The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1871-06-10
The State Eouse Question Settled.

work shall be resumed on the new state house
at Springfield, We are pleased to see by the
dispatches from Springfield, has at last been
settled by the legislature, and We sincerely
hope forever. The mere agitation OF the
question at Springfield, has already cost the
state, in the way of waste Of time on the part
Of the Legislature, enough to raise the walls
story or two. to saw nothing of the damage
the people have suffered on account OF the
delay 1t has caused Of great deal OF other
highly important legislation.
The breeze gotten up about Peoria. in this
connection was, as we have of,cn said before,
from the beginning a mere pretense and sham
1t Is very possible that the people OF PEORIA
and few neighboring localities, may have
been honest in the matter and nave labored
under the deusion that Peoria really stood
Some chance of some day becoming the state
capital, but the notion was wildly absurd.
The new constitution recognizes Springfield
as the state capital, and authorizes the legis-
lature to expend $500 geo, and no more, in
Guiding the amount then already expended, in
completing the capitol building, then already
commenced, at Springfield. To remove the
capital from Springfield now would not only
involve the loss Of the one million already ex-
pended On that building, but the loss of
million or two more il erecting governors
house, armory,. arsenal and other necessary
state buildings at Peoria. And then 1t would
avoid the present constitutional limitation on
the cost of the new state house at Springfield,
to which only the limitation applies, and
would put 1t in the power of the Legislature
to spend five or even ten millions on u new
state house at Peoria. There was no man in
the legislature, except possibly few very de.
plorably deuded Peorians, that ever seriously
dreamed of making the proposed removal
with the risk of the untold millions of ex-
pense and the endless agitation it involved.
Peoria, in the whole business, was more
cats-paw to pull a very different sort of chest
nuts out of the fire.
1t is true. Peoria did send sort of bond to
Springfield, promising to refund to the state
the cost on the new state house up to the
present time, and the cost Of its removal to
that city, to be paid after the new state house
at Peoria should be completed; but everybody
knows the bond, If even kept in good faith,
would have paid back to the state but drop
in the bucket Of the actual expense involved,
while in point Of fact, the best lawyers agreed
that the bond itself was not worth the paper
it was written on, and not a dollar of it would
ever have been paid.
There was way in which this state house
appropriation could have been attacked more
effectively, il the movement had been sim
cere one, and Peoria had been left entirely
out of the question. Doubtless 500 900 ju.
diclously expended, could have enlarged the
present state house sufficiently to have an
swerod all the reasonable requirements of the
legislature for five or ten years to come, and
the three millions of taxation to complete the
present building could thus have been STAYED
Off; but our legislators having decided that a
new building is needed now, there was no
other sensible thing to do than to make an
appropriation to 90 on with the present
building.
There has been great deal of nonsensical
talk about "stealng' in the erection of the
present state house as far as il has gone, and
IL the faulty character of the work already
done. 1t is all bosh. The ''stea," if there
has ever been anything Of that sort, was in
getting the appropriation three years ago for
the erection Of a building OF the present pro-
portions, when a tenth Of the sum would
lave been sufficient to enlarge the old state
house to answer every purpose. But that,
III the expenditure of the 5000, 900 thus far,
there have been any heavy steallngs, there is
not the slightest evidence to prove We
doubt whether any public building of equal
magnitude has ever been erected in this coun-
try, in winch SO little of the peoples money
has been misappropri"t,d or "stolen," as in
the erection OF the new state house, as far as
1t has gone. This must have been the una.
workable conclusion of any candid person
who heard the 90 hours debate on this question
IN the Illinois legislature on Tuesday and
Wednesday.
And i'll relation to the detective character
o. the work as far as II has gone, the enemies
ot The new state house were especially lame in
Their prcot. There al few places, notably
about the top courses Of The brick work.
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