Part Twenty. Why study 1830s bank notes, business collapse, state rescues, scarcity of money, hard times, leniency, competition, Habeas Corpus, and Illinois?
2018 bicentennial Illinois 1818 Forever USA
This is Part Twenty of a series showing how inflation, deflation, barter, tariffs, taxes, war, counterfeiting, history, banking, ‘free’ trade, famine, auctions, competition, religion, and education are combined into one great whole. Postage stamps reveal ready comparison of inflation over decades of time.
Part Twenty. Why study 1830s bank notes, business collapse, state rescues, scarcity of money, hard times, leniency, competition, Habeas Corpus, and Illinois?
Judge Ralston, Jack Mormon saved the banks, Protected Joseph Smith
Judge James Harvey Ralston, Jack Mormon, US Army Captain, Mexican war veteran, Illinois Judge, Illinois State Senator, Illinois House Assemblyman, Illinois Presidential elector, California State Senator who brought the capitol to his Sacramento district, 49er, Nevada Constitutional convention delegate, served as defense attorney for Joseph Smith against Missouri Extradition Warrants, and served as Prosecuting Attorney opposing Smith’s Assassins. Judge Ralston also saved the Alamo, and encouraged Banking and commerce.
The Phi Delta Phi legal fraternity is hosting its convention in San Antonio, Texas in August 2018. The iconic symbol of San Antonio is the Alamo. The Alamo, a Catholic chapel, mission and barracks, was the site of the siege in 1835 between the Texas garrison and the Mexican Army. The Texas garrison of about 185 was outnumbered 10 to one, but held out for two weeks. The two weeks time, purchased at the sacrifice of the entire garrison, allowed Sam Houston to gather his forces to intercept the Mexican army a month later. The Alamo mission was mostly destroyed. The cry ‘Remember the Alamo, Remember Goliad’ was the war cry to inspire and motivate the Texans to win at San Jacinto. The surrender of the Mexican army, and 
capture of Mexican General Santa Ana, lead to the creation of the Texas Republic, under the lone star, until Texas was admitted to the United States a decade or so later.
1845-1945 Statehood Texas United States Postage
The Alamo, constructed of adobe dried mud bricks, had been mostly destroyed. Over time, the scattered bricks would be pulled out and recycled for local construction. But, Captain Ralston, assigned to that Army department during the 
Mexican War 1846-1848, began to repair the ruins, and saved the Alamo, for the iconic image it has become today. This is the story of Judge, Senator, Captain, and Prosecutor Ralston. 1942 1792 Sesquicentennial of the statehood of Kentucky 3c Postage
From the Handbook of Texas Online we read.
‘’James Harvey Ralston, lawyer, Illinois and California state legislator, and quartermaster at the Alamo from 1846 to 1848, was born on October 12, 1807, in Bourbon County, Kentucky, the son of John and Elizabeth (Neely) Ralston.
[Ralston was two years younger than Joseph Smith, but Ralston was two years older than Abraham Lincoln, among noted contemporaries.]
In the fall of 1828 Ralston moved to Quincy, Illinois, where he pursued a career as a lawyer and was sworn in by the Fifth Judicial Circuit of the state of Illinois on October 21, 1830, as an attorney and counselor. He served for a while as justice of the peace for Adams County. In 1832 Ralston was a private in Capt. William G. Flood’s Company of Mounted Riflemen during the Black Hawk (Sauk-Fox) War. He was mustered out of service on May 28, 1832. In August 1836 he was elected to represent Adams County in the lower house of the Tenth General Illinois Assembly, a body whose members included Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas. On January 14, 1837, he was elected judge of the Fifth Judicial Circuit. He held this post until he resigned in August 1837 to pursue his private practice. In 1840 Ralston, a Democrat, was elected state senator for the Twelfth Illinois General Assembly. In 1841 he made an unsuccessful bid for Congress.’’
Forgotten Statesman of Illinois James Harvey Ralston 1807 – 1864 By Dr. J. F. Snyder Transactions of the Illinois State Historical Society for the Year 1908, edited for condensed reading.
‘’[Judge Ralston] left Kentucky in the fall of 1828, and made his way to Quincy, Illinois [to continue his legal studies]. [As with Lincoln, Ralston apparently studied law with lawyers.] [Ralston’s admission is recorded] in Vol. B. of the Law, Chancery and People’s Records in the circuit clerk’s office of Adams county, Illinois: “At a circuit court begun and held at the court house in Quincy for the county of Adams and State of Illinois on [21 October 1830] **. Present, the Hon. Richard M. Young, [later U.S. Senator from Illinois] judge of the fifth judicial circuit of the State of Illinois. On motion of George Logan, Esq, an attorney of this court, James H. Ralston, Esq. appeared and was sworn as an attorney and counselor at law, he having presented a license according to law, signed by two of the judges of the Supreme Court.” [Within 5 years, Ralston would replace Judge Young, in this very court, as Judge of the Illinois 5th Judicial Circuit.]
‘’ [In 1830], Mr. Ralston was elected a justice of the peace for Adams county, and served [until 1834] **. In the spring of 1832, [Ralston and Lincoln volunteered] to the call of Gov. Reynolds Black Hawk and his band. Mr. Ralston was a private in Captain Wm. G. Flood’s company of mounted riflemen, in the second brigade commanded by Brigadier General Sam. Whiteside. ** [Ralston] was honorably mustered out of the service, at Fox river, [and reenlisted, the same year.]. ** On the 11 October 1832, James H. Ralston [married] Miss Jane Alexander, age 21, daughter of Col. Sam. Alexander, ** of Adams County. [The couple moved into] a t home near Eighth and Hampshire streets, in Quincy ** [for the next fourteen years.]
Esq. Ralston practiced law for a decade in the ** circuit between the Mississippi and Illinois rivers ** to Lake Michigan. ** In 1833, the terrible epidemic of Asiatic cholera came down the Mississippi, and its first death was Mrs. Sarah Stamper, Judge Ralston’s sister.
[The cholera was blamed on General Winfield Scott’s troops at the close of the Black Hawk war, as it was supposed. However, in those decades before 1850s, the source of the disease was wholly unknown, as the theory of microbiology was yet two decades in the future. Meaning they had no idea from where it came, or where it went, or what it was – a bacteria.]
In August, 1836, James H. Ralston ** represent[ed] Adams county in the lower house of the tenth General Assembly **. [along with] James Semple, ** Stephen A. Douglas [later Judge and US Senator], [and], Abraham Lincoln [later US Congressman and US President]. 
1959 ALincoln no beard, bow tie. 1 cent United States Postage.
Mr. Ralston, [was elected by the legislature to the fifth, or Quincy, judicial circuit February 4, 1837, to fill the vacancy due to Judge Young’s selection as United States Senator.] He was now Judge Ralston.
Judge Ralston, age 29, was a young man of striking personality, six feet tall, straight and well-formed, with auburn hair, blue eyes and faultless features. Polite and agreeable in address, he was as courtly and dignified, sociable, kind and generous, though impulsive, spirited and ambitions. Strictly honest in personal affairs and the discharge of public duties, actuated in every relation of life by a high sense of honor, he was an eminently respectable citizen, moral, sober, and of unblemished character. **
[Judge Ralston] was a member of the Masonic Order, but not attached to any church, having very liberal views on the subject of man’s so-called spiritual nature and future responsibilities. ** One of his favorite quotations entitled “Pizarro,” was this: “Should the scales of justice poise doubtfully, let mercy touch the beam and turn the balance to the gentler side.”
** Judge Ralston ** served with credit and honor for over 2 years. Of hundreds of decisions, only two were reversed.(2) ** The circuit judges salary at that time was seven 
hundred dollars , a sum less than some skilled mechanics. Judge Ralston resigned his position on the bench, on the 31st of August, 1839, and resumed his place at the bar. John Tyler 1841-1844 10 cents United States Postage, 1938 10th President
William Henry Harrison 1841 9 cents United States Postage
In 1840, [both Whigs for Harrison and Tyler, and Democrats for Van Buren competed for] the electoral vote of the State for their presidential candidate. ** After mature deliberation the Democrats of Adams county selected Judge Ralston to oppose [Archibald Williams for State 
Senator]. ** Judge Ralston ** was elected [Senator] and ** presidential Elector for that district. 1938 Martin Van Buren 1837-1840 United States Postage 8 cents
The ** 12th General Assembly convened for 1840 -1841. Judge Ralston was ** in the Senate. ** Among the great commoners in the House [was], Abraham Lincoln, **[Democrat] General W. L. D. Ewing was elected Speaker of the House defeating Abraham Lincoln the Whig candidate. **
Forgotten Statesman of Illinois James Harvey Abraham Lincoln Memorial statue. Lincoln was Judge Ralston’s colleague in the Illinois Assembly in the 1830s. 2014 USA 21
In the late 1830s Illinois had more banking problems. Heavy debt. Crushing interest on state loans. Banks were closing, but what to do? Does the legislature cancel Bank notes, ruining the banks? Meaning, do you try barter for the economy? Or give the banks more time? Meaning, can the economy climb out of the stress? The Illinois legislature thought not to risk barter, and supported the banks climbing out of their stress.
[In the] 12th General Assembly, political parties [Democrat and Whig] were divided chiefly upon the bank question. As a part of the great internal improvement scheme of 1836 the State of Illinois was made a stock holder in the State bank to the amount of $3,100,000.
But that was not enough.
The banks were prohibited by law from issuing notes of less denomination than five dollars; [about a month’s wages] and the law of 1838 provided that any bank having suspended specie [gold, silver] payments, and failed to resume such payments before adjournment of the next session of the Legislature thereafter, would forfeit its charter and close its doors unless that session of the Legislature sanctioned the suspension and permitted it to continue. All the banks had suspended specie payments, and had not resume the paying of specie when the 12th Legislature came together. The Democrats, supreme in that body, were divided on the State banking system. The radicals among them favored enforcing the forfeiture penalty and closing up the banks at once.
As laid out in previous parts, the lack of money creates a barter economy, reducing trade by 20, 50 , or 100 fold. Distrust of banks makes this tempting. And there were probably bankers who would advance handsomely, even while their competition was eliminated, and the economy collapsed into barter.
But the other faction, know by the radicals as the “week-kneed” (sic) voted with the Whigs, not only to legalize suspension of the banks, but to permit them to issue bills of less denomination than five dollars. Judge Ralston was one of the “week-kneed” and in that matter voted with the Whigs. Judge Ralston and the other “bolting” Democrats very plausibly justified their course by the reason that the woeful depression of business, extreme scarcity of money, and unprecedented hard times generally, rendered the leniency they extended to the banks absolutely necessary for relief of the commercial interests of the country, and for averting further hardships to the people. And the end, in that emergency, certainly did justify the means. [T]he Legislature ** voted together in desperate attempts to provide ways and means for paying the semi-annual interest on the enormous State debt, and for trying to devise plans to extricate the State from its crushing embarrassments.
The [Illinois legislators] were also united, actively or passively, in granting the infamous Mormon charters, neither party daring, by its opposition, to offend that new powerful voting element.(4) ** Judge Ralston was an active, vigilant and influential Senator, a member of the judiciary committee and chairman of the Committee on Public Accounts and Expenditures, on all occasions watchful of his constituents interests as well as those of the public.
At that time [1841 Illinois] was apportioned into three Congressional districts.** [T]he Democrats [nominated] Judge Ralston for their [U.S. House Congressional] candidate to oppose [incumbent] Stuart. [Ralston] made the race, and was defeated [running behind the Whig incumbent Stuart, but ahead of the Abolitionist Collins].
[In 1841] the votes of the Mormons [were] given as a unit for the Whig ticket. In the three years, from 1838, [with an increase of 15% in voting population]- there had been an astonishing influx of Mormons into Hancock and adjoining (sic) counties of the district. [The Mormons] had been driven out of Missouri by the Democrats in power, and on coming to Illinois voted solidly for the Whigs in retaliation. **
[This explanation is not consistent and ignores that simultaneous with the Congressional election, Democrat Judge Ralston represented Joseph Smith.]
At the general election in August, 1842, the Democrats, aided by the Mormons who then had turned against the Whigs, swept the State. [Judge Ralston was a Democrat Senator ] in the 13th General Assembly.** [ which passed a bank adjustment act, with a two mill tax – 20 cents on $100 – which applied to the liquidated banks in exchange for recalling their ‘shin plasters’, bank notes, and surrender and exchange stock for bank stock held by the State.]
Forgotten Statesman of Illinois James Harvey Ralston 1807 – 1864 By Dr. J. F. Snyder Transactions of the Illinois State Historical Society for the Year 1908. Will Continue after these events from 1842-1846 are listed.
Events from 1842 to 1846, are scarce from the Judge Ralston Illinois history biography. About 1842, an anti-Mormon newspaper in Warsaw, or the Hancock area, reportedly came up with the nick name of ‘Jack Mormon’ for those officials, although not baptized, were sympathetic to the Mormon community. And this was applied to Joseph’s attorneys. Joseph Smith, the Prophet, was sued about twenty score times from his age of 18 until his death at age 38, one for every month of the 20 years. By 1842, the Prophet Joseph, a constituent of Ralston’s Senatorial district, in Hancock County, was the target of continuous extradition orders from Missouri. Missouri sought to execute the Prophet. As the extraditions came across the Mississippi River, Judge Ralston was hired to defend the Prophet Joseph in the Illinois courts. Judge Ralston was adept in using Habeas corpus to void the extradition orders, one after another, maintaining the Prophet’s freedom. See the History of the Church. After the Prophets Joseph and Hyrum murders in Carthage on June 26, 1844, Judge Ralston was involved in the post murder trials, in behalf of the victims.
Color painting from drawing in an 1844 pamphlet, based on Daniels’ account of the mob outside the Carthage jail, a mobber with a knife, a shaft of bright light stopping the mob, and Joseph Smith’s corpse.
Judge Ralston was prosecuting attorney in the 1845 Quincy, Illinois trial of the assassins of Generals Joseph and Hyrum Smith. Out of a mob of hundreds, only a half dozen were identified to be charged. Of the victims, only Elders Taylor and Richards survived, and they were inside the jail at the time. At the murder trial, Judge Ralston proffered the testimony of William Daniels, age about 17. Daniels was outside the Carthage jail, mingling with the mob, and was the only eye witness to the mob and murders outside who would come forth. Daniels testified, as an eye witness, that after Joseph fell from the window, and lying on the ground, the mob shot 4 balls into his body. Thereupon, as was well known that a bounty of $1500 in gold was offered by the State of Missouri for Joseph dead or alive, a mobber wanted to collect Joseph’s head, as proof, presumably, to collect the gold ransom. As the mobber was running with a drawn knife to behead the corpse of Joseph lying on the ground, a shaft of bright light came down on the corpse of Joseph Smith, perhaps as a signal to prevent his mutilation by the murderers. This so stunned the mobbers – the mobbers holding the muskets were literally frozen with fear – that Daniels observed they had to be dragged away in order to make their escape. The beheading was abandoned. Some nights thereafter, Daniels received a vision of Joseph, who came in a dream, encouraging Daniels, as an eyewitness to the shaft of light, and Joseph hugging Daniels, and forgiving him, of any act in the murder. Daniels’ story was written and printed by Elder John Taylor. This testimony, offered by Judge Ralston, Prosecuting Attorney, was rejected by the presiding Judge at the trial. Daniels’ dream, as a single paragraph, made it into George Q. Cannon’s Life of Joseph Smith, 1907 Mutual Improvement Association’s edition. When Cannon’s Life of Joseph Smith was reprinted in 2003, the shaft of light on Joseph’s corpse was deleted, Deseret Book edition. One author wrote that about 1930, BH Roberts included the Daniels vision description, but minimized its veracity, reportedly describing it incredible and not consistent with the events.
As reported, Daniels dream was consistent with the events. The sudden shaft of light, not too soon, not too late, explains the stark fear, and hence great haste with which the mob fled Carthage, and scene of the murders. Some, but not eye witnesses, have suggested random shouts that the ‘Mormons are coming’ was the cause of the haste and flight. Meanwhile, the Mormons were in Nauvoo, twenty miles away and a solid days ride away by horse or wagon.
Consider another dream from 1847, over two years after the prophet Joseph Smith to Daniels dream. Brigham Young reported [Joseph Smith] appeared to President Young and gave [Brigham] this message: “Tell the people to be humble and faithful and sure to keep the Spirit of the Lord and it will lead them right. Be careful and not turn away the small still voice; it will teach [you what] to do and where to go; it will yield the fruits of the kingdom . Tell the brethren to keep their hearts open to conviction so that when the Holy Ghost comes to them, their hearts will be ready to receive it. They can tell the Spirit of the Lord from all other spirits. It will whisper peace to their souls, and it will take malice, hatred, envying, strife, and all evil from their hearts; and their whole desire will be to do good, bring forth righteousness, and build up the kingdom of god. Tell the brethren if they will follow the spirit of the Lord they will go right.” Office Files, Brigham Young, Vision, Feb 17, 1847, Church Archives. Printed in Teachings of President’s of the Church, Joseph Smith, 2007, Intellectual Reserve, Inc. In both Daniels’ and Brigham’s dream, Joseph addresses each, and gave a specific message. The Daniels dream visit was not copied from Brigham’s, as Brigham was on his way or in the Rocky mountains by the time of Brigham’s dream. A similar dream occurred in 1877, in Saint George Utah’s temple, with founding fathers, as spirits, talking to Wilford Woodruff. Daniels’ dream is entirely consistent and hence credible.
“Terror of the Mob. – After accomplishing their deed of blood, terror seized the hearts of the assassins who fled from the scene of their diabolical crime in utmost confusion. Governor [Thomas] Ford, three miles out of Nauvoo, on his way to Carthage, met George D. Grant and constable Bettisworth hastening to Nauvoo with the news of the martyrdom. With terror on his countenance, [Ford] carried them back to Carthage, that they might not spread the awful tale, until [Ford] should be at a distance beyond the vengeance which he feared. Arriving at Carthage, [Ford] advised the citizens to flee for their lives before the infuriated “Mormons” came to burn their town, and suiting action to his words he fled with his posse towards Quincy. Conscience-stricken and with the blood of prophets on his hands, [Ford] did not stop until he arrives at Augusta, eighteen miles away. Essentials in Church History, 1950 Joseph Fielding Smith, pg. 384. Trial of the Murderers of Joseph and Hyrum Smith. The trial took place in May, 1845, but proved to be nothing but a farce. The jurors were instructed by the court to bring in a verdict of “not guilty,” which was accordingly done. Ibid. pg 391
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Ralston, Jack Mormon saved the banks,
Protected Joseph Smith
Judge James Harvey Ralston, Jack Mormon, US Army Captain, Mexican war veteran, Illinois Judge, Illinois State Senator, Illinois House Assemblyman, Illinois Presidential elector, California State Senator who brought the capitol to his Sacramento district, 49er, Nevada Constitutional convention delegate, served as defense attorney for Joseph Smith against Missouri Extradition Warrants, and served as Prosecuting Attorney opposing Smith’s Assassins. Judge Ralston also saved the Alamo, and encouraged Banking and commerce.
The Phi Delta Phi legal fraternity is hosting its convention in San Antonio, Texas in August 2018. The iconic symbol of San Antonio is the Alamo. The Alamo, a Catholic chapel, mission and barracks, was the site of the siege in 1835 between the Texas garrison and the Mexican Army. The Texas garrison of about 185 was outnumbered 10 to one, but held out for two weeks. The two weeks time, purchased at the sacrifice of the entire garrison, allowed Sam Houston to gather his forces to intercept the Mexican army a month later. The Alamo mission was mostly destroyed. The cry ‘Remember the Alamo, Remember Goliad’ was the war cry to inspire and motivate the Texans to win at San Jacinto. The surrender of the Mexican army, and capture of Mexican General Santa Ana, lead to the creation of the Texas Republic, under the lone star, until Texas was admitted to the United States a decade or so later.
1845-1945 Statehood Texas United States Postage
The Alamo, constructed of adobe dried mud bricks, had been mostly destroyed. Over time, the scattered bricks would be pulled out and recycled for local construction. But, Captain Ralston, assigned to that Army department during the Mexican War 1846-1848, began to repair the ruins, and saved the Alamo, for the iconic image it has become today. This is the story of Judge, Senator, Captain, and Prosecutor Ralston.
1942 1792 Sesquicentennial of the statehood of Kentucky 3c Postage
From the Handbook of Texas Online we read.
‘’James Harvey Ralston, lawyer, Illinois and California state legislator, and quartermaster at the Alamo from 1846 to 1848, was born on October 12, 1807, in Bourbon County, Kentucky, the son of John and Elizabeth (Neely) Ralston.
[Ralston was two years younger than Joseph Smith, but Ralston was two years older than Abraham Lincoln, among noted contemporaries.]
In the fall of 1828 Ralston moved to Quincy, Illinois, where he pursued a career as a lawyer and was sworn in by the Fifth Judicial Circuit of the state of Illinois on October 21, 1830, as an attorney and counselor. He served for a while as justice of the peace for Adams County. In 1832 Ralston was a private in Capt. William G. Flood’s Company of Mounted Riflemen during the Black Hawk (Sauk-Fox) War. He was mustered out of service on May 28, 1832. In August 1836 he was elected to represent Adams County in the lower house of the Tenth General Illinois Assembly, a body whose members included Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas. On January 14, 1837, he was elected judge of the Fifth Judicial Circuit. He held this post until he resigned in August 1837 to pursue his private practice. In 1840 Ralston, a Democrat, was elected state senator for the Twelfth Illinois General Assembly. In 1841 he made an unsuccessful bid for Congress.’’
Forgotten Statesman of Illinois James Harvey Ralston 1807 – 1864 By Dr. J. F. Snyder Transactions of the Illinois State Historical Society for the Year 1908, edited for condensed reading.
‘’[Judge Ralston] left Kentucky in the fall of 1828, and made his way to Quincy, Illinois [to continue his legal studies]. [As with Lincoln, Ralston apparently studied law with lawyers.] [Ralston’s admission is recorded] in Vol. B. of the Law, Chancery and People’s Records in the circuit clerk’s office of Adams county, Illinois: “At a circuit court begun and held at the court house in Quincy for the county of Adams and State of Illinois on [21 October 1830] **. Present, the Hon. Richard M. Young, [later U.S. Senator from Illinois] judge of the fifth judicial circuit of the State of Illinois. On motion of George Logan, Esq, an attorney of this court, James H. Ralston, Esq. appeared and was sworn as an attorney and counselor at law, he having presented a license according to law, signed by two of the judges of the Supreme Court.” [Within 5 years, Ralston would replace Judge Young, in this very court, as Judge of the Illinois 5th Judicial Circuit.]
‘’ [In 1830], Mr. Ralston was elected a justice of the peace for Adams county, and served [until 1834] **. In the spring of 1832, [Ralston and Lincoln volunteered] to the call of Gov. Reynolds Black Hawk and his band. Mr. Ralston was a private in Captain Wm. G. Flood’s company of mounted riflemen, in the second brigade commanded by Brigadier General Sam. Whiteside. ** [Ralston] was honorably mustered out of the service, at Fox river, [and reenlisted, the same year.]. ** On the 11 October 1832, James H. Ralston [married] Miss Jane Alexander, age 21, daughter of Col. Sam. Alexander, ** of Adams County. [The couple moved into] a t home near Eighth and Hampshire streets, in Quincy ** [for the next fourteen years.]
Esq. Ralston practiced law for a decade in the ** circuit between the Mississippi and Illinois rivers ** to Lake Michigan. ** In 1833, the terrible epidemic of Asiatic cholera came down the Mississippi, and its first death was Mrs. Sarah Stamper, Judge Ralston’s sister.
[The cholera was blamed on General Winfield Scott’s troops at the close of the Black Hawk war, as it was supposed. However, in those decades before 1850s, the source of the disease was wholly unknown, as the theory of microbiology was yet two decades in the future. Meaning they had no idea from where it came, or where it went, or what it was – a bacteria.]
In August, 1836, James H. Ralston ** represent[ed] Adams county in the lower house of the tenth General Assembly **. [along with] James Semple, ** Stephen A. Douglas [later Judge and US Senator], [and], Abraham Lincoln [later US Congressman and US President].
1959 ALincoln no beard, bow tie. 1 cent United States Postage.
Mr. Ralston, [was elected by the legislature to the fifth, or Quincy, judicial circuit February 4, 1837, to fill the vacancy due to Judge Young’s selection as United States Senator.] He was now Judge Ralston.
Judge Ralston, age 29, was a young man of striking personality, six feet tall, straight and well-formed, with auburn hair, blue eyes and faultless features. Polite and agreeable in address, he was as courtly and dignified, sociable, kind and generous, though impulsive, spirited and ambitions. Strictly honest in personal affairs and the discharge of public duties, actuated in every relation of life by a high sense of honor, he was an eminently respectable citizen, moral, sober, and of unblemished character. **
[Judge Ralston] was a member of the Masonic Order, but not attached to any church, having very liberal views on the subject of man’s so-called spiritual nature and future responsibilities. ** One of his favorite quotations entitled “Pizarro,” was this: “Should the scales of justice poise doubtfully, let mercy touch the beam and turn the balance to the gentler side.”
** Judge Ralston ** served with credit and honor for over 2 years. Of hundreds of decisions, only two were reversed.(2) ** The circuit judges salary at that time was seven hundred dollars , a sum less than some skilled mechanics. Judge Ralston resigned his position on the bench, on the 31st of August, 1839, and resumed his place at the bar.
.
John Tyler 1841-1844 10 cents United States Postage, 1938 10th President
William Henry Harrison 1841 9 cents United States Postage
In 1840, [both Whigs for Harrison and Tyler, and Democrats for Van Buren competed for] the electoral vote of the State for their presidential candidate. ** After mature deliberation the Democrats of Adams county selected Judge Ralston to oppose [Archibald Williams for State Senator]. ** Judge Ralston ** was elected [Senator] and ** presidential Elector for that district.
1938 Martin Van Buren 1837-1840 United States Postage 8 cents
The ** 12th General Assembly convened for 1840 -1841. Judge Ralston was ** in the Senate. ** Among the great commoners in the House [was], Abraham Lincoln, **[Democrat] General W. L. D. Ewing was elected Speaker of the House defeating Abraham Lincoln the Whig candidate. **
Forgotten Statesman of Illinois James Harvey Abraham Lincoln Memorial statue. Lincoln was Judge Ralston’s colleague in the Illinois Assembly in the 1830s. 2014 USA 21
In the late 1830s Illinois had more banking problems. Heavy debt. Crushing interest on state loans. Banks were closing, but what to do? Does the legislature cancel Bank notes, ruining the banks? Meaning, do you try barter for the economy? Or give the banks more time? Meaning, can the economy climb out of the stress? The Illinois legislature thought not to risk barter, and supported the banks climbing out of their stress.
[In the] 12th General Assembly, political parties [Democrat and Whig] were divided chiefly upon the bank question. As a part of the great internal improvement scheme of 1836 the State of Illinois was made a stock holder in the State bank to the amount of $3,100,000.
But that was not enough.
The banks were prohibited by law from issuing notes of less denomination than five dollars; [about a month’s wages] and the law of 1838 provided that any bank having suspended specie [gold, silver] payments, and failed to resume such payments before adjournment of the next session of the Legislature thereafter, would forfeit its charter and close its doors unless that session of the Legislature sanctioned the suspension and permitted it to continue. All the banks had suspended specie payments, and had not resume the paying of specie when the 12th Legislature came together. The Democrats, supreme in that body, were divided on the State banking system. The radicals among them favored enforcing the forfeiture penalty and closing up the banks at once.
As laid out in previous parts, the lack of money creates a barter economy, reducing trade by 20, 50 , or 100 fold. Distrust of banks makes this tempting. And there were probably bankers who would advance handsomely, even while their competition was eliminated, and the economy collapsed into barter.
But the other faction, know by the radicals as the “week-kneed” (sic) voted with the Whigs, not only to legalize suspension of the banks, but to permit them to issue bills of less denomination than five dollars. Judge Ralston was one of the “week-kneed” and in that matter voted with the Whigs. Judge Ralston and the other “bolting” Democrats very plausibly justified their course by the reason that the woeful depression of business, extreme scarcity of money, and unprecedented hard times generally, rendered the leniency they extended to the banks absolutely necessary for relief of the commercial interests of the country, and for averting further hardships to the people. And the end, in that emergency, certainly did justify the means. [T]he Legislature ** voted together in desperate attempts to provide ways and means for paying the semi-annual interest on the enormous State debt, and for trying to devise plans to extricate the State from its crushing embarrassments.
The [Illinois legislators] were also united, actively or passively, in granting the infamous Mormon charters, neither party daring, by its opposition, to offend that new powerful voting element.(4) ** Judge Ralston was an active, vigilant and influential Senator, a member of the judiciary committee and chairman of the Committee on Public Accounts and Expenditures, on all occasions watchful of his constituents interests as well as those of the public.
At that time [1841 Illinois] was apportioned into three Congressional districts.** [T]he Democrats [nominated] Judge Ralston for their [U.S. House Congressional] candidate to oppose [incumbent] Stuart. [Ralston] made the race, and was defeated [running behind the Whig incumbent Stuart, but ahead of the Abolitionist Collins].
[In 1841] the votes of the Mormons [were] given as a unit for the Whig ticket. In the three years, from 1838, [with an increase of 15% in voting population]- there had been an astonishing influx of Mormons into Hancock and adjoining (sic) counties of the district. [The Mormons] had been driven out of Missouri by the Democrats in power, and on coming to Illinois voted solidly for the Whigs in retaliation. **
[This explanation is not consistent and ignores that simultaneous with the Congressional election, Democrat Judge Ralston represented Joseph Smith.]
At the general election in August, 1842, the Democrats, aided by the Mormons who then had turned against the Whigs, swept the State. [Judge Ralston was a Democrat Senator ] in the 13th General Assembly.** [ which passed a bank adjustment act, with a two mill tax – 20 cents on $100 – which applied to the liquidated banks in exchange for recalling their ‘shin plasters’, bank notes, and surrender and exchange stock for bank stock held by the State.]
Forgotten Statesman of Illinois James Harvey Ralston 1807 – 1864 By Dr. J. F. Snyder Transactions of the Illinois State Historical Society for the Year 1908. Will Continue after these events from 1842-1846 are listed.
Events from 1842 to 1846, are scarce from the Judge Ralston Illinois history biography. About 1842, an anti-Mormon newspaper in Warsaw, or the Hancock area, reportedly came up with the nick name of ‘Jack Mormon’ for those officials, although not baptized, were sympathetic to the Mormon community. And this was applied to Joseph’s attorneys. Joseph Smith, the Prophet, was sued about twenty score times from his age of 18 until his death at age 38, one for every month of the 20 years. By 1842, the Prophet Joseph, a constituent of Ralston’s Senatorial district, in Hancock County, was the target of continuous extradition orders from Missouri. Missouri sought to execute the Prophet. As the extraditions came across the Mississippi River, Judge Ralston was hired to defend the Prophet Joseph in the Illinois courts. Judge Ralston was adept in using Habeas corpus to void the extradition orders, one after another, maintaining the Prophet’s freedom. See the History of the Church. After the Prophets Joseph and Hyrum murders in Carthage on June 26, 1844, Judge Ralston was involved in the post murder trials, in behalf of the victims.
Color painting from drawing in an 1844 pamphlet, based on Daniels’ account of the mob outside the Carthage jail, a mobber with a knife, a shaft of bright light stopping the mob, and Joseph Smith’s corpse.
Judge Ralston was prosecuting attorney in the 1845 Quincy, Illinois trial of the assassins of Generals Joseph and Hyrum Smith. Out of a mob of hundreds, only a half dozen were identified to be charged. Of the victims, only Elders Taylor and Richards survived, and they were inside the jail at the time. At the murder trial, Judge Ralston proffered the testimony of William Daniels, age about 17. Daniels was outside the Carthage jail, mingling with the mob, and was the only eye witness to the mob and murders outside who would come forth. Daniels testified, as an eye witness, that after Joseph fell from the window, and lying on the ground, the mob shot 4 balls into his body. Thereupon, as was well known that a bounty of $1500 in gold was offered by the State of Missouri for Joseph dead or alive, a mobber wanted to collect Joseph’s head, as proof, presumably, to collect the gold ransom. As the mobber was running with a drawn knife to behead the corpse of Joseph lying on the ground, a shaft of bright light came down on the corpse of Joseph Smith, perhaps as a signal to prevent his mutilation by the murderers. This so stunned the mobbers – the mobbers holding the muskets were literally frozen with fear – that Daniels observed they had to be dragged away in order to make their escape. The beheading was abandoned. Some nights thereafter, Daniels received a vision of Joseph, who came in a dream, encouraging Daniels, as an eyewitness to the shaft of light, and Joseph hugging Daniels, and forgiving him, of any act in the murder. Daniels’ story was written and printed by Elder John Taylor. This testimony, offered by Judge Ralston, Prosecuting Attorney, was rejected by the presiding Judge at the trial. Daniels’ dream, as a single paragraph, made it into George Q. Cannon’s Life of Joseph Smith, 1907 Mutual Improvement Association’s edition. When Cannon’s Life of Joseph Smith was reprinted in 2003, the shaft of light on Joseph’s corpse was deleted, Deseret Book edition. One author wrote that about 1930, BH Roberts included the Daniels vision description, but minimized its veracity, reportedly describing it incredible and not consistent with the events.
As reported, Daniels dream was consistent with the events. The sudden shaft of light, not too soon, not too late, explains the stark fear, and hence great haste with which the mob fled Carthage, and scene of the murders. Some, but not eye witnesses, have suggested random shouts that the ‘Mormons are coming’ was the cause of the haste and flight. Meanwhile, the Mormons were in Nauvoo, twenty miles away and a solid days ride away by horse or wagon.
Consider another dream from 1847, over two years after the prophet Joseph Smith to Daniels dream. Brigham Young reported [Joseph Smith] appeared to President Young and gave [Brigham] this message: “Tell the people to be humble and faithful and sure to keep the Spirit of the Lord and it will lead them right. Be careful and not turn away the small still voice; it will teach [you what] to do and where to go; it will yield the fruits of the kingdom . Tell the brethren to keep their hearts open to conviction so that when the Holy Ghost comes to them, their hearts will be ready to receive it. They can tell the Spirit of the Lord from all other spirits. It will whisper peace to their souls, and it will take malice, hatred, envying, strife, and all evil from their hearts; and their whole desire will be to do good, bring forth righteousness, and build up the kingdom of god. Tell the brethren if they will follow the spirit of the Lord they will go right.” Office Files, Brigham Young, Vision, Feb 17, 1847, Church Archives. Printed in Teachings of President’s of the Church, Joseph Smith, 2007, Intellectual Reserve, Inc. In both Daniels’ and Brigham’s dream, Joseph addresses each, and gave a specific message. The Daniels dream visit was not copied from Brigham’s, as Brigham was on his way or in the Rocky mountains by the time of Brigham’s dream. A similar dream occurred in 1877, in Saint George Utah’s temple, with founding fathers, as spirits, talking to Wilford Woodruff. Daniels’ dream is entirely consistent and hence credible.
“Terror of the Mob. – After accomplishing their deed of blood, terror seized the hearts of the assassins who fled from the scene of their diabolical crime in utmost confusion. Governor [Thomas] Ford, three miles out of Nauvoo, on his way to Carthage, met George D. Grant and constable Bettisworth hastening to Nauvoo with the news of the martyrdom. With terror on his countenance, [Ford] carried them back to Carthage, that they might not spread the awful tale, until [Ford] should be at a distance beyond the vengeance which he feared. Arriving at Carthage, [Ford] advised the citizens to flee for their lives before the infuriated “Mormons” came to burn their town, and suiting action to his words he fled with his posse towards Quincy. Conscience-stricken and with the blood of prophets on his hands, [Ford] did not stop until he arrives at Augusta, eighteen miles away. Essentials in Church History, 1950 Joseph Fielding Smith, pg. 384. Trial of the Murderers of Joseph and Hyrum Smith. The trial took place in May, 1845, but proved to be nothing but a farce. The jurors were instructed by the court to bring in a verdict of “not guilty,” which was accordingly done. Ibid. pg 391
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