Virgil Hickox Home - Springfield, Illinois - Illinois Historical Markers on Waymarking.com

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Virgil Hickox Home

Virgil Hickox was one of many local people who disagreed politically with Abraham Lincoln. Raised in the traditions of Jeffersonian Democracy as a youth in New York, he settled in Springfield in 1834 and became a prosperous merchant, railroad promoter, and banker. He was an important supporter of Stephen Douglas. Republicans attacked him during the 1858 Senatorial contest for having his railroad company provide Douglas with a private train car for use in his statewide canvas against Lincoln. "Huge corporations...[are making] electioneering machines of themselves," critics complained, Hickox insisted that the arrangement was not free (Douglas reportedly spent $50,000 on the Senate campaign--a tremendous sum in those days; some of it probably compensated the railroad). Hickox was among the Sangamon County majority that opposed Lincoln in 1858 and in both presidential elections (Lincoln never carried his home county in these contests). Politics didn't prevent Lincoln and Hickox from enjoying cordial professional relations, however. "I have always found Mr. Hickox a fair man in his dealings," Lincoln once wrote a law clients.

Photograph of the Virgil Hickox Home

This 1902 photo is the oldest known picture of the Hickox home (across the street). Hickox built it in 1839 and enlarged it several times afterwards. It is the oldest single family residence still standing in downtown Springfield. Hickox died in 1880, but the home's notoriety as a political hang-out continued. It housed Springfield's first private men's club; during prohibition there was a "speakeasy" in the basement. From Lincoln's time to present, many prominent Illinois politicians have congregated here.

Stephen Douglas's Famous Last Letter--
dated May 10, 1861-- was addressed to Virgil Hickox, the state's Democratic Central Committee chairman. Hickox worried that Democrats were confused by Douglas's apparent flip-flop in support of Lincoln's military response to Southern secession. Hickox warned that previous Douglas speeches had conditioned Democrats "to believe that Mr. Lincoln has no constitutional right to pursue his present course." In what is apparently the last letter Douglas ever wrote, he denied becoming a Republican apologist, and reminded the part faithful "that a man cannot be a true Democrat unless he is a loyal patriot." Hickox counseled Douglas to keep the letter private pending further events. But Douglas's father-in-law ignored Hickox's instruction and published it anyway. Douglas died soon thereafter. His parting sentiments helped solidify Northern support behind Lincoln at the start of the war.

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