Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

1
Resolved by the House of Representatives, That the Auditor of Public Accounts be requested to inform the House, whether the State House, so called, now occupied by the Legislature, is built on land belonging to the State of Illinois, or to the county of Fayette. 2

1On January 13, 1837, Joseph Morton introduced the resolution in the House of Representatives. The House received a response from Auditor of Public Accounts Levi Davis on January 19 and referred it to a joint select committee formed to answer the part of the governor’s message related to public buildings, and the auditor’s answer was not entered into the record.
Illinois House Journal. 1836. 10th G. A., 1st sess., 252, 298.

2Illinois state officers had approved the construction of a new state house building in Vandalia due to the dilapidated condition of the old building, and the new structure housed the legislature beginning in December 1836. Appropriations for that construction were not made in advance, and the joint select committee reported back to the House on February 4 that the construction had been imperative, because the condition of the old state house was so poor, with cracked and bulging walls, that local citizens using the building had abandoned it. The committee urged the appropriation of $10,378 to pay unpaid construction bills remaining on the $16,378 total.
Report of a Joint Select Committee, 4 February 1837, Illinois House Journal. 1836. 10th G. A., 1st sess., 478-79; Paul E. Stroble, “The Vandalia Statehouse and the Relocation to Springfield,” Illinois Heritage 2 (Spring-Summer, 2000), 14-15.