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has assumed a great responsibility, but one that is full of hope and of promise. * Our great system may be said to be fairly begun, and the State has embarked in a course of policy from which there is no retreat.”

CHAPTER XXIII.

ADMINISTRATION OF GOVERNOR WALLACE.

WITH the opening of Governor David Wallace's admin

istration murmurs of discontent were beginning to be audible among tax payers. In the estimation of a very respectable portion of the people, the State had undertaken entirely too much; that the very attempt to prosecute so great an enterprise as was contemplated by the Board of Internal Improvements with the means in possession or expectancy, must inevitably involve the State in debt from which it would be difficult, if not impossible, to extricate itself, and thereby entail upon the people the worst of all evils-oppressive and ruinous taxation. These predictions, coming from intelligent lips, were well calculated to chill the ardor and extinguish the spirit of enterprise in which these public improvements were conceived. In reference to this sad phase of public affairs, Governor Wallace, in his first annual message to the legislature in 1837, said: "But the astonishing success which has thus far attended our progress; the realization of all, and more than friends, the most sanguine, dreamed of; nay, the flattering auspices of the future, should, it appears to me, dispel every doubt, and quiet every fear which such boding prognostics may have created." These sentiments from the governor were well calculated to disguise the painful opinion which he himself possessed at this time, that the State would not be able to carry the load of public improvements with which she had burdened herself, unless the general depression of public and private enterprise

throughout the whole country should be speedily dispelled. But he was an ardent advocate of the measure; indeed it was the great theme of his administration, and he never lost his faith in its ultimate success.

*

* *

But if the condition of the public works of Indiana were on the decline at the close of the year 1837, it was so in a more discouraging degree at the close of 1838. On the meeting of the legislature, on this occasion, Governor Wallace said: "Never before I speak it advisedly-never before have you witnessed a period in our local history that more urgently called for the exercise of all the soundest and best attributes of grave and patriotic legislators than the present. The truth is-and it would be folly to conceal it—we have our hands full-full to overflowing! and therefore, to sustain ourselves, to preserve the credit and character of the State unimpaired, and to continue her hitherto unexampled march to wealth and distinction, we have not an hour of time, nor a dollar of money, nor a hand employed in labor, to squander and dissipate upon mere objects of idleness, or taste, or amusement."

The condition of the State at this time was truly critical. There had been borrowed by the State, for internal improvement purposes, three millions eight hundred and twenty-seven thousand dollars-one million three hundred and twenty-seven thousand for the Wabash and Erie canal, and the remaining two and a half millions for the benefit of other works. Upon the whole of this sum, with a very inconsiderable exception, the State paid an annual interest of five per cent., which of itself was an unbearable burden. To meet this demand the State had but two small sources, independent of taxation. These were, first, the interest arising from the balances due upon the sales of canal lands, and secondly, the proceeds of the third installment of the surplus revenue, both amounting, in 1838, to about forty-five thousand dollars. This was all the visible means with which the State had to pay the enormous sum of two hundred thousand dollars without resorting to direct taxation.

In 1838, the tribe of Pottawatomie Indians, according to a

treaty in which they had previously entered, were removed from Indiana to the western reservation. Some difficulty was experienced in their removal. Becoming hostile and refusing to emigrate, the militia was called out, and, under General Tipton, a force was marched to their villages. This induced them to leave without further opposition.

In the same year a treaty was concluded with the Miami Indians through the good offices of Colonel A. C. Pepper, the Indian agent, by which a considerable, and the most desirable portion of their reserve, was ceded to the United States.

CHAPTER XXIV.

ADMINISTRATION OF GOVERNOR SAMUEL BIGGER.

GOVERNOR WALLACE was succeeded by Hon. Samuel

Bigger, in December, 1840. On this occasion the state of public affairs was in a very unpleasant condition. The system of internal improvements adopted four years previous had not prospered as expected by its friends, and was at that time prostrated, and the government and people found themselves laboring under the complicated embarrassments of this disastrous result. They felt and expressed the most intense anxiety respecting the measures which should be adopted to effect their relief. The great question was now, "What shall be done with our public improvements?" The "system" embraced ten different works, of which the most important was the Wabash and Erie canal. Their aggregate length was one thousand one hundred and sixty miles. Of this length only one hundred and forty miles had been fully completed. The amount which had been expended on these various lines was something over $5,600,000, and it required at least $14,000,000 to complete them. In August, 1839, all work

ceased on these improvements with one or two exceptions, and most of the contracts were surrendered to the State. This course had been adopted under an act of the legislature providing for the compensation of contractors by the issue of

treasury notes. In addition to this state of affairs, the legislature of 1839 had made no provision for the payment of interest on the State debt incurred for internal improvements. In reference to this unpleasant situation of the public works in 1840, Governor Bigger said: "Their prosecution, as origi

nally contemplated, will not be seriously urged at this time by any one at all conversant with our condition and the extent of our liabilities. Such a course would be the extreme of folly. And on the other hand, their entire abandonment, with the utter loss of the large sums of money already expended, would scarcely be less ruinous in its consequences to our credit and ultimate prosperity."

Much individual indebtedness was created during the progress of the works of internal improvement. When operations ceased in 1839, and prices fell at the same time, the people were left, in a great measure, without the means of commanding money with which to pay their debts. This condition of private enterprise, which had been incurred by an unwise State policy, rendered direct taxation more than ever inexpedient. Hence it became the policy of Governor Bigger's administration to provide the means of paying the interest on the State debt without increasing the rate of taxation, and of continuing that portion of the public works that could be immediately completed, and from which the earliest returns could be expected.

The years of 1840-41, were two dark years in Indiana; nor was the prospect brightened with the commencement of 1842. In 1841 the farmer was abundantly rewarded in the pursuits of agriculture, which, to a considerable extent, lightened the burden of the whole people.

With the assembling of the legislature in 1841, the State had reached a crisis in its affairs which had been expected by many, but which many had expected to avoid. Indiana, until that year, had succeeded in paying the interest on her public debt, and at the previous session of the legislature ample provision was supposed to have been made for its payment, but circumstances beyond the control of the agents of the State rendered it impossible to obtain the necessary funds, and at this period the people were compelled to acknowledge the unwelcome truth that the credit of the State had not been sustained.

In this connection we shall briefly glance over those measures, the unfortunate issue of which involved the State in the difficulties to which we now refer.