HR1147 100TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

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HOUSE RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, On May 5, 1868, John A. Logan, commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, issued General Order No. 11 designating the 30th day of May "for the purpose of strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country ... "; and

WHEREAS, In so doing, John Logan established the national Memorial Day holiday; and

WHEREAS, This Memorial Day will mark the 150th reading of his "Memorial Day Order" at thousands of Memorial Day observations across America; and

WHEREAS, Despite this, John Logan, according to biographer Gary Ecelberger "may be the most noteworthy 19th century American to escape notice in the 20th and 21st centuries"; and

WHEREAS, John Alexander Logan was born in Murphysboro in Jackson County in 1826, the son of Dr. John and Elizabeth (Jenkins) Logan; and

WHEREAS, John Logan grew up in southernmost Illinois, a region derisively called "Egypt", whose residents, according to the Boston Liberator, were "mostly poor whites from the Southern States too poor to own slaves themselves, too ignorant to know any better than to indulge the prejudices and ape the conduct of those who did."; and

WHEREAS, In 1853, John Logan succeeded in passing a severe "Black Code" prohibiting African-Americans from entering Illinois and blocked the passage of a bill to allow African-Americans to testify in court; and

WHEREAS, After returning from the Mexican-American War, John Logan entered politics as a Jacksonian Democrat, serving as Jackson County Clerk; in 1858, he was elected to represent the Ninth Congressional District of Illinois and won reelection in 1860; and

WHEREAS, With the outbreak of the Civil War, John Logan, being from "Egypt", had a foot in both the South and the North, and for too long sought a compromise; he finally declared his support for the Union in June of 1862; and

WHEREAS, John Logan took part in the First Battle of Bull Run as a Congressman and, when he returned home to Marion, told his constituents, "The time must come when a man must be for or against his country, not for or against his state...I for one will stand or fall with the Union."; and

WHEREAS, John Logan then raised the 31st Illinois Infantry, telling all who volunteered that should Lincoln free the slaves he would bring his men back home; he is credited by Ulysses S. Grant for saving Southern Illinois for the Union; and

WHEREAS, John Logan entered the war as a colonel and rose in rank to major general; it was after his victory at Vicksburg that he earned the privilege of leading the first troops after the cities surrender, and it was after this victory that he gave his "Great Union Speech" which brought President Lincoln to absolve Logan "in his own mind for all of the wrong he ever did and all he will do hereafter"; and

WHEREAS, As the war progressed, John Logan's longstanding racist attitudes changed, and he came to accept the Emancipation Proclamation; by the end of the war he supported the 13th Amendment; and

WHEREAS, In 1866, John Logan won election to the U.S. House as a Republican, and in 1870 he became a U.S. Senator for the State of Illinois; he was the Republican vice-presidential candidate in 1884, and it was during this time that he supported the adoption of the 14th and 15th Amendments; and

WHEREAS, The actions of John Logan brought Frederick Douglass to endorse him for the Republican presidential nomination in 1884, however James Blaine would eventually end up winning the Republican primary; and

WHEREAS, Frederick Douglass continued his support for John Logan and said of him in a speech, "But what of John A. Logan? I will tell you. If there is any statesman on this continent, now in public life, to whose courage, justice and fidelity, I would more fully and unreservedly trust the cause of the colored people of this country, or the cause of any other people, ... no man has been bolder and truer to the cause of the cause of the colored man and to the country, than has John A. Logan. There is no nonsense about him. I endorse him to you with all my might, mind, and strength and without a single shadow of a doubt"; and

WHEREAS, Senator John A. Logan died on December 26, 1886 in Washington D.C.; and

WHEREAS, As our state celebrates its bicentennial, few Illinoisans remember John Logan, or the fact that just a little over a century ago Illinois considered itself the land of "Lincoln, Grant and Logan"; the bicentennial seems a perfect time to remember this forgotten Illinois hero who put his country above party loyalty and who rejected long-held racist beliefs to help the nation's former enslaved peoples gain equal rights; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE HUNDREDTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we applaud John A. Logan for his sense of duty for country, for his dedication to public service, for his work done to promote equal rights, and for starting the proud tradition of celebrating Memorial Day every year in this country.