improvement law of 1836 encountered a strong opposition; and this opposition was most marked among the people of those counties through which the lines of the proposed public works did not pass. Governor Noble, in his last annual message, delivered to the legislature in December, 1837, said: "In the experience and events of the year, nothing has been witnessed of a character to discourage the progress or the ultimate success of the system [of internal improvements]. On the contrary we see much to strengthen our convictions of the wisdom of the policy, and to inspire us with increased confidence in the ability of the State, with wise and provident legislation, to accomplish the whole undertaking." Governor Wallace, in his inaugural address, of December, 1837, spoke favorably of the progress of the State system of internal improvements, and recommended strict economy in the prosecution of the public works. The laws by which the system was controlled rendered the observance of economy impracticable; and the errors of legislation continued to produce their natural results, until the summer of the year 1839, a period of financial embarrassment throughout the United States, when the contractors on the public works of Indiana generally suspended their operations, and, soon afterward, abandoned their contracts. In December, 1839, Governor Wallace, in his annual message to the legislature said: "The failure to procure funds, as we had a right to expect from the extensive sale of State bonds effected in the early part of the season, has led to great and unusual embarrassments, not only among the contractors and laborers, but also among the people. The State has, in consequence, fallen largely in debt to the former, and is without the means in possession of discharging it. * * * What shall be done with the public works? Shall they be abandoned altogether? I hope not. In my opinion, the policy of the State, in the present emergency, should be, first, to provide against the dilapidation of those portions of the works left in an unfinished state; and, secondly, as means can be procured, to finish some entirely, and complete others, at least, to points where they may be rendered available or useful to the country." In order to provide means for the payment of the contractors and other public creditors, the legislature authorized an issue of State treasury notes, to the amount of one million five hundred thousand dollars. These notes formed a circulating medium, which, for a brief period, passed at its nominal value; but, early in the summer of 1842, when there was about one million of dollars of this currency in circulation among the people, it suddenly depreciated in value from 40 to 50 per cent. During the administration of Governor Bigger, in the course of the years 1841, 1842, and 1843, various remedial measures were adopted with a view to relieve the State from the burdens which had been imposed on it by the maintenance of an unwise policy in carrying on the internal improvement system. An attempt was made to classify the public improvements. The board of internal improvements was abolished; the public works were placed under the care of commissioners and agents, and provisions were made for the surrender of all, or any, of these works to private companies on certain conditions. At the close of the year 1841, the total length of the railroads, turnpike roads, and canals, embraced in the internal improvement system of 1836, amounted to twelve hundred and eightynine miles of which two hundred and eighty-one miles had been completed at an aggregate cost of $8,164,528 21; and it was estimated that the total cost of the completion of all the works would amount to the sum of $19,914,244. In 1841, the public debt of the State, including all its liabilities, amounted to $15,088,146*—namely: For bonds sold for internal improvement system, proper, of 1836,...$7,050,000 For the Wabash and Erie canal,......... 1,727,000 For the establishment of the State Bank,......... 1,390,000 For the enlargement of the capital of the State Bank,. 1,000,000 Advanced to the State Bank, in anticipation of the fourth instalment of the surplus revenue,. 294,000 For July, 1841, instalment of interest,.... 259,000 For bonds advanced to Lawrenceburg and Indianapolis railroad co., 221,000 Interest on outstanding treasury notes,................. Total,......... 85,000 ..$15,088,146 * Governor Bigger's annual message to the legislature, December, 1841. For a period of several years Indiana was not prepared to pay the interest on her internal improvement debt. Her financial condition was, in this respect, similar to that of several other States of the Union. The general assembly, however, by acts of January 19, 1846, and January 27, 1847, during the administration of Governor Whitcomb, made provisions for the adjustment of the debt due to the holders of Indiana State bonds, and for the completion of the Wabash and Erie canal to Evansville. The official reports of the auditors of public accounts show that the amounts of interest and exchange paid, annually, on the State debt, from the year 1847 to the close of the fiscal year 1856, were— CHAPTER CESSION OF DELAWARE XLVII. LANDS-INDIAN TREATIES- -SEAT OF GOV BLACKHAWK WAR-MEXICAN WAR-NEW CONSTI- ON the 3d of October, 1818, at a treaty concluded at St. Mary's, in the State of Ohio, the Delaware Indians ceded to the United States all their claims to lands lying within the boundaries of the State of Indiana. The United States agreed to pay a perpetual annuity of four thousand dollars to the Delawares, to provide for their residence a country on the western side of the river Mississippi, and to guarantee to them the peaceable possession of the same. The commissioners who negotiated this treaty, on the part of the United States, were Jonathan Jennings, Lewis Cass, and Benjamin Parke. The Delawares reserved the right to occupy their lands, in Indiana, for a period of three years from the date of the treaty. By the provisions of forty-four distinct treaties or agreements, concluded at different times between the commencement of the year 1795 and the close of the year 1840, the Pottawattamies, the Delawares, the Kickapoos, and the several tribes of Miamis, sold and ceded to the United States their respective claims to lands within the present limits of the State of Indiana, and agreed to remove to separate districts of country situated westward of the Mississippi river. In conformity with provisions of acts of congress of April 19, 1816, and March 3, 1819, the general assembly of Indiana, by a law approved on the 11th of January, 1820, appointed ten commissioners to select and locate a quantity of land, not * The names of these commissioners were George Hunt of Wayne county, John Conner of Fayette county, Stephen Ludlow of Dearborn county, Joseph Bartholomew of Clark county, John Tipton of Harrison county, Thos. Emerson of Knox county, Jesse B. Durham of Jackson county, John Gilliland of Switzerland county, Frederick Rappe of Posey county, and William Prince of Gibson county. Mr. Prince took no part in the proceedings of the commissioners exceeding four sections, for a site for the permanent seat of the State government. The commissioners, in obedience to a proclamation issued by Governor Jennings, met "at the house of William Conner, on the west fork of White river," on the 22d of May, 1820. A site for the permanent seat of government was selected and located on the 7th of June; and the selection was confirmed by an act of the legislature of January 6, 1821-which act declared that the new seat of government should be called by the name of Indianapolis. The town of Corydon, in Harrison county, continued to be the seat of government until the 10th day of January, 1825. In the early part of the year 1832, the hostile acts of a Sac Indian chief, Blackhawk, and his followers, disturbed the peace of the northern frontiers of Illinois, and aroused feelings of alarm among the people of the new and weak settlements on and near the northwestern borders of Indiana. In order to prevent the breaking up of these settlements, and to remove the feelings of alarm which prevailed among the settlers, Governor Noble sent two detachments of militia to the northern frontiers of the State-issued orders, in which discretionary powers were given to commanding generals of the militia of counties lying along the borders of the river Wabash-and ordered small detachments of mounted riflemen to be stationed at different points, "from the skirts of the settlements beyond the Wabash, to the lake."* The hostile Indians, however, did not invade the State of Indiana. They were, finally, defeated and subdued by detachments of United States troops and Illinois militia, in the month of August, 1832. In the course of the years 1846 and 1847, during the progress of the war between the United States and Mexico, "more than eight regiments" of Indiana infantry responded to the call of. the general government for volunteers to serve in that war. The services of five regiments of Indiana volunteers were accepted by the war department. All of these five regiments, in the discharge of their duties, passed through many of the trials and dangers of a state of war; and, on the battle-fields of Mexico, some of them (more favored by opportunities than * Message of Governor Noble, December 4, 1832. Report of Adjutant-general of Indiana, November 30, 1848. 1 |