On the Fact that Illinois Had a Nasty Tradition, Dating All the Way Back to its Territorial Days, of Restrictive and Exclusionary Laws Directed at Black People, the Magnum Opus of Which Was the 1853 Black Law that Essentially Barred Them from Residing in the State

It was referred to by historian, Eugene H. Berwanger (in his "The Frontier Against Slavery") as "the most severe anti-Negro measure passed in a free state." And Abe Lincoln never once opposed it (probably too busy plotting his racist and cockamamie colonization plan)....Some great emancipator, huh?