From 1809 to 1818, Illinois was not yet a state but a territory. During those nine years, Illinois Territory had only one governor: Ninian Edwards. When Illinois became a state in 1818, it sent its first two senators to Washington, D.C. One of those senators was Edwards. When Illinoisans selected their third governor in 1826, they elected Edwards once again.
Edwards first entered public service in Kentucky as a teenager. By age 33, he had become chief justice of the state’s highest court. At 34, he was appointed governor of the Illinois Territory. From then on, he played a major role in early Illinois politics.
He used his legal expertise to avoid the territory's anti-slavery laws, keeping his enslaved people when he moved to Illinois. He reclassified them as indentured servants and later sold or rented them under that designation. Many of Illinois early governors did this.
In 1812, Edwards introduced voting reforms that expanded participation in the democratic process. Although the reforms benefited only white men, they still made Illinois one of the nation’s most progressive territories at the time.
During the War of 1812, he led a militia raid on Native Americans near Peoria, killing several and burning their villages. He later learned that the tribes he attacked were friendly to the United States.
Edwards oversaw the lengthy political process that led Illinois to statehood, though he opposed the idea of Illinois becoming a free state.
After a long political career, Edwards retired to Belleville, Illinois, where he lived as a gentleman farmer. When cholera spread through Belleville in 1833, Edwards provided free medical care to those who were sick. He later contracted the disease himself and died on July 20.
Ninian Edwards left behind a complicated and often contradictory legacy. Last month, a statue of Edwards was removed from Ninian Edwards Plaza in Edwardsville, a city named after him, and the park renamed City Plaza.
Copy Edited by Eryn Lent
