built in the 1840s, long after Bond had left office. Governor Bond was deeply concerned about arson. The Illinois criminal law made arsonists eligible for the death penalty, along with persons guilty of rape and murder. The governor was by no means exclusively concerned with appearing to be tough on crime, however. He took steps to abolish the whipping post and pillory for misdemeanor offenses. Bond's most controversial act was his attempt to veto an act passed by the General Assembly to create a non-capitalized State Bank of Illinois. The bank was ready to issue banknotes based on the prospect of future economic growth within Illinois. Bond considered this dishonorable and felt that there should be no banks chartered by the state government of Illinois until the State had enough specie (gold and silver coin) to support the value of its banknotes. The undercapitalized bank was chartered anyway, and promptly went bankrupt, justifying Bond's concerns. Retirement After Bond's single term as governor, he returned to his Kaskaskia farm. He was no longer in the center of Illinois politics, as the General Assembly had moved the state capital from Kaskaskia to Vandalia. President James Monroe appointed Bond chief record keeper of the Kaskaskia land office, an important job in a land-hungry frontier state. As a respected local leader, Bond also helped to raise the local share of funding to secure the construction of the state's first penitentiary in Alton. In the early 1830s Bond was elected Master of his Masonic Lodge. Death Shadrach Bond died of pneumonia on his farm at Kaskaskia in 1832. He is interred in Evergreen Cemetery in Chester, and his grave is marked by the Governor Bond State Memorial. In September 2008, his obelisk – the tallest and most prominent monument in the cemetery – was toppled by Hurricane Ike. Honors In 1817, Illinois Territory named the newly created Bond County for Shadrach Bond. The honor was bestowed for Bond's service as a congressional delegate; he had not yet become governor. Governor Bond Lake in Greenville, Illinois is also named in honor of Bond. References Solon J. Buck, Illinois in 1818, at Thayer's American history site Robert P. Howard, Mostly Good and Competent Men Theodore Calvin Pease, The Frontier State 1818–1848 |- 1773 births 1832 deaths 19th-century American politicians American slave owners Deaths from pneumonia in Illinois Delegates to the United States House of Representatives from Illinois