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.