Scope and Contents:
Elias Kent Kane (1794-1835) was born in New York, graduated from Yale, and came to Kaskaskia in 1814 to practice law. In 1818, he was appointed a judge for Illinois Territory. He was also a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1818 and served as the first Secretary of State for Illinois. In 1824, Kane was elected to the General Assembly (Representative, St. Clair County) but resigned after he was elected to the U.S. Senate. Re-elected to the Senate in 1831, he died before the end of his second term.
This collection contains about 350 pages of transcripts of correspondence and documents concerning legal matters, the collection of debts, elections in Illinois, Indian affairs, internal improvements, the National Road, the postal service, the U.S. Bank, national politics, and patronage. Fifteen of the letters are written by Kane.
These transcripts, for which there is a chronological card index, are from the collection of Kane manuscripts in the Chicago History Museum.
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