Lincolin's Rail Splitter: Governor Richard J Ogelsby

Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society, Spring 2002 by Balsamo, Larry T

Lincoln's Rail Splitter: Governor Richard J. Ogelsby. By Mark A. Plummer (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2001. 245 pp. $34.95.).

Except for the most dedicated student of nineteenth century American and Illinois History politicians such as Jesse Fell, David Davis, Leonard Swett, Norman Judd, and Richard J. Oglesby seemed to have been prominent and useful primarily through their connections to the rise to power of Abraham Lincoln. Certainly great men usually have had their useful associates and reliable acolytes to aid them along the road to eventual greatness. Now Mark A. Plummer in a fine new biography gives us a full and in-depth study of one of the most important of Lincoln's close associates, Richard J. Oglesby.

The careers of Oglesby and Lincoln did follow strikingly similar paths. Both were born in Kentucky, Lincoln in 1809, and Oglesby in 1824. Neither had more than two years of formal education. Both became successful lawyers in central Illinois. Each man was a Whig, anti-slavery, and by the mid 1850s deeply involved in Republican Party politics. In addition, Lincoln and Oglesby, especially by the 1850s, were close, if not intimate, political colleagues. They shared insight, information, and stratagems during the often volatile times in Illinois as Civil War neared. As the author makes clear, it was "Dick" Oglesby, with the assistance of John Hanks, who presented Lincoln and the state Republican Convention of 1860 with the famous split-rails which became a major tactical theme during the presidential campaign. Oglesby was present at Lincoln's deathbed as his hero succumbed to John Wilkes Booth's bullet. For the rest of his life, especially as President of the National Lincoln Monument Association, Oglesby would always be associated in the public mind with Abraham Lincoln.

But Oglesby was much more than a Lincoln lieutenant. During his long life, 1824-1899, he was a colorful character, a successful businessman, and a political force to be reckoned with. During the war with Mexico he was an officer in the Fourth Illinois Volunteer Infantry, taking part in the siege of Veracruz and Battle of Cerro Gordo. He spent 18491851 in the California Gold Rush and returned home to Decatur with a small fortune. Later he spent nearly two years doing the "Grand Tour" of Europe and the Holy Land at least in part to augment his sparse public education. He left his place in the Illinois State Senate in 1861 when selected by Governor Richard Yates as colonel of the Eighth Illinois Infantry. He and his command saw combat at Fort Donelson and at the bloody battle of Corinth. Gravely wounded at Corinth, Oglesby eventually retired from the military in July, 1863 with the rank of Major General.

Richard Oglesby devoted the rest of his public life to politics. A loyal, mainstream Republican he is the only person elected to three nonconsecutive terms as Governor of Illinois, (1864, 1872, 1884) and served one six-year term in the U.S. Senate. Widely known as a gifted raconteur and effective public speaker, Oglesby was a proven vote getter and a pillar of Republican Party Orthodoxy. As Plummer clearly demonstrates, Richard Oglesby was devoted to the interests of his fellow Civil War veterans and was an early supporter of the Grand Army of the Republic. As times changed Oglesby generally kept pace. As a member of the United States Senate he strongly advocated railroad rate regulation and monetary expansion, issues deemed to be of interest to debt-strapped Illinois farmers and small businessmen during the economically troubled 1870s. In his final term as governor he faced the onerous task of bringing justice to the convicted ringleaders of the Haymarket "Riot" of 1886. After thorough consideration, Governor Oglesby commuted the death sentences for two of the defendants to life in prison.

This is a very good biography based on thorough research in a variety of sources. It is well written and a joy to read. Richard Oglesby, as he emerges in this masterful study, was energetic, ambitious, partisan but judicious, loyal to friends and family, and in every way a model of the ideal successful citizen of his era. This solid book is highly recommended.

Larry T. Balsamo is Professor and Chair of the Department of History at Western Illinois University. His most recent publication is "We Cannot Have Free Government without Elections: Abraham Lincoln and the Election of 1864" in the Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society (Summer, 2001).