The Illinois State Historical Society Officers

President: Rand Burnette, Jacksonville
President Pro Tem: David Scott, Springfield
Treasurer: Arthur M Martin, Chicago

Directors

Directors, Terms Expire in 2003
Michael C. Batinski, Carbondale
Janet D. Cornelius, Penfield
Mary "Happy" Dean, Peoria
Francis Even, River Forest
Warren D. Winston, Pittsfield

Directors, Terms Expire in 2004
Norman C. Berger, Chicago
Timothy Draper, Sugar Grove
Mark Sorensen, Decatur
Patricia J. Walton, Hanover
Park John Week, Sycamore

Directors, Terms Expire in 2005
Leah J. Axelrod, Chicago
Herbert Channick, Rockfond
Redd Griffin, Oak Park
Russell Lewis, Chicago John Power, Jacksonville

Illinois Herritage

A Publication of The Illinois State Historical Society May-June 2003                                                                            Volume 6 Number 3

Departments

2          President's message

4         Letters

5         News

Features

6          High-tech history

8         History and politics:
An exclusive interview with
former Governor Jim Edgar

13 The county that never was

14 Lincoln and Lorimer: How
Illinois politics helped change the way of choosing senators

20 Restoring the temple that labor built

25 Springfield cornerstone unearthed, reburied

Reviews

22 Graceful balance

26 2003 Annual Award Winners New friends, new faces

27 New friends, new faces

To our readers:

The late French philosopher Michel Foucault (1926-1984) put the study of history on notice when he declared "there are no facts, only genealogies." His notion that all truth is relative, that all history is subjective, and that everything we know is suspect, trips popular historians for whom cliches such as "good war" and "evil empire" are objective truths. I have my own cliche, which answers both Foucault and the populists: "History happens," and offer the May-June issue of Illinois Heritage in support of this bumper-sticker thesis. As we were going to press with this issue, which includes an interview with former Illinois Governor Jim Edgar, State Senator Peter Fitzgerald announced he would not seek reelection. Mr. Edgar, who in March told Illinois Heritage he had no political ambitions and was happy in his retirement, in April announced his candidacy if drafted by his party; i.e., what was true then isn't true now but may be true tomorrow. And in Richmond, Virginia, where the United State Historical Society last month unveiled its commemorative statue of President Lincoln's 1865 visit to the then-"liberated" Confederate capitol, modern-day protestors likened the dedication to erecting a statue of "Osama Bin Laden at the site of World Trade Center." In this case, one American's hero can also be another's devil incarnate.

History happens but not always the way we read or write it. The good news is that it continues to happen, to inform us, to remind us that our collective human history is far from finished. Even when the facts are fuzzy, distorted, or nonexistent as Foucault asserted, we can still try to sort them out, interpret them, and make them part of our Illinois heritage. What else do you have to do this summer? Happy reading.

William Furry

editor

Illinois Heritage | 2