erecting public buildings, schools and academies, expenses of government, and other things for the common good. Conditions of settlement were to be attached to each grant and forfeiture should be made the penalty for non-compliance. The United States should furnish expenses for the march of the soldiers to the Ohio and subsistence for three years. Exclusion of slavery in the state was desired.

Another plan submitted to Congress the same year was the Financier's Plan produced by Bland of Virginia. This plan also applied to territory which should be given to the soldiers. It suggested that the territory be divided into districts not exceeding two degrees latitude and three degrees longitude, and into townships the size of which was not definitely specified. The exterior lines of the districts were to be run by surveyors paid by the United States. Out of every 100,000 acres granted to soldiers, 10,000 acres should be reserved for the common lands of the United States and should be used for the payment of the civil list, erecting frontier forts and seminaries of learning. Any surplus should be used for the building of a navy and for no other purpose. Lands of the soldiers were to be free from all taxes and quit-rents for seven years.

The Army Plan and the Financier's Plan both insisted on the township system but differed as to ownership. According to the former, the land should belong to the state and be used for local needs. The latter assured a national domain through definite reserves to be used for general needs. The Financier's Plan was submitted to the Grand Committee on May 30, 1783 but no action was taken. The Army Plan was submitted to Washington on June 16, who forwarded it to Congress the next day with his approval, stating in his letter to Congress that this plan "would connect our government with the frontiers, extend our settlements progressively, and plant a brave, a hardy and respectable race of people as our advanced post, who would always be ready and willing (in case of hostility) to combat the savages and check their incursions." Congress, however, was not ready at that time to make any appropriations of land and the petition was refused.

Another of the earlier proposals regarding the land policy, important not because of its content so much as for the circumstances accompanying it, was that of the Connecticut Assembly. Connecticut was the only state to make stipulations as to the method of the dis

posing of the lands at the time her cession was made. This state insisted upon the township system. The territory was "to be laid out and surveyed in townships in regular form to a suitable number of settlers in such manner as will best promote the settlement and cultivation of the same-according to the true spirit and principles of a Republican State." This was accepted by the Committee reporting the cessions of New York, Virginia and Connecticut, which recommended townships about six miles square. But final action was not taken on the report.

Before any definite action was taken, these and other plans were suggested. The steps taken by Congress in the development of the land policy as used in the national domain will be discussed in the next BULLETIN.

Lincoln Relics

A bolster said to be from the bed in the Petersen House in which President Lincoln died and "The Village Blacksmith," a picture said to have hung on one of the walls in the room, have been given to the Historical Society by Mrs. Charles E. Rector of New York through Mitchell E. Follansbee.

After President Lincoln was shot at Ford's Theatre, he was removed across the street to the home of William Petersen, a highly respected merchant tailor. Both the Petersen house and the old Ford Theatre are still standing and both are owned by the government. The Petersen house has been converted into a museum for the collection of articles in any way relating to Lincoln. It is the home of thousands of Lincoln relics which make one of the most interesting and valuable collections ever preserved in commemoration of a human being. About 1,000 volumes relating to Lincoln, 300 portraits, busts and medals, photographs of Booth, pictures of the assassination, the family cradle in which the Lincoln children were rocked, an original locust rail split by Lincoln, the family bible from which his mother read to him, 250 funeral sermons preached at the time of his death and hundreds of other things relating to the "Great Commoner" are preserved in the Petersen house.

At the outbreak of the Civil War, Charles E. Rector, then a young man twenty years of age, enlisted in the Eighth Heavy Artillery of New York. Mr. Rector saw three years of service at the front in the regiment under Col. Peter A. Porter. He belonged to the second brigade,

CHICAGO SOCIETY

BULLETIN

Chronicle and Comment

One thousand people visited the Chicago Historical Society on Lincoln's Birthday.

The series of pioneer lectures given to the school children was supplemented by the talk on "The Lincoln Log Schools" on the afternoon of February 11 by Louis A. Warren, minister and historian. Mr. Warren was, for three years, editor of the La Rue County Herald at Hodgenville, Kentucky, the birthplace of Lincoln, and later lived at Elizabethtown, the first home of Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks. Mr. Warren has surpassed all other recent investigators in his patient and intelligent study of the Lincoln family in Kentucky.

The chief feature in the commemoration of Lincoln's Birthday was Mr. Warren's address on the evening of February 11 on "The Lincolns' Kentucky Homes," illustrated with pic

charts of his own drawing. To historians and patrons of history the address had a two-fold value; the abundance of new information relative to Lincoln and his ancestors and the scientific methods so skillfully used in this excellent piece of geneological research.

One of the results of Mr. Warren's researches is his ability to refute the commonly accepted opinion that Lincoln's boyhood was spent in poverty and misery. Brief quotations were given from several histories and biographies of Lincoln, emphasizing the worthlessness of Lincoln's father and the lowliness of his boyhood home. This was followed by an abundance of evidence proving their inaccuracy and revealing that Lincoln's father not only paid his debts and kept out of poverty but deserves to be ranked as highly as the average pioneer.

Another article in this month's bulletin contains an expianation of the land system of the South as contrasted with that of the North. Mr. Warren showed that Thomas Lincoln was a victim of the loose land system of the South which finally drove the Lincolns out of Kentucky. A suit was brought against him to establish the claims of the heirs of a Philadelphia banker named Middleton, who had joined the Revolutionary army and had received a grant of Kentucky land from the government of Virginia. The Lincolns did not await the result but moved to Indiana where the national land system prevented boundary disputes by means of a more accurate system of surveying.

The Historical Society acknowledges the courtesy of the Chicago Surface Lines in carrying the posters announcing the February Anniversary exhibits which were attended by a larger number of citizens than previous exhibits.

The second and third of the series of lectures by Professor Terry will be delivered during the month of March. On March 8, Professor Terry will talk on "The New World,” and on March 22, on "New Spain."

Washington Exhibition

Over 800 visitors at the Historical Society on Washington's Birthday saw the special exhibition on Washington and the Revolution. Washington's will, his sword, medicine case, camp dishes and lamp and many of Martha Washington's personal belongings were on exhibit.

Among the papers and manuscripts, the group of special interest to people of Chicago

was the Henry C. Van Schaack papers, which constitute an autographic history of the American Revolution. The compiler of these valuable papers, The late Henry C. VanSchaack, of the VanSchaack Drug Company, of Chicago, has brought together autographs of many of the most distinguished military men and civilians of the American Revolution, in the shape of original letters and other valuable documents.

The principal sources from which this rare collection was obtained were: the papers of Henry Van Schaack, prominent colonial for twenty-three years preceding the revolution, having been a fur trader, a Lieutenant Paymaster and Commissary in the French and Indian War, Postmaster at Albany, N. Y., Magistrate and Supervisor at Kinderhook (now Stuyvesant), N. Y., a member of the General Court of Massachusetts and a magistrate at Pittsfield, Massachusetts; the manuscripts of Peter Van Schaack, LL. D., who had extensive correspondence and intercourse with Revolutionary characters and other eminent contemporaries; the papers of Major John Frey, a prominent member of the Tryon Committee of Safety; the papers of Matthew Vischer, secretary of the Committee of Safety for the city and county of Albany; the papers of John Jay, obtained from the son and grandson of the patriot, and several other valuable collections.

This collection was compiled by Henry C. Van Schaack in 1884 in three volumes, the first volume of which was presented to the Historical Society by the late Lydia Beekman Van Schaack Hibbard through her daughter, Mrs. Robert B. Gregory.

Dr. James L. Himrod delivered an address on "This America of Ours," at the first "Ideal Week" program at the City Club, February 6. Dr. Himrod is now giving the third of his series of lectures to the Junior Auxiliary and school children entitled, "Inside and Outside of the Log Cabin," a splendid exposition of life on the frontier.

Washington to Adams

An article on "The Early French Policy Toward the United States," which appeared in the BULLETIN for January of this year contains a brief account of the danger of war due to French hostility, the measures for defense on the part of the United States and the request sent to Washington to return from his retirement and assume command of the United States army. The following letter to President Adams, taken from the original in possession of the Historical

I had the honor, on the evening of the 11th inst., to receive from the hand of the secretary of war, your favor of the 7th, announcing that you had, with the advice and consent of the senate, appointed me "lieutenant-general and commander in chief of all the armies raised, or to be raised, for the service of the United States."

I cannot express how greatly affected I am over this new proof of public confidence, and the highly flattering manner in which you have been pleased to make the communication; at the same time, I must not conceal from you my correct wish, that the choice had fallen upon a man less declined in years, and better qualified to encounter the usual vicissitudes of war.

You know, sir, what calculations I have made relative to the probable course of events, on my retiring from office, and the determination I had consoled myself with, of closing the remnant of my days in my present peaceful abode; you will therefore be at no loss to conceive and appreciate the sensations I must have experienced, to bring my mind to any conclusion that would pledge me, at so late a period of life, to leave scenes I sincerely love, to enter upon the boundless field of public action, incessant trouble, and high responsibility.

It was not possible for me to remain ignorant of, or indifferent to, recent transactions. The conduct of the Directory of France toward our country; their insidious hostility to its government, their various practices to withdraw the affections of the people from it; the evident tendency of their acts, and those of their agents, to countenance and invigorate opposition; their disregard of solemn treaties and the laws of nations; their war upon our defenseless commerce; their treatment of our minister of peace, and their demands amounting to tribute, could not fail to excite in me corresponding sentiments to those my countrymen have so generously expressed in their affectionate address to you. Believe me, sir, no one can more cordially approve of the wise and prudent measures of your administration. They ought to inspire universal confidence, and will no doubt, combined with the state of things, call from Congress such laws and means, as will enable you to meet the full force and extent of the crisis.