Existing comment:
Roads, Railroads, and Canals:
Representative Lincoln enthusiastically supported the Whig party program that promoted commercial development through government construction of roads, railroads, and canals to connect isolated regions into an extended web of markets. Projects that would benefit New Salem area farmers and tradesmen, by making the river navigable by steamboats, were of special interest. A sweeping improvements program was authorized, but it failed, almost bankrupting the state. In early 1837, Lincoln played an important and controversial role in designating Lincoln as Illinois' new capital city. |