Canadian Prime Ministers III: Sir Charles Tupper, Sir Wilfrid Laurier, and Sir Robert Borden

7.  Sir Charles Tupper (1896)
Liberal-Conservative.

Tupper was sworn in to replace Bowell, but the Conservatives, split on the Manitoba Schools question lost the subsequent parliamentary election.  He served as PM only 69 days.    

Originally from Nova Scotia, he studied medicine at the University of Medicine.  In the early 1860s he has been an advocate of a union of all the British North American provinces, and then of the Maritime provinces.  He served in the MacDonald government and as Canadian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, (i.e. as a kind of representative of the dominion to the crown.)  

8.  Sir Wilfrid Laurier (1896-1911) Liberal.

Laurier was born in 1841 in Saint-Lin-Laurentides, Quebec, and became the first French speaking prime minister of Canada, and the first Liberal to hold the office since Alexander Mackenzie.  He remained Prime minister for 15 years, from 1896 to 1911.   While Quebec had originally been a conservative stronghold owing to the social conservatism of the majority French Catholics who lived there, the Manitoba Schools crisis had succeeded in aligning the Quebec population against the strongly Protestant Conservatives MacBowell and Tupper.  

At the same time Laurier, a believer in church and state separation was at odds with the Catholic church. The Pope who had recently put out an encyclical condemning strict Church/State separation, as was customary in France.   In spite of these difficulties Laurier produced a satisfactory compromise in the Manitoba Schools Question that provided for a French and Catholic public education in any school area, provided there were enough French Catholic students in the area to justify one.  

During the Second Boer War in 1899, Laurier resisted sending a militia to aid in the war, considering it an English war unrelated to the interests of Canada, while he did allow a volunteer force to go to South Africa.  Later, rather than provide the British with money for ship construction, Laurier founded the Canadian Navy instead, with the option offered of lending Naval assistance to the British at such time as it was needed. 

It was the issue of trade reciprocity with the US which led to the fall of the Liberal government.  Western agricultural interests were very much in favor of it, but opposition elsewhere led to the fall of the government and the return of the conservatives under Robert Borden.

During his time as Prime Minister, Saskatchewan and Alberta were created as Canadian provinces, and the Yukon territory was created out of the Northwest Territories. 


 
9.  Sir Robert Borden (1911-1920) Conservative Party, Unionist Party.

  Born in 1854 in Grand Pre, Nova Scotia, he worked for a while as a teacher in Grand Pre and later in Matawan, NJ, but gave it up and decided to study for the bar and was admitted in 1878.  He ran a very successful legal practice in the Maritime provinces.  Originally a Liberal, he broke with the party on the issue of trade reciprocity and became a conservative. 

 With the onset of the First World war, Borden promised the United Kingdom half a million soldiers, but when it became clear that volunteers would not supply those numbers, conscription was instituted, which led to the Conscription Crisis of 1917.   The War Measures Act was passed which allowed for, in times of emergency, suspension of habeas corpus, detention of enemy aliens, censorship, and even the outlawing of the reading and writing in an "enemy" language.   As many of the population of Ukrainians living in Canada had come from from parts of the Austro-Hungarian empire, many of them were deprived of their property, and detained, until a labor shortage led to the release of some of them to ease that shortage.    

In 1917, to ensure the return of the Conservatives to power they formed a "unionist" coalition with Liberals disenchanted with Laurier's leadership, and crushed the opposition.  During the campaign Borden also promised that he would extend the voting franchise to women in Canada, which he subsequently did in 1918.   He sought to have Canadians serve in units of the Canadian Army rather than, as previously, simply inserted into the ranks of the British Army.   Borden also introduced the  "temporary" Canadian income tax to help finance the war,  and, just as in the US, which instituted an income tax around the same time, has never gone away. 

Borden was the last Canadian Prime Minister to be knighted after the Canadian parliament expressed a desire that such honors be discontinued.  

In the Paris Peace Conference Borden finally prevailed on the leaders of the peace conference, Lloyd George and US President Woodrow Wilson to allow the participation in the conference as "minor" powers all of the British commonwealth nations that had participated in the war.

After leaving office Borden returned to private life serving as president of Barclay's Bank of Canada and the Continental Life Insurance Company.   He died in 1937.

Canadian Prime Ministers II: Sir John Abbott, Sir John Thompson, and Sir MacKenzie Bowell

4.  Sir John Abbott (1891-1892) Liberal-Conservative.

Abbott was the first Canadian prime minister to actually be born in Canada.  He got his law degree from McGill College in Montreal.  He successfully defended fourteen American Confederate Agents from extradition, who had made a raid from Canada on Burlington, VT which increased tensions with the US in the immediate post civil war period.  He was a successful Montreal corporate lawyer and as a young man was in favor of Canada joining the United States.  
In 1865 he changed parties to join the conservatives. He was tainted by the Pacific Scandal and was defeated along with MacDonald's party.   He became Prime Minister on McDonald's death in 1891.  Although the original candidate was John Thompson, his Catholic faith led to Abbott's appointment instead.   Thompson eventually succeeded him anyway, after Abbott, already suffering from a brain tumor and in failing health, had to leave office in 1892.  


5. Sir John Thompson (1892-1894) Liberal-Conservative.

Thompson was of Irish descent and came from Nova Scotia.  He served in various offices in that province before becoming Prime Minister in 1892.  He was one of the founders of the Dalhousie Law School. 

Originally a Methodist, he converted to Catholicism on his marriage to Anne Affleck.   He gained acclaim for his hard line against the followers of Louis Riel, though he was passed over for Prime Minister the first time because of his Catholicism. 

As PM he almost succeeded in wooing Newfoundland and persuading it to join the confederation, but it held out until 1949.    In 1893 he succeeded in an international arbitration over the dispute with the US over its exclusive claim to the seal harvest in the Bering Sea, winning rights for Canadian sealers.  He died while at a conference in London at the rather early age of 49.

6. Sir MacKenzie Bowell (1894-1896)
Liberal-Conservative.

The main problems confronting MacKenzie Bowell were the religious and ethnic tensions in Manitoba and in Quebec.  As the growing English-Canadian and Protestant population had grown in the province, the province of Manitoba eliminated public funding of Catholic and mainly French schools in the province.  This led to a crisis in Bowell's government which was split between those who favored removing French Catholic schools and those who believed in some kind of compromise with Bowell in the latter group.  His inability to act on the matter brought his government down and his replacement by Sir Charles Tupper in 1896.

Canadian Prime Ministers: Sir John MacDonald and Alexander Mackenzie

1. Sir John MacDonald (1867-1873), Liberal-Conservative

MacDonald was born in 1815 in Glasgow.  His family emigrated to Canada in 1820.  His father was a shopkeeper and John, like many of his generation had no formal schooling after he left grammar school.  At the time after he left grammar school he decided to study for the law and was apprenticed to a lawyer for this purpose.  In 1836 he qualified for the bar and shortly afterwards took on two apprentices under him, who also became "fathers of confederation".  He practiced in what is now known as the Picton and Kingston area of Ontario.  He became active in colonial government. When a capital of the new colony was originally considered many favored Quebec City as the capitol but those in the west were non agreeable to this, so they appealed to Queen Victoria for the decision.  Victoria duly chose Ottawa, which was geographically midway between the two halves of Canada.  

MacDonald was a leader of the conservatives in efforts to form a Canadian confederation.  The Maritime colonies met in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island in 1864.  The Canadian colonies met in Quebec City in 1865, and in 1866 there was a London Conference, which led to the passage by the British parliament of the British North America Act in 1867, which served at the Canadian constitution for more than a century.   MacDonald received a knighthood and Canada West and Canada East became Ontario and Quebec.  

In his first term, MacDonald had to deal with numerous problems.  Foreign policy was still handled through London, New Brunswick was already wishing to withdraw from confederation.  The railway which was designed to link the provinces together had yet to be built, and much of Canada was still under direct British control.  The Americans had withdrawn from the Reciprocity Treaty of 1866.  Newfoundland refused to join the confederation.  During his tenure Canada succeeded in receiving the Northwest Territories and Rupert's Land as part of Canada, as well as retaining the province of British Columbia, where there was some interest in US annexation.  

Other Canadian-American disputes included arguments over fishing rights in coastal waters.  The British negotiated these in the Treaty of Washington, which did not serve Canadian interests well, in view of the fact that no compensation was forthcoming from Fenian raids into Canada and Canadian waters were considered open to American fishermen.  

MacDonald's first government fell owing to Pacific Scandal, in which Conservative members accepted bribes for the contracts to build the Canadian Pacific Railway.  Alexander MacKenzie, of the Liberal Party took over.  By profession he was a building contractor and a stonemason from Scotland.  As PM he helped to design and oversee the construction of Canada's new parliament buildings in Ottawa.   He also negotiated a free trade agreement with the US in the wake of the Panic of 1873.  When economic conditions did not improve the Liberals were swept from office in 1878 and the Conservatives, headed by MacDonald took over once more. 

2.  Alexander MacKenzie (1873-1878) Liberal.

MacDonald's first government fell owing to Pacific Scandal, in which Conservative members accepted bribes for the contracts to build the Canadian Pacific Railway.  Alexander MacKenzie, of the Liberal Party took over.  By profession he was a building contractor and a stonemason from Scotland.  As PM he helped to design and oversee the construction of Canada's new parliament buildings in Ottawa.   He also negotiated a free trade agreement with the US in the wake of the Panic of 1873.  When economic conditions did not improve the Liberals were swept from office in 1878 and the Conservatives, headed by MacDonald took over once more. 

The only reason Alexander MacKenzie never received a knighthood was that he declined it   each of the three times it was offered to him.
  


3.  Sir. John A. MacDonald (1878- 1891) Liberal- Conservative.

The conservatives opposed free trade with the US and raised tariffs once more.   The transcontinental railroad proved hideously expensive and an engineering nightmare, especially for a nation of about 4 million.    Nevertheless it was completed with large public subsidy in 1885, and MacDonald celebrated by traveling west to British Columbia.   New disputes over fishing rights broke out with the Americans and the British had to intervene.  

At this time Louis Riel, a Manitoban of Metis (mixed First Nations and French) background led the Red River rebellion which led to some bloodshed and the controversial execution of Thomas Scott, who failed to die from being shot by a firing squad, and an additional gun shot to the head, and was later buried alive.  Riel, following the suppression of the rebellion,  fled into American exile but was enticed back to Canada by John MacDonald in hopes that a political settlement could be reached.  When this proved unfeasible, Riel was arrested and hanged. 

MacDonald, a protectionist to the end, was in favor of trade barriers while the Liberals were in favor of more open trade with the US, owing to the practicalities of high freight rates on the Canadian National railway and the geographic proximity of much of the US.  The Conservative majority dwindled, but he remained in office until he died from a stroke in 1891.

Illinois Governors VI: George Ryan, Rod Blagojevich, and Pat Quinn

George Ryan (1999-2003), Republican

convicted sentenced to 6 1/2 years

Ryan was born in Maquoketa, IA in 1934, and grew up in Kankakee County, IL.  He worked in his father's drug stores, and attended the Ferris State College of Pharmacy in Michigan.  Ryan was drafted and sent to Korea during the Korean War and served 13 months as a base pharmacist there and then returned to build his family's pharmacy business into a lucrative state-wide business. 

He served on the Kankakee County Board from 1968-1973.  He then served in the Illinois House from 1973 to 1983 where he rose to become minority leader and then speaker.  Then he served as Lt. Governor under James Thompson, then as secretary of state from 1991-1999. From 1999 to 2003 he served as governor.  

As governor he followed the usual path of being in favor of education spending, road construction, and mass transit.  More controversially he led a trade mission to Cuba, and was the first sitting governor to meet with Fidel Castro.  He also opposed the death penalty in Illinois because he felt it was arbitrary and too many questionable verdicts had led to the death penalty.  As a result he commuted all death row inmates (about 160 or so) at the time he left office in 1999.  

It was only after leaving office that he started to encounter his legal problems, for things done before he was governor, when he was secretary of state.  

Willis Mini-van

  His problems stemmed from a tragic accident in I-94 in Wisconsin in November 1994, where a piece of metal fell off a truck in front of a minivan where the pastor Duane Scott Willis, his wife and all six of their children were passengers.  Running over the piece of metal punctured the gas tank of the minivan causing it to burst into flames.  While Willis and his wife escaped with relatively minor burns, his six children were incinerated.   As it was subsequently determined, the driver of the truck whence the metal had fallen had obtained his Illinois drivers license through a bribe and was apparently unqualified to be operating a truck.
In the subsequent investigation into the Secretary of State's office it uncovered a pattern of bribery and corruption that ultimately led to George Ryan to be sentenced to 6 and 1/2 years in Federal prison after conviction on 20 of 22 counts of racketeering, bribery, extortion, money laundering and tax fraud (1).   Ryan has now been released to home confinement as of January 2013.    
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rod Blagojevich (2003-2009) Democrat

convicted, sentenced 14 years

Blagojevich, born in 1956 in Chicago was the son of immigrants from Serbia.  He went to school at the University of Tampa then transferring to Northwestern, where he graduated in 1979 with a BA in history. He got his law degree from Pepperdine University in Malibu, CA.  He is married to Patricia Mell, daughter of former Chicago Alderman Richard Mell. He was a law clerk for Chicago Alderman Ed Vrdolyak, and then became an assistant prosecutor for Cook County for Richard M. Daley, then State's attorney and later mayor of Chicago.   In 1992 he was elected to the Illinois House from the North Side of Chicago.  In 1996 he was elected to the US Congress, taking back for the Democrats the seat won by Michael Flanagan over the disgraced longtime congressman Dan Rostenkowski, who was convicted of mail fraud.  He was reelected twice more as Congressman from the district.  Interestingly he was one of only 81 house Democrats who voted in favor of the invasion of Iraq in 2002.  He was alone among the Democrats in the state delegation to have done so.

As candidate for governor in 2002 he narrowly defeated two opponents, IL attorney general Roland Burris and Chicago Public Schools superintendent Paul Vallas.  Rahm Emmanuel, Barack Obama, and David Wilhelm in various capacities supported Blagojevich's run for governor.  The Republican candidate was Illinois attorney general Jim Ryan. Though no relation to George Ryan, Blagojevich successfully linked the two together and the need for "change".   

By 2006, the Blagojevich administrated had its own bad smells to contend with lone statewide Republican Judy Barr Topinka, state treasurer, running a campaign against Blagojevich that emphasized his corruption.  Nevertheless she lost the election.  

Some of the change that Blagojevich promoted was ethics reform, death penalty reform, state Earned Income Tax Credit, KidCare and FamilyCare heath care programs, sexual orientation discrimination bans.  The costs of these programs was borne by raiding the state pension funds and expanding gambling in the state,  rather than tax increases. 

Blagojevich faced mounting opposition even from his own party as he did things and said things that alienated them.  He refused to live in Springfield, and seldom talked to members of the legislature.   Mayor Richard M. Daley went so far as to say that Blagojevich was "cuckoo".  One could go on and on cataloging the legislative outrages of this governor but a fairly good summary is found here.

Wiretaps conducted by the US attorney, Patrick Fitzgerald, convinced him to arrest Blagojevich at his home.  As it appeared the governor had openly sought to "sell" the open seat left when Barack Obama was elected President, the Illinois governor being given the option to appoint someone to fill the remainder of Obama's senatorial term until the next general election.  On the tape he remarked that "I've got this thing, and it's fucking golden. I'm just not giving it up for fucking nothing."  Subsequently he was removed from office on a 59-0 impeachment vote, and banned from holding political office in Illinois.  Lieutenant Governor Pat Quinn succeeded him in office.   He was convicted in Federal court in 2011 of all charges associated with the sale of the senate seat, and for extortion relating to a children's hospital and a race track.   In the Federal trial for corruption he was sentenced to 14 years in Federal prison, and is now incarcerated in Englewood Colorado.  He will not be eligible for release until 2024.   
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Patrick Joseph Quinn III (2009-present), Democrat

Quinn was born in 1948 in Hinsdale, IL.   He earned a degree in Foreign Service from Georgetown University in 1971.  He received his law degree in 1980 from Northwestern University.   He served as an aide to Governor Dan Walker.   Early on he supported an initiative to increase the voter referendum as a way of influencing policy, but this was ruled unconstitutional by the Illinois supreme court.  Another initiative more successful was his effort to cut back on the number of members of the Illinois House, reducing the number from 177 to 118 members, and eliminating cumulative voting and multiple member districts.   Others have suggested however that the old multiple member districts produced a better legislature.  

In 1982 he became commissioner of the Cook County board of tax appeals.  After one prior unsuccessful run, he was elected state treasurer from 1991 to 1995.  He was critical of George Ryan and ran against him for Secretary of State in 1994.   In 1996 he ran for the open Democratic seat in the US senate vacated by Paul Simon, but Dick Durbin won that contest.   Quinn was an early teabagger, encouraging voters to express their displeasure with the approval of an increase in the salaries of state legislators under Jim Edgar by mailing in tea bags, and encouraged a similar protest against Commonwealth Edison's increase in rates.  

In 2002 he was elected Lt. Governor on Rod Blagojevich's ticket, but did not remain a supporter of Blagojevich, and by 2006 they were pretty much political enemies. In 2010 he narrowly won reelection in his own right against Republican Bill Brady, who in a Republican year was widely expected to win.    In a lame duck session after the 2010 election Quinn and the legislature passed a 66% personal income tax increase and also increased corporate income tax rates.  The new legislature coming in in January 2010 would never have approved these changes, so obviously it had to be done in this sneaky way.  In order to accomplish this the legislature actually stopped time and delayed the midnight hour a couple of hours past midnight.  

Businesses, owing to the tax structure of the state, one of the most confiscatory in the nation, are relocating outside of Illinois.  The most recent example of this is Office Depot's decision to locate its corporate headquarters in Boca Raton, FL.    However, so far, the teacher's unions, the SEIU and anyone else on the state payroll is well pleased with the governor although a crisis regarding pension funding still looms.  

Illinois Governors V: Dan Walker, Jim Thompson, and Jim Edgar

Daniel Walker (1973-1979), Democrat

convicted, sentenced to 7 years

Dan Walker was born in 1922 in Washington, DC, and grew up in San Diego, CA.  He graduated from the US Naval Academy in 1945 and served in the Navy during World War II and in Korea.  He graduated from Northwestern University with a law degree in 1950.  He served as a law clerk for US Supreme Court Justice Vinson, an aide to
Governor Stevenson, served as a deputy commissioner in the US Court of Military appeals.

In 1968 he served as head of a study team for the National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence, looking into the messy violence surrounding the 1968 Democratic National Convention.    His report was critical of the Chicago Police Department and earned him the lasting enmity of Mayor Daley.  Later as candidate for governor in 1972 he won the Democratic nomination over the Daley and the Chicago Machine favorite, Lt. Gov. Paul Simon.  During his campaign he hit upon the gimmick of walking around the state, covering over 1000 miles during his campaign.  He was elected governor, defeating Richard B. Ogilvie by 51 to 49%. 

 As Governor he clashed with both the Chicago Democratic machine and Republicans in the state.  Nevertheless he instituted some reforms against certain corrupt practices and passed a campaign finance disclosure law.  He was defeated in the state primary in 1976, and left office in 1977. 

In 1980 he started a chain of oil change shops and bought two troubled Savings and Loans Associations.  As owner of one of these banks, he committed bank fraud by borrowing $45,000 from a borrower from his bank. He subsequently pleaded guilty to bank fraud, perjury, and filing false financial statements and was sentenced to 7 years in federal prison in 1987.   After 18 months Walker was released from prison in 1989.

He later went on to become an author, writing about early Church history, San Diego History, and his memoirs of his time in Illinois state politics.  He now lives in Rosarito, Baja California in Mexico.  
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------


James Robert Thompson, Jr. (1977-1991) Republican

Thompson was born in 1936 in Chicago.  He attended the University of Illinois-Chicago, and Washington University in St. Louis.  He earned his law degree from Northwestern in 1959.    He served for the Cook County state's attorney, taught at Northwestern Law School, and became a US attorney for the Northern District of Illinois in the early 1970s. It was as a federal prosecutor that he succeeded in convicting former Governor Otto Kerner Jr. for influence peddling in connection with the racetrack industry.  He also succeeded in gaining convictions of some of Mayor Richard J. Daley's top aides as well as some prominent Republicans in Cook County.  

In 1976 Thompson was elected governor with an overwhelming plurality.  At this time the terms of governor were adjusted to fall on non-Presidential election years, so his first term was only for two years.  He beat Michael Bakalis two years later for a second full 4 year term, and then defeated former senator Adlai Stevenson iii, son of the former governor twice in 1980 and 1984.  

After leaving office in 1991 he joined and later headed the law firm of Winston and Strawn.  As part of that law firm he has focused on corporate law and government relations, as well as  defending former Governor George Ryan in the "licenses for bribes" scandal. 

He served on the 9/11 Commission in from 2002-2004, when the commission released its report.  
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

James Edgar (1991-1999), Republican

called to testify

Edgar was born in Vinita, OK in 1946 and grew up in Charleston, IL.  He attended Wabash College and graduated from Eastern Illinois University circa 1968.     In 1976 he was elected to the Illinois House from someplace in the state, and was reelected in1978.  Governor Jim Thompson appointed Edgar as his legislative liaison, and when Alan Dixon left to become US Senator, he was appointed by Thompson to fill his term as Secretary of State.  He was subsequently reelected at Secretary of State before being elected as governor of Illinois in 1990.  He served two terms as governor before leaving office in 1999.   While he was called to testify in his role in the Management Systems of Illinois scandal, he was not charged, while a number of Illinois state employees were convicted.

Citing health problems, specifically his heart surgery, he has stayed out of politics since leaving office as governor.   For example, although he was thought to have been a strong candidate for US Senator he chose not to run for the seat that Barack Obama won in 2006.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Illinois Governors IV: Otto Kerner, Sam Shapiro, and Richard Ogilvie

Otto Kerner, Jr.  (1961-1968), Democrat

sentenced to 3 years

Kerner was born in 1908 in Chicago.  His father served as Illinois Attorney General and as judge on the Seventh Circuit of the US Court of Appeals.  He graduated from Brown University in 1930, and attended Trinity College in Cambridge before receiving a law degree from Northwestern University in 1934.  He married the daughter of Anton Cermak, the Chicago Mayor who had been fatally shot in 1933.  In the second world war, he served in the army in Italy where he made the acquaintance of Jacob Arvey, who was the leader of the Cook County Democratic Party.  Later he joined the Illinois Army National Guard, where he retired in 1954 as a major general.  

In 1947 he was appointed the US attorney for the Northern District of Illinois and became a judge in the Illinois circuit court of Cook County until 1961 when he was elected governor,   denying Stratton a third term and was re-elected in 1964.   Illinois won with his efforts the contract to build the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, IL.  He worked to expand international trade in Illinois products.  He reformed the mental health system run by the state.  In the wake of the race riots of 1966, he served as chairman of the National Advisory Committee on Civil Disorders, having been appointed by President Johnson.  

In the last year of his second term, Kerner resigned his governorship to become a judge for the US Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit.  

In 1973 Kerner was convicted of 17 counts of mail fraud, conspiracy, perjury and related charges.  He was sentenced to three years in Federal Prison, but served only 6 months, being released because by that time Kerner was suffering from lung cancer.  He died in 1976.  
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Samuel S. Shapiro (1968), Democrat

Samuel S. Shapiro was born in Estonia in 1907 and emigrated with his family to America as a small child.  He got his law degree from the University of Illinois and practiced law in Kankakee, IL.  He became state's attorney for Kankakee County in 1936, served as a state representative from 1947 to 1961.  In 1961 he was elected Lieutenant governor along with Otto Kerner as governor.  When Kerner left his position as governor in 1968, he succeeded him as governor.  His special interest as legislator and as Lt. Governor was mental health, which he sought to reform.  After being narrowly defeated for governor by successor Richard B. Ogilvy, he returned to his law practice.  He died in 1987.  The day he died he was supposed to be in court in Kankakee, and was only discovered to have died, when police were sent to his home to investigate why he had not been in court.  He was buried in Jewish Waldheim Cemetery in Forest Park, IL.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Richard Buell Ogilvie (1969-1973), Republican

Ogilvie was born in 1923 in Kansas City, MO.  He attended Yale and then entered the army in 1942, serving as a tank commander in France, and then finished his studies at Yale, graduating in 1947 with a degree in American History.  He got his law degree at the Illinois Institute of Technology Kent College of Law in Chicago in 1949.  From 1950 he practiced law, became a US attorney in 1954 in Chicago, and in 1958-61 served as special assistant to the US Attorney General, and was in charge of a unit fighting organized crime in Chicago.  In 1962 he was elected Cook County sheriff.  In 1967 he became president of the Cook County Board of Commissioners.

He was elected governor in 1968 along with  Lt. Gov.  Paul Simon, a Democrat who later went on to become a US Senator from Illinois.   Aided by large Republican majority in both Senate and House in the state, he was able to call a constitutional convention in the state, instituted the first income tax for the state, and increased social spending.  The income tax resulted in the voters sending him home in 1972.  

After serving as Governor he practiced law in Chicago, where he was considered for the position of FBI director by President Nixon before giving the job to Patrick Gray.  He served as a trustee for the bankrupt railroad, the Milwaukee Road in 1979, which became as a result the Wisconsin Central.  In 1987 he was on a committee to study the feasibility of shutting down Amtrak, which never happened.  He died in 1988 and was interred at Rosehill Mausoleum in Chicago.  The Metra commuter rail station in Chicago is named in his honor.  
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Illinois Governors III: Dwight Green, Adlai Stevenson II, and William Stratton

Dwight Herbert Green (1941-1949) Republican

Green was born in 1897 in Ligonier, IN.  He went to college at Wabash College and then went to law school at the University of Chicago.   He served as US attorney for the Northern District of Illinois from 1931-1935 and was one of the prosecutors who finally put Al Capone away.  After failing to win in an election to mayor of Chicago, he went on to be elected governor of Illinois in 1940 on the strength of his reputation as a prosecutor and opposition to the Democratic Chicago machine.  While he was a popular governor, he was held responsible in regulatory negligence for the deaths of 111 miners in Centralia, IL, and was defeated in an upset in 1948 by Adlai Stevenson.  He died in 1958 and was buried in Rosehill Cemetery in Chicago.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Adlai Ewing Stevenson II (1949-1953), Democrat.

Adlai Stevenson II came from an illustrious Illinois political family, his grandfather having served as vice president under Grover Cleveland.    He was born in Los Angeles, CA in 1901, but grew up in Bloomington, IL.  He attended University High School, but transferred to Choate, an exclusive private school in Connecticut,  from which he graduated in 1918.  Although he enlisted in the Navy shortly afterwards, it was too late to participate in the First World War.  He attended Princeton University and went to Harvard where he did poorly and withdrew.  A while later he had a renewed interest in law and got his law degree at Northwestern University in Chicago, was admitted to the Illinois Bar and worked for a law firm in Chicago.  He and his wife built a home on a 70 acre tract of land in what is now Mettawa, IL., but what was at the time Libertyville, IL.   He and his wife had three sons, one of whom became Adlai Stevenson III.  

In the first term of the Roosevelt Administration he took positions in the Agricultural Adjustment Administration and then in the Federal Alcohol Control Administration, but left in 1935.  In 1940 he returned to government service as counsel and assistant to the Secretary of the Navy, Frank Knox.  Postwar he worked in the Foreign Economic Administration and in the State Department in efforts to establish what became the United Nations. 

In 1949, put forward as the Chicago Democratic Organization's candidate, he was elected Governor over the incumbent,  Dwight Green.  The same year his wife divorced him.  He never remarried.

As governor, he reorganized the state police, removing political considerations and introducing a merit system for employment.  He vetoed a bill that would have made it a felony to belong to a "subversive group" and required "loyalty oaths" for anyone working for the state.  He famously vetoed a bill passed by bird lovers declaring that letting cats run loose was a public nuisance.   He was a character witness in favor of Alger Hiss in 1949.  

In 1952-1960 he made what would be three consecutive runs for the US presidency, losing twice to Dwight Eisenhower, and failing to get the nomination a third time, when John F. Kennedy got the nod from the Democrats.  In later years he served as ambassador to the UN.  He died in 1965.  
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

William Grant Stratton (1953-1961), Republican

acquitted of tax evasion

Stratton was born in 1914 in Ingleside, IL he was son of William J. Stratton.    He attended the University of Arizona, where he majored in political science.  He served one term in the US congress in 1941-1943 and another in 1947-1949.  He was elected state treasurer in 1943-1944, served as lieutenant in the US Navy 1944-1946.  He was elected again for state treasurer in 1950-1952.  In 1952 he was elected Governor of Illinois, reelected in 1956, but defeated for reelection in 1960 by Democrat Otto Kerner. 

He was acquitted of a charge of tax evasion in 1965.  He attempted a return to the Governor's mansion in 1968, but was unsuccessful.  He maintained a home in Morris, IL and operated a livestock farm in Sangamon County.  He died in 2001. 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------