Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

1
Resolved by the House of Representatives, That the Governor of this State be requested to furnish this House, with all the information he may have in his possession, relative to the appropriation made by the legislature of the State, for the improvement of the Wabash river; as also, all the information he may possess, relative to the appropriations that may have been made by our sister State Indiana, for the above purpose; and also, whether any of the appropriation has been expended on said work.2

1On December 12, 1834, Nelson W. Nunnally introduced the resolution in the House of Representatives. The House received the Governor’s response and on December 17, they referred the response to the Committee on Internal Improvements. On December 18, the committee introduced to the House A Bill to Amend "An Act relative to the Improvement of the Great Wabash River," Approved February 12, 1833.
Illinois House Journal. 1835. 9th G. A., 1st sess., 108, 129-30, 133.

2Early settlers in Illinois and Indiana were anxious to use the Wabash River for shipping because of its connection to New Orleans via the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. However, hazards and obstructions such as logjams, sand bars, falls, and rapids made navigation of the river, particularly in the section from Logansport to Lafayette and the section from Vincennes south to the confluence with the Ohio River near Shawneetown. The governments of Illinois and Indiana commissioned surveys of the Wabash River in 1823 and 1834 that led to appropriations for the removal of obstructions, but no significant improvement resulted. In 1843, the Wabash and Erie Canal opened, offering and easy link from the Wabash River to Lake Erie. This diverted much of the shipping traffic on the river in that direction rather than south to New Orleans.
Eleanore A. Cammack, “Notes on Wabash River Steamboating: Early Lafayette,” in Indiana Magazine of History, vol. 50, no. 1 (March 1954), 35-50; Donald F. Carmony, Indiana, 1816-1850: The Pioneer Era, vol. 2 of The History of Indiana (Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Society, 1998), 44, 141, 184.