His European journey also afforded him opportunity for travel in Germany, France, and the British Isles. The trend of Coles’s later career was determined by a strain of idealism in his character which led him early in life to champion the anti-slavery cause, on moral and humanitarian grounds.
Upon the death of his father in 1808, he had fallen heir to a plantation and a number of slaves, but this did not alter his attitude. In 1814 he corresponded with Jefferson on the subject of slavery and a letter of Jefferson’s, dated August 25, 1814, has become famous as one statement of the anti-slavery view-point. Being, as one of his friends expressed it, “an experimental philosopher, ” Coles determined to remove to free soil and emancipate his slaves. He had made two preliminary journeys to the Northwest, first in 1815 and again in 1818, and had decided to settle at Edwardsville, Illinois, the state having been admitted to the Union in 1818.
He set out in the spring of 1819, carrying his African Americans with him. With an instinct for the dramatic, he informed them of their emancipation during the journey down the Ohio River. Upon arriving in Illinois, he executed formal deeds of emancipation and assisted his former slaves to make a new start in life. On March 5, 1819, he was appointed register of the Land Office at Edwardsville, a position which enabled him to extend his acquaintance among the people of the state.
In 1822, only three years after his arrival in the state, Coles was elected governor, though by a very narrow margin. His success may be attributed in part to the appearance of slavery in Illinois politics. Though nominally free territory, slavery virtually existed, and there was evidence of a desire to extend the institution. Coles naturally represented the forces opposed to this movement. In his first message to the Assembly, he urged the adoption of measures which would abolish slavery in fact as well as in name. The challenge was taken up by the pro-slavery faction, which passed a resolution calling for a referendum upon the question of holding a convention to amend the constitution. It was understood that one purpose of this move was to legalize slavery. A bitter struggle ensued, with Coles leading the anti-convention forces. In a letter to a friend he wrote at this time, “I assure you, I never before felt so deep an interest in any political question. It preys upon me to such a degree, that I shall not be happy or feel at ease until it is settled”. The convention project was decisively defeated at the polls in August of 1824, and the menace of slavery was averted.
Aside from his career as governor he met with little success in state politics, being defeated for the United States Senate in 1824 and for Congress in 1831. Apparently he did not find life in a frontier state congenial, for a few years after retiring from the governorship in 1826, he removed to Philadelphia, probably in the fall of 1832. There he passed the remainder of his life, years which were happy, prosperous, but uneventful from a political standpoint.
He died in 1868 at the age of eighty-two, having witnessed the fulfilment of his life-long hope, though at the cost of civil war.
Coles played an important part in the emancipation movement by helping to prevent the extension and legitimization of slavery in the Northwest. He was also noted for his service in the government of state of Illinois. As governor, he was greatly interested in the furthering of internal improvements and in the promotion of agriculture. As early as 1819 he took the initiative in organizing the first state agricultural society.
In national politics Coles was at first a Republican. In 1824 he favored Crawford for the presidency, but later he became an opponent of Jackson.
Coles was described as “a young man of handsome, but somewhat awkward personal appearance, genteelly dressed, and of kind and agreeable manners”.
On November 28, 1833, Coles was married to Sally Logan Roberts.
