1838, A Year of Improvements?

Phillip W. Martin of Bear Creek, a candidate from Adams County for the General Assembly in 1838, wrote in the July 21st Quincy Whig, that he was in favor of the Internal Improvement System which the Assembly passed in 1837. He was all for the Michigan and Illinois Canal and the Northern Cross railroad but not money spent on roads. He was “opposed to the present system because many of the roads undertaken would be of no advantage to the State if made” and he believed the state would be in debt for fifty years. Roads were in third place as a means of transportation after water and railroads.

That same 1838 Quincy Whig issue featured a grand jury report about the roads in Adams County. The report found that some roads, promised for one to three years, were not open, and other well-travelled roads were shut by fences forcing folks to turn around. The Jury went on to say that other road projects had been stopped, some supervisors were using more labor than was allotted, and that some sections had more roads than they needed. “So many, so various, and so general are the infractions of the law, and the sources of complaint.” Roads were losing out in the court of public opinion.

The General Assembly passed an Act to incorporate the Quincy, Griggsville, Jacksonville and Springfield Turnpike Company. A turnpike was a private road. Capital was put up by shareholders who would then be repaid by tolls on travelers. At a July 14th 1838 meeting the shareholders adopted a resolution validating the need for a road. “Whereas the present imperfect, and highly defective condition of our public roads has been a source of accumulating detriment to the convenience and interests of the community and has furnished a justifiable cause of reproach to the state… .” Road work was needed but no efficient system was in place in 1838 in west central Illinois or the rest of the 20-year-old state. Into this confusing mix of free but often badly maintained state roads, county roads, and private roads along with toll roads, the plank road was introduced. That marvel of road construction only lasted a few years.

The Internal Improvements Act of 1837 was an effort to plan a comprehensive transportation system in Illinois “over the unpopulated Illinois Prairie.” Internal improvements meant public works and the Improvements Act authorized construction of roads, bridges, railroads, canals, and river and harbor improvements. 

It was an optimistic plan to encourage growth and was voted on in the 10th General Assembly of Illinois. This 1837 Assembly included Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas among other future government leaders. They supported the projects which would cost over ten million dollars. A significant part of the plan was to build three railroads, the Illinois Central, the Northern Cross, and the Southern Cross. These ambitious railroads would build 1,300 miles of iron tracks. The Illinois Central was promised three million dollars to build a line from Cairo to Galena. The Northern Cross was proposed to span the width of the State from Danville through Springfield to Quincy. The Southern Cross was from Mt. Carmel to Alton in southern Illinois. At the time of the plan, Alton was the largest city in Illinois. There were to be lesser railroads from Paris in eastern Illinois to Shawneetown and from Bloomington through Peoria to Warsaw. The apparent goal of the project was to move commerce away from St. Louis and into the center of Illinois utilizing existing internal rivers instead of the Mississippi River. Improvements were planned for the Illinois, Rock, Kaskaskia, Wabash and Little Wabash Rivers. River transportation would be connected by the three railroad companies for the benefit of Illinois farmers. At that time, there were only three states west of the Mississippi River, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Missouri. As a terminus, Quincy was the frontier.

Governor Joseph Duncan, the sixth governor of Illinois serving from 1834-1838, was a strong supporter of the plan. He had been in both the Illinois House and Senate and served a term in the U. S. House of Representative before he became governor. As a resident of Jacksonville, he was a Central Illinois booster and was governor when the state capital was moved to Springfield. Early in his term as governor, he spoke in favor of an internal improvements plan to the General Assembly and said, “Our state is comparatively in its infancy, and if roads, trackways, railroads, and canals are now laid out, they can be made straight between most of the important Points, with very little expense and difficulty, compared with what will result, if their location is postponed until lands increase in value, and settlements are formed on the roads which are now in use or daily making.”

Unfortunately, the plan did not factor in the economic climate of 1837 resulting in the Panic of 1837 and ushering in a decade of economic and political turmoil. Most construction was halted by 1839 and officially stopped by 1840. All that remained was the Meredosia to Springfield leg of the Northern Cross Railroad. The state did not declare bankruptcy, but the debt was beyond their ability to pay. Optimism was replaced by pessimism, economic growth was stifled, and few projects were completed. The accumulated debt of the state for “internal improvements” was not paid off until 1882. 

Sources

The Internal Improvements Act of 1837. www.museum.state.il.us.

“The Internal Improvement System.” Quincy Whig, September 8, 1838, 5.

Klein, Daniel B. Turnpikes and Toll Roads in Nineteenth-Century America. E H.net

Turnpikes and Toll Roads in Nineteenth-Century America (eh.net)

Lombard, Josiah. “Turnpike Roads.” Quincy Whig, July 21, 1838, 3.

Martin, Phillip W. “To the Voters of Adams County.” Quincy Whig, July 21, 1838, 5.

“Report, State of Illinois, County of Adams.” Quincy Whig, July 21, 1838, 5.

Western Voice. “Illinois.” Quincy Whig, June 9, 1838, 3.