Fayette County, Illinois - Chapter 4: The Seat of Government, 1878

REMOVAL OF TIIE SEAT OF GOVERNMENT - V AND ALIA SELECTED - BUILDING OK TUB STATE HOUSE - ITS DESTRUCTION 1JY FI RE - TEMPORARY QUARTERS OF BOTH HOUSES OF THE LEGISLATURE - ORGANIZATION OF FAYETTE COUNTY.

N 1819, it becoming apparent that the centre of population was gradually moving northward, the following act was introduced and approved, changing the state capital from Kaskaskia to Vandal ia.

Whereas it appears to the satisfaction of the General Assembly, that at the last session of CoDgress nere was granted four sections of land to the State of Illinois, for the esi ^lishment of the seat of government thereon for twenty years; and therefore t becomes necessary from the Constitution, and from policy, to have commissioners appointed to select the said quantity of land and provide for laying out a town thereon.

That there shall be appointed by the joint ballot of both branches of the present General Assembly, five commissioners, for the purposes hereinafter mentioned, who shall take and subscribe the following oath or affirmation, to wit: I, A. B. - being appointed a commissioner to select a suitable site whereon to fix the seat of government of this State, agreeable to the donation of the Congress of the United States, and the Constitution of this State, and that in making such selection, I will not be governed by my own interest, or the interest of any other person or persons, but in all things will be governed alone by the interest of this State .

Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, that the said commissioners, or a major part of them, shall at some convenient time, not exceeding three months from the official publication of the act of Congress, granting said four sec¬ tions of land to this State, and designate the same by the number and de¬ scription thereof, according to the true intent and meaning of the said Act of Congress, and of the thirteenth section of the sc hedule of the Constitution of this state; said land to be situate on the Kaskaskia rivef, and as near as may be east of the third principal meridian on said river.

Sec. 3. And be it further enacted, That the said commissioners, or a ma¬ jor part of them, shall as soon as practicable transmit the number and de¬ scription of said four sections of land so selected for the State, to the register and receiver of the land-office in whose district the said four sections of land may be situate, or to anv other office or officer as may be required by said Act of Congress, so as the government of the United States may know the land so selected by said commissioners for this state.

Sec. 4. And be it further enacted, That the said commissioners, or a ma¬ jor part of them, shall have the power to employ a skillful surveyor to lay off a town on said land, on the Kaskaskia river, on such a plan or device as the said commissioners, or a major part of them, may agree on; and the said commissioners shall have the right to give to the said town some proper name as they may agree upon. The said plan shall be fairly made out and laid before the next stated session of the General Assembly, and the said commis¬ sioners shall have the right to draw on the treasury of their state, for any sum which may be agreed upon by them as a compensation to the person employed in laying oft' said town.

Sec. 5. And be it further enacted, That the said commissioners, or a ma¬ jor part of them, are authorized and required to sell one hundred and fifty lots; (not more than ten of said lots shall be on the public square) to the highest bidder, on advertising the time, place and quantity of lots sold, in some public newspaper of this state, for at least six weeks before the sale thereof. The consideration money for said lots to be paid down, or credit given of not longer than six, twelve and eighteen months, with approved se¬ curity, at the discretion of said commissioners, or a major part of them. Said commissioners, or a major part of them, who may receive the money arising from the sale of lots sold by the authority of this act, shall give bona and security, to be approved of by the Governor, in double the sum to be re¬ ceived as aforesaid, to the Governor, for the use of the state, conditioned for the faithful payment of all monies arising as aforesaid into the treasury of this state, within one month from the receipt of the same. And the said commissioners shall have the right to allow such privileges, as to the use of timber to the first settlers in said town, as they may deem just and advisable.

Sec. 6 . Be it further enacted. That the said commissioners, or a major part of them, are hereby authorized to give deeds of conveyance, with a gen¬ eral warranty on the state, for all lots sold by the authority of this act, to the purchasers.

Sec. 7. And be it further enacted, That the said commissioners, or a major part of them, shall contract, as soon as practicable after said town is laid off, with some person or persons for the building of a suitable house for the reception of the General AjBsembly of this state at their next stated session, said house to be built two stories high, on some lot belonging to the State; and not on the public square, and of sufficient capacity to accommodate the house of representatives in the lower story, and the senate in the upper, with the neoessary rooms for the council of revision, clerks, <fcc., to have the said building completed six months before the next stated session of the General Assembly; and there shall be a condition in said contract that if said com¬ missioners, or a major part of them, determine that said building cannot be completed at the time specified in said contract, the said contract be dissolved, and the party thus failing in the opinion of said commissioners, shall receive pay only for work actually done, and the said commissioners to contract for the completion of said building with some other persons.

Sec. 8 . And be it further enacted, That the next stated session of the General Assembly shall be holden at the town thus laid off by the authority of this act, and in the building before described; and that all public officers and public offices that are required bv law to be holden or reside at the seat of government of this State, on the first day of the said next stated sessions of the General Assembly of this state; and the seat of government of this state shall be and remain for the term of twenty years; at the said town so laid off by the authority of this act from the said first day of the next stated session of the General Assembly, but until said time, the seat of government shall be and remain as Kaskaskia.

Sec. 9. And be it further enacted, That the said commissioners, or a ma¬ jor part of them, shall agree on the time to meet for the purpose of making said selection as pointed out in the second section of this act, and advertise the same in some newspaper, so as so to let all the said commissioners know

Sec. 10. And be it further enacted, That the said commissioners, or a major part of them, shall make out a general report signed by them, of all I the actings and doings of said commissioners to the next General Assembly. I Sec. 11. And be it further enacted, That the amount of money paid for 1 the erection of the aforesaid temporary state-house shall be paid out of the | money arising from the sale of lots by the said commissioners, or if deemed | more expedient by the said commissioners, they are hereby authorized to

| Sec. 12. Be it enacted, That the said commissioners shall be paid the sum i of three dollars for each day's service necessarily employed in the duties im¬ posed on them by this act.

act of Congress of the 3i of March, 1819. . . . " An act for the remo¬ val of the seat of government of the State of Illinois," as well such as relate to the selection made by them, of sections 8, 9, 16, and 17 in township 6, north of range 1, east of the third principal meridian, as those relating to the other objects of their appointment, be and the same are hereby approved and confirmed; and the said town of Vandalia, laid out by the said comi missioners on part of said four sections, is hereby declared to be the per- ! manent seat of government of the State of Illinois, for twenty years from and after the first Monday of December, 1820 ....

The city of Vandalia f was accordingly laid off, and in the following year, 1820, the legislature removed there, and held its first sessions in a house temporarily built for the purpose. The building was of logs, and was situ¬ ated on Fifth street, about one block south of Gallatin street. After the creation of Fayette County, the county court also held its sessions in the same building. The building was destroyed by fire during the first session of the legislature. The senate held the remainder of the session in Brown's house, lot 4,- block 34; and the house completed its session in the house of Col K. K. McLaughlin, lot 5, block 4. Afterwards a small brick building was erected upon the same site, which was used until the completion of the present state-house. Until February, 1821, Vandalia and the territory now comprised within the limits of Fayette County was ^portion of the neigh- I boring county of Bond. February 14th, 1821, the allowing act was ap«

! X (That all that tract of country lying uorth of a line, beginning at the I south-west corner of township number three, north of range number one uorth of range number six, east of the third principal meridian, shall con¬ stitute a new county to be called Fayette, the county seat of which shall be at Vandalia.)

The county, at the time of its formation, was nearly two hundred miles in length, but has since been divided into counties. It is bounded north by ; Shelby, south by Marion and Clinton, east by Effingham, and west by Bond

| and Montgomery counties. It is from thirty-three to twenty-seven miles long, and from twenty-four to thirty miles broad, and contains seven hundred and twenty square miles. It is watered by the Kaskaskia Kiver and its tribu- 1 taries, the principal of which are the Hurricane Fork, Ramsey's, Boaz and

! of the Kaskaskia are generally low and subjeot to inundation; a rise in this I stream is frequently occasioned by slight rains, in consequence of the nu-

| the Kaskaskia and Hurricane Fork. There are in many portions of the ! county fertile and beautiful prairies, where vegetation grows abundantly. The Kaskaskia enters the county on the north-east, about the centre of township 9, range 3 east, and meanders in a zig-zag course south-westerly through the county, and leaves it on section 30 of township 4, range 1 west I of the third principal meridian. Fayette is divided into the following I municipal townships: La Clede, Lone Grove, Wilberton, Kaskaskia, Pope, Seminary, Wheatland, Otego, Vaudalia, Bear Grove, Avena, Sefton, Sharon, j Loudon, Bowling Green, Ramsay, and Hurricane. § t The name of Vandalia was given to the new city, it is said, by one of the commis¬ sioners, in consequence of the country in the vicinity being at one time the home of a tribe of Indians called VarvlaJh. - Ford's History of Illinois.