The Waterbury Democrat., 1937-10-04
ILLINOIS BUILDS
 PAGEANT UPON LINCOLN'S LIFE
Rise in State Politics to Be Celebration Theme in
 Springfield
BY RAYMOND LAIR

(UnlLeO RFeSS OtaH COrreSpOmUentj
 Springfield, H., Oct. 4-(UP)- One hundred years ago a young lawyer in the Illinois Legislature executed a series of adroit maneu- vers and pushed through a bill to move the state capital from Van- dalia to Springfield.
 The youthful legislator, a lanky 28-year-old attorney who practiced law in New Salem, was Abraham Lincoln.
 Springfield will commemorate his action and not the passing of q century since 1t became the state capital in f1ve-day centennial celebration beginning Oct. 9.
 The centennial program will tn- clude a series of pageants, one de- picting the life of Lincoln, another portraying the history of the city, and one showing the city's spiritual development.
 The Lincoln drama will open with a prologuein Kentucky show ing the marriage of Thomas Lin- coin to Nancy Hanks. Events of their sons life then will be per- trayed with his ill-fated courtship of Ann Rutledge and his election to the state legislature. Pageant Through Years Other scenes show him moving tO Springfield, marrying Mary Todd in 1842, and his action on the night of his election to the Presidency.
 The following scene will show him in his farewell address to the people of Springfield when he said ITO this place and to the kindness of these people, I owe everything. '
 The drama will end in an elle- gorical tableau after a scene por- traying the. shocked, grief-strickeu city the morning after the assas- sination in Washington. .
 Lincoln had moved to Springfield soon after the legislature made it the state capital and remained there until he became President in 1861 on the eve of the Civil War.
 The first Illinois state capital stood at Kaskaska when Illinois entered the Union, but in 1920 1t was moved to an uninhabited spot on the Kaskaska river and the prospective capital city was named Vandalia.
 First Site Not Popular
 Legislators expected the state to derive considerable income from sale of land in the new town but it failed to attract population Further, it gained a reputation for being unhealthful and provided poor accommodations for the lawmakers
 In 1884 the legislature decided to select a new capital city by pop ular vote, but balloting was apa- thetic and three cities nearly tied The legislature refused to act after the close vote.
 Lincoln wanted the capital al Springfield and set out to bargain with the state representatives.
 Most of the other cities anc counties primarily were concerned at the time with tapping state funds for appropriations to aic construction of internal improve ments-canals and railroads.
 Lincoln believed Springfield'c transportation problems automat- ically would be solved by selection of the city as capital and he en- listed the other eight representa- tives from the county to support him.
 He then promised other legis- lators the nine votes from Sanga. mon county for state aid appropria- tions to their constituencies. In re- turn he asked repeal of the law tt select capital city by popular vote and election of Springfield.
 The first law was repealed anc another substituted to name thf city by majority of the house oi representatives. Springfield led or the first ballot and received a ma jority on the fourth.
 By those "log-rolling" tactics Springfield became the state capi. tai, 16 years after Sangamon county commissioners, drove stake in the ground near Spring creek and des. ignated the spot as the county seat
 Lincoln moved from the nearby town of New Salem to Springfield six weeks later and entered law partnership in the new capital.