2, Mt. Carmel 2, Paris 1, Palestine 1, Grafton 1, Shawneetown 1, Pittsfield 1, Kaskaskia 1, Shelbyville 1, Hillsboro 1, Caledonia 1, and the geographical centre 3. On the fourth and last ballot Springfield received 73 votes, Vandalia 16, Jacksonville 11, Alton 6, Peoria 8, Illiopolis 3, Hillsboro 1, Shawneetown 1, Bloomington 1, Essex 1, Grafton 1, and Caledonia 1.

Some earnest efforts have been made at different times to remove the capital from Springfield to Peoria and elsewhere, but the building of the new State House, which will cost, when completed, something over $3,500,000, has doubtless silenced the serious consideration of this question for generations to come.

Of Kaskaskia, Peck's Gazateer of 1834 says:

"The early French explorers made one of their first settlements at this spot, shortly after the visit of LaSalle, in 1683; and so long as the French continued in possession of the Illinois country, Kaskaskia was its capital, and was flourishing and populous. In 1721, when Charlevoix visited it, there existed a Jesuit college. In 1763, when the country east of the Mississippi was ceded by France to Great Britain, it contained about one hundred families."

In 1820, Kaskaskia attained its greatest population. The United States census of that year reckoned the number of inhabitants at 7,000. Soon after the removal of the capital to Vandalia, which occurred during the year 1820, the population of Kaskaskia began to decline rapidly. The census of 1880 showed but 305 inhabitants. On the 18th of April, 1881, the Mississippi and Kaskaskia rivers were united, and Kaskaskia became an island of the Mississippi, since which time its population has been reduced to less than 150, and but a few years at most will pass before all that remains of this historic place will mingle with the debris of the father of waters. It is worthy of note, however, to say that the house where the first Territorial Legislature met, is still in a good state of preservation. And it is lamentable that so noted a place

in the history of the country as Kaskaskia can not be preserved.

Vandalia has had a more fortunate career. While the town has not grown to a great city, yet it is one of the brightest and most pleasant in the State, and is now improving rapidly. There are quite a number of substantial and flourishing manufactories, and two well-conducted newspapers-Democrat and Union. The old State House is intact, and is now used as a court house.

CHAPTER V.

SECOND GENERAL ASSEMBLY-1820-22,

In 1820, the seat of government was removed from Kaskaskia to Vandalia, and the second General Assembly convened there December 4, and adjourned February 13, 1821. Lieut.-Gov. Menard presided over the Senate, and James Turner was elected Secretary. John McLean was elected Speaker of the House, and Thomas Reynolds Clerk.

Gov. Bond's administration closed in December, 1822. It had been faithful and blameless, and he retired with the confidence and respect of the people. Prior to his election as Governor he had been a delegate to Congress, and held the office of Receiver of Public Moneys, at Kaskaskia. When Gov. Bond was a delegate to Congress, it is related of him that he and his wife made the trip from Illinois to Washington on horseback. Mr. Bond had six children-Thomas S., Emily, Julia R., Mary A., Isabella F., and Benjamin N., but all are dead except Dr. Benjamin N. Bond, who is a highly respected citizen of Stanbury, Missouri. Julia R. Bond married Col. Frank

Swanwick, of Randolph county; Mary A., Joseph B. Holmes, a merchant at Chester; Isabella F., James P. Craig, of Chester. Quite a number of the grand children of Gov. Bond reside at Chester, while others make their home on the Pacific slope, and others still, in the sunny South.

Gov. Bond died April 12, 1832, at Kaskaskia, where he was buried, but in April, 1881, the remains of himself and wife were removed to Chester, and consigned to the same vault, over which the State has erected a monument, which bears this inscription:

"In memory of Shadrach Bond,

The first Governor of the State of Illinois; Born at Fredericktown, Maryland, November 24, A.D. 1778. Died at his residence near Kaskaskia, April 12, A.D. 1832. In recognition of his valuable public services, this monument was erected by the State A.D. 1883. Governor Bond filled many offices of trust and importance, all with integrity and honor."

CHAPTER VI.

OUR FIRST BANKING.

The first bank established in the Territory was at Shawneetown; it was chartered by an act of the Legislature of 1816, and limited to twenty years; the capital could not exceed $300,000, and the Territory was authorized to subscribe one-third of the stock. John Marshall, Daniel Apperson, Samuel Hays, Leonard White and Samuel R. Campbell were constituted Commissioners to take subscriptions. In 1819, an act was passed by the Legislature chartering the State Bank of Illinois, for twenty-five years, with a capital limited to $4,000,000; the State was to take

$2,000,000 of the stock. The bank was located at Kaskaskia, and subscription books were opened at Kaskaskia, Golconda, Edwardsville, Harrisonville, Belleville, Vienna, Carlyle, Palmyra, Carmi, Shawneetown, Palestine, Jonesboro and Brownsville. The stock could be paid in State warrants.

In 1821, the Legislature passed an act chartering the State Bank of Illinois at Vandalia, with branches at Edwardsville, Brownsville, Shawneetown, and at the county seat of Edwards county. The act provided for issuing $300,000 in notes, on the credit of the State. The State Treasurer was authorized to deposit the public moneys with the bank, and contractors were to be paid in its notes. Congress was memorialized to authorize the landoffices to receive the notes of the bank in payment for lands. The charter of the bank established in 1819 was repealed by this act.

As to the character and operations of this institution, Ford's History has this to say:

"It was founded without money and wholly on the credit of the State. It was authorized to issue one, two, three, five, ten and twenty-dollar notes, in the likeness of bank bills, bearing two per cent. annual interest, and payable by the State in ten years. A principal bank was established at Vandalia, and four or five branches in other places; the Legislature elected all the directors and officers, a large number of whom were members of the Legislature, and all of them professional politicians. The bank was directed by law to lend its bills to the people, to the amount of one hundred dollars, on personal security; and upon the security of mortgages upon land for a greater sum. These bills were to be receivable in payment of all State and county taxes, and for all costs and fees, and salaries of public officers; and if a creditor refused to endorse on his execution his willingness to receive them in payment of debt, the debtor could replevy or stay its collection for three years, by giving personal security.

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'In the summer of 1821, the new bank went into operation. Every man who could get an indorser borrowed his hundred dollars. The directors, it is believed, were

all politicians; and either were then, or expected to be, candidates for office. Lending to everybody, and refusing none, was the surest road to popularity. Accordingly, $300,000 of the new money was soon lent, without much attention to security or care for eventual payment. It first fell twenty-five cents, then fifty, and then seventy cents. below par. And as the bills of the Ohio and Kentucky banks had driven all other money out of the State, so this new issue effectually kept it out. Such a total absence was there of the silver coins, that it became utterly impossible, in the course of trade, to make small change. The people, from necessity, were compelled to cut the new bills into two pieces, so as to make two halves of a dollar. This again further aided to keep out even the smallest silver coin. For about four years there was no other kind of money but this uncurrent State bank paper. In the meantime, very few persons pretended to pay their debts to the bank. More than half of those who had borrowed considered what they had gotten from it as so much clear gain, and never intended to pay it from the first.

"By the year 1824, it became impossible to carry on the State government with such money. The State revenue varied from twenty-five to thirty thousand dollars per annum, which was raised almost exclusively by a tax on lands, then owned by non-residents, in the military tract lying northwest of the Illinois river. The resident land tax in other parts of the State was paid into the county treasuries. The annual expenditures of the State government were about equal to the annual revenues; and as the taxes were collected in the bills of the State bank, the Legislature, to carry on the government, was compelled to provide for its own pay, and that of all the public officers, and the expenses of the government, by taking and giving enough of the depreciated bills to equal in value the sums required to be paid. So that each member, instead of receiving three dollars per day, received nine dollars per day. The salaries of the Governor and Judges, and all other expenses, were paid in the same way. So that, if $30,000 was required to pay the expenses of government for a year, under this system it took $90,000 to do it. And thus, by the financial aid of an insolvent bank, the legislature managed to treble the public expenses, without increasing the revenues or amount of service to the State. In fact, this State lost two-thirds of its revenue, and expended three times the amount necessary to carry on the government. In the course of ten years it must have lost