The Early History of Illinois: From Its Discovery by the French, in 1673, Until Its Cession to Great Britain in 1763, Including the Narrative of Marquette's Discovery of the Mississippi
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Speech of Hon. S. Breese, of Illinois, on the Oregon question. Delivered in the Senate of the United States, Monday, March 2, 1846
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The Early History of Illinois: From Its Discovery by the French, in 1673, Until Its Cession to Great Britain in 1763, Including the Narrative of ... of the Mississippi (Classic Reprint)
(Excerpt from The Early History of Illinois: From Its Disc...)
Excerpt from The Early History of Illinois: From Its Discovery by the French, in 1673, Until Its Cession to Great Britain in 1763, Including the Narrative of Marquette's Discovery of the Mississippi
Justice at three several periods, he had been in the public service of the State for a period of nearly sixty years at the time he died.
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Speech of Mr. Breese, of Illinois, on the Oregon Territory: Delivered in the United States Senate, February 27, 1844 (Classic Reprint)
(Excerpt from Speech of Mr. Breese, of Illinois, on the Or...)
Excerpt from Speech of Mr. Breese, of Illinois, on the Oregon Territory: Delivered in the United States Senate, February 27, 1844
It cannot be cause of offence to Great Britain. It cannot be a cause of war. It is merely the exer cise of a right recognised by a treaty sti ulation. Our claims can 'be established by the big est evi dence m the face _of the world.
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Death of Lincoln: Proceedings in the Supreme Court of Illinois: Presentation of the Bar Resolutions in Regard to Mr. Lincoln's Decease
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The Early History of Illinois: From Its Discovery by the French, in 1673, Until Its Cession to Great Britain in 1763, Including the Narrative of ... of the Mississippi - Primary Source Edition
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The Early History of Illinois, from its discovery by the French in 1673, until its cession to Great Britain in 1763, including the narrative of ... by M. W. Fuller. Edited by Thomas Hoyne.
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Title: The Early History of Illinois, from its discover...)
Title: The Early History of Illinois, from its discovery by the French, in 1673, until its cession to Great Britain in 1763, including the narrative of Marquette's discovery of the Mississippi. By S. Breese ... With a biographical memoir by Melville W. Fuller. Edited by Thomas Hoyne. With maps and a portrait.
Publisher: British Library, Historical Print Editions
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom. It is one of the world's largest research libraries holding over 150 million items in all known languages and formats: books, journals, newspapers, sound recordings, patents, maps, stamps, prints and much more. Its collections include around 14 million books, along with substantial additional collections of manuscripts and historical items dating back as far as 300 BC.
The GENERAL HISTORICAL collection includes books from the British Library digitised by Microsoft. This varied collection includes material that gives readers a 19th century view of the world. Topics include health, education, economics, agriculture, environment, technology, culture, politics, labour and industry, mining, penal policy, and social order.
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The below data was compiled from various identification fields in the bibliographic record of this title. This data is provided as an additional tool in helping to insure edition identification:
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British Library
Breese, Sidney; Fuller, Melville W.
1884
xiii, 422 p. ; 8º.
9602.f.6.
Speech of Mr. Breese, of Illinois, on the Mexican Question, and the Ten Regiment Bill: Delivered in the Senate of the United States, Monday, February 14, 1848 (Classic Reprint)
(Excerpt from Speech of Mr. Breese, of Illinois, on the Me...)
Excerpt from Speech of Mr. Breese, of Illinois, on the Mexican Question, and the Ten Regiment Bill: Delivered in the Senate of the United States, Monday, February 14, 1848
Sir, in my view of the duty of nations disputing about a doubtful right, 'we would have been per fectly justified by declaring war against Mexico on her refusal to receive our minister; for, sir, it is incumbent on the contesting nation to negotiate, and submit to an honorable compromise. Lfa na tion will not do this, the other party to the contest has a right to resort to arms to compel an adjust ment of the question, and though war does not decide the right, yet a victory usually puts it in the power of the successful party to enforce a compli1 ance with the demand - at least this is so under stood among civilized nations.
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Reports of Decisions of the Supreme Court of the State of Illinois: From the December Term, 1819, to the February Term, 1841, Inclusive, Which Were ... ; With Notes, Referring to Prior and Subseque
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As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
Speech of Hon. S. Breese, of Illinois: On the Oregon Question; Delivered in the Senate of the United States, Monday, March 2, 1846 (Classic Reprint)
(Excerpt from Speech of Hon. S. Breese, of Illinois: On th...)
Excerpt from Speech of Hon. S. Breese, of Illinois: On the Oregon Question; Delivered in the Senate of the United States, Monday, March 2, 1846
Mr. President: It is not to be expected that any Senator rising in the present stage of this debate, can throw much additional light on the important question. Before us. It has been so elaborately discussed, not only in these Halls, but by the public press throughout the country, that it is now scarcely possible to invest it with a new interest, or urge topics with which the Senate and the country are not already familiar. It had excited, and justly too, throughout every part of our widely-extended Union, the most earnest at tention of the whole American people. Probably, 10 question since we had become a nation, had aroused so strong an interest as this has, and none, probably, has been more ably debated. The nak tion awaits with intense anxiety the decision of Congress, and the eyes of all are now turned to the action of the Senate. The Executive has done what belonged to him in the matter; and the House of Representatives has performed its duty. It now onlyremains for the Senate to perform its duty, by consummating the action of both.
It is, Mr. President, in view of the great interest the State from which I come has in this question, and in obedience to an overruling sense of' duty to it, that I am now prompted to address the Sen ate. I did not know, sir, until this morning, that the General Assembly of my State had, at its last session, adopted the resolutions 'ust resented by my colleague, mr. Semple, an rea by the Sec re any. I was aware, sir, that two years since.
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The Early History of Illinois, from Its Discovery by the French in 1637
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Sidney Breese was an American jurist and politician. He is remembered for his service as a United States Senator from Illinois in which capacity he served from 1843 until 1849.
Background
Sidney Breese was born on July 15, 1800 in Whitesboro, Oneida County, New York and was the second son in a family of nine. His parents belonged to high society, so he was endowed by birth with the prestige of an aristocratic family of New York.
On the side of his mother, Catharine Livingston, he was a descendant of John Livingstone, the Scotch divine who negotiated with Charles II in 1650 at Breda, and on his father's side, a descendant of the picturesque soldier-merchant who was master of the port of New York on the eve of the American Revolution.
His father, Arthur Breese, who received an honorary bachelor's degree from Yale College in 1789, followed in the wake of the westward migration, settled at Whitestown in 1793, later removed to Utica, and for seventeen years was clerk of the supreme court of Western New York. He built a spacious house where he entertained Lafayette and other notables who visited that part of the country.
Education
Sidney Breese prepared for college under a Presbyterian minister, Rev. Jesse Townsend. Entering Hamilton College, he transferred to Union College and graduated at the age of eighteen, third in his class.
Career
Shortly after leaving Union College, Sidney Breese, like his father, sought his fortune in the West and accepted the invitation of a friend of the family, Elias Kent Kane, to read law at Kaskaskia. It was in the office of the brilliant Kane that the first constitution of the State of Illinois was drafted. Breese was thus early identified with the group of leaders who played a conspicuous part in the development of this frontier state.
Admitted to the bar in 1820, he lost his first case through stage-fright and came near to abandoning the profession. In 1821, he was postmaster of Kaskaskia; a year later Kane secured him the appointment of state's attorney; and four years later he received an appointment from President Adams as federal district attorney for Illinois, from which office as a victim of the spoils system, he was removed by President Jackson. This involved him in the bitter struggle in local politics between the Adams faction and the Jackson faction; and for years after he had become a Jacksonian Democrat he was hounded with the charge that once he had distributed "coffin hand-bills" depicting the tyranny of Jackson's martial law in New Orleans.
To advance his political career he edited behind the name of R. K. Fleming the "scurrilous and libelous thumbpaper, " the Western Democrat, published at Kaskaskia. In 1831 he was an unsuccessful candidate for representative to Congress with a platform in favor of complete state ownership of the public lands. Like Lincoln, Breese played a part in that grim prairie tragedy, the Black Hawk War.
Enlisting as a private he was elected to a lieutenant-colonelcy of volunteers, thus furnishing the curious spectacle, in the camp of General J. D. Henry, of a retiring scholar outranking such young warriors as Albert Sidney Johnston, Zachary Taylor, and Robert Anderson who later was the gallant defender of Fort Sumter.
At the bar, Breese soon won recognition by his able defense of Judge Smith against impeachment charges in the state legislature. This led to his election as judge of the second circuit court in 1835; and, while sitting on this bench, he wrote the opinion in the case of People vs. Field holding that the governor had power to remove a subordinate from office. The reversal of this partisan decision by the supreme court led to the reprehensible action of the Democratic legislature in swamping this court by the addition of five new judgeships, to which were elected, among others, Breese and Stephen A. Douglas.
In 1838, Breese was an unsuccessful candidate for the Democratic nomination as governor. Four years later he again offered himself as a candidate, but withdrew in favor of Thomas Ford, as a result of an alleged bargain which won him the election as United States senator by the legislature in the winter of that year. His nomination, however, was contested in an all-night caucus of the Democratic party at Springfield by the supporters of Douglas--an incident which led to years of animosity between the two men. Breese served one term in the Senate, 1843-49.
Although handicapped by a persistent timidity, and impatient with details, he made a minor reputation for learning and scholarship and for five years held the position of chairman of the committee on public lands. With the Democrats of Illinois he took an extreme attitude on the Oregon question, demanding in several speeches a policy of "54° 40' or fight. " He supported Polk's policy of annexation of Texas and the war with Mexico, and made an elaborate reply to Calhoun's celebrated demand that the American army fall back to a defensive line.
His congressional record was not sufficiently strong to save him from being replaced in 1849 by a military hero--General Shields.
Breese's retirement from the Senate was followed by an episode of considerable personal humiliation. He had prided himself on being the original proposer of the Illinois Central Railway; while a senator, he had introduced a bill to aid in the construction of the road in Illinois, but he lacked the ability to win votes, and he blocked the efforts of his colleague, Douglas, to carry the business through Congress.
Thus, when Douglas secured the passage of the Illinois Central Bill in the first session after Breese's retirement, the latter's chagrin led him unwisely to engage in a bitter newspaper controversy with his old rival, in the course of which Douglas was able to show that the project had not originated with Breese, and furthermore, that Breese's bill in the Senate had envisaged a line simply from Cairo to Galena without touching Lake Michigan or reaching to the Gulf. Breese spiritedly plunged once more into local politics.
In the autumn of 1850 he was elected without opposition to a seat in the Illinois House of Representatives and in the same year became speaker. For the next few years he camped on the trail of Douglas hoping to win the Democratic nomination for senator; but, with Lincoln and Trumbull as competitors in baiting the champion of "squatter sovereignty, " Breese did not cut a conspicuous figure.
In 1857 came the turning point in his career. He was elected to the Illinois supreme court to fill a vacancy, being reelected in 1861 for the full term of nine years and again in 1870. On the bench, the talents of this remarkable man, long warped by his incongruous political aspirations, blossomed into real genius. He became one of the leading jurists of America during a period when the rapid expansion of litigation witnessed the increase of the Illinois reports from the eighteenth to the eighty-ninth volume.
The opinion in the case of Munn vs. Illinois was written in the seventy-sixth year of Breese's life--a tribute to the elasticity and alertness of his mental processes even in his old age.
Breese died in Pinckneyville, Perry County, Illinois on June 27, 1878, survived for more than a decade by his widow, as well as several children and grandchilden. His remains were returned for burial in the Carlyle Cemetery in Carlyle, Clinton County, Illinois.
At the beginning of his political career in 1820's he received an appointment from President Adams as federal district attorney for Illinois, from which office as a victim of the spoils system, he was removed by President Jackson. This involved him in the bitter struggle in local politics between the Adams faction and the Jackson faction; and for years after he had become a Jacksonian Democrat.
Breese made an unsuccessful attempt to become a governor in 1838, so he was nominated from the side of the Democratic party. After four years he again offered himself as a candidate, but had to withdrew in favor of Thomas Ford. This won him the election as United States senator by the legislature in the winter of that year. However, his nomination was contested in an all-night caucus of the Democratic party at Springfield by the supporters of Douglas--an incident which led to years of animosity between the two men.
After serving in the Senat for from 1843 to 1849, he held the position of chairman of the committee on public lands, which led him along with the Democrats of Illinois into taking an extreme attitude on the Oregon question, demanding in several speeches a policy of "54° 40' or fight. " In his political approach he also supported Polk's policy of annexation of Texas and the war with Mexico.
Like many Democrats he opposed grants of public lands for the Cumberland Road and for other internal improvements, but he reluctantly approved of national aid for canals and railways, urging in particular Asa Whitney's project for a railway to the Pacific and the Illinois scheme for a railway parallel with the Mississippi. He was also interested in getting the lead mines of northern Illinois out of the hands of the government and into private ownership.
Due to weakness in his congressional record, which was not sufficiently strong, he was replaced in 1849 by General Shields, and had to retire from the Senate.
After his colleague Douglas secured the passage of the Illinois Central Bill in the first session, Breese merged into local politics once more being elected without opposition to a seat in the Illinois House of Representatives and becaming speaker in the autumn of 1850. For the next few years he camped on the trail of Douglas hoping to win the Democratic nomination for senator; but having Lincoln and Trumbull as competitors Breese did not cut a conspicuous figure.
The turning point in his career, however, came in 1857 after he was elected to the Illinois supreme court to fill a vacancy, being reelected in 1861 for the full term of nine years and again in 1870. During this time he becomes one of the leading jurists of America brining his independent methods of thinking to the bench.
Views
While still a young man, Breese undertook the task of reporting the decisions of the supreme court of Illinois down to date, with the result that Breese's Reports, published at Kaskaskia in 1831, cover the decisions of that court for the first eleven years. It was modestly announced by its editor as prompted by a "desire to discharge in some degree that duty which one of the sages of the law has said every man owes to his profession. "
After being elected to the Illinois supreme court in 1857 and becoming one of the leading jurists of America, Breese brought to the bench an independent method of thinking that sometimes shocked the conservative members of the bar but had a refreshing effect upon the lay mind. His wholesome impatience with the technicalities encumbering the law is illustrated by the case of Maus vs. Worthing, a case in which Lincoln appeared as counsel and in which Breese dissented in vigorous language, holding that judicial proceedings should not be hidebound by arbitrary rules handed down from the past when the result was obviously to obstruct justice, and that judges should not surrender their own judgment to follow blindly the doctrine of stare decisis and become slaves to precedent.
At the same time he vehemently opposed any tendency to exalt unduly the judiciary and was alert to prevent the courts as guardians of the people's rights from encroaching in their turn upon the liberties of the citizen.
His views in regard to the ethics of participating in politics were modified in time, but throughout his service on the bench, Breese maintained a broad sympathy with human affairs which was beneficial in the highest degree to his judicial duties. He was also conspicuous for witty repartee on the bench. His opinions were couched in lucid language. His logic did not equal that of Marshall and his literary ability was inferior to Story's but his opinions were conspicuous for both argument and literary flavor.
His vanity on more than one occasion proved his undoing. It led him to break with his benefactor, Kane, and it involved him in several unseemly controversies with the coarser-grained but more agile Douglas, in which he came off second best.
Another example of his vanity was vividly shown early in his career, while a member of the circuit court, Breese told a Democratic rally in Montgomery County that it was compatible with judicial dignity for a judge to take an active part in politics, and even late in his career he saw nothing unbecoming in acting as a director of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad while holding judicial-office.
Membership
Breese was a member of the New York Alpha of the Phi Beta Kappa while studying at the Union College.
Personality
According to a colleague he was short in stature, deep-chested, careful in dress, near-sighted, and always wore spectacles.
As a young man he was close-shaven with his black hair cut short; but in later years he suffered his beard to grow long and his hair to hang down over his shoulders, which gave him a venerable appearance. He had a weak voice. In social intercourse he was a combination of amiability and taciturnity, often delighting in learned conversation, frequently lapsing into superciliousness; he was vain, and at times obsessed with a desire to impress his associates with a sense of their inferiority.
Connections
In 1823, Sidney Breese married Eliza Morrison (1808–1895), daughter of wealth merchant William Morrison. They did not own slaves and had fourteen children, including daughters Eloise Philips McClurken (1824–1885) and Elizabeth Breese (1841–1845), and sons William Arthur Breese (1826–1838), Charles Broadhead Breese (1828–1844), (Samuel) Livingston Breese (1831–1899; who served in the U. S. Navy during the Civil War, attaining the rank of Commander by war's end), Daniel L. Breese (1832-after 1860, who was a Lieutenant in the U. S. Army in 1860), Sidney Samuel Breese(1835–1891), Edward Livingston Breese (1837–1838), William Morrison Breese (1838-after 1860, when he was a land agent and living at home), James Buchanan Breese (1846–1887, who would serve as a Second Lieutenant in the Marine Guard during the Civil War), Elias Dennis Breese (1848–1851) and Alexander Breese (1850–1851).