The Board elected Simon Kinney, President; M. Mott, Collector; T. D. Brewster, Treasurer; and Walter Meriman, Clerk. In the course of the year Kinney resigned as Trustee and Meriman as Clerk, and Cornelius Cahill and James Bradford were elected to fill their respective places. The places of Burnham and Charles became vacant by death, and Ezra McKinzie and Churchill Coffing were elected to fill them. In 1840 came the grand financial collapse. The foreign capitalists refused to lend us any more money. The later residents of Illinois can scarcely comprehend the condition of things which preceded and ensued. By the Internal Improvement Act, which puts all Congressional omnibus bills entirely into the shade, a system of Rail Roads was to be commenced simultaneously in all parts of the State, running in all manner of directions, through regions scarcely explored; and counties which were not fortunate enough to lie in the direction of any place, and thus not to be traversed by Rail Roads, were bribed into the support of the bill by distributions of money, all to be borrowed on the faith of the State. Other acts were passed authorizing loans for prisons, hospitals, asylums and State Houses. At the same time the Canal was being prosecuted on State credit. Counties followed the example of the State by borrowing money to build Court Houses, Jails &c. But at length the bottom fell out of the whole concern. Unknown Millions had been squandered and not one public undertaking was completed. Public and private credit were annihilated. Northern Illinois produced nothing for exportation, and every kind of business was dependent upon the disbursements on the public works. The State, Counties, Towns, Banks, corporations and individuals were alike bankrupt. No gleam of light shone in the future. Repudiation, public and private, appeared to be the only alternative. Even the vampires who had been gorged upon the treasury were overwhelmed in the general avalanche. The few who had hoarded and possessed the means, left the State; and emigration for years avoided it as though it had been one great hospital of lepers.