Shadrach Bond was an American politician and statesman. He also served as receiver of public moneys in the general land office at Kaskaskia, Illinois, serving from 1814 to 1818.
Background
Shadrach Bond was born in 1773, in Frederick, Maryland, United States. He belonged to a prosperous farm-owning Episcopalian family of Baltimore County, Maryland. His father, Nicodemus Bond, a man of marked piety, became a Methodist, and on his deathbed in 1804, manumitted his four slaves. His mother, Rachel, was the daughter of a plantation owner by the name of Richard King Stevenson. She bore her husband ten children, of whom Shadrach was the sixth. He retained the piety of his father but was captivated by the lure of adventure in the W. An uncle, also bearing the name of Shadrach Bond, had been a member of the gallant little band under George Rogers Clark which opened up the Illinois country in 1779; after roving the prairies several years he settled in the fertile American Bottom along the Mississippi below Kaskaskia.
Career
Shadrach joined his uncle about the year 1791. With avuncular aid he secured a number of land grants. His fondness for hunting was not allowed to interfere with prosperous farming and public service. In 1806, he became adjutant of the militia in St. Clair County and two years later, lieutenant-colonel. Having been elected in 1806 to his uncle's former seat in the territorial legislature, in 1807 he succeeded his uncle in the council. In 1808 he again succeeded his uncle as presiding judge of the court of common pleas for St. Clair County. In 1812 he was elected as first delegate to Congress from the territory of Illinois. His principal achievement at Washington was the preemption law of 1813. Thousands of settlers had trespassed upon the public lands before these were offered for sale, and their great concern was to insure themselves against having their lands sold at a higher figure than the minimum of one dollar and a quarter per acre at the public auction or acquired by the holders of unlocated military grants. With the help of Jeremiah Morrow, of Ohio, Bond secured the passage of an act somewhat more generous than the preceding acts, granting preemption of 160 acres up to two weeks before the public sale.
Bond also increased his popularity at home by securing the passage of an act raising ten companies of rangers from the Western frontier and by his strenuous efforts to secure payment for the Illinois militia in the War of 1812. Resigning in 1814 to accept the appointment of receiver of public moneys at Kaskaskia, Bond spent four years settling claims to lands in southern Illinois with fairness to his neighbors and loyalty to the federal government. He shrewdly avoided taking sides in the factional dispute between the Edwards group and the Thomas group which divided Illinois politics for two decades.
Thus, although a man of no great ability, and a constant seeker after public office, his popularity was such that in 1818, when Illinois with a population of 35, 000 reached statehood, he was elected governor. Although the possessor of fourteen slaves he had remained silent during the controversy over slavery which agitated the constitutional convention of 1818, and he now straddled the question during the struggle which culminated in the defeat of the pro-slavery attempt for a new constitution in 1824. He appears, however, to have been considerably under the influence of Elias Kent Kane, whom he appointed as secretary of state, and who became the leader of the pro-slavery movement. In his message to the first general assembly he had the foresight to recommend the construction of a canal connecting Lake Michigan and the Illinois River. Although bitterly criticized for his personal interest in the wildcat bank established by the legislature, his financial record appears to have been sound.
At the expiration of his four-year term, Bond resumed his occupation of farming. He continued his interest in politics, campaigning for Jackson and running for Congress in 1824, but being defeated. He supported internal improvements, being one of the incorporators of the Illinois & Michigan Canal Company in 1825. In 1825 he was appointed register of the land office at Kaskaskia and held this position at his death. Bond prided himself on his generous hospitality. On his farm near Kaskaskia he built a large two-story brick house with broad verandas in Southern fashion, and received many guests.
Achievements
Politics
Shadrach Bond was a member of the Republican party. He was a delegate to the U. S. House of Representatives from the Illinois Territory from 1812 to 1813.
Personality
One of his contemporaries describes Bond as of military bearing, six feet in height, erect and compact, with black hair and commanding appearance, a description comporting with his portrait which is in the possession of the Chicago Historical Society. The bad grammar of his letters as delegate to Congress bears witness of the limitations of his early education. He was a man of business but not of original ideas. His state papers while governor were supposed to have been drafted by Kane.
Connections
In 1810, he married a distant cousin, Achsah Bond, of Nashville, a woman of considerable character and charm, who accompanied him on his arduous journeys to Washington as delegate to Congress, and who shared his delight in sociability.