y, Iowa, Col. Cox led the
citizens in a successful attack in which seven men were killed outright
and some ten or fifteen wounded. At this time Cox was recognized as a
pronounced drunkard, but his undoubted courage, ability to command, and
strong physique secured him a following.(551)

Shadrach Bond, the first governor of Illinois, and Pierre Menard, the
first lieutenant-governor, were both poorly educated, but they had a good
knowledge of men and a large fund of information concerning practical
affairs.(552) Edward Coles, the second governor of the state, is a good
example of the polished, well-educated gentleman succeeding with a rude
constituency. Coles was born in 1786, in Albemarle county, Virginia,
fitted for college by private tutors, educated at Hampden Sidney and later
at William and Mary College. His father's home was visited by Patrick
Henry, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, the Randolphs, Tazwell, Wirt, and
others. For six years Coles was the private secretary of President
Madison, and during this time he became an intimate friend of Nicholas
Biddle. In 1815 he visited Illinois in what must have seemed at that time
great state, for he traveled not only with a horse and buggy, but with a
servant and a saddle-horse as well. In 1816-17 he was sent as a special
messenger to Russia, stopping at Paris on his return, meeting Louis XVIII.
of France and becoming a friend of Lafayette. In 1819 he came to
Edwardsville, Illinois, emancipated his slaves, and assumed his duties as
register of the land-office. The rough pioneers were very anxious to get a
title to their lands. "When the settler reached Edwardsville, dressed in
jeans and wearing moccasins, with his money in his belt, having traveled
on foot or on horseback long distances, and first presented himself to the
Register of the Land Office, there he found Edward Coles, who had recently
emigrated into the State from Virginia. It was known to some of them that
he had been the private secretary for President Madison, and had been on
an important mission to Europe.

"They found him a young man of handsome, but somewhat awkward personal
appearance, genteelly dressed, and of kind and agreeable manners. The
anxious settler was at once put at ease by the suavity of his address, the
interest he appeared to feel in aiding him, and the thoroughly intelligent
manner in which he discharged his duty. No man went away who was not
delighted with his intercourse with the 'Register.' A