William J. Allen and the proposed secession of Southern Illinois

   Talk of secession was nothing new in 1860. You can read more about various states and territories at this previous post. One of the less discussed secession movements occurred in late 1861 and early 1862 and dealt with the southern part of Illinois. There were some who wanted that portion of the state to form a new state and join the Southern Confederacy.

William J. Allen

   Illinois became the twenty-first state in the Union on December 8, 1818. It was created out of the old Northwest Territory. The idea of a part of Illinois breaking off was not new. Between 1840 and 1842, several northern counties attempted to secede and rejoin the state of Wisconsin. Why? Northern Illinois was settled by those from New England and New York. Southern Illinois was populated by those from Kentucky, Tennessee, and North Carolina. Starting in 1840, those in the north – including Jo Daviess County, Stephenson County, Winnebago County, and Boone County, voted overwhelming to secede from Illinois and join Wisconsin. When Chicago itself would not get on board, the project died.[1]

   Allan G. Bouge, in The Congressman’s Civil War, writes of another attempt of secession in Illinois. U.S. Congressman William J. Allen, “openly advocated the division of Illinois so that the southern region might secede to join the Confederacy.” William J. Allen was born in 1829 in Wilson County, Tennessee. His family moved to Illinois about 1830. He was educated in local schools and received his law degree from the Law Department at the University of Louisville in 1848. He was admitted to the Illinois bar in 1849, practiced law, served in the Illinois House, was a U.S. Attorney, and was Judge of the Illinois Circuit Court. Allen ran as a Democrat and won a seat in the 37^th United States Congress, replacing John A. Logan, who had resigned to accept a commission as colonel of an Illinois Infantry Regiment.[2]

   William J. Allen undoubtedly caused quite a stir across the Northern states when he was arrested in September 1862, along with several others, for involvement with the Knights of the Golden Circle. A Chicago newspaper considered Allen “an undisguised secessionist” and thought he “ought to be beaten.” In reality, Allen had probably agreed with the sentiment expressed throughout many southern Illinois counties: the southern portion of the state should secede and join the Southern Confederacy. One source even stated that Allen had openly proposed this to John A. Logan and had encouraged Illinois men to go south and enlist in the Southern army.[3]

   Allen was taken to Cairo with several others and was placed on parole and allowed the freedom of the city, but they were required to check in once a day. There was apparently no writ or warrant for their arrest. On September 2, Allen was supposed to be heading to the Old Capitol Prison in Washington, D.C. However, since he was sick, he was left in a hotel in Springfield, Illinois. It is not clear if Allen was ever incarcerated in the Old Capital Prison. On September 10, 1862, Lincoln wrote to Maj. Gen. John A. McClernand that Allen “may be discharged if you advise it, on such terms as you may advise.” One newspaper reported that Allen was back in Springfield by early October.[4]

   Despite his arrest and incarceration, Allen was again on the ballot for election to the U.S. House, again running as a Democrat. And despite his alleged support of the secession of the southern half of Illinois, he again won that election, serving until 1865. He did not run for re-election. Allen did serve in the Illinois constitutional convention of in 1862 and 1870, as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention from 1864 to 1888 and received a recess appointment from President Grover Cleveland in April 1887 to serve as a Federal judge on the United States District Court for the Southern District of Illinois, and position that was later confirmed and one that Allen held until his death in 1901.  

   Information about Allen and the secession of Southern Illinois is hard to come by. James M. McPherson’s Battle Cry of Freedom, considered the standard work on the war, makes no mention of William J. Allen. Neither does Weibley’s A Great Civil War, nor Keegan’s The American Civil War. A reader must turn to older texts, such as Allan Nevins’s War for the Union, 1862-1863 (1960) or Cole’s The Era of Civil War, 1848-1870 (1919). The rampant dissatisfaction caused by the radicals in the Federal government seems to be swept under the rug.  
 

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[1] “The Illinois North-South Split.” Chicago Tribune, October 1, 2015.

[2] Bouge, The Congressman’s Civil War, 43.

[3] Bellow Falls Times, September 19, 1862; Chicago Tribune, September 26, 1862; Illinois State Journal, July 30, 1862. See also Cole, The Era of the Civil War, 1848-1870, 302.

[4] Marshall, American Bastile, 295, 393-394; Basler, Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, 5:413; The Brookville Jeffersonian, October 15, 1862.