My Mississippi Manifest Destiny: Jonesboro, site of the third Lincoln-Douglas Debate

After leaving Cairo, Illinois--quite shell shocked after seeing the decay and rubble there--my next stop--and final one--of my blog-o-vacation was Jonesboro. My spirits picked up as I drove through Anna, a town of 5,000 in Union County also with an unhappy racial history. Black were not allowed on the streets after sunset for many years--it was a sundown town. Today Anna has few black residents.

Just to the west of Anna--the municipalities are so close together they should be called twin-towns--is Jonesboro, it's population is 1,800. Unlike decaying Cairo, Jonesboro and Anna hum with activity and commerce. The countryside surrounding the villages is quite charming--rolling hills reminiscent of western Tennessee.

Jonesboro, which is farther south than Richmond, Virgina, was the site of the third Lincoln-Douglas Debate. First some history: Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas were political rivals beginning in the 1830s. Although four years younger than Lincoln, Douglas' political advancement was quicker, and by 1858, Democrat Douglas was running for re-election to the US Senate. Lincoln was the standard bearer of the upstart Republican Party and Douglas' opponent that year. As a Whig, Lincoln served one term in the House of Representatives. He was a dove regarding the Mexican War, and was in the political wilderness for a few years because of that stand.

After joint appearances in their hometowns--Lincoln's Springfield and Douglas' Chicago, the candidates agreed to debate in a town in each of the remaining congressional districts in Illinois. This is the sesquicentennial year of the debates, the first was held in the northern Illinois town of Ottawa--on August 21.

Jonesboro was third, its debate was held on September 15.

At the center of Jonesboro, now and probably then, is a circular drive--which is a rarity in Illinois. The circle is called Public Square, and there is a sign there stating "Walk Where Lincoln Walked." To do that, you walk north on Main Street for about a mile to Lincoln Memorial Park--where the debate took place. I was pressed for time, so I drove. In the center of the park is the the town's Lincoln and Douglas monument; it was officially dedicated last month. Tiny Jonesboro is the last of the seven debate cities to place statues marking the historic event.

The statues are life-size. At six feet four inches, Lincoln is tall even by today's standards. Douglas is a foot shorter--his head is that of a taller man.

Jonesboro will celebrate the sesquicentennial during the weekend of September 12-14, when the Lincoln and Douglas Reunion comes to town. It just might be the biggest thing to hit Jonesboro in 150 years.

Except for my summary post, this is the last entry of My Missisippi Manifest Destiny. Click here for my previous post, which has all of my prior observations about my trip to the Magnolia State--along with a few detours.

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Fort Defiance: Confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers

My Mississippi Manifest Destiny has taken me home. Almost. I'm in Illinois, but closer to Tupelo, Mississippi than Chicago. After leaving Johnny Cash's boyhood home in Arkansas, I drove north through Missouri's "Bootheel," crossing the Mississippi into Illinois to the site of the former Fort Defiance.

See that marker up there? It's the precise spot where two of America's greatest rivers--the Mississippi and Ohio--meet.

When the Civil War began, both sides realized the importance of the Mississippi River. As I wrote in the Vicksburg part of this series, when the North captured that strategic town on July 4, 1863, and the smaller Port Hudson a few days later, the Confederacy was split in two.

As for the Federals, they knew if the South occupied the confluence of the two great waterways, the flow of Northern commerce--as well as troops and supplies--would be stopped right there.

Which is why Fort Defiance was built on the peninsula. It's the post where newly promoted Brigadier General Ulysses S. Grant of Galena took up his first command in the fall of 1861.

Any evidence the fort itself has long been swept away or submerged by the dozens of floods that have overwhelmed the site since Grant moved south. Fort Defiance once was a state park, but the state abandoned it, and the nearby town of Cairo owns it.

But when I was there in late May it was closed. And it looks like it's permanently closed, although I was among a dozen people who parked in front of the barricaded entrance, stooped below the gate, and walked a mile or so on an asphalt driveway, which was covered with dried mud, to where the rivers meet.

On the left is the Ohio River, on the right is the Mississippi. You may notice the blue-ish Ohio water, the Mississippi water is muddier. Maybe it was the wind that day, but the Mississippi looked more menacing than its counterpart to the east.

Both bridges belong to the concurrent US Routes 60 and 62. Here's some trivia for you: Only two states in the union border each other that are not connected by a road--those states are Missouri and Kentucky. This highway comes very close to connecting them, but motorists have to cut through the southern tip of Illinois to get there.

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