Today in Indiana History

October 6 , 2008

On this day in 1850 delegates were gathering in Indianapolis to write a new state constitution. The constitutional convention was to begin the next day, October 7, at the Indiana State Capitol. The state had lost about $12 million trying to build roads, canals, and railroads in the Mammoth Internal Improvements project. Bonds issued by the state were being hawked for as low as 17 cents on the dollar. One of the most important provisions of the new constitution prohibited the state from going into debt. Two future U.S. vice presidents, Thomas A. Hendricks and Schuyler Colfax, were among the 150 elected delegates to the convention. The eighteen-week convention cost the taxpayers about $80,000.