e of the canal," and
declaring that markets at New Orleans fluctuated because of speculators,
and that grain and goods sent from the West to the Atlantic ports by way
of New Orleans was exposed to the dangers of both the southern climate and
the sea.(359) A few weeks later the desired grant was made, the state
being given one-half of five sections in width on each side of the canal,
the United States reserving the alternate sections.(360) The canal
commissioners promptly platted the original town of Chicago and sold lots
at from twenty to eighty dollars each, but no immediate settlement
followed the land sale, and Chicago remained for some years longer an
Indian town. The prospect of having a canal doubtless had some influence
upon settlement, but at the close of 1830 the actual construction of the
canal was still a thing of the future. By the close of 1828, Congress had
donated to Illinois, for various purposes, chiefly for schools and
internal improvements, 1,346,000 acres.(361)

The salt springs had been vested in the state of Illinois with the
provision that no part of the reservations should be sold. Large
reservations were made at the Saline River salt works and at the Vermilion
saline near Danville, the object being to reserve a supply of wood for the
making of salt. Upon the discovery of coal near the springs the state was
permitted to sell not more than thirty thousand acres of the Saline River
reservation.(362)

Illinois as a landowner sometimes mingled church and state. The original
proprietors of Alton having donated one hundred lots, one-half for the
support of the gospel, and one-half for the support of a public school,
the state vested the donated lots in the trustees of the town, upon its
incorporation in 1821. A similar donation made by the proprietors of Mt.
Carmel was confirmed in the same manner.(363) The Cumberland Presbyterians
having built a church on a school section, the state provided that for
ninety-nine years the building should be used as a schoolhouse also, the
school being under the joint direction of the trustees of the township and
the church society.(364)

The receipts for public lands in 1828 and 1829, respectively, were:

1828 1829.
Kaskaskia $ 4,639.82 $ 10,503.99
Shawneetown 7,250.28 16,058.79
Edwardsville 23,536.49 38,001.35
Vandalia 4,489.71 24,258.13
Palestine