338 INDIANA HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS 



No, friend West, I do not wish to make use of ambi- 

 guity, nor remain non-committal ; neither do I ever at- 

 tempt the "beauty of diction" or "elegance of my pe- 

 riods," in any of my communications. 



I do mean "if the plan were carried into effect," that 

 it would actually benefit the present inhabitants of the 

 State of Illinois in the aggregate, more than a present of 

 ten millions of dollars would if placed in the State treas- 

 ury to-morrow. For it would increase the population 

 of the State so that all the vacant lands would be im- 

 proved and become valuable in a few years, so that a 

 very small per cent, tax equally divided among such a 

 vast and rich population, would enable the State to re- 

 deem her ruined credit, and remove the stigma, that in- 

 cubus-like, now rests upon and will soon blast her fair 

 fame. 1 



I am willing to allow that it might temporarily injure 

 a man, if any such can be found, "with 90 head of cattle, 

 horses, sheep and hogs, and 60 acres of plowing;" but 

 even to him I do not believe it would prove a permanent 

 injury. It would of course decrease the amount of that 

 individual's stock; but who will doubt but that there 

 would be a far larger amount of stock, and that too of a 

 better quality, in the State when all the vacant land was 

 improved. And the owners of timber land need not fear 

 a decrease in the value of their property. Every stick 

 would be needed for fuel and building — far more than it 

 is now for fencing. There would not be so much com- 

 plaint about the low price of grain if it could be raised 

 without the expense of fencing. There is another heavy 

 tax that begins to be seriously felt, and will be more and 

 more so, as our fencing gets old and more easily ignited, 



Entanglement of state finances and the internal improvement 

 system in Illinois had brought about a state of hopeless confusion. 

 The state was defaulting on her interest, and her bonds were far 

 below par. There had been considerable talk of repudiation. See 

 Pease, Theodore C, The Frontier State, 1818-1848, 231-33, 302-15 

 (Centennial History of Illinois, volume 2, Chicago, 1919). 



