| A bill introduced in 1833 calling for a state wide vote to move the capital to determine a new location from a list of central choices including Alton, Jacksonville, Peoria, Springfield, Vandalia, and the state's actual geographic center. While Alton emerged as the victor the legislature determined the slim margin too small to be conclusive and the vote was aborted. In 1836, a young lawyer named Abraham Lincoln began to push the notion of moving the capitol to Springfield, Illinois along with other colleagues of his in the legal profession. That summer the third capitol was torn down and replaced with the fourth capitol (built at a cost of $16,000) in an effort to keep the capitol in Vandalia. Although the new brick structure was extravagant, the General Assembly ignored the gesture and sided with Lincoln voting to move the Capitol to Springfield on February 25, 1837. The Illinois CapitolOn July 4, 1837, the first brick was laid for Illinois' fifth capitol. In 1853, the capitol was completed for a total sum of $260,000 almost twenty times the cost of any previous structure. The building was designed in the Greek Revival style from stone quarried six miles from the site. For many years it was the largest and most extravagant capitol of the western frontier of the United States. The fifth capitol is considered by many to be Lincoln's capitol as it was here that he argued cases before the Illinois Supreme Court, here that he served in the state legislature, here that he first confronted Stephen Douglas, and here where he delivered his famous "A House Divided" speech. Reference |  |