Bryant Cottage State Historic Site

The Bryant Cottage State Historic Site is a simple, 1856 four-room house located in Bement, Illinois in the U.S. state of Illinois. It is preserved by the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency as an example of Piatt County, Illinois pioneer architecture and as a key historic site in the 1858 Lincoln-Douglas debates.

Few settlers moved to southern Piatt County, in east-central Illinois, until the 1850s and the coming of the steam railroad. The ground was flat and open, with few trees to provide firewood for winter. Francis E. Bryant arrived in the young town of Bement in 1856 with a small capital, which he quickly reinvested in general business development as a banker and storekeeper. He bought grain from pioneer farmers, and sold them lumber and coal in return.

Bryant was a member of the U.S. Democratic Party and a personal friend of Senator Stephen A. Douglas, who was running for re-election in 1858.

As an incumbent member of the U.S. Senate from Illinois in 1858, Douglas had not expected to have to make a case directly to the people. Under Article I of the U.S. Constitution then in effect, members of the federal Senate were chosen by the state legislatures, not by the voters.

However, Douglas's central position in the growing crisis of American slavery made the election of 1858 extraordinary. Fervent emotions among both Democrats and members of the newly formed Republican party led to a demand that both candidates for the Senate campaign directly among the people of Illinois.

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