On October 15, 1829, Lieutenant of Illinois William sent a letter Samuel D. Ingham, newly installed as Andrew Jackson's Secretary of Treasury. prayed that policy of the late [Adams] administration upon... public be repudiated, for whole western country... disapproved it. The new administration ought instead encourage Congress reduce the price of existing public lands; to make donations of the public lands actual settlers; and to make a final surrender of the lands the states respectively in which they are situated. Knowing that these policies would be unpopular in Congress, supported his request with compelling evidence. He quoted a U.S. Marshall's census report on the number nationwide of free taxable inhabitants which are not freeholders. The report revealed that approximately 140,000 heads of families in the nation's nine newest states were not freeholders; there were 9,000 such families, about half the total, in Illinois alone. concluded his letter: When I consider the great number of people whose hearts would be gladdened by the adoption of a law in Congress give donations actual settlers, it creates in me an anxiety in favor of those measures which words cannot express.1 William was clearly taking land reform in the egalitarian tradition heart. Since today we think of the Age of as epitomizing equality for white males, it is perhaps surprising learn that Kinney's public lands proposal did not attract much attention in the 1830 contest for governor. The story of how Governor Kinney lost the contest is worth telling only explain how and why his egalitarian politics failed take root in the state's rich Jacksonian loam. But Kinney's failure is also noteworthy because of the light it sheds on the American political system. It illuminates the system's structural bias against egalitarian policies. The bias is significant because it shaped how the Democratic Party developed in Illinois and nationally2 Called the candidate for governor, announced his campaign for the office in the spring of 1829 well before the letter Ingham. He had just returned from a triumphant visit Washington, D.C.. He attended the Inauguration and met President Jackson several times. He was an ultra in the eyes of his opponent John Reynolds because he favored removal of Adams men from federal offices simply because they were Adams men. Jackson sent deliver commissions in Boston; he came back more convinced than ever of necessity of removals... [for] the republicans had fought hard and had gained a great victory but the old Federalists were left in office the same battle will have be fought over again. told the president if it was left [me, I] would drive them all out as. . .a parcel of dogs out of a meat house. Jackson laughed, hartily (sic) at this remark but made no reply. repeated the story gleefully as he traveled Illinois during the summer of 1829. Yet one year later in June of 1830, whatever momentum Kinney's campaign once had was gone. In hindsight, the last of his steam was used deliver a keynote speech in April. A large crowd of citizens had gathered at the statehouse hear him defend himself. Over the next few weeks he proceeded deliver the fiery oration from memory, sounding unctuous while sweating in the shade of the county seats. It was not surprising that grew hot and animated while defending his reputation from the arrows of calumny. Heat and rhetoric rose together throughout that summer and everything converged on the August 2 poll. Nor was mudslinging new an Illinois election. It was second nature for Kinney, a political veteran, former state senator, incumbent lieutenant governor, and selfproclaimed defender of poor people. What was new was finding so prominent a devotee of Andrew Jackson on the defensive in a state gushing with support for Old Hickory. …