Vandalia did indeed have major shortcomings as the state capital. For two weeks in December 1836, communication with Springfield was entirely cut off because of the condition of the roads. That situation had not improved over the preceding decade. Then a traveler had complained that the “road for three miles east of Vandalia is … impassable with wagons, and nearly so on horseback. It is a perfect marsh or swamp, of soft clay, extremely tenacious into which a horse will sink at every step to his knees, and for the whole distance covered with water to the depth of six or eight inches.” That same observer, noting that the countryside surrounding Vandalia was “hard and sterile, covered with stunted oaks and apparently unproductive,” prophetically remarked, “I think that it can never be a place of much importance.”
Source: Abraham Lincoln ∶ A Life ▫𓂃
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