Springfield, Illinois

Springfield is the capital city of the state of Illinois, in the Midwestern U.S. It was the home of Abraham Lincoln, who as a state legislator was instrumental in moving the state capital.

Party Politics

Winkle (1998) examines the historiography concerning the development of the Second Party System (Whigs versus Democrats) and applies these ideas to the study of Springfield, a strong Whig enclave in a Democratic region, mainly by studying poll books for presidential years. The rise of the Whig Party took place in 1836 in opposition to the presidential candidacy of Martin Van Buren and was consolidated in 1840. Springfield Whigs tend to validate several expectations of party characteristics as they were largely native-born, either in New England or Kentucky, professional or agricultural in occupation, and devoted to partisan organization. Abraham Lincoln's career mirrors the Whigs' political rise, but by the 1840's Springfield began to fall into Democrat hands, as immigrants changed the city's political makeup. By the 1860 presidential election, Lincoln was barely able to win his home city.

Winkle (1992) examines the impact of migration on political participation in Springfield during the 1850s. Widespread migration in the 19th-century United States produced frequent population turnover within midwestern communities, which influenced patterns of voter turnout and officeholding. Examination of the manuscript census, poll books, and officeholding records reveals the impact of migration on the behavior of 8,000 participants in 10 elections in Springfield. Most voters were short-term residents who participated in only one or two elections during the 1850s, and fewer than 1% of all voters participated in all 10 elections. Instead of producing political instability, however, rapid turnover enhanced the influence of more persistent residents. Migration was selective by age, occupation, wealth, and birthplace. Therefore, more persistent voters were wealthier, more highly skilled, more often native-born, and socially more stable than nonpersisters. Officeholders were particularly persistent and socially and economically advantaged. Persisters represented a small "core community" of economically successful, socially homogeneous, and politically active voters and officeholders who controlled local political affairs while most residents moved in and out of the city. Members of a tightly knit and exclusive "core community," exemplified by Abraham Lincoln, blunted the potentially disruptive impact of migration on local communities.

Civil War

Camp Butler, seven miles northeast of Springfield, Illinois, opened in August 1861 as a training camp for Illinois soldiers, but also served as a camp for Confederate prisoners of war through 1865. In the beginning, Springfield residents visited the camp to experience the excitement of a military venture, but many reacted sympathetically to the mortally wounded and ill prisoners. While the city's businesses prospered from camp traffic, drunken behavior and rowdiness on the part of the soldiers stationed there strained relations as neither civil nor military authorities proved able to control disorderly outbreaks.

Utopia

Local poet Vachel Lindsay's notions of utopia were expressed in his only novel, The Golden Book of Springfield (1920), which draws on ideas of anarchistic socialism in projecting the progress of Lindsay's hometown of Springfield toward utopia.

The Dana-Thomas House in Springfield is a Frank Lloyd Wright creation built in 1902-03. Wright began work on the house in 1902. Commissioned by local patron of the arts and public benefactor Susan Lawrence Dana, Wright's architecture harmonized with the owner's devotion to the performance of music. Coordinating art glass designs for 250 windows, doors, and panels as well as over 200 light fixtures, Wright enlisted Oak Park artisans. The house is a radical departure from Victorian architectural traditions and is the only historic site in Illinois acquired exclusively because of its architectural merit. Covering 12,000 square feet, the house contained vaulted ceilings and 16 major spaces. As the nation was changing, so Wright intended this structure to reflect the changes. Creating an organic and natural atmosphere, Wright saw himself as an "architect of democracy" and intended his work to be a monument to America's social landscape. It was opened to the public in September 1990.

Union activism

Springfield had a large contingent of coal miners and a railroad workers; both groups were militarny unionists in the early 20th century. Gaytas (1998) recounts the events surrounding the city-wide general strike that occurred in Springfield, in September 1917, with the U.S. at war. The strike evolved from a small-scale wage strike among streetcar workers into a large-scale "control strike," a weeklong walkout by miners, railroad workers, and other union members that sought to ensure workers' control over labor conditions rather than simply the attainment of higher wages. A wartime shortage of labor led to pressure for higher wages, but the need for war mobilization also made union activism appear unpatriotic. Despite such pressures and the fact that streetcar workers remained on strike for a year, the general strike ended without violence. Most workers returned to their jobs believing that they had furthered workers' control.

Bibliography

• Angle, Paul M. "Here I have lived": A history of Lincoln's Springfield, 1821-1865 (1935, 1971)
• Harrison, Shelby Millard, ed. The Springfield Survey: Study of Social Conditions in an American City (1920), famous sociological study of the city vol 3 online
• Lindsay, Vachel. The Golden Book of Springfield (1920), a novel excerpt and text searc
• Senechal, Roberta. The Sociogenesis of a Race Riot: Springfield, Illinois, in 1908. 1990. 231 pp.
• Winkle, Kenneth J. "The Second Party System in Lincoln's Springfield." Civil War History 1998 44(4): 267-284. Issn: 0009-8078
• History of Sangamon County, Illinois (1881)