Excerpt from Politics and Politicians of Chicago, Cook County, and Illinois: Memorial Volume, 1787-1887; A Complete Record of Municipal, County, State and National Politics From the Earliest Period to the Present Time Beginning with the arrival of the first actual settler of Chicago in 1779, an attempt has been made to give in the following pages, on political lines, a clear idea of the unprecedented advancement of this great center of Western civilization, the rapid increase of population, and the speedy building up of business and society on a well-laid and secure foundation. The book will be found a non partisan medium of reference for many facts, incidents and reminiscences of national, state and city campaigns and conventions. It is hoped that it will commend itself to every person identified with politics, or interested in the political history of our country and of municipal government. Chicago is recognized as the great political center; nearly the center of population - the "Convention City." Illinois has furnished two of the greatest Presidents four terms, and for a quarter of a century the greatest campaigns have centered here, radiating from Chicago. Next year will be the one hundredth since the adoption of the ordinance of 1787, whereby the Northwest Territory was ceded to the United States, out of which territory the State of Illinois was formed. On the 4th of March, 1887, Chicago will have been incorporated as a city fifty years. We thus have both a centennial and semi-centennial anniversary worthy of commemoration. In this connection the book will be found to comprise a complete municipal history, from the organization of Cook county, the incorporation of the original town of Chicago, the foundation of the city government in 1837 up to and including the municipal election of 1886, with sketches of the various Mayors and administrations: inaugural messages, resolutions and ordinances of the City Council, official election returns, redistriction of the city by wards, valuable statistical tables, an account of the building of the City Hall, county statistics, etc., etc. The increase of population from 4,170 in 1837 to 750,000 in 1886, with no cessation in growth, is evidence that Chicago is destined to be one of the greatest, if not the chief city on the American Continent. In the compilation of this work the author has consulted upward of 100 books, files, pamphlets, and records, and is under obligations to the Hon. George H. Fergus, Hon. John Wentworth, Hon. J. Young Scammon, Hon. George W. Julian, Mr. D. W. Lusk, of Springfield, A. T. Andreas & Co., Chicago, and many other distinguished writers and publishers, for valuable matter embodied herein. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.