Talk:List of 1850s American state and local politicians convicted of crimes

A list of one is not a list
@LindsayH and @Hey man im josh: I think reorganizing the List of American state and local politicians convicted of crimes into decade lists is a particularly bad idea. It loses sight of the purpose of having a list in the first place, which is to make similar articles easier to find. Since lists of people involved in events are often ordered chronologically, splitting by decades turns it into a timeline. That means one needs sufficient events in a decade for a decade list to work. Perhaps a minimum of 10 to be worthwhile. That is not the case here. Additionally, then further splitting by state jurisdiction makes no sense at all, as one ends up with a list of one for one state and nothing for any of the others. And that is not a list at all, but an indication that this article should be a redirect to the article concerned. If one wanted a list, it would make more sense to split by state and order each state list chronologically. - Cameron Dewe (talk) 01:43, 3 June 2023 (UTC)

Illinois: Governor Matteson
In the case of Illinois Governor Matteson, I think the cited source misinterpreted. While Matteson was initially indicted by a grand jury, twice, in 1859, it was also stacked and the criminal charges were not pursued. Instead the legislature found Matteson guilty of fraud, and in 1863 the local court found Matteson owed over $253K, his mansion was sold for $238K to repay the debt. Technically, Matteson was not convicted of a crime, only that he owed money that he had to repay. - Cameron Dewe (talk) 00:25, 18 June 2023 (UTC)