Elias Kane
Elias Kent Kane | |
---|---|
United States Senator from Illinois | |
In office March 4, 1825 – December 12, 1835 | |
Preceded by | John McLean |
Succeeded by | William Ewing |
1st Secretary of State of Illinois | |
In office 1818–1822 | |
Governor | Shadrach Bond |
Preceded by | Office established |
Succeeded by | Samuel D. Lockwood |
Member of the Illinois House of Representatives | |
Personal details | |
Born |
New York City, New York | June 7, 1794
Died |
December 12, 1835 41) Washington, D.C. | (aged
Political party | Democratic |
Elias Kent Kane (June 7, 1794 – December 12, 1835) was the first Illinois Secretary of State and one of the first U.S. Senators from Illinois.[1]
Early life
He was born in New York City, to merchant Capt. Elias Kent Kane and Deborah VanSchelluyne of Dutchess County, New York[2] Young Kane attended public schools, then Yale College, from which he graduated in 1813.
Career
After he studied law and was admitted to the bar, Kane commenced practice in Nashville, Tennessee, and then moved to Kaskaskia, Illinois in 1814.
He became allied with Jesse B. Thomas, a slaveholder who had secured the job of judge of the Territory of Illinois. Like Judge Thomas and his rival Ninian Edwards, Kane was a delegate to the first state constitutional convention in 1818. At the convention, the Thomas/Kane faction unsuccessfully tried to add language permitting slavery in the new state (where it had been forbidden by the Northwest Ordinance of 1787). However, that proposal was defeated by a faction whose leaders included Baptist John Mason Peck, Methodist Peter Cartwright, Quaker James Lemen, publisher Hooper Warren and future governor Edward Coles.[3][4]
After an unsuccessful 1820 campaign for election to the 17th Congress which featured numerous letters in the Edwardsville Spectator concerning slavery,[5][6] and which anti-slavery candidate Daniel Pope Cook won, Kane became Illinois' first Secretary of State, and served from 1820 to 1824. In that year, Kane led proslavery forces in the Illinois House of Representatives which attempted to call another constitutional convention, but was again defeated by a coalition led by Governor Coles, U.S. Representative Cook and religious leaders of many denominations.[7]
However, fellow legislators twice appointed Kane to the United States Senate. He served from March 4, 1825, until his death in Washington, D.C., in 1835.
Legacy
His body was returned to the family farm in Randolph County, Illinois, and later was reinterred in Evergreen Cemetery in nearby Chester, along with that of his sometime political opponent and Illinois' first governor, Shadrach Bond. The Kane family gravesite includes that of his wife, the former Frances Pelletier (1799-1851), two children who died young, and four sons.[2] One son, Elias Kent Kane, Jr. (1822-1853), served in the United States Army.[8] One of Kane's daughter married Illinois governor William H. Bissell, a vocal opponent of slavery.[9] Kane's father (of the same name) is buried in Congressional Cemetery in Washington, D.C., having survived this son by five years and secured his namesake grandson's admission to West Point.[10]
On January 16, 1836, the Illinois legislature formed a new county, Kane, and named it to honor the recently deceased Senator, Elias Kent Kane.[11][12]
References
- ↑ United States Congress. "Elias Kane (id: K000006)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. Retrieved 2010-02-09.
- 1 2 Elias Kent Kane (1794-1835) at Find a Grave
- ↑ Leichtle and Carveth, Crusade Against Slavery: Edward Coles, Pioneer of Freedom (Southern Illinois University Press, 2011) pp. 74, 78.
- ↑ Ress, David, Governor Edward Coles and the Vote to Forbid Slavery in Illinois, 1823–1824. (McFarland & Co., Inc., Jefferson, NC and London, 2006) paperback ISBN 0-7864-2639-X at pp. 62, 66-74.
- ↑ Leichtle and Carveth p. 78 citing issues of July 18 and 25 and August 8, 1820, as well as .C. Pease, Frontier State 1818-1848, 72-72; Harris, History of Negro Servitude 27-29
- ↑ Ress, pp. 82-83
- ↑ Ress, p. 148 et seq.
- ↑ Capt Elias Kent Kane, Jr (1822-1853) at Find a Grave
- ↑ Elizabeth Kane Bissell at Find a Grave
- ↑ Elias Kent Kane (1771-1840) at Find a Grave
- ↑ "Kane County History" (PDF). Geneva, Illinois: Kane County Government Center. 2010. Retrieved 2013-09-19.
- ↑ Gannett, Henry (1905). The Origin of Certain Place Names in the United States. Govt. Print. Off. p. 172.
Political offices | ||
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Preceded by Office created |
Illinois Secretary of State 1818-1822 |
Succeeded by Samuel D. Lockwood |
United States Senate | ||
Preceded by John McLean |
U.S. Senator (Class 3) from Illinois 1825–1835 Served alongside: Jesse B. Thomas, John McLean, David J. Baker, John M. Robinson |
Succeeded by William L.D. Ewing |