Archived Articles
Illinois Cultural News
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The History of Slavery in Illinois by Dean Geiler
The history of slavery in Illinois represents a real dichotomy because slavery was outlawed but, at the same time, was widely tolerated. In the early 1700s, slaves were brought to the area now known as Illinois by the French settlers. In the late 1700s, slavery was outlawed when the Americans took possession of the territory. The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 set forth the parameters for establishing states in the Northwest Territory, of which the Illinois country was a part. The Ordinance also forbade slavery; however, slavery continued to be tolerated in Illinois.
The population of the Territory of Illinois was very much divided between the northern and southern parts. The southern population, which favored slavery, was largely from Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, and the Carolinas. The northern population was mostly from New England and better educated, had more money, and favored emancipation. At that time the southern part of the state was the most populated. When Illinois achieved statehood in 1818, more than 80 percent of the population was of Southern heritage.
The first state Constitution (1818) was a compromise which allowed slavery in the salt mines near Shawneetown in Southern Illinois but nowhere else. This exception was made because the slave-operated salines contributed one-third of the new state's yearly revenue. The law allowed African slaves to be imported to the site until 1825, when the exemption expired. The salt mine used 1000 to 2000 slaves. The compromise basically mandated that a slave in the state would remain a slave, though their children would become free on reaching adulthood. This compromise was largely the result of the strong influence of the southern population of the state. However, there were slaves throughout Illinois largely due to the authorities “looking the other way”.
Edward Coles, the second governor of Illinois and an anti-slavery advocate throughout his adult life, twice led political campaigns that prevented the legitimization of slavery in the new state of Illinois. Born in Virginia, Coles inherited a plantation and slaves but eventually left Virginia for the Illinois Territory in order to set his slaves free and give each head of family 160 acres of land that he had purchased near Edwardsville. Governor Coles led the opposition to a bill approving a referendum to hold another constitutional convention, recognizing it as a dishonest attempt to more clearly legalize slavery in the state. The bill to hold the referendum passes and was slated to go before Illinois voters. Coles committed his total pay as governor ($4000) to defeat the referendum and led a committee of anti-slavery citizens, religious leaders, and legislators (who committed another $1000). On August 2, 1824, Illinois voters rejected the pro-slavery convention referendum.
At the time of the next Constitutional Convention in 1848, slavery was finally outlawed outright. Section 16 in its Declaration of Rights specified, "There shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the State, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted
By the time of Lincoln, the issue of slavery in the state was over; however, there was still a strong following of pro-slavery minded people. At the time in Illinois when Abraham Lincoln (Republican) was attempting to procure a seat as U.S. Senator, U.S. Senators were appointed, not elected. While debating Steven Douglas (Democrat), Lincoln delivered his “House Divided” speech. Douglas was in favor of slavery; Lincoln was not. Douglas won and was given the appointment.
Slavery in Illinois was an issue, although not many people would know it, historically speaking. With the two factions (free vs. slave) at odds with each other, it is remarkable that Lincoln, who had a background of southern heritage, was such a staunch supporter of freedom.
Prior to the end of slavery, many Africans sought freedom by means of escape through the aid of both black and white people working in a hidden network called the Underground Railroad. The Illinois Preservation Agency estimates some five hundred properties in Illinois are associated with the Underground Railroad. Illinois has been an Apostolic state whose 1848 Constitution outlawed slavery and whose citizens aided those seeking freedom to find a pathway our of servitude. It is also noteworthy that Illinois was the first state to sign the Emaciation Proclamation.
The history of slavery in Illinois represents a real dichotomy because slavery was outlawed but, at the same time, was widely tolerated. In the early 1700s, slaves were brought to the area now known as Illinois by the French settlers. In the late 1700s, slavery was outlawed when the Americans took possession of the territory. The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 set forth the parameters for establishing states in the Northwest Territory, of which the Illinois country was a part. The Ordinance also forbade slavery; however, slavery continued to be tolerated in Illinois.
The population of the Territory of Illinois was very much divided between the northern and southern parts. The southern population, which favored slavery, was largely from Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, and the Carolinas. The northern population was mostly from New England and better educated, had more money, and favored emancipation. At that time the southern part of the state was the most populated. When Illinois achieved statehood in 1818, more than 80 percent of the population was of Southern heritage.
The first state Constitution (1818) was a compromise which allowed slavery in the salt mines near Shawneetown in Southern Illinois but nowhere else. This exception was made because the slave-operated salines contributed one-third of the new state's yearly revenue. The law allowed African slaves to be imported to the site until 1825, when the exemption expired. The salt mine used 1000 to 2000 slaves. The compromise basically mandated that a slave in the state would remain a slave, though their children would become free on reaching adulthood. This compromise was largely the result of the strong influence of the southern population of the state. However, there were slaves throughout Illinois largely due to the authorities “looking the other way”.
Edward Coles, the second governor of Illinois and an anti-slavery advocate throughout his adult life, twice led political campaigns that prevented the legitimization of slavery in the new state of Illinois. Born in Virginia, Coles inherited a plantation and slaves but eventually left Virginia for the Illinois Territory in order to set his slaves free and give each head of family 160 acres of land that he had purchased near Edwardsville. Governor Coles led the opposition to a bill approving a referendum to hold another constitutional convention, recognizing it as a dishonest attempt to more clearly legalize slavery in the state. The bill to hold the referendum passes and was slated to go before Illinois voters. Coles committed his total pay as governor ($4000) to defeat the referendum and led a committee of anti-slavery citizens, religious leaders, and legislators (who committed another $1000). On August 2, 1824, Illinois voters rejected the pro-slavery convention referendum.
At the time of the next Constitutional Convention in 1848, slavery was finally outlawed outright. Section 16 in its Declaration of Rights specified, "There shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the State, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted
By the time of Lincoln, the issue of slavery in the state was over; however, there was still a strong following of pro-slavery minded people. At the time in Illinois when Abraham Lincoln (Republican) was attempting to procure a seat as U.S. Senator, U.S. Senators were appointed, not elected. While debating Steven Douglas (Democrat), Lincoln delivered his “House Divided” speech. Douglas was in favor of slavery; Lincoln was not. Douglas won and was given the appointment.
Slavery in Illinois was an issue, although not many people would know it, historically speaking. With the two factions (free vs. slave) at odds with each other, it is remarkable that Lincoln, who had a background of southern heritage, was such a staunch supporter of freedom.
Prior to the end of slavery, many Africans sought freedom by means of escape through the aid of both black and white people working in a hidden network called the Underground Railroad. The Illinois Preservation Agency estimates some five hundred properties in Illinois are associated with the Underground Railroad. Illinois has been an Apostolic state whose 1848 Constitution outlawed slavery and whose citizens aided those seeking freedom to find a pathway our of servitude. It is also noteworthy that Illinois was the first state to sign the Emaciation Proclamation.
Illinois: The Apostolic State, Part Three, by Joyce Geiler
In the areas of business and agriculture, numerous examples of the apostolic nature of Illinois can be seen, from creative agricultural innovations to businesses that became the largest of their kind in the world.
Business and Agriculture
The Southern Illinois Salines were the first major industry in the Illinois Territory following European settlement. The Illinois Salines are salt spring sites located along the Saline River in Gallatin County. The site where brine was boiled down to recover the salt was financially successful and became the property of the State of Illinois upon its statehood in 1818. The exception in the first Illinois Constitution to allow slavery in the salt springs in the area was made because the slave operated salines contributed one-third of the new state's yearly revenue. Indentured servitude at the springs continued even past 1825 when the exemption expired. Salt production continued until 1870 when competition from West Virginia drove the springs out of business.
In 1837, John Deere designed a self scouring plow which turned Illinois' rich prairie land into some of the world's most productive and valuable farmlands. Ten years later Cyrus McCormick opened a plant in Chicago manufacturing wheat reapers and the Prairie Farmer magazine began a publication that continues yet today. In 1873, Joseph Glidden of DeKalb developed barbed wire fencing. In 1922, Decatur manufacturer A.E, Staley opened the first commercial soybean processing plant. By 1924, Illinois was the leading state in soybean production; and in 1966, Illinois led the nation in exports of agricultural and manufactured products for the first time.
The Chicago Board of Trade was organized in 1848 becoming the largest and oldest commodity futures exchange in the world. In 1856, Rand McNally was established in Chicago; and by 1880, it was the world's largest mapmaking company. In 1868, Marshall Field & Company department stores opened in downtown Chicago. At Field's death, he was the city's wealthiest citizen. In 1872, Chicago merchant Aaron Montgomery Ward established the first large-scale mail order business. In 1876, the U.S. Supreme Court established in Munn v. Illinois the principle that business of a public nature is subject to state regulation. In 1878, Bell Telephone Company of Illinois began service in Chicago.
In 1883, William Jenney designed the ten-story Home Insurance Building in Chicago, known as the world's first skyscraper. Although the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 destroyed most of downtown Chicago sustaining losses estimated at $200 million and leaving more than 100,000 people homeless, Chicago rebounded with the World's Fair in 1893. The world's tallest building, Sears Tower, in downtown Chicago was completed in 1974.
By 1900, the growth of industrial jobs in the northern cities and coal mining in the central and southern areas attracted immigrants from Eastern and Southern Europe. Illinois was an important manufacturing center during both world wars. The Great Migration from the South established a large community of African-Americans in Chicago, who created the city's famous jazz and blues cultures. By 1920, Illinois was counted among the foremost states in nearly every significant growth variable: coal mining, industry, farming, urbanization, transportation and wholesaling.
In 1942, University of Chicago scientists, led by Enrico Fermi, achieved the first self-sustaining nuclear reaction. In1957, the nations' first nuclear power generating station was activated at Argonne National Laboratory in DuPage County. With 6 nuclear power generating stations, Illinois ranked first in the nation in 2010 in both nuclear capacity and nuclear generation.
Civil government
Notable firsts and events involving Illinois government include the following: In 1877, the Illinois National Guard was established. In1892, Chicago attorney Myra Bradwell was the first woman admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court. The first juvenile court system in the United States was created in Cook County in 1899. In 1917, the General Assembly adopted a modern civil administrative code for state government. The General Assembly created an unemployment compensation system in 1937. Governor Pat Quinn signed legislation in 2011 legalizing civil unions for same-sex couples. In 2014, for the first time in modern memory - and perhaps ever - Illinois elected a governor who is also a member in good standing with Chicago's business establishment. (Note: A separate appendix paper is dedicated to Abraham Lincoln.)
Corruption in Illinois Government
State Auditor Orville Hodge was convicted of the $1.5 million theft of state funds in 1953. 1973 saw Otto Kerner convicted on charges involving the sale of racetrack stock while governor. The General Assembly approved a state lottery in 1974. In 1984, seventeen Chicago attorneys, police officers, and judges are indicted in Operation Greylord on charges of improperly influencing court cases; the convictions contained the first for a sitting state court judge in Illinois.
In 2003, Illinois faced its largest budget deficit in state history. Former Governor George Ryan was convicted of 18 corruption-related charges stemming from an FBI investigation in 2006. In 2007, a federal jury convicted four Chicago mobsters and a former policeman of racketeering, conspiracy, and murder in a trial that revealed the darkest secrets of organized crime in Chicago. That trial was considered to be one of the most important trials in Illinois history. In 2011, Former Governor Rod Blagojevich was found guilty on 17 counts of corruption.
In the areas of business and agriculture, numerous examples of the apostolic nature of Illinois can be seen, from creative agricultural innovations to businesses that became the largest of their kind in the world.
Business and Agriculture
The Southern Illinois Salines were the first major industry in the Illinois Territory following European settlement. The Illinois Salines are salt spring sites located along the Saline River in Gallatin County. The site where brine was boiled down to recover the salt was financially successful and became the property of the State of Illinois upon its statehood in 1818. The exception in the first Illinois Constitution to allow slavery in the salt springs in the area was made because the slave operated salines contributed one-third of the new state's yearly revenue. Indentured servitude at the springs continued even past 1825 when the exemption expired. Salt production continued until 1870 when competition from West Virginia drove the springs out of business.
In 1837, John Deere designed a self scouring plow which turned Illinois' rich prairie land into some of the world's most productive and valuable farmlands. Ten years later Cyrus McCormick opened a plant in Chicago manufacturing wheat reapers and the Prairie Farmer magazine began a publication that continues yet today. In 1873, Joseph Glidden of DeKalb developed barbed wire fencing. In 1922, Decatur manufacturer A.E, Staley opened the first commercial soybean processing plant. By 1924, Illinois was the leading state in soybean production; and in 1966, Illinois led the nation in exports of agricultural and manufactured products for the first time.
The Chicago Board of Trade was organized in 1848 becoming the largest and oldest commodity futures exchange in the world. In 1856, Rand McNally was established in Chicago; and by 1880, it was the world's largest mapmaking company. In 1868, Marshall Field & Company department stores opened in downtown Chicago. At Field's death, he was the city's wealthiest citizen. In 1872, Chicago merchant Aaron Montgomery Ward established the first large-scale mail order business. In 1876, the U.S. Supreme Court established in Munn v. Illinois the principle that business of a public nature is subject to state regulation. In 1878, Bell Telephone Company of Illinois began service in Chicago.
In 1883, William Jenney designed the ten-story Home Insurance Building in Chicago, known as the world's first skyscraper. Although the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 destroyed most of downtown Chicago sustaining losses estimated at $200 million and leaving more than 100,000 people homeless, Chicago rebounded with the World's Fair in 1893. The world's tallest building, Sears Tower, in downtown Chicago was completed in 1974.
By 1900, the growth of industrial jobs in the northern cities and coal mining in the central and southern areas attracted immigrants from Eastern and Southern Europe. Illinois was an important manufacturing center during both world wars. The Great Migration from the South established a large community of African-Americans in Chicago, who created the city's famous jazz and blues cultures. By 1920, Illinois was counted among the foremost states in nearly every significant growth variable: coal mining, industry, farming, urbanization, transportation and wholesaling.
In 1942, University of Chicago scientists, led by Enrico Fermi, achieved the first self-sustaining nuclear reaction. In1957, the nations' first nuclear power generating station was activated at Argonne National Laboratory in DuPage County. With 6 nuclear power generating stations, Illinois ranked first in the nation in 2010 in both nuclear capacity and nuclear generation.
Civil government
Notable firsts and events involving Illinois government include the following: In 1877, the Illinois National Guard was established. In1892, Chicago attorney Myra Bradwell was the first woman admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court. The first juvenile court system in the United States was created in Cook County in 1899. In 1917, the General Assembly adopted a modern civil administrative code for state government. The General Assembly created an unemployment compensation system in 1937. Governor Pat Quinn signed legislation in 2011 legalizing civil unions for same-sex couples. In 2014, for the first time in modern memory - and perhaps ever - Illinois elected a governor who is also a member in good standing with Chicago's business establishment. (Note: A separate appendix paper is dedicated to Abraham Lincoln.)
Corruption in Illinois Government
State Auditor Orville Hodge was convicted of the $1.5 million theft of state funds in 1953. 1973 saw Otto Kerner convicted on charges involving the sale of racetrack stock while governor. The General Assembly approved a state lottery in 1974. In 1984, seventeen Chicago attorneys, police officers, and judges are indicted in Operation Greylord on charges of improperly influencing court cases; the convictions contained the first for a sitting state court judge in Illinois.
In 2003, Illinois faced its largest budget deficit in state history. Former Governor George Ryan was convicted of 18 corruption-related charges stemming from an FBI investigation in 2006. In 2007, a federal jury convicted four Chicago mobsters and a former policeman of racketeering, conspiracy, and murder in a trial that revealed the darkest secrets of organized crime in Chicago. That trial was considered to be one of the most important trials in Illinois history. In 2011, Former Governor Rod Blagojevich was found guilty on 17 counts of corruption.
Illinois: The Apostolic State, Part Two, by Joyce Geiler
In this article, the focus on the development of Illinois as an apostolic state will be on the growth of educational institutions and the contributions of African-Americans.
The population of Illinois expanded primarily from south to north; and along with it, the progression of Illinois "firsts". The first newspaper in the state, the Illinois Herald began publication in 1814. The first bank was chartered in 1816 in Shawneetown in Gallatin County along the Ohio river. Alton in Madison County was home to the first state prison in 1830. In 1830, Abraham Lincoln moved to Illinois from Indiana. That same year at Vandalia, James Hall launched the Illinois Monthly Magazine, which was the first periodical published west of Ohio. In 1847, Joseph Medill founded the Chicago Tribune. Throughout the 1830s, Indians left Illinois; and in 1833, the Treaty of Chicago provided for the acquisition and settlement of the remaining Indian lands in Illinois.
In the 1830s and '40s, there was mutual distrust between southern and northern Illinois. The northern parts of Illinois had concentrations of New Englanders and Easterners; while southern regions contained settlers from Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia and the Carolinas. Southerners exerted an early influence on the state. When Illinois achieved statehood in 1818, more than 80 percent of the population was of Southern heritage.
In the 1830s and 1840s, the land boom in Illinois brought an influx of settlers from New England, New York, and surrounding states. There were marked differences in lifestyle, philosophies, religion, and interests between the two extremes of Illinois. Matters of state and national importance sometimes divided Southerners and Yankees; for example, the slavery convention fight of 1824 was partisan along regional lines.
Education
The first public school law in Illinois was the Free School Act of 1825. It provided that common schools should be established in each county of the State, which were to be free and open to all white citizens between the ages of five and twenty-one. This law was amended in 1827 because some families that did not have children did not want to pay taxes to support the school. This weakened the Law of 1825 to the point that few public schools were established.
Another Free School Act was passed in 1845, which gave the legal voters the opportunity to meet together to determine the feasibility of levying taxes for the support of building school houses, repairing of school houses, and for other school purposes. In 1855, the General Assembly adopted a free public school system. In 1870, a third Constitution for the State of Illinois was approved. Article VIII stated, “the General Assembly shall provide a thorough and efficient system of free schools, whereby all the children of the State shall receive a good common school education.” By this Article, it was mandated that all counties in the state must organize elementary school districts. In 1883, the first compulsory school attendance regulation was enacted in Illinois.
The establishment of schools of higher learning progressed from south to north. In 1827, John Mason Peck, a Baptist missionary, founded Rock Springs Seminary in Madison County, the first college in the state, which was later renamed Shurtleff College and eventually became part of Southern Illinois University. McKendree University, formerly known as McKendree College, in St. Clair County was founded in 1828 as the Lebanon Seminary and is the oldest continually operating college in Illinois. The institution remains the oldest in the nation with continuous ties to the United Methodist Church.
In 1835, a charter was granted for the Jacksonville Female Academy, the first institution in the state for women's education. Illinois State University (ISU) in Normal, founded in 1857, is the oldest public university in Illinois. In 1872, communities were granted taxing authority to establish and maintain public libraries. In 1886, the Illinois Industrial University (later the University of Illinois) was established. In 1889, Dwight L. Moody founded the Chicago Bible Institute for training missionaries to foreign lands.
Notable African-American Achievements
Just 65 years after slaves were used in the salt mines in southern Illinois and 25 years after slavery was outlawed in Illinois, great achievements by African-Americans made history. In 1872, Chicagoan John Jones became a Cook County commissioner, the first African-American to hold elective office in Illinois. In 1890, African-American surgeon Daniel Williams organized Provident Hospital and training school for nurses in Chicago, the first black hospital in the U.S. Another source says it was the first non-segregated hospital in the U.S. In 1893, Williams performed heart surgery to repair a wound. That surgery was the first documented cardiac surgery in the U.S. and possibly the world.
In 1950, Gwendolyn Brooks, born in Kansas and raised in Chicago, was the first African-American woman to win a Pulitzer Prize. She was later named Illinois poet laureate in 1968. In 1959, Chicago native Lorraine Hansberry won the New York Drama Critics Award for A Raisin in the Sun, the first play by an African-American woman to be presented on Broadway. In 1971, Chicago political and civil rights leader Jesse Jackson founded Operation PUSH - People United to Save (later Serve) Humanity. Centralia native Roland Burris became Comptroller in 1979. He was the first African-American to hold a statewide elective office in Illinois. In 1983, Harold Washington was elected the first African-American mayor of Chicago. In 1989, Clarence Page of the Chicago Tribune was the first African-American columnist to win a Pulitzer Prize. Carol Moseley-Braun of Chicago became the first African-American woman elected to the United States Senate in 1992. In 1995, Jesse White was the first African- American to be elected Secretary of State. In 2003, Senator Emil Jones was elected President of the Illinois Senate, the first African-American to hold that post. In 2008, Barak Obama became the first African-American elected to the Presidency. He had served in the Illinois Senate from 1997 – 2004 and then as a US Senator from Illinois until 2008.
Illinois: The Apostolic State, Part One by Joyce Geiler
On August 26, 2003, Dutch Sheets and Chuck Pierce proclaimed Illinois as God's Apostolic State. From the beginning, Illinois has been a place of tremendous resources: natural resources, people resources, inventions and innovations. Some of the ways Illinois grew was the result of the natural progression as the land was settled. Some of Illinois' advancement is evidence of its apostolic calling because it is a state which functions as a sending station. This is part one of a report on the state's apostolic calling.
A century ago, as the United States advanced from an agrarian to an industrial nation, one historian described Illinois as having a more significant history than any other state "west of the Alleghenies." Throughout the twentieth century, Illinois has sustained that prominence, especially in subject areas that encompass agriculture, architecture, the arts, business and labor, communications, education, government and politics, medicine and science, the military, recreation and sports, religion, social reform, and transportation. https://www.illinois.gov/ihpa/Research/Pages/Timeline.aspx
The state's greatest natural resource is its fertile soil. With the help of ample rainfall during the growing season, the land produces large crops and rich pasturage year after year. Other major resources are mineral wealth, especially coal and petroleum, and timber, which covers about one-tenth of the area. Rivers bordering and within Illinois remain important for transportation and recreation.
Transportation
Rivers were the avenue for the exploration of Illinois. Illinois is boundaried by the Mississippi River on the west, the Ohio River on the south and the Wabash River on the east. The Illinois River and its tributaries bisect most of central and northern Illinois, almost connecting with Lake Michigan at the northeastern corner of the State. French Canadians came down the Mississippi from the north, and American settlers arrived from Kentucky by way of the Ohio River after the Revolutionary War. After construction of the Erie Canal increased traffic and trade through the Great Lakes, settlement patterns then began to shift to northern Illinois. Chicago was founded in the 1830s on the banks of the Chicago River, one of the few natural harbors on southern Lake Michigan.
North and south, early settlement in Illinois stayed near the rivers and streams. Later migrants moved out onto the prairie, following Indian and buffalo trails through the tall prairie grass and marshy swampland. Early settlers found it difficult to travel within the state because it lacked even rudimentary roads. In 1836, the Illinois General Assembly responded with the Internal Improvements Act of 1837, which provided for construction of the Illinois and Michigan Canal. The canal, completed in 1848, created an inland water route that connected Chicago to the Gulf of Mexico.
The following year, in 1849, Congress provided land for a Y-shaped rail line from Cairo to East Dubuque, with a branch to Chicago. Entrepreneurs worked hand-in-hand with government officials to establish the Illinois Central Railroad and to bring other railroads to Illinois. In 1856, the first railroad bridge across the Mississippi River was completed between Rock Island and Davenport, Iowa. Trains soon became the primary method of transport for both people and freight. The first established rail line was the Galena and Chicago Union. Though only 10 miles of track were built in 1848, passenger service began that November 21. A week later, farmers had shipped more than 30 carloads of wheat on the line, which was shipping half of the wheat in Chicago by 1852. From a meager 110 miles of railroad in 1850, Illinois boasted 11 major rail lines and 2,867 miles of track a decade later.
Though some lines like the Illinois River Railroad faltered, the economic boom to Illinois was clear. Small towns prospered as markets opened up both in Illinois and out of state. Chicago was served by 104 trains a day in 1856 and had connected to Eastern railroads, becoming the rail center of the nation. In just a few years, Illinois had become he railroad leader of the Midwest and one of the great railroad states in the nation. By the end of the century, a national, regional, and an inter-urban rail networks crisscrossed the state.
In the early 1900s, individual entrepreneurs and communities built paved roads. In 1916, the national government provided matching funds to state highway departments; and in 1918, voters approved a $60 million bond issue for paving state roads. Route 4 from Chicago was the paved forerunner of Route 66. It closely followed the Chicago and Alton Railroad tracks cutting a diagonal path across Illinois on it was to St. Louis and points west. The Federal Aid highway Act of 1956 resulted in replacement of two and four-lane highways by interstates.
Like early canal and road-building schemes, the early airports were mostly private ventures. Air travel became a possibility in 1890 when Octave Chanute, a Chicago engineer, designed a biplane, the model studied by the Wright Brothers before they made the first powered flight at Kitty Hawk. In 1918, United States Airmail service began between Chicago and New York; and by 1926, four airlines served Chicago. Chicago's Municipal Airport, later renamed Midway, was dedicated in 1927 with only a single runway. It quickly expanded, becoming the world's busiest airport in the 1940s. Soon another airport, Orchard Airport, later renamed O'Hare, became the busiest airport in the world.
Transportation in Illinois, a state rich in natural resources and agricultural products has evolved from the earliest days of travel by waterways, rough trails, and rudimentary roads to travel by railroads, ever-improving paved roads, and air travel. An apostolic state is a "sending state." The development of the network of transportation that characterizes Illinois facilitates that sending. Note also that several of the advances in the process of establishing that transportation were firsts: the first railroad bride across the might Mississippi River, the forerunner of the national road, Route 66, and the designing of the biplane.
The first discovery of coal in the United States was in what is now Illinois around 1669. Almost a century passed before it was known that coal existed in Pennsylvania and other parts of the United States. Coal was first used locally and then shipped along the rivers, but the most rapid growth of the coal industry came with the development of the railway systems. In 1810, the first coal mine was opened in Jackson County in southern Illinois. Illinois has the largest known reserves of bituminous coal in the United States.
An ever-expanding rail system allowed for the opening of the Chicago Stock Yard in 1865, which employed more that one third of the packing industry laborers in the nation. That same year, George Pullman founded the Pullman Palace Car Company in Chicago to manufacture railroad sleeping cars. He built the city of Pullman for workers' housing to provide the employees of his company with modern amenities.
Native Americans knew of lead deposits in Illinois before French explorers came, but it was not until the 1820s that lead mines were operating in several locations and reached their peak in 1847. Later zinc was mined in some of the same places. Both minerals were moved by rail.
On August 26, 2003, Dutch Sheets and Chuck Pierce proclaimed Illinois as God's Apostolic State. From the beginning, Illinois has been a place of tremendous resources: natural resources, people resources, inventions and innovations. Some of the ways Illinois grew was the result of the natural progression as the land was settled. Some of Illinois' advancement is evidence of its apostolic calling because it is a state which functions as a sending station. This is part one of a report on the state's apostolic calling.
A century ago, as the United States advanced from an agrarian to an industrial nation, one historian described Illinois as having a more significant history than any other state "west of the Alleghenies." Throughout the twentieth century, Illinois has sustained that prominence, especially in subject areas that encompass agriculture, architecture, the arts, business and labor, communications, education, government and politics, medicine and science, the military, recreation and sports, religion, social reform, and transportation. https://www.illinois.gov/ihpa/Research/Pages/Timeline.aspx
The state's greatest natural resource is its fertile soil. With the help of ample rainfall during the growing season, the land produces large crops and rich pasturage year after year. Other major resources are mineral wealth, especially coal and petroleum, and timber, which covers about one-tenth of the area. Rivers bordering and within Illinois remain important for transportation and recreation.
Transportation
Rivers were the avenue for the exploration of Illinois. Illinois is boundaried by the Mississippi River on the west, the Ohio River on the south and the Wabash River on the east. The Illinois River and its tributaries bisect most of central and northern Illinois, almost connecting with Lake Michigan at the northeastern corner of the State. French Canadians came down the Mississippi from the north, and American settlers arrived from Kentucky by way of the Ohio River after the Revolutionary War. After construction of the Erie Canal increased traffic and trade through the Great Lakes, settlement patterns then began to shift to northern Illinois. Chicago was founded in the 1830s on the banks of the Chicago River, one of the few natural harbors on southern Lake Michigan.
North and south, early settlement in Illinois stayed near the rivers and streams. Later migrants moved out onto the prairie, following Indian and buffalo trails through the tall prairie grass and marshy swampland. Early settlers found it difficult to travel within the state because it lacked even rudimentary roads. In 1836, the Illinois General Assembly responded with the Internal Improvements Act of 1837, which provided for construction of the Illinois and Michigan Canal. The canal, completed in 1848, created an inland water route that connected Chicago to the Gulf of Mexico.
The following year, in 1849, Congress provided land for a Y-shaped rail line from Cairo to East Dubuque, with a branch to Chicago. Entrepreneurs worked hand-in-hand with government officials to establish the Illinois Central Railroad and to bring other railroads to Illinois. In 1856, the first railroad bridge across the Mississippi River was completed between Rock Island and Davenport, Iowa. Trains soon became the primary method of transport for both people and freight. The first established rail line was the Galena and Chicago Union. Though only 10 miles of track were built in 1848, passenger service began that November 21. A week later, farmers had shipped more than 30 carloads of wheat on the line, which was shipping half of the wheat in Chicago by 1852. From a meager 110 miles of railroad in 1850, Illinois boasted 11 major rail lines and 2,867 miles of track a decade later.
Though some lines like the Illinois River Railroad faltered, the economic boom to Illinois was clear. Small towns prospered as markets opened up both in Illinois and out of state. Chicago was served by 104 trains a day in 1856 and had connected to Eastern railroads, becoming the rail center of the nation. In just a few years, Illinois had become he railroad leader of the Midwest and one of the great railroad states in the nation. By the end of the century, a national, regional, and an inter-urban rail networks crisscrossed the state.
In the early 1900s, individual entrepreneurs and communities built paved roads. In 1916, the national government provided matching funds to state highway departments; and in 1918, voters approved a $60 million bond issue for paving state roads. Route 4 from Chicago was the paved forerunner of Route 66. It closely followed the Chicago and Alton Railroad tracks cutting a diagonal path across Illinois on it was to St. Louis and points west. The Federal Aid highway Act of 1956 resulted in replacement of two and four-lane highways by interstates.
Like early canal and road-building schemes, the early airports were mostly private ventures. Air travel became a possibility in 1890 when Octave Chanute, a Chicago engineer, designed a biplane, the model studied by the Wright Brothers before they made the first powered flight at Kitty Hawk. In 1918, United States Airmail service began between Chicago and New York; and by 1926, four airlines served Chicago. Chicago's Municipal Airport, later renamed Midway, was dedicated in 1927 with only a single runway. It quickly expanded, becoming the world's busiest airport in the 1940s. Soon another airport, Orchard Airport, later renamed O'Hare, became the busiest airport in the world.
Transportation in Illinois, a state rich in natural resources and agricultural products has evolved from the earliest days of travel by waterways, rough trails, and rudimentary roads to travel by railroads, ever-improving paved roads, and air travel. An apostolic state is a "sending state." The development of the network of transportation that characterizes Illinois facilitates that sending. Note also that several of the advances in the process of establishing that transportation were firsts: the first railroad bride across the might Mississippi River, the forerunner of the national road, Route 66, and the designing of the biplane.
The first discovery of coal in the United States was in what is now Illinois around 1669. Almost a century passed before it was known that coal existed in Pennsylvania and other parts of the United States. Coal was first used locally and then shipped along the rivers, but the most rapid growth of the coal industry came with the development of the railway systems. In 1810, the first coal mine was opened in Jackson County in southern Illinois. Illinois has the largest known reserves of bituminous coal in the United States.
An ever-expanding rail system allowed for the opening of the Chicago Stock Yard in 1865, which employed more that one third of the packing industry laborers in the nation. That same year, George Pullman founded the Pullman Palace Car Company in Chicago to manufacture railroad sleeping cars. He built the city of Pullman for workers' housing to provide the employees of his company with modern amenities.
Native Americans knew of lead deposits in Illinois before French explorers came, but it was not until the 1820s that lead mines were operating in several locations and reached their peak in 1847. Later zinc was mined in some of the same places. Both minerals were moved by rail.
History of Religious Development in Illinois by Joyce Geiler
The earliest Europeans to settle in Illinois, the French Catholics, certainly brought their religion with them and established numerous missions to convert the Indians to Christianity and to facilitate trade. Apart from a few thousand nomadic Indians and the French settlers, Illinois was largely uninhabited before 1815. When France ceded the territory to Britain in 1783, many of the French Catholics moved west across the Mississippi so little religion of any sort was practiced on the Illinois frontier. Energetic Protestant missionaries, particularly Methodists, set out to evangelize the growing but non-Christian population, and they largely succeeded. By 1890, 36% of the adults in Illinois were affiliated with evangelical denominations (chiefly Methodist, Disciples of Christ, Baptist, Congregationalist, and Presbyterian) while 35% belonged to liturgical denominations (chiefly Roman Catholic, Lutheran, and Episcopal). The remaining adults acknowledged no particular denomination. (http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Illinois.aspx)
In the early to mid-1800s, four different groups sought to establish Zion-like communities in central and northern Illinois: the Mormons, the Janssonists, the Icarians and Dowie's Zion. Each of these groups hoped to establish a community where their particular view of religion or their belief system could be practiced.
The concept of a city named Zion is found within the pages of scripture. Zion was located on the north side of Jerusalem and was often used to reference the religious and governmental seat of the nation of Israel. The covenant community would convene there to worship and to receive instructions on civil and social policy. Modern usage of the name Zion continues to reflect this earliest meaning. Zion is a city where God and men dwell together. Zion is a city of righteous living and righteous practices. Zion has become a synonym for a utopian community. Throughout the history of Illinois, Zion-like communities have been established in the state.
In late 1839, Smith led the Mormons, who had fled religious persecution in Missouri, to Hancock County, Illinois, where they bought the small town of Commerce, which was renamed Nauvoo in 1840. Smith was both the spiritual and political leader of the group which hoped to build a communalistic American Zion. Smith angered non-Mormons by destroying a newspaper that criticized his power and his practice of polygamy. He was arrested and killed when a mob stormed the jail. In 1844, most of the Later Day Saints fled to Utah; but a Mormon temple currently exists in Nauvoo. The first mention of Zion in Illinois is Mormonism, which does not accurately reflect the redemptive work of Christ. This false religion couldn't take root to be "sent out" from this apostolic state.
Bishop Hill, a village in Henry County was founded in 1846 by Swedish immigrants affiliated with the Pietist movement led by Erik Jansson. Jansson preached against his perception of abominations in the Lutheran Church. He wanted to set up a New Jerusalem from which his followers could evangelize the world. The colony was communalistic in nature with everything being owned by everyone and no one having more possessions than another. Jansson was murdered in 1850 but the colony continued to flourish for a time. Eventually financial mismanagement caused the colony to dissolve in 1861. In this expression of Zion, business and religion were not in right relationship to one another.
In an attempt to put his economic and social theories into practice, Etienne Cabet led his followers from France to the United States; and they eventually settled in Nauvoo in 1848. The Icarians, as they were called, were very communalistic. Every family lived in the same amount of space, which was two rooms in an apartment building, and was allowed the same amount of furniture. After age 4, children lived apart from their parents at a boarding school, visiting their families on Sundays. This was done to foster a love of community. The Icarians practiced no organized religion but, on Sundays, discussed Cabet's writings and Christian morals and ethics. Before this particular group of Icarians settled in Nauvoo there had been factional disagreements, which resulted in a split. The group that still followed Cabet settled in Nauvoo. Disagreements and a split occurred again resulting in the disbanding of the settlement in 1860. Not only was this community not a theocratically informed civil institution, but the family institution was sacrificed for the community, consequently it could not succeed.
John Dowie, who was born in Scotland, preached divine healing and formed the International Divine Healing Association in 1886. He proposed the organization of a church based on apostolic principles; and in February, 1896, he organized the Christian Catholic (universal) Church. After the organization of the church, he dreamed of a city where his congregation would be free from the evils of the world - a city where God would be the ruler. He secured 6,600 acres (about 11 square miles) of land north of Chicago near the Wisconsin border where he built a city named Zion, which was to be a city where his congregation could worship, work, and play free from the temptations of the world.
As the community of Zion grew in size and prosperity, Dowie adopted an increasingly lavish lifestyle, building himself a 25-room mansion and dressing himself in ornate ecclesiastical robes modeled after those worn by Aaron, Israel’s high priest. Due to this and other financial mismanagement, the church was threatened with bankruptcy. Dowie suffered a series of strokes before his death in 1907. During Dowie's debilitation, a new leader, Wilbur Voliva was elected; but he soon adopted the same lavish lifestyle and alienated his followers. When Voliva died in 1942, the church all but dissolved; but in 1959, the church was reorganized and renamed Christ Community Church. That church continues today. The name Christian Catholic church is still used for its world-wide ministries. The failure in this community arose largely because one man exalted himself above the body of believers. It has, however, continued to communicate the Lordship of Christ evangelistically.
In 1865, George Pullman founded the Pullman Palace Car Company in Chicago to manufacture railroad sleeping cars. Like other industrialists of the time, he built a company town near his factory to accommodate his workers' housing needs. Though not touted as a Zion, Pullman expressed utopian ideals. He advertised it as a model community that offered his workers modern amenities in a beautiful setting. He established behavioral standards that workers had to meet to live in the area. The Depression of 1893 and labor strikes disrupted the town's progress. Pullman is still a neighborhood on Chicago's South Side.
The inclination to attempt to establish a utopian existence continued in Illinois. The 1893 World's Fair (officially known as the World's Columbian Exposition to honor the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus landing in North America), can be seen as the perfect vehicle for exposing Americans to the wonders of the modern age, an example of the modern wonders of a utopia. The world's fairs provided concrete demonstrations of how order and organization, high culture and art, science and technology, commerce and industry, all brought together under the wise administration of business and government would lead inevitably to a brighter, more prosperous future. Wonderful modern conveniences and technology may enhance our natural communities but have no inherent expression of faith in God.
The earliest Europeans to settle in Illinois, the French Catholics, certainly brought their religion with them and established numerous missions to convert the Indians to Christianity and to facilitate trade. Apart from a few thousand nomadic Indians and the French settlers, Illinois was largely uninhabited before 1815. When France ceded the territory to Britain in 1783, many of the French Catholics moved west across the Mississippi so little religion of any sort was practiced on the Illinois frontier. Energetic Protestant missionaries, particularly Methodists, set out to evangelize the growing but non-Christian population, and they largely succeeded. By 1890, 36% of the adults in Illinois were affiliated with evangelical denominations (chiefly Methodist, Disciples of Christ, Baptist, Congregationalist, and Presbyterian) while 35% belonged to liturgical denominations (chiefly Roman Catholic, Lutheran, and Episcopal). The remaining adults acknowledged no particular denomination. (http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Illinois.aspx)
In the early to mid-1800s, four different groups sought to establish Zion-like communities in central and northern Illinois: the Mormons, the Janssonists, the Icarians and Dowie's Zion. Each of these groups hoped to establish a community where their particular view of religion or their belief system could be practiced.
The concept of a city named Zion is found within the pages of scripture. Zion was located on the north side of Jerusalem and was often used to reference the religious and governmental seat of the nation of Israel. The covenant community would convene there to worship and to receive instructions on civil and social policy. Modern usage of the name Zion continues to reflect this earliest meaning. Zion is a city where God and men dwell together. Zion is a city of righteous living and righteous practices. Zion has become a synonym for a utopian community. Throughout the history of Illinois, Zion-like communities have been established in the state.
In late 1839, Smith led the Mormons, who had fled religious persecution in Missouri, to Hancock County, Illinois, where they bought the small town of Commerce, which was renamed Nauvoo in 1840. Smith was both the spiritual and political leader of the group which hoped to build a communalistic American Zion. Smith angered non-Mormons by destroying a newspaper that criticized his power and his practice of polygamy. He was arrested and killed when a mob stormed the jail. In 1844, most of the Later Day Saints fled to Utah; but a Mormon temple currently exists in Nauvoo. The first mention of Zion in Illinois is Mormonism, which does not accurately reflect the redemptive work of Christ. This false religion couldn't take root to be "sent out" from this apostolic state.
Bishop Hill, a village in Henry County was founded in 1846 by Swedish immigrants affiliated with the Pietist movement led by Erik Jansson. Jansson preached against his perception of abominations in the Lutheran Church. He wanted to set up a New Jerusalem from which his followers could evangelize the world. The colony was communalistic in nature with everything being owned by everyone and no one having more possessions than another. Jansson was murdered in 1850 but the colony continued to flourish for a time. Eventually financial mismanagement caused the colony to dissolve in 1861. In this expression of Zion, business and religion were not in right relationship to one another.
In an attempt to put his economic and social theories into practice, Etienne Cabet led his followers from France to the United States; and they eventually settled in Nauvoo in 1848. The Icarians, as they were called, were very communalistic. Every family lived in the same amount of space, which was two rooms in an apartment building, and was allowed the same amount of furniture. After age 4, children lived apart from their parents at a boarding school, visiting their families on Sundays. This was done to foster a love of community. The Icarians practiced no organized religion but, on Sundays, discussed Cabet's writings and Christian morals and ethics. Before this particular group of Icarians settled in Nauvoo there had been factional disagreements, which resulted in a split. The group that still followed Cabet settled in Nauvoo. Disagreements and a split occurred again resulting in the disbanding of the settlement in 1860. Not only was this community not a theocratically informed civil institution, but the family institution was sacrificed for the community, consequently it could not succeed.
John Dowie, who was born in Scotland, preached divine healing and formed the International Divine Healing Association in 1886. He proposed the organization of a church based on apostolic principles; and in February, 1896, he organized the Christian Catholic (universal) Church. After the organization of the church, he dreamed of a city where his congregation would be free from the evils of the world - a city where God would be the ruler. He secured 6,600 acres (about 11 square miles) of land north of Chicago near the Wisconsin border where he built a city named Zion, which was to be a city where his congregation could worship, work, and play free from the temptations of the world.
As the community of Zion grew in size and prosperity, Dowie adopted an increasingly lavish lifestyle, building himself a 25-room mansion and dressing himself in ornate ecclesiastical robes modeled after those worn by Aaron, Israel’s high priest. Due to this and other financial mismanagement, the church was threatened with bankruptcy. Dowie suffered a series of strokes before his death in 1907. During Dowie's debilitation, a new leader, Wilbur Voliva was elected; but he soon adopted the same lavish lifestyle and alienated his followers. When Voliva died in 1942, the church all but dissolved; but in 1959, the church was reorganized and renamed Christ Community Church. That church continues today. The name Christian Catholic church is still used for its world-wide ministries. The failure in this community arose largely because one man exalted himself above the body of believers. It has, however, continued to communicate the Lordship of Christ evangelistically.
In 1865, George Pullman founded the Pullman Palace Car Company in Chicago to manufacture railroad sleeping cars. Like other industrialists of the time, he built a company town near his factory to accommodate his workers' housing needs. Though not touted as a Zion, Pullman expressed utopian ideals. He advertised it as a model community that offered his workers modern amenities in a beautiful setting. He established behavioral standards that workers had to meet to live in the area. The Depression of 1893 and labor strikes disrupted the town's progress. Pullman is still a neighborhood on Chicago's South Side.
The inclination to attempt to establish a utopian existence continued in Illinois. The 1893 World's Fair (officially known as the World's Columbian Exposition to honor the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus landing in North America), can be seen as the perfect vehicle for exposing Americans to the wonders of the modern age, an example of the modern wonders of a utopia. The world's fairs provided concrete demonstrations of how order and organization, high culture and art, science and technology, commerce and industry, all brought together under the wise administration of business and government would lead inevitably to a brighter, more prosperous future. Wonderful modern conveniences and technology may enhance our natural communities but have no inherent expression of faith in God.
Illinois' Four Constitutions by Dean Geiler
The first Constitution of Illinois was adopted at Kaskaskia in convention, August 26, 1818, which was the same year that Illinois became a state, since having a Constitution was a necessary prerequisite to becoming a state. The Constitutions of Ohio and Indiana were used as a guideline. It included a compromise to allow slavery in the state in the salt mines in southern Illinois but nowhere else. The Constitution placed all the power in the Legislature. The Executive and Judicial branches were viewed more or less as a rubber stamp of the Legislature.
In 1824, there was a call for a Constitutional Convention specifically to allow slavery throughout the entire state. The voters were opposed to calling the Convention; so the Convention was not held and, consequently, the issue of allowing slavery was never brought up for a vote.
The second Constitution was drawn up in 1848, and it still placed much of the power in the Legislature. The Executive and Judicial branches did exert more influence than in the 1818 Constitution but still did not function as co-equals. Since the Legislative Branch remained largely in control, the state lacked checks and balances and was still susceptible to graft and corruption. However, this Constitution outlawed slavery statewide. Section 16 in its Declaration of Rights specified, "There shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the State, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted."
The third Constitution drawn up in 1870 finally placed co-equal branches into Illinois government. It also established uniformity in state salaries, increased the number of judges and courts throughout the state creating the circuit court system, and increased the governor’s veto power. Of most significance, it allowed for the election, rather than appointment, of Senators.
The fourth Constitution was drawn up in 1970. It further developed the duties and obligations of the state. Most notable is the Illinois Human Rights Act, which reflects the Federal Human Rights Act, banning discrimination based on race, color, creed, national ancestry, and sex. This Constitution also decreased the number of Legislators needed to call for a Constitutional convention to three-fifths (60%) from the former two-thirds (66%). The Preamble of this Constitution added the phrase "eliminate inequality, assure legal, social and economic justice." Conservative Christians have warned that the wording of that phrase in the Preamble opens the door to Progressivism and Marxist polices.
To date, there have been four separate Constitutions of the state (1818, 1848, 1870, 1970). There is no mention of God in the Preamble of 1818. The Preambles of 1848, 1870, and 1970 acknowledge God for the “civil, political, and religious liberty, seeking His blessing upon our endeavors (paraphrased) . . ."
The first Constitution of Illinois was adopted at Kaskaskia in convention, August 26, 1818, which was the same year that Illinois became a state, since having a Constitution was a necessary prerequisite to becoming a state. The Constitutions of Ohio and Indiana were used as a guideline. It included a compromise to allow slavery in the state in the salt mines in southern Illinois but nowhere else. The Constitution placed all the power in the Legislature. The Executive and Judicial branches were viewed more or less as a rubber stamp of the Legislature.
In 1824, there was a call for a Constitutional Convention specifically to allow slavery throughout the entire state. The voters were opposed to calling the Convention; so the Convention was not held and, consequently, the issue of allowing slavery was never brought up for a vote.
The second Constitution was drawn up in 1848, and it still placed much of the power in the Legislature. The Executive and Judicial branches did exert more influence than in the 1818 Constitution but still did not function as co-equals. Since the Legislative Branch remained largely in control, the state lacked checks and balances and was still susceptible to graft and corruption. However, this Constitution outlawed slavery statewide. Section 16 in its Declaration of Rights specified, "There shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the State, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted."
The third Constitution drawn up in 1870 finally placed co-equal branches into Illinois government. It also established uniformity in state salaries, increased the number of judges and courts throughout the state creating the circuit court system, and increased the governor’s veto power. Of most significance, it allowed for the election, rather than appointment, of Senators.
The fourth Constitution was drawn up in 1970. It further developed the duties and obligations of the state. Most notable is the Illinois Human Rights Act, which reflects the Federal Human Rights Act, banning discrimination based on race, color, creed, national ancestry, and sex. This Constitution also decreased the number of Legislators needed to call for a Constitutional convention to three-fifths (60%) from the former two-thirds (66%). The Preamble of this Constitution added the phrase "eliminate inequality, assure legal, social and economic justice." Conservative Christians have warned that the wording of that phrase in the Preamble opens the door to Progressivism and Marxist polices.
To date, there have been four separate Constitutions of the state (1818, 1848, 1870, 1970). There is no mention of God in the Preamble of 1818. The Preambles of 1848, 1870, and 1970 acknowledge God for the “civil, political, and religious liberty, seeking His blessing upon our endeavors (paraphrased) . . ."
In the Beginning by Joyce Geiler
In the Bible, "firsts" are always sanctified or set apart by God. Throughout His Word, “firsts” hold a special place with God as can be supported by the knowledge that God introduces Himself and all things in Genesis, the book of beginnings or “firsts.” Other examples include: the firstborn is blessed; first fruits are desired; and first love is the term God uses to describe man's relationship with Him.
In preparation for the August Kingdom Congress on August 29, we will begin a series of articles on Illinois history that point out the recorded instances where Illinois has both succeeded and fallen short is its apostolic call, meaning its call to be a leader or “first” among the other states.
The first known Europeans to reach what is now Illinois were French explorers Jacques Marquette and Louis Jolliet who in 1763 descended the Mississippi to the Arkansas River and returned to Dearborn, later named Chicago, via the Illinois River. During that journey, they explored what was known as the Illinois country. Marquette, a Jesuit priest and early French evangelist, had a burning desire to spread the gospel to the tribes along the Mississippi. He was accompanied by Louis Jolliet, a trader, who was trying to see if the Mississippi River connected to the Pacific Ocean in the hope that there was a short cut to the spice trade in Asia. Early in the European occupation of the territory, Religion and Economics worked in unity to create a driving force in the Illinois area. It should also be noted that the French in their exploration, mapping and trading freely intermarried with the Native Americans, thereby making covenant with the Indians.
Other priests founded various missions. In 1699, priests of the Quebec Seminary of Foreign Missions founded the Holy Family mission at Cahokia, the first permanent settlement in the Illinois country. Cahokia became the center of a large area for trading Indian goods and furs. The village itself eventually had about 3,000 inhabitants, 24 brothels, and a thriving business district. Cahokia has Illinois’ first church and first courthouse. Nearby Kaskaskia became the region's leading shipping port and Fort de Chartres became a military and governmental command center. The area, now known as the American Bottoms, was later cultivated by farming settlers whose main crop was wheat.
War between France and Great Britain changed the complexion or the ethic aspect of the territory, but Cahokia retained a large population and continued to be a trading center, thus making it an area where other “firsts” could occur. In 1763 after France's loss to Britain in the French and Indian War and the subsequent Treaty of Paris, many Catholic French Cahokians fled to French villages on the western side of the Mississippi River.
In 1778 during the American Revolutionary War, George Rogers Clark, a colonel in American army, conquered the territory and threw out the British. He set up a court in Cahokia making it a place where justice could be dispensed. Soon after that, the 105 Cahokia "heads of household" pledged loyalty to the Continental Congress of the United States.
In 1790, the first county in Illinois, St. Clair County, was organized and the 1740-built courthouse in Cahokia became the courthouse for the new county. At that location, tangled French-American land titles were unsnarled; licenses were issued for frontier taverns and ferryboats; criminal cases were heard; and votes were counted as the courthouse acted as the U.S. territorial courthouse and major political center for an area extending to the Canadian border.
We see the earliest influence of religion and business in Illinois. Next, we see the civic and governmental connection. In future articles, we will explore other “firsts” in Illinois including first events, inventions, and constitution. Thank you to Dean Geiler and Joyce Hilmes for research related to this article.
In the Bible, "firsts" are always sanctified or set apart by God. Throughout His Word, “firsts” hold a special place with God as can be supported by the knowledge that God introduces Himself and all things in Genesis, the book of beginnings or “firsts.” Other examples include: the firstborn is blessed; first fruits are desired; and first love is the term God uses to describe man's relationship with Him.
In preparation for the August Kingdom Congress on August 29, we will begin a series of articles on Illinois history that point out the recorded instances where Illinois has both succeeded and fallen short is its apostolic call, meaning its call to be a leader or “first” among the other states.
The first known Europeans to reach what is now Illinois were French explorers Jacques Marquette and Louis Jolliet who in 1763 descended the Mississippi to the Arkansas River and returned to Dearborn, later named Chicago, via the Illinois River. During that journey, they explored what was known as the Illinois country. Marquette, a Jesuit priest and early French evangelist, had a burning desire to spread the gospel to the tribes along the Mississippi. He was accompanied by Louis Jolliet, a trader, who was trying to see if the Mississippi River connected to the Pacific Ocean in the hope that there was a short cut to the spice trade in Asia. Early in the European occupation of the territory, Religion and Economics worked in unity to create a driving force in the Illinois area. It should also be noted that the French in their exploration, mapping and trading freely intermarried with the Native Americans, thereby making covenant with the Indians.
Other priests founded various missions. In 1699, priests of the Quebec Seminary of Foreign Missions founded the Holy Family mission at Cahokia, the first permanent settlement in the Illinois country. Cahokia became the center of a large area for trading Indian goods and furs. The village itself eventually had about 3,000 inhabitants, 24 brothels, and a thriving business district. Cahokia has Illinois’ first church and first courthouse. Nearby Kaskaskia became the region's leading shipping port and Fort de Chartres became a military and governmental command center. The area, now known as the American Bottoms, was later cultivated by farming settlers whose main crop was wheat.
War between France and Great Britain changed the complexion or the ethic aspect of the territory, but Cahokia retained a large population and continued to be a trading center, thus making it an area where other “firsts” could occur. In 1763 after France's loss to Britain in the French and Indian War and the subsequent Treaty of Paris, many Catholic French Cahokians fled to French villages on the western side of the Mississippi River.
In 1778 during the American Revolutionary War, George Rogers Clark, a colonel in American army, conquered the territory and threw out the British. He set up a court in Cahokia making it a place where justice could be dispensed. Soon after that, the 105 Cahokia "heads of household" pledged loyalty to the Continental Congress of the United States.
In 1790, the first county in Illinois, St. Clair County, was organized and the 1740-built courthouse in Cahokia became the courthouse for the new county. At that location, tangled French-American land titles were unsnarled; licenses were issued for frontier taverns and ferryboats; criminal cases were heard; and votes were counted as the courthouse acted as the U.S. territorial courthouse and major political center for an area extending to the Canadian border.
We see the earliest influence of religion and business in Illinois. Next, we see the civic and governmental connection. In future articles, we will explore other “firsts” in Illinois including first events, inventions, and constitution. Thank you to Dean Geiler and Joyce Hilmes for research related to this article.
Medicaid Enrollment Twice the Projected Figures by Joyce Geiler
Illinois is among a dozen states where the number of new Medicaid enrollees surpassed projections for the expansion of Medicaid under President Obama's health law. More than twice as many Illinois residents have enrolled than was projected by the Quinn administration, which expected 298,000 people to sign up in 2015. Instead, 623,000 newly eligible Illinoisans enrolled by the end of June. The reason for the large increase may have been due in part to Cook County's expansion of Medicaid a year early under a special arrangement with the federal government and in part to the multimillion-dollar advertising campaign funded by federal grants. While the surge in sign-ups increases the number of insured people in Illinois, it has also stoked worries about the future cost to taxpayers. Illinois and Cook County eventually will have to bear 10 percent of the cost of expanding the safety-net insurance program for the poor. The federal government agreed to pay all costs for the expansion through 2016, but it will begin lowering its share in 2017. New projections show that in 2020, the Medicaid expansion will cost the state $208.6 million and Cook County $72.6 million. That year, the federal government's share of the Medicaid expansion costs will be $3.03 billion.
Medicaid is a joint federal and state program that helps low-income individuals or families pay for the costs associated with long-term medical and custodial care for persons of all ages within certain income limits. Although largely funded by the federal government, Medicaid is administered by the state where coverage may vary.
Dr. Jay Shannon, CEO of the Cook County Health and Hospitals System, said the economic benefits to health care providers can offset the costs. After the Medicaid expansion, the county's taxpayer-funded health system flipped from serving mostly uninsured to mostly insured patients. Before expansion, more than half the patients using county hospitals and clinics had no insurance; now about two-thirds are insured.
For the first time in the CCHHS's history, the County has a majority-insured population. He said the expansion has already saved county taxpayers money and will continue to do so. The county's unreimbursed care costs fell from more than $500 million in 2013 to $342 million in 2014.
H-m-m-m. So the county's taxpayer-funded health system flipped from serving mostly uninsured to mostly insured patients. And many of those newly insured patients are insured because they have signed up for Medicaid or are getting federal subsidies to help pay for their insurance. Medicaid, which the Affordable Care Act expanded, and cost assistance (assistance for those who qualify) are both subsidized by taxpayers with state and federal taxes. Obama Care cuts $716 billion(gross) in Medicare and Medicare Advantage spending but then reinvests it back into both Medicare and other aspects of the Affordable Care Act. And where did the $760 billion come from? Taxes. http://obamacarefacts.com
Illinois is among a dozen states where the number of new Medicaid enrollees surpassed projections for the expansion of Medicaid under President Obama's health law. More than twice as many Illinois residents have enrolled than was projected by the Quinn administration, which expected 298,000 people to sign up in 2015. Instead, 623,000 newly eligible Illinoisans enrolled by the end of June. The reason for the large increase may have been due in part to Cook County's expansion of Medicaid a year early under a special arrangement with the federal government and in part to the multimillion-dollar advertising campaign funded by federal grants. While the surge in sign-ups increases the number of insured people in Illinois, it has also stoked worries about the future cost to taxpayers. Illinois and Cook County eventually will have to bear 10 percent of the cost of expanding the safety-net insurance program for the poor. The federal government agreed to pay all costs for the expansion through 2016, but it will begin lowering its share in 2017. New projections show that in 2020, the Medicaid expansion will cost the state $208.6 million and Cook County $72.6 million. That year, the federal government's share of the Medicaid expansion costs will be $3.03 billion.
Medicaid is a joint federal and state program that helps low-income individuals or families pay for the costs associated with long-term medical and custodial care for persons of all ages within certain income limits. Although largely funded by the federal government, Medicaid is administered by the state where coverage may vary.
Dr. Jay Shannon, CEO of the Cook County Health and Hospitals System, said the economic benefits to health care providers can offset the costs. After the Medicaid expansion, the county's taxpayer-funded health system flipped from serving mostly uninsured to mostly insured patients. Before expansion, more than half the patients using county hospitals and clinics had no insurance; now about two-thirds are insured.
For the first time in the CCHHS's history, the County has a majority-insured population. He said the expansion has already saved county taxpayers money and will continue to do so. The county's unreimbursed care costs fell from more than $500 million in 2013 to $342 million in 2014.
H-m-m-m. So the county's taxpayer-funded health system flipped from serving mostly uninsured to mostly insured patients. And many of those newly insured patients are insured because they have signed up for Medicaid or are getting federal subsidies to help pay for their insurance. Medicaid, which the Affordable Care Act expanded, and cost assistance (assistance for those who qualify) are both subsidized by taxpayers with state and federal taxes. Obama Care cuts $716 billion(gross) in Medicare and Medicare Advantage spending but then reinvests it back into both Medicare and other aspects of the Affordable Care Act. And where did the $760 billion come from? Taxes. http://obamacarefacts.com
Taxpayer Money Funding Lavish Benefits for College Presidents by Joyce Geiler
Illinois tax dollars go toward funding some of the operations at the state's public colleges and universities. Taxpayers need to be informed where that money is going to put the money flow into perspective. It takes the full tuition of 65 students to pay for the yearly total compensation of $552,375 to the president at the University of Illinois, recently retired Robert Easter, who is the highest-paid public university president in Illinois. The median pay for college presidents has increased by 7 per cent since last year and the median base pay for university presidents nationally is about $400,000 a year. Other benefits and perks can make the salary package higher.
Because of the budget crisis in the state of Illinois and outcry over tuition costs, a special Senate panel investigated college administrative benefits and severance packages. The investigation found that state university and community college presidents have enjoyed lavish perks, some worth hundreds of thousands of dollars that are not always disclosed to taxpayers. According to the Senate report, some of those perks include a $32,000 housing allowance for the president of Harper College, a $450,000 retention bonus for a former University of Illinois at Chicago chancellor, and $30,000 toward two retirement plans plus state pension contributions for the Elgin Community College president. In addition to U of I president Robert Easter’s top ranking salary, he recently received a $180,000 retirement bonus.
Legislation that limits the size and scope of community college buyout packages and severance agreements and that limits the length of employment contracts has passed in the Illinois House and Senate and now moves to the Governor’s desk to be signed. The legislation applies to state funded colleges. Part of the legislation adds transparency to publicly-funded severance agreements by making them subject to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
Senate Report
The Senate report also calls out public universities and community colleges statewide for providing excessive fringe benefits and lucrative exit deals for top administrators, including a $480,418 severance package to the former Illinois State University president, Timothy Flanagan, after less than a year on the job. The total compensation last year for Georgia Costello, president at Southwestern Illinois Community College in Belleville, was $205,905. The total compensation last year for Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville Chancellor Julie Furst-Bowe was $307,421. The report says the amount spent on faculty has not kept pace with the dramatic increase in spending on administrative salaries.
Among the highest-paid community college presidents in the state is Dale Chapman, of Lewis & Clark Community College in Godfrey. Chapman’s total compensation last year was $423,259, second-highest among the state’s community college presidents. Chapman, of Lewis & Clark, noted he had been president at Lewis& Clark for 23 years and said that if presidents at other community colleges had similar lengths of tenure, their salaries would be similar to his and that he was in the middle of the salary range. In 2010, Chapman retired and was awarded his pension, which was a lump-sum payout of about $1.8 million, according to the State Universities Retirement System. After two months, he was rehired. Chapman said he had to start over with his pension after he was rehired, but he is presently close to being eligible for another pension. His current contract runs through 2019.
Specifics of Legislation
The College of DuPage has been under scrutiny for numerous offenses. Since the $763,000 contract buyout for President Dr. Robert Breuder earlier this year, State Representative Jeanne Ives (R-Wheaton) introduced
HB3593, which would limit the amount of future buyout agreements to no more than one year of salary and benefits. Although the contract buyout must be honored, the legislation should curtail future excesses. The bill limits employment contracts with a set start and end date to no more than four years. Long-term contracts have become problematic in instances where an employee is underperforming and a change needs to be made.
In addition to HB3593, Representative Ives was also the Chief Sponsor this year of HR0055, which directs the Illinois Auditor General to conduct a thorough performance audit of all State moneys provided to the College of DuPage for fiscal years 2007-2014. That bill was approved unanimously in May.
State Representative Margo McDermod (R-Mokena) also took action to address issues at the College of DuPage and other colleges and institutions this year through HB303, which adds transparency to publicly-funded severance agreements by making them subject to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Representative McDermed feels that with all that has come to light about the financial mismanagement at the College of DuPage and other government institutions, public trust has eroded. She says taxpayers have the absolute right to know how their money is being spent, especially when that money accompanies the severance packages of a government employee.
Whereas the approved HR55 does not require the signature of the Governor, Ives’ HB3593 and McDermod’s HB303 are expected to land on the Governor’s desk for his signature within the next few weeks.
Illinois tax dollars go toward funding some of the operations at the state's public colleges and universities. Taxpayers need to be informed where that money is going to put the money flow into perspective. It takes the full tuition of 65 students to pay for the yearly total compensation of $552,375 to the president at the University of Illinois, recently retired Robert Easter, who is the highest-paid public university president in Illinois. The median pay for college presidents has increased by 7 per cent since last year and the median base pay for university presidents nationally is about $400,000 a year. Other benefits and perks can make the salary package higher.
Because of the budget crisis in the state of Illinois and outcry over tuition costs, a special Senate panel investigated college administrative benefits and severance packages. The investigation found that state university and community college presidents have enjoyed lavish perks, some worth hundreds of thousands of dollars that are not always disclosed to taxpayers. According to the Senate report, some of those perks include a $32,000 housing allowance for the president of Harper College, a $450,000 retention bonus for a former University of Illinois at Chicago chancellor, and $30,000 toward two retirement plans plus state pension contributions for the Elgin Community College president. In addition to U of I president Robert Easter’s top ranking salary, he recently received a $180,000 retirement bonus.
Legislation that limits the size and scope of community college buyout packages and severance agreements and that limits the length of employment contracts has passed in the Illinois House and Senate and now moves to the Governor’s desk to be signed. The legislation applies to state funded colleges. Part of the legislation adds transparency to publicly-funded severance agreements by making them subject to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
Senate Report
The Senate report also calls out public universities and community colleges statewide for providing excessive fringe benefits and lucrative exit deals for top administrators, including a $480,418 severance package to the former Illinois State University president, Timothy Flanagan, after less than a year on the job. The total compensation last year for Georgia Costello, president at Southwestern Illinois Community College in Belleville, was $205,905. The total compensation last year for Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville Chancellor Julie Furst-Bowe was $307,421. The report says the amount spent on faculty has not kept pace with the dramatic increase in spending on administrative salaries.
Among the highest-paid community college presidents in the state is Dale Chapman, of Lewis & Clark Community College in Godfrey. Chapman’s total compensation last year was $423,259, second-highest among the state’s community college presidents. Chapman, of Lewis & Clark, noted he had been president at Lewis& Clark for 23 years and said that if presidents at other community colleges had similar lengths of tenure, their salaries would be similar to his and that he was in the middle of the salary range. In 2010, Chapman retired and was awarded his pension, which was a lump-sum payout of about $1.8 million, according to the State Universities Retirement System. After two months, he was rehired. Chapman said he had to start over with his pension after he was rehired, but he is presently close to being eligible for another pension. His current contract runs through 2019.
Specifics of Legislation
The College of DuPage has been under scrutiny for numerous offenses. Since the $763,000 contract buyout for President Dr. Robert Breuder earlier this year, State Representative Jeanne Ives (R-Wheaton) introduced
HB3593, which would limit the amount of future buyout agreements to no more than one year of salary and benefits. Although the contract buyout must be honored, the legislation should curtail future excesses. The bill limits employment contracts with a set start and end date to no more than four years. Long-term contracts have become problematic in instances where an employee is underperforming and a change needs to be made.
In addition to HB3593, Representative Ives was also the Chief Sponsor this year of HR0055, which directs the Illinois Auditor General to conduct a thorough performance audit of all State moneys provided to the College of DuPage for fiscal years 2007-2014. That bill was approved unanimously in May.
State Representative Margo McDermod (R-Mokena) also took action to address issues at the College of DuPage and other colleges and institutions this year through HB303, which adds transparency to publicly-funded severance agreements by making them subject to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Representative McDermed feels that with all that has come to light about the financial mismanagement at the College of DuPage and other government institutions, public trust has eroded. She says taxpayers have the absolute right to know how their money is being spent, especially when that money accompanies the severance packages of a government employee.
Whereas the approved HR55 does not require the signature of the Governor, Ives’ HB3593 and McDermod’s HB303 are expected to land on the Governor’s desk for his signature within the next few weeks.
Trade Promotion Acts by Joyce Geiler
On June 29 President Obama signed into law the Trade Promotion Act. Congress has given Presidents from Franklin Roosevelt to George W. Bush the authority to negotiate trade agreements. Now that the Trade Promotion Act (TPA) is signed, Congress can decide the merits of specific agreements such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).
How does this Act affect the people of Illinois? More than 23,000 Illinois companies exported abroad last year, and more than 90 % were small and medium-sized businesses. Trade-related jobs grew three and a half times faster than total employment from 2004 to 2013. Export-related jobs pay on average 13 to 18 % more than non-export jobs. The Illinois Manufacturers Association says that trade agreements are crucial and Illinois Farm Bureau expresses support especially for the TPP. Last year, Illinois manufacturing companies employed 575,000 workers who were paid an average of more than $64,000 in annual wages and benefits. The state exported more than $68 billion worth of goods and services, with manufactured products comprising 93 % of exports.
Teamsters president James P. Hoffa criticized TPA by alleging: “America lost nearly 700,000 jobs because of NAFTA [the North American Free Trade Agreement].” However, during the 20 years since NAFTA took effect, private-sector employment in the United States increased by 21,656,000 and there has never been a credible study documenting net job losses as a result of NAFTA or any other U.S. trade agreement.
Ninety-five % of all consumers and 80 % of the world's purchasing power resides outside of the United States. On a national level, every $1 billion in exports of U.S. goods and services supports more than 5,000 U.S. jobs. In 2012, exports of U.S. goods and services supported an estimated 9.8 million American jobs, including 25 % of all manufacturing jobs. Expanded exports have added 1.3 million higher-than-average-wage American jobs since 2009. U.S. agreements with just 20 partners support more than 46 % of our country's exported goods. In fact, exports accounted for a third of U.S. growth since 2009. The trade agreements being worked on now – Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (T-TIP) and Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) – account for 65 % of the world’s goods and services trade and would account for 69 % of U.S. goods exports.
What does the TPA actually do? Since 1974, Congress has enacted TPA legislation that defines U.S. negotiating objectives and priorities for trade agreements and establishes consultation and notification requirements for the President to follow throughout the negotiation process. At the end of the negotiation and consultation process, Congress gives the agreement through an up or down vote, without amendment. TPA reaffirms Congress’s overall constitutional role in the development and oversight of U.S. trade policy.
The official U.S. website< https://ustr.gov/trade-topics/trade-promotion-authority> explains the key elements of TPA.
(1) TPA outlines Congressional guidance to the President on trade policy priorities and negotiating objectives.
(2) TPA establishes Congressional requirements for the Administration to notify and consult with Congress, with the private sector and other stakeholders and with the public during the negotiations of trade agreements.
(3) TPA defines the terms, conditions and procedures under which Congress allows the Administration to enter into trade agreements, and sets the procedures for Congressional consideration of bills to implement the agreements.
A side-by-side comparison showing the changes between the 2014 and 2015 TPA can be found at ,,,,,,,,,,klklklkl<https://democrats.waysandmeans.house.gov/sites/
democrats.waysandmeans.house.gov/files/documents/Side-by-side%20TPA%20Comparison.pdf>. Three obvious changes that may be noted are:
(1) the potential for tying trade agreements to the broader effort to create more open democratic societies and to promote respect for internationally recognized human rights
(2) the establishment of the position of chief transparency officer
(3) the outlining of specific public transparency procedures
The White House Blog outlines specifically what the President signed into law on June 29. <https://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2015/06/29/trade-here-s-what-president-signed-law>. The two bills will help rewrite the rules for our trade policy: Trade Promotion Authority and the Trade Preferences Extension Act, which includes Trade Adjustment Assistance.
Law# 1 Lays out guidelines for TPA. Traditionally, trade promotion authority, or TPA, lays out a blueprint for the kind of trade deal the President can negotiate and secure with other countries. Trade negotiating authority has been granted to all but one of our 13 presidents since President Franklin Roosevelt. The authority Congress is granting to President Obama is an upgrade — not only does it give him the leverage he needs to close out negotiations on the TPP with 11 countries in the fast-growing Asia-Pacific region, but it ensures that the TPP will include the strongest protections in history for our workers and our environment.
Rule #1 Locks in the strongest labor protections in history: a minimum wage, a ban on forced labor and worker safety protections.
Rule #2 locks in the strongest environmental protections in history: protects our oceans, combats illegal wildlife trafficking and combats illegal logging.
Rule #3 opens up the fastest growing markets to Made-in America goods and services.
Rule #4 makes every word of the TPP deal publically available to the American people for the first time ever.
Law #2 Trade Assistance Adjustment.
Rule #5 provides support and training help for U.S. workers adversely affected by globalization and trade. This program, which was set to expire September 30, is now expanded.
Rule #6 extends the African Growth and Opportunity Act for 10 years. This act provides tangible economic benefits and opportunities to sub-Saharan Africa by helping African companies improve their competitiveness and invest in building a strong private sector.
Rule #7 extends duty-free benefits on apparel exports from Haiti until September 30, 2025 along with other benefits to Haiti in the Hope II Act.
Rule #8 extends the oldest trade preferences program in U.S. history by providing preferential duty-free entry into the U.S. market for nearly 5,000 products form 122 designated beneficiary countries and territories.
Rule # 9, the Level the Playing Field Act helps protect our industry by closing loopholes and strengthening the Administration’s ability to respond to foreign companies that try to undercut our domestic production.
On June 29 President Obama signed into law the Trade Promotion Act. Congress has given Presidents from Franklin Roosevelt to George W. Bush the authority to negotiate trade agreements. Now that the Trade Promotion Act (TPA) is signed, Congress can decide the merits of specific agreements such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).
How does this Act affect the people of Illinois? More than 23,000 Illinois companies exported abroad last year, and more than 90 % were small and medium-sized businesses. Trade-related jobs grew three and a half times faster than total employment from 2004 to 2013. Export-related jobs pay on average 13 to 18 % more than non-export jobs. The Illinois Manufacturers Association says that trade agreements are crucial and Illinois Farm Bureau expresses support especially for the TPP. Last year, Illinois manufacturing companies employed 575,000 workers who were paid an average of more than $64,000 in annual wages and benefits. The state exported more than $68 billion worth of goods and services, with manufactured products comprising 93 % of exports.
Teamsters president James P. Hoffa criticized TPA by alleging: “America lost nearly 700,000 jobs because of NAFTA [the North American Free Trade Agreement].” However, during the 20 years since NAFTA took effect, private-sector employment in the United States increased by 21,656,000 and there has never been a credible study documenting net job losses as a result of NAFTA or any other U.S. trade agreement.
Ninety-five % of all consumers and 80 % of the world's purchasing power resides outside of the United States. On a national level, every $1 billion in exports of U.S. goods and services supports more than 5,000 U.S. jobs. In 2012, exports of U.S. goods and services supported an estimated 9.8 million American jobs, including 25 % of all manufacturing jobs. Expanded exports have added 1.3 million higher-than-average-wage American jobs since 2009. U.S. agreements with just 20 partners support more than 46 % of our country's exported goods. In fact, exports accounted for a third of U.S. growth since 2009. The trade agreements being worked on now – Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (T-TIP) and Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) – account for 65 % of the world’s goods and services trade and would account for 69 % of U.S. goods exports.
What does the TPA actually do? Since 1974, Congress has enacted TPA legislation that defines U.S. negotiating objectives and priorities for trade agreements and establishes consultation and notification requirements for the President to follow throughout the negotiation process. At the end of the negotiation and consultation process, Congress gives the agreement through an up or down vote, without amendment. TPA reaffirms Congress’s overall constitutional role in the development and oversight of U.S. trade policy.
The official U.S. website< https://ustr.gov/trade-topics/trade-promotion-authority> explains the key elements of TPA.
(1) TPA outlines Congressional guidance to the President on trade policy priorities and negotiating objectives.
(2) TPA establishes Congressional requirements for the Administration to notify and consult with Congress, with the private sector and other stakeholders and with the public during the negotiations of trade agreements.
(3) TPA defines the terms, conditions and procedures under which Congress allows the Administration to enter into trade agreements, and sets the procedures for Congressional consideration of bills to implement the agreements.
A side-by-side comparison showing the changes between the 2014 and 2015 TPA can be found at ,,,,,,,,,,klklklkl<https://democrats.waysandmeans.house.gov/sites/
democrats.waysandmeans.house.gov/files/documents/Side-by-side%20TPA%20Comparison.pdf>. Three obvious changes that may be noted are:
(1) the potential for tying trade agreements to the broader effort to create more open democratic societies and to promote respect for internationally recognized human rights
(2) the establishment of the position of chief transparency officer
(3) the outlining of specific public transparency procedures
The White House Blog outlines specifically what the President signed into law on June 29. <https://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2015/06/29/trade-here-s-what-president-signed-law>. The two bills will help rewrite the rules for our trade policy: Trade Promotion Authority and the Trade Preferences Extension Act, which includes Trade Adjustment Assistance.
Law# 1 Lays out guidelines for TPA. Traditionally, trade promotion authority, or TPA, lays out a blueprint for the kind of trade deal the President can negotiate and secure with other countries. Trade negotiating authority has been granted to all but one of our 13 presidents since President Franklin Roosevelt. The authority Congress is granting to President Obama is an upgrade — not only does it give him the leverage he needs to close out negotiations on the TPP with 11 countries in the fast-growing Asia-Pacific region, but it ensures that the TPP will include the strongest protections in history for our workers and our environment.
Rule #1 Locks in the strongest labor protections in history: a minimum wage, a ban on forced labor and worker safety protections.
Rule #2 locks in the strongest environmental protections in history: protects our oceans, combats illegal wildlife trafficking and combats illegal logging.
Rule #3 opens up the fastest growing markets to Made-in America goods and services.
Rule #4 makes every word of the TPP deal publically available to the American people for the first time ever.
Law #2 Trade Assistance Adjustment.
Rule #5 provides support and training help for U.S. workers adversely affected by globalization and trade. This program, which was set to expire September 30, is now expanded.
Rule #6 extends the African Growth and Opportunity Act for 10 years. This act provides tangible economic benefits and opportunities to sub-Saharan Africa by helping African companies improve their competitiveness and invest in building a strong private sector.
Rule #7 extends duty-free benefits on apparel exports from Haiti until September 30, 2025 along with other benefits to Haiti in the Hope II Act.
Rule #8 extends the oldest trade preferences program in U.S. history by providing preferential duty-free entry into the U.S. market for nearly 5,000 products form 122 designated beneficiary countries and territories.
Rule # 9, the Level the Playing Field Act helps protect our industry by closing loopholes and strengthening the Administration’s ability to respond to foreign companies that try to undercut our domestic production.
Huge Kickback Scheme Uncovered by Joyce Geiler
A kickback scheme carried out in the mid 2000s has been brought to justice. Over a year ago, Quinshaunta R. Golden, of Homewood, IL pleaded guilty to issuing more than $11 million in falsified grants and $2 million in contract funds in exchange for kickbacks. This June, she was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Sue E. Myerscough during a hearing at the federal courthouse in Springfield. Golden's offenses included a multimillion-dollar bribery and kickback scheme involving government grants and contracts, which carried a possible 17-year prison sentence although prosecutors only asked for 11. On June 23, Golden was sentenced to serve an eight year prison term followed by three years of supervised release; she will begin serving her sentence September 1. She has also been ordered to pay $1,000,000 in restitution to Illinois Department of Public Health.
Golden was not alone in the scheme. Golden is the niece of U.S. Rep. Danny K. Davis and served as chief of staff at the IDPH from 2003 to early 2008. Prosecutors claim Golden conspired with a former IDPH aide Roxanne B. Jackson and Chicago social services provider Leon Dingle Jr. to steer millions of dollars in state health department grants and contracts their way and, in return, get kickbacks. Prosecutors said Golden and Jackson funneled money meant for emergency preparedness and combating HIV and cancer to charities run by Dingle. Golden received $435,000 in kickbacks. She was accused of issuing more than $11 million in falsified grants in exchange for kickbacks.
At Golden's direction, $772,500 went to Jackson, who worked for Dingle as a consultant after leaving the IDPH and who kicked back half of that sum to Golden. Golden also got additional kickbacks from Jackson through a health department contract she gave to a security company owned by Jackson's brother.
Prosecutors also claimed Golden tried to persuade a witness in the case in order to obstruct a grand jury investigation. Golden pleaded guilty in April 2014 to bribery and theft, and obstruction of justice, the Sun-Times reported. In her plea agreement, she also agreed to cooperate in possible future government investigations.
Jackson, who pleaded guilty in June, was sentenced to 25 months in prison for the kickback scheme and for filing false income tax forms and was ordered to return $1.1 million to the department. Last December, a jury convicted Dingle and his wife in a separate case of conspiracy to defraud, mail fraud, and money laundering and for the theft of grant money meant to raise awareness of AIDS and cancer. They are scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 10.
A kickback scheme carried out in the mid 2000s has been brought to justice. Over a year ago, Quinshaunta R. Golden, of Homewood, IL pleaded guilty to issuing more than $11 million in falsified grants and $2 million in contract funds in exchange for kickbacks. This June, she was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Sue E. Myerscough during a hearing at the federal courthouse in Springfield. Golden's offenses included a multimillion-dollar bribery and kickback scheme involving government grants and contracts, which carried a possible 17-year prison sentence although prosecutors only asked for 11. On June 23, Golden was sentenced to serve an eight year prison term followed by three years of supervised release; she will begin serving her sentence September 1. She has also been ordered to pay $1,000,000 in restitution to Illinois Department of Public Health.
Golden was not alone in the scheme. Golden is the niece of U.S. Rep. Danny K. Davis and served as chief of staff at the IDPH from 2003 to early 2008. Prosecutors claim Golden conspired with a former IDPH aide Roxanne B. Jackson and Chicago social services provider Leon Dingle Jr. to steer millions of dollars in state health department grants and contracts their way and, in return, get kickbacks. Prosecutors said Golden and Jackson funneled money meant for emergency preparedness and combating HIV and cancer to charities run by Dingle. Golden received $435,000 in kickbacks. She was accused of issuing more than $11 million in falsified grants in exchange for kickbacks.
At Golden's direction, $772,500 went to Jackson, who worked for Dingle as a consultant after leaving the IDPH and who kicked back half of that sum to Golden. Golden also got additional kickbacks from Jackson through a health department contract she gave to a security company owned by Jackson's brother.
Prosecutors also claimed Golden tried to persuade a witness in the case in order to obstruct a grand jury investigation. Golden pleaded guilty in April 2014 to bribery and theft, and obstruction of justice, the Sun-Times reported. In her plea agreement, she also agreed to cooperate in possible future government investigations.
Jackson, who pleaded guilty in June, was sentenced to 25 months in prison for the kickback scheme and for filing false income tax forms and was ordered to return $1.1 million to the department. Last December, a jury convicted Dingle and his wife in a separate case of conspiracy to defraud, mail fraud, and money laundering and for the theft of grant money meant to raise awareness of AIDS and cancer. They are scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 10.
