this grand county were steadily in line.
Along every pathway of danger and of glory they were to be found.
In every grade of rank were heroes as knightly as ever fought
beneath a plume. Even to name the heroes that old McLean equipped
for the great conflict would be but to call over her muster rolls of
officers and men.

"The chords of memory are touched as the vision of the Old Courthouse
rises before us. Its walls were the silent witnesses of events
that would make resplendent the pages of history. Here assembled lawyers,
orators, statesmen, whose names have been given to the ages. Here,
at a critical period in our history the great masters of debate
discussed vital questions of state--questions that took hold of
the life of the republic. Here, at times, debate touched the
springs of political power. Here in the high place of authority
sat one destined later to wear the ermine of the greatest court
known to men. During his membership of that court in the eventful
years immediately following the great conflict, questions novel
and far-reaching pressed for determination; questions no less
important than those which had in the infancy of the republic
exhausted the learning of Marshall and its associates. It is
our pride that our townsman, David Davis, was among the ablest
of the great court, by whose adjudication renewed vigor was given to
the Constitution, and enduring safeguards established for national
life and individual liberty.

"To the Old Courthouse in the early days came the talented and
genial James A. McDougall, then just upon the threshold of a brilliant
career, which culminated in his election as a Senator from California;
also John T. Stuart, the able lawyer and gentleman of the old
school. He was a Representative in Congress more than two-thirds of
a century ago, when his district embraced all Central and Northern
Illinois--extending from a line fifty miles south of Springfield to
Chicago and Galena. In Congress he was the political associate
and friend of Webster, of Crittenden, and of Clay. Many years ago,
upon the occasion of Mr. Stuart's last visit to Bloomington, he
told me, as we stood by the old 'Stipp' home, that he there, in
1831, witnessed the beginning of the judicial history of McLean
County, when Judge Lockwood opened its first court. With deep
emotion he added that he was probably the last survivor of those
then assembled, and that his own days were almost numbered. His
words