no surplus money in the State to supply the capital; there were no
trained bankers to guide the concern; there was no clear notion of
how it was all to be done; but a banking capital of one million eight
hundred thousand dollars would be a good thing in the State, they were
sure; and if the East could be made to believe in Illinois as much as
her legislators believed in her, the stocks would go, and so the banks
were chartered.

But even more important to the State than banks was a highway. For
thirteen years plans of the Illinois and Michigan canal had been
constantly before the Assembly. Surveys had been ordered, estimates
reported, the advantages extolled, but nothing had been done. Now,
however, the Assembly, flushed by the first thrill of the coming
"boom," decided to authorize a loan of a half-million on the credit of
the State. Lincoln favored both these measures. He did not, however,
do anything especially noteworthy for either of the bills, nor was the
record he made in other directions at all remarkable. He was placed
on the committee of public accounts and expenditures, and attended
meetings with great fidelity. His first act as a member was to give
notice that he would ask leave to introduce a bill limiting the
jurisdiction of justices of the peace--a measure which he succeeded in
carrying through. He followed this by a motion to change the rules, so
that it should not be in order to offer amendments to any bill after
the third reading, which was not agreed to; though the same rule, in
effect, was adopted some years later, and is to this day in force in
both branches of the Illinois Assembly. He next made a motion to take
from the table a report which had been submitted by his committee,
which met a like fate. His first resolution, relating to a State
revenue to be derived from the sales of the public lands, was denied
a reference, and laid upon the table. Neither as a speaker nor an