During the campaign there had been much wild talk about internal improvements.  The mania which had taken possession of the people in most Western States had affected the grangers of Illinois.  It amounted to an obsession.  The State was called upon to use its resources and unlimited credit to provide a market for their produce, by supplying transportation facilities for every aspiring community.  Elsewhere State credit was building canals and railroads:  why should Illinois, so generously endowed by nature, lag behind?  Where crops were spoiling for a market, farmers were not disposed to inquire into the mysteries of high finance and the nature of public credit.  All doubts were laid to rest by the magic phrase “natural resources."[57] Mass-meetings here and there gave propulsion to the movement.[58] Candidates for State office were forced to make the maddest pledges.  A grand demonstration was projected at Vandalia just as the legislature assembled.

The legislature which met in December, 1836, is one of the most memorable, and least creditable, in the annals of Illinois.  In full view of the popular demonstrations at the capital, the members could not remained unmoved and indifferent to the demands of their constituents, if they wished.  Besides, the great majority were already committed in favor of internal improvements in some form.  The subject dwarfed all others.  For a time two sessions a day were held; and special committees prolonged their labors far into the night.  Petitions from every quarter deluged the assembly.[59]

A plan for internal improvements had already taken shape in the mind of the young representative from Morgan County.[60] He made haste to lay it before his colleagues.  First of all, he would have the State complete the Illinois and Michigan canal, and improve the navigation of the Illinois and Wabash rivers.  Then he would have two railroads constructed which would cross the State from north to south, and from east to west.  For these purposes he would negotiate a loan, pledging the credit of the State, and meet the interest payments by judicious sales of the public lands which had been granted by the Federal government for the construction of the Illinois and Michigan canal.  The most creditable feature of these proposals is their moderation.  This youth of twenty-three evinced far more conservatism than many colleagues twice his age.

There was not the slightest prospect, however, that moderate views would prevail.  Log-rolling had already begun; the lobby was active; and every member of the legislature who had pledged himself to his constituents was solicitous that his section of the State should not be passed over, in the general scramble for appropriations.  In the end a bill was drawn, which proposed to appropriate no less than $10,230,000 for public works.  A sum of $500,000 was set aside for river improvements, but the remainder was to be expended in the construction of eight railroads.