creation of a State historical library, but he found that there was too much opposition to overcome among the members of the House. Even when the bill was introduced the opposition was very strong.

Of all the bills introduced by Mr. Miller while a member of the General Assembly, the State Historical Library bill was the one for which he cared the most and the one for which he worked the hardest to make it become a law. By this time he had become a man of considerable influence in the General Assembly, and he used this influence for all it was worth in behalf of the State Historical Library. He wrote to every person in the State of whom he could hear as being interested in Illinois history, requesting them to ask the members of the Sen ate and House from their districts to vote for the bill creating a State historical library. The opposition in the Committee on Appropriations was at first quite pronounced. This Mr. Miller overcame by a personal appeal to each member of the committee and by addressing the committee as a whole. The writer was in Springfield during that time and Mr. Miller asked me to meet the committee with him and give my opinion of the need of a State historical library. After doing so in my feeble way, Mr. Miller addressed the committee, making a very effective and convincing argument, which I thought at the time and still so think, made the committee believe that the proper thing to do was to recommend that the bill do pass.

Soon after the Governor signed the bill he appointed as trustees, Judge Hiram W. Beckwith of Danville; Arthur Edwards, of Chicago, and Edward F. Leonard, of Peoria, and the trustees appointed Miss Josephine P. Cleveland, librarian. The library was started November 25, 1889, with 442 books and pamphlets relating to the history of Illinois and the Mississippi Valley, ich were received from the Secretary of State. The ick of gathering and systematically arranging the ma

terial for which the library was created, was commenced immediately, and it has so successfully been carried on that at the present time there are in the library over 28,000 books and pamphlets and the number is rapidly increasing. Miss Cleveland died in November, 1897, and Mrs. Jessie Palmer Weber became librarian January 1, 1898.

As a direct result of the creation of the Illinois State Historical Library, the Illinois State Historical Society was organized in May, 1899, and it also has its headquarters in Springfield, and has for its Secretary the Librarian of the State historical library.

At its session in 1903, the Illinois General Assembly passed an act which made the State historical society a department of the State historical library.

The creation of the State historical library in 1889, and the uniting with it of the State historical society in 1903, makes possible such valuable work as has been done by Prof. Evarts B. Greene and Prof. C. W. Alvord of the University of Illinois, and of Prof. Edwin E. Sparks, late of the University of Chicago, and others, which has resulted in the publication by the trustees of the State Historical Library of the valuable series of Illinois Historical Collections, among them the 600 page volume on the Lincoln and Douglas Debates.

In the early part of the year 1890, Mr. Miller was chairman of a committee of the General Assembly that went on a tour of inspection to the various penal and reformatory institutions in the eastern states. While at Huntington, Pennsylvania, he was taken with an attack of la grippe and lay seriously ill at the reformatory at that place for several weeks, and from which he recovered very slowly. In June, on account of the slow improvement of his health, he was advised by his physicians to go to the mountains in Colorado. When he started he was full of hope, but he was doomed to disappointment.

A week after his arrival at Manitou, Colorado, he was taken suddenly with hemorrhage of the lungs and died in less than an hour, June 27, 1890, aged 46 years, 9 months and 29 days. He was laid to rest beside his parents and second son in the beautiful cemetery in Toulon, which place was his home for 27 years. His greatest monument is the Illinois State Historical Library in Springfield.

Mr. Miller was married to Miss Emma M. Kearney, October 11, 1870. Mrs. Miller was a woman of high social qualities, and earnest in the higher duties of women. She died July 11, 1909. Mr. and Mrs. Miller had four sons. Wilfred D., the eldest, and Harry H., the youngest, are married and live in Toulon. The second son, Allen W., died in infancy, and the third, George G., died in April, 1900.

The following is a small part of what was said of Mr. Miller at the time of death:

Stark County Sentinel: "Mr. Miller had become a man of marked ability. His power and influence were well recognized. He was truly an eminent leader in the Republican party and in him the party has lost one of its most ardent and efficient supporters. The principles he believed to be right and true were never sacrificed for bribes or for the sake of gain."

Wyoming Post-Herald: "Mr. Miller was one of the most remarkable men Stark county has produced.

Chicago Times: "Mr. Miller was a painstaking legislator and was probably the ablest constitutional lawyer in the House of Representatives. He took pride in mastering the details of every bill recommended for passage, and if it contained a single defect he would surely detect it. He was a leader on the Republican side, but he had the highest respect of his Democratic associates."

Hon. Joseph W. Fifer, then Governor of Illinois, said: "As a member of the General Assembly Mr. Miller was a

leader among his brethren and this too, notwithstanding the fact that he was continually waging a fearful contest with an unyielding disease. In the public service he was always true to duty, never careless, negligent nor inconsiderate. He was able, conscientious and honest. In his death Illinois loses one of her worthiest sons."

The writer of this paper was intimately acquainted with Mr. Miller from 1873 to the time of his death, and during that time I never heard any one speak ill of him, and I never heard Mr. Miller speak ill of others. We often hear it said that we should say nothing but good of the dead. Mr. Miller made it a rule never to say anything but good of the living.

AN INTERESTING LETTER.

CENTRALIA, ILL., Feb. 18, 1911.

MRS. JESSIE PALMER WEBER,

Secretary Illinois State Historical Society, Springfield, Ill.:

DEAR MADAM: While a student at the university in Chicago I had occasion to examine a reprint of one of Governor John Reynold's books. An explanatory foot note on one of the pages in the book credited Joseph Gillespie of Edwardsville with the statement that the late Colonel Nathaniel Niles of Belleville, Illinois, assisted Governor Reynolds in writing his books. I can not now quote from memory the exact words, but I think that was the substance of the statement.

I was intimately acquainted with Colonel Niles, and took the liberty to address a brief note of inquiry to him in regard to the truth of the statement. I enclose his reply, which is characteristic of the man and which speaks for itself. It may have some slight historic value and for that reason I am willing that it shall become the property of the society.

Colonel Niles was a lawyer by profession. He participated with distinction in both the Mexican and civil wars and he was also a member of the Twenty-fourth General Assembly. He was a veritable bookworm and during the later years of his life he spent all of his time in the Belleville public library.

In his old age he became a convert to the single tax theory and he talked and wrote incessantly about Henry George. It will be observed that he did not even forgot