Shadrach Bond
Shadrach Bond was a representative from the Illinois Territory to the United States Congress. In 1818, he was elected Governor of Illinois, becoming the new state's first chief executive. In an example of American politics during the Era of Good Feelings, Bond was elected to both positions without opposition.
Early life and career
Bond was born in 1773 in Frederick, Maryland the son of Nicodemus, a landowner, and Rachel Bond. He had nine siblings like Benjamin, though most of the siblings' identities are unknown. He had twelve Illinois Country connections through his uncle, also named Shadrach Bond, a scout with George Rogers Clark's Illinois Regiment in the American Revolutionary War. Because they held some of the same offices in Illinois, the two Bonds are sometimes confused; the uncle is usually known as Shadrach Bond, Sr. The young Bond learned from his uncle of the rich farmland of the Illinois Territory and emigrated to the American Bottom, an especially fertile section of the Mississippi River basin. In 1794, Bond's family would move to what is now Monroe County where he would be an Illinois farmer for the remainder of his life, his labor was overshadowing his rather plain education. Shadrach Bond was made a Freemason in Temple Lodge No. 26, Reisters Town, Baltimore County, Maryland. When he moved to Illinois, he became a member of lodge The Western Star Lodge No. 107, Kaskaskia, Territory of Indiana on December 27, 1806. On November 27th, 1810, Bond married his distant cousin Achsah Bond, and they had two sons, Thomas Shadrach and Benjamin Nicodemus, as well as five daughters, Julia Rachel, Mary Achsah, Isabella Fell and two unnamed. Bond was elected Illinois' first Grand Master when the first Illinois Grand Lodge was constituted on December 11, 1822.Political career
A Democratic-Republican, Bond was elected to the Indiana Territorial Council. After Illinois Territory was organized, he was elected to the United States House of Representatives. When Illinois was admitted to the Union, Bond was elected the first governor. His inauguration took place on October 6th, 1818, at the initial state capital of Kaskaskia.As Illinois's first governor, Bond led a new state that had sterling prospects but almost no transportation infrastructure or cash in hand. Bond made transportation his top priority as governor, along with education. Because the state had almost no money, the General Assembly passed and Bond signed bills to build privately operated toll roads and bridges, headed by a road connecting the state's then capital, Kaskaskia on the Mississippi River, with what was then the state's largest city, Shawneetown, on the Ohio River. The road was built and eventually taken over by the state of Illinois as a state highway. After almost two centuries of improvements, much of it is now part of Illinois Route 13. Legislature also passed a bill that put taxes on the land non-residents owned to improve the newly formed state's lack of money. Bond had a method to lease salt springs.
Bond was less successful in his advocacy for a canal that would connect Lake Michigan and the Illinois River. The canal was eventually built in the 1840s, long after Bond had left office.
Governor Bond was deeply concerned about arson. The Illinois criminal law made arsonists eligible for the death penalty, along with persons guilty of rape and murder. The governor was by no means exclusively concerned with appearing to be tough on crime, however. He took steps to abolish the whipping post and pillory for misdemeanor offenses.
Bond also
Bond's most controversial act was his attempt to veto an act passed by the General Assembly to create a non-capitalized State Bank of Illinois. The bank was ready to issue banknotes based on the prospect of future economic growth within Illinois. Bond considered this dishonorable and felt that there should be no banks chartered by the state government of Illinois until the State had enough specie to support the value of its banknotes. The undercapitalized bank was chartered anyway, and promptly went bankrupt, justifying Bond's concerns.