note on the then leading tenet of the Whig party—­internal improvements by the general government, and active politics to secure them.  In later numbers we learn that a regular Eastern mail had not been received for three weeks.  The tide of immigration which was pouring into Illinois is illustrated in a tabular statement on the commerce of the Illinois River, showing that the steamboat arrivals at Beardstown had risen from one each in the years 1828 and 1829, and only four in 1830, to thirty-two during the year 1831.  This naturally directed the thoughts of travelers and traders to some better means of reaching the river landing than the frozen or muddy roads and impassable creeks and sloughs of winter and spring.  The use of the Sangamon River, flowing within five miles of Springfield and emptying itself into the Illinois ten or fifteen miles from Beardstown, seemed for the present the only solution of the problem, and a public meeting was called to discuss the project.  The deep snows of the winter of 1830-31 abundantly filled the channels of that stream, and the winter of 1831-32 substantially repeated its swelling floods.  Newcomers in that region were therefore warranted in drawing the inference that it might remain navigable for small craft.  Public interest on the topic was greatly heightened when one Captain Bogue, commanding a small steamer then at Cincinnati, printed a letter in the “Journal” of January 26, 1832, saying:  “I intend to try to ascend the river [Sangamo] immediately on the breaking up of the ice.”  It was well understood that the chief difficulty would be that the short turns in the channels were liable to be obstructed by a gorge of driftwood and the limbs and trunks of overhanging trees.  To provide for this, Captain Bogue’s letter added:  “I should be met at the mouth of the river by ten or twelve men, having axes with long handles under the direction of some experienced man.  I shall deliver freight from St. Louis at the landing on the Sangamo River opposite the town of Springfield for thirty-seven and a half cents per hundred pounds.”  The “Journal” of February 16 contained an advertisement that the “splendid upper-cabin steamer Talisman” would leave for Springfield, and the paper of March 1 announced her arrival at St. Louis on the 22d of February with a full cargo.  In due time the citizen committee appointed by the public meeting met the Talisman at the mouth of the Sangamon, and the “Journal” of March 29 announced with great flourish that the “steamboat Talisman, of one hundred and fifty tons burden, arrived at the Portland landing opposite this town on Saturday last.”  There was great local rejoicing over this demonstration that the Sangamon was really navigable, and the “Journal” proclaimed with exultation that Springfield “could no longer be considered an inland town.”