James Shields was born in Ireland and emigrated to the United States at the age of 16. He began law practice at Kaskaskia, Illinois in 1832. He was elected to the Illinois legislature in 1836 and was elected state auditor in 1839. In 1843, he became a judge of the Illinois Supreme Court and in 1845 was made commissioner of the General Land Office.
In July 1846, he was commissioned a brigadier general in the Mexican War, gaining the brevet of major general at Cerro-Gordo, where he was severely wounded. He was wounded again at Chahultepec and was mustered out in 1848, the same year he was appointed governor of Oregon Territory.
In 1849, the Illinois legislature elected Shields to the United States Senate, and he resigned the governorship of Oregon to accept election.
In 1856, Shields moved to Minnesota, and in 1858, he was elected one of the first two United States senators from that state. When he left office in 1859, he moved to California and, when the Civil War broke out in 1861, he was superintending a mine in Mexico. In the early days of the Civil War, President Lincoln wrote Shields and offered him a command that would include the 69th, known as the "Fighting Irish." Shields had left at once for Washington when the war broke out. By the time he arrived, command of the 69th had already been assigned. He was commissioned a brigadier general, serving with distinction until March 1863, at which time he resigned because of the effect of numerous wounds.
He later moved to Carrollton, Missouri, where he began the practice of law. He was in the Missouri legislature in 1874 and 1879. In 1879, he was elected to the United States Senate to complete the unexpired term of Senator Bogy, who had died.
Shields served only six weeks as senator from Missouri, but this gave him the distinction of being the only person ever to represent three states in the United States Senate.
Dr. Daniel Shields wrote in 1941, "Generals Robert Lee and Stonewall Jackson served in the Mexican War as young officers with Father. General Lee served under Father. I don't know whether or not General Jackson did. But General Jackson and Father were great friends after the Mexican War, when Father was a senator from Illinois. They had at least two things in common: A great love for Mexico, and both were deep students of Napoleon's campaigns. . . . In the Shenandoah Valley campaign in the spring of 1862, General Jackson spread his tents on a valley farm. Jackson always camped with his men. This completed, he went with one of his staff to the farm house, knocked and asked the woman who opened the door if she was the mistress. When informed that she was, he said in his austere way, 'I have information that you entertained General Shields when he passed this way not long ago.' The lady . . . rallied her wits at once and said, 'General Jackson, we did entertain General Shields for he was kind and considerate to the people in this part of the valley and paid for everything he and his troops got.' General Jackson had not entered the house, but stood at the door and, when she had said this, he slowly replied: 'I am glad you treated General Shields courteously for he is my friend,' then turned and left. The lady herself told this to Father after the war and seemed to think that General Jackson came just to thank her."
James Shields is buried in St. Mary's Cemetery at Carrollton, Missouri.
A publication of the Carroll County Historical Society says that, on the east side of the Carroll County Courthouse lawn, is the monument erected to Shields by the State of Missouri for distinguished public service and exemplary private virtues. The statute is 14 feet high and is of polished granite. On the face of the pedestal are a wreath and an eagle, cast in bronze. On the reverse side of the pedestal are a palm leaf and the seals of the three states he represented in the Senate. The statue was unveiled 14 November 1914.
There is a bust of General Shields in the Courthouse, and the Historical Society reports that his swords are exhibited at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington.
The Historical Society says the monument to General Shields at St. Mary's Cemetery is the only monument erected by the federal government in a private cemetery. It was approved by Congress 15 March 1910, and Jerone Connor was commissioned as the sculptor. The monument was unveiled by the general's son Dr. Dan Shields at a ceremony 12 November 1910 attended by several thousand persons from throughout the country.
The inscription on the monument at St. Mary's Cemetery reads: "General James Shields, Born in County Tyrone, Ireland May 10, 1810, Died in Ottumwa, Iowa June 1, 1879. Soldier, Jurist, Statesman. Erected by the United States under an Act of the Congress Approved March 15, 1910."
James Shields courted Mary Todd before Abraham Lincoln. In 1842, while Shields was state auditor and Lincoln, who was engaged to Mary Todd, was practicing law at Springfield, Mary Todd wrote a series of letters from "Lost Township," signed "Aunt Becca," for publication in the Springfield Journal. The letters described James Shields as "a ballroom dandy, floatin' about on the earth without heft or substance, just like a lot of cat fur where cats had been fightin'." The letters caused considerable curiosity in Springfield, and Shields swore there would be a duel if he learned the identity of Aunt Becca. Aunt Becca wrote another letter, in which she made a humble apology and offered to let him squeeze her hand for satisfaction. She added, "If this should not answer, there is one thing more I would rather do than to get a lickin'. I have all along expected to die a widow; but, as Mr. Shields is rather good-looking than otherwise, I must say I don't care if we compromise the matter by--really, Mr. Printer, I can't help blushin'--but I--must come out--I--but widowed modesty--well, if I must, I must--wouldn't he--maybe sorter let the old grudge drap if I was to consent to be--be--his wife. I know he is a fightin' man and would rather fight than eat; but isn't marryin' better than fightin', though it does sometimes run into it. And I don't think, upon the whole, I'd be sich a bad match, neither; I'm not over sixty, and am just four feet three in my bare feet, and not much more round the gerth; and for color, I wouldn't turn my back to nary a girl in the Lost Townships. But, after all, maybe I'm countin' my chickens before they're hatched, and dreamin' of matrimonial bliss when the only alternative reserved for me may be a lickin'. Jeff tells me the way these fire-eaters do is to give the challenged party the choice of weapons, which, being the case, I tell you in confidence, I never fight with anything but broomsticks or hot water, or a shovelful of coals or some such thing; the former of which, being somewhat like a shillelah, may not be so very objectionable to him. I will give him a choice, however, in one thing, and that is whether, when we fight, I shall wear breeches or he petticoats, for I presume this challenge is sufficient to place us on an an equality." It became apparent the letters were written by Mary Todd and, as her fiance, Lincoln was honor-bound to assume responsibility. Shields sent a challenge, which Lincoln accepted immediately. On the advice of his friend and second, Dr. Merriman, Lincoln chose broadswords as the weapons. This would give Lincoln, a tall, sinewy, long-armed man, a decided advantage over Shields, small and short-armed. They went to Alton and were going to fight on the neck of land between the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers, near the confluence. According to General Linder, John J. Hardin and other friends of both parties succeeded in working out a reconciliation. General Linder said Lincoln told him later, "I did not want to kill Shields and felt sure I could disarm him, having had about a month to learn the broadsword exercise; and furthermore, I didn't want the darned fellow to kill me, which I rather think he would have done if we had selected pistols." (This account of the Lincoln-Shields duel is based on "Abraham Lincoln's Stories and Speeches," published in 1897 by Rhodes McClure Publishing Company.)
According to "Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and History of Christian County," Vol. 1 (1918), James Shields' second for the duel was General Samuel A. Whiteside. (See notes under Samuel A. Whiteside.)
Following is the biography of James Shields as it appears in "Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1774-Present": James Shields (nephew of James Shields [1762-1831]), a senator from Illinois, Minnesota and Missouri, born in Altmore, County Tyrone, Ireland, in either 1806 or 1810; attended a hedge school, private schools and pursued classical studies; immigrated to the United States about 1826; studied law; was admitted to the bar in 1832 and commenced practice in Kaskaskia, Randolph County, Ill.; member, state House of Representatives 1836; auditor of the state 1839; judge of the Supreme Court of Illinois 1843; commissioner of the General Land Office 1845-1847; during the Mexican War was commissioned brigadier general of volunteers in 1846, brevetted major general in 1847 and honorably discharged in 1848; appointed governor of Oregon Territory by President James Polk in 1848 and resigned in 1849; elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate from Illinois for the term commencing March 4, 1849; upon his appearance to take his seat on March 5, 1849, a resolution was presented raising the question of his eligibility; took his seat on March 6, 1849, but on March 15, 1849, the Senate declared his election void on the ground that he had not been a citizen of the United States the number of years required by the Constitution; immediately elected for the same term and served from October 27, 1849 to March 3, 1855; unsuccessful candidate for reelection; chairman, Committee on the District of Columbia (Thirty-second and Thirty-third Congresses), Committee on Military Affairs (Thirty-second and Thirty-third Congresses); moved to Minnesota in 1855; upon the admission of Minnesota as a state into the Union, was elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate and served from May 11, 1858 to March 3, 1859; unsuccessful candidate for reelection; chairman, Committee on Revolutionary Claims (Thirty-fifth Congress); moved to California; during the Civil War served in the Union Army as brigadier general of volunteers from 1861 to 1863, when he resigned and returned to California; moved to Carrollton, Mo., and resumed the practice of law; member state House of Representatives 1847, 1879; adjutant general of Missouri 1877; served as railroad commissioner; elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate from Missouri on January 22, 1879 to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Lewis V. Bogy and served from January 27, 1879 to March 3, 1879; declined to be a candidate for renomination; died in Ottumwa, Wapello County, Iowa June 1, 1879; interment in St. Mary's Cemetery, Carrollton, Carroll County, Mo. Bibliography: Condon, William, life of Major General James Shields. Chicago; Press of Blakely Printing Co., 1900; Curran, Judith. The Career of James Shields, an Immigrant Irishman in Nineteenth Century America. Ed.D. dissertation, Columbia University Teachers College, 1980.
A pilgrimage to General Shields' grave was a part of the observance of "I Am an American Day" 18 May 1941 at Carrollton. The program of the day consisted of the laying of a wreath at the statue of General Shields at the Courthouse, followed by a luncheon for distinguished visitors. After lunch, there was a parade from the High School athletic field to St. Mary's Cemetery. The order of march for the parade was Flags, Carrollton High School Band, Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, Veterans of Foreign Wars, American Legion members and firing squads, guests and distinguished visitors, the Chillicothe band, Knights of Columbus from Carrollton, Chillicothe, Brookfield, Marshall, St. Louis, Kansas City and Higginsville, Missouri, followed by "Colored Groups." Joseph Scanlon of Kansas City was master of ceremonies for the program at the cemetery, which began with the national anthem, followed by the invocation by the Reverend William Icenogle, a welcome by Mayor Harold Austin of Carrollton, an address "God and Country" by Commander Clem White of the Missouri American Legion, an address by George Charno, an attorney from Kansas City, and an address, "I Am an American," by the Most Rev. C. H. LeBlond, bishop of St. Joseph. Then there was the laying of the wreath, the benediction by the Rev. M. F. Wogan and the playing of Taps.
The souvenir program for the ceremony at the cemetery had an introduction by Dr. Daniel Shields, the general's son. In this article, Dr. Shields said his father was a good friend of General Santa Ana and that he still had a cane presented to Shields by Santa Ana.
The souvenir program included a lengthy article by Mrs. C. R. Pattison, described as a longtime friend of the Shields family. She said that, after the Civil War, the general's war wounds were troubling him, and he was advised to settle in the Middle West. He went to St. Louis, where he had friends, and was told of desirable farmland in Howard County. He went in December 1866 to Chillicothe, Missouri by rail, bought a horse and set out for Howard County, stopping for the night at the Kendrick Hotel at Carrollton. The hotel manager sent word of his arrival to George Pattison, who had cast the deciding vote in Shields' election to the Senate by the Illinois legislature, and Maj. John L. Mirick, who had served with Shields in Mexico. Pattison and Mirick took Shields to visit a farm six miles east of Carrollton, and he bought it. The two-story, white frame house was on a bluff giving a commanding view of the Missouri River and its valley.
James Shields and Frances Willard are the two persons Illinois chose to honor by placing their statues in the National Statuary Hall Collection in the United States Capitol. James Shields' statute, a bronze by Leonard W. Volk, was given in 1893 and located in the Hall of Columns in the Capitol. The general's daughter Katherine represented the Shields family at the dedication of the statue in Washington.