Editing Daniel Pope Cook (section)

==Career==
Territorial governor [[Ninian Edwards]] appointed young Cook the territorial Auditor of Public Accounts in 1816, so Cook moved to [[Edwardsville, Illinois]], and purchased ''The Illinois Herald'' newspaper (with Daniel Blackwell) from  [[Matthew Duncan]], renaming it ''[[The Western Intelligencer]]''. Uncle Nathaniel Pope became a delegate to the U.S. Congress from the [[Illinois Territory]], so upon the election of [[James Monroe]] as president, Cook moved to [[Washington, D.C.]] to establish his career in the nation's capitol. In 1817 Cook travelled to [[London]] to deliver dispatches and bring back [[John Quincy Adams]], the country's representative to Great Britain, whom President Monroe appointed to serve as [[United States secretary of state|secretary of state]]. The two men became closely acquainted during the long voyage back.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://legacy.cookcountygov.com/secretary/about_danielcook.htm |title=Cook County, Illinois - Secretary of the Board<!-- Bot generated title --> |access-date=September 6, 2013 |archive-date=November 23, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181123040400/http://legacy.cookcountygov.com/secretary/about_danielcook.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Shortly after Cook returned from [[England]], tired of service as a mere dispatch-bearer, he moved back to Illinois, where he became an ardent supporter of statehood. Cook used his newspaper and new appointment as clerk to the territorial house to influence the Territorial Legislature, which unanimously passed a resolution urging statehood (and forbidding slavery) on December 10, 1817. Cook also lobbied his friends back in Washington and Virginia, and his uncle conveyed the territorial resolution to the U.S. Congress on January 16, 1818. After both the U.S. Senate and House agreed, President Monroe on April 18, 1818, signed the law authorizing Illinois to hold a convention to adopt a state constitution and elect officers. On December 3, 1818, President Monroe then signed the law admitting Illinois as the 21st state. Despite his successful advocacy of statehood, Cook was unsuccessful in his first attempt to be elected to the [[United States House of Representatives|U.S. House of Representatives]], losing to [[John McLean (Illinois politician)|John McLean]] by only 14 votes for the short term remaining after Illinois became a state. However, the new state's legislature appointed Cook as the first [[attorney general]] of Illinois. Cook also had briefly served the territory as judge of the western circuit.<ref>[http://thesouthern.com/news/local/ben-gelman-illinois-daniel-pope-cook-packed-a-lifetime-into/article_69f9f96b-1964-55ef-b089-dd9326a6c959.html Ben Gelman: Illinois' Daniel Pope Cook packed a lifetime into 33 years<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>

Again running for Congress in 1818, Cook defeated McLean in the general election, and again in 1820 (after a debate over slavery),<ref>Leichtle and Carveth, ''Crusade against Slavery: Edward Coles, Pioneer of Freedom'' (Southern Illinois University Press, 2011) p. 78.</ref> 1822 and 1824, thus serving as the second representative from Illinois (although the first to serve a full term). While in Congress, Cook served on the Committee on Public Lands and later on the [[House Ways and Means Committee|Ways and Means Committee]]. He secured a grant of government lands to aid in the construction of the [[Illinois and Michigan Canal]].<ref>Leichtle and Carveth at p. 110.</ref> In the 1824 election, Cook also helped defeat a proposed convention to legalize slavery in Illinois,<ref>Leichtle and Carveth at p.129</ref> and at year's end helped elect [[John Quincy Adams]] as President (by one vote when the election was thrown to the House). Cook, in ill-health, campaigned little in 1826, and while he again scored more votes than McLean, the pro-slavery [[Jacksonian Democrat]], [[Joseph Duncan (politician)|Joseph Duncan]], won the election. The following spring, President Adams sent Cook on a diplomatic mission to [[Havana, Cuba]],<ref>[http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=C000716 Cook, Daniel Pope - Biographical Information<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> but that did not restore his health. He returned to Edwardsville, and asked to be taken back to his birthplace in Kentucky.