Elias Kent Kane (June 7, 1794December 12, 1835) was the first Illinois Secretary of State and a

U.S. Senator The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and power ...

from

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rock ...

Early life

He was born in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, to merchant Capt. Elias Kent Kane and Deborah VanSchelluyne of

Dutchess County, New York Dutchess County is a county in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2020 census, the population was 295,911. The county seat is the city of Poughkeepsie. The county was created in 1683, one of New York's first twelve counties, and later or ...

. Young Kane attended public schools, then

Yale College Yale College is the undergraduate college of Yale University. Founded in 1701, it is the original school of the university. Although other Yale schools were founded as early as 1810, all of Yale was officially known as Yale College until 1887, ...

, from which he has graduated in the year 1813.

Career

After he studied law and was admitted to the bar, Kane commenced practice in

Nashville, Tennessee Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and ...

, and then moved to

Kaskaskia, Illinois Kaskaskia is a village in Randolph County, Illinois. Having been inhabited by indigenous peoples, it was settled by France as part of the Illinois Country. It was named for the Kaskaskia people. Its population peaked at about 7,000 in the 18th ...

in 1814. He became allied with

Jesse B. Thomas Jesse Burgess Thomas (1777May 2, 1853) was an American lawyer, judge and politician who served as a delegate from the Indiana Territory to the tenth Congress and later served as president of the Constitutional Convention which led to Illinois ...

, a slaveholder who had secured the job of judge of the

Territory of Illinois The Territory of Illinois was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from March 1, 1809, until December 3, 1818, when the southern portion of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Illinois. Its c ...

. Like Judge Thomas and his rival Ninian Edwards, Kane was a delegate to the first state constitutional convention in 1818. At the convention, the Thomas/Kane faction unsuccessfully tried to add language permitting slavery in the new state (where it had been forbidden by the Northwest Ordinance of 1787). However, that proposal was defeated by a faction whose leaders included

Baptist Baptists form a major branch of Protestantism distinguished by baptizing professing Christian believers only ( believer's baptism), and doing so by complete immersion. Baptist churches also generally subscribe to the doctrines of soul c ...

John Mason Peck John Mason Peck (1789–1858) was an American Baptist missionary to the western frontier of the United States, especially in Missouri and Illinois. A prominent anti-slavery advocate of his day, Peck also founded many educational institutions a ...

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's ...

Peter Cartwright,

Quaker Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belief in each human's abili ...

James Lemen James Lemen Sr. (November 10, 1760 – January 8, 1823) was an American justice of the peace and minister who was a leader of the anti-slavery movement in Indiana Territory in the early nineteenth century. Born near Harper's Ferry, Virginia (now ...

, publisher

Hooper Warren The word hooper is an archaic English term for a person who aided a cooper in the building of barrels by creating the hoop for the barrel. Hooper may also refer to: Place names in the United States: * Hooper, Colorado, town in Alamosa County, Colo ...

and future governor Edward Coles. Kane claimed ownership of five people as slaves in 1820, Updated 12 April 2022 After an unsuccessful 1820 campaign for election to the 17th Congress which featured numerous letters in the ''Edwardsville Spectator'' concerning slavery, and which anti-slavery candidate Daniel Pope Cook won, Kane became Illinois' first Secretary of State, and served from 1820 to 1824. In that year, Kane led proslavery forces in the

Illinois House of Representatives The Illinois House of Representatives is the lower house of the Illinois General Assembly. The body was created by the first Illinois Constitution adopted in 1818. The House under the current constitution as amended in 1980 consists of 118 re ...

which attempted to call another constitutional convention, but was again defeated by a coalition led by Governor Coles, U.S. Representative Cook and religious leaders of many denominations. However, fellow legislators twice appointed Kane to the

United States Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and po ...

. He served from March 4, 1825, until his death in Washington, D.C., in 1835.

Legacy

His body was returned to the family farm in

Randolph County, Illinois Randolph County is a county located in the U.S. state of Illinois. According to the 2020 census, it had a population of 30,163. Its county seat is Chester. Owing to its role in the state's history, the county motto is "Where Illinois Began. ...

, but due to continued desecration of the family gravesite, he was reinterred in 1984 (a campaign led by local funeral director, Michael McClure) in Evergreen Cemetery in nearby Chester, in a grave adjacent with that of his sometime political opponent and Illinois' first governor, Shadrach Bond. The Kane family gravesite includes that of his wife, the former Frances Pelletier (1799-1851), two children who died young, and four sons. One son, Elias Kent Kane, Jr. (1822-1853), served in the United States Army. One of Kane's daughters married Illinois governor William H. Bissell, a vocal opponent of slavery. Kane's father (of the same name) is buried in

Congressional Cemetery The Congressional Cemetery, officially Washington Parish Burial Ground, is a historic and active cemetery located at 1801 E Street, SE, in Washington, D.C., on the west bank of the Anacostia River. It is the only American "cemetery of national m ...

in Washington, D.C., having survived this son by five years and secured his namesake grandson's admission to West Point. On January 16, 1836, the Illinois legislature formed a new county, Kane, and named it to honor the recently deceased Senator, Elias Kent Kane.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kane, Elias Kent 1794 births 1835 deaths Politicians from New York City American people of Dutch descent Schuyler family Jacksonian United States senators from Illinois Democratic Party United States senators from Illinois Secretaries of State of Illinois Democratic Party members of the Illinois House of Representatives Kane County, Illinois People from Kaskaskia, Illinois Yale College alumni

Early life

Career

Legacy

See also

References