approved by Congress and there was a brief debate about the legality of seating him when he arrived in Washington D.C., but the situation was resolved in his favor. He served in the 14th Congress, succeeding Jennings. Hendricks was reelected three times, serving from December 11, 1816, until the 17th Congress when he resigned July 25, 1822. In Congress he was a member of the Select Committee on Roads and Canals. He supported legislation to fund the construction of the National Road, which would connect Indiana with the eastern states. He also supported several measures to fund other minor road and canal projects, but was unsuccessful. He was a proponent of rapidly granting statehood to the western states, and delivered several speeches urging the statehood of Illinois and Missouri. In his final reelection bid, he won by a margin of ten to one, and was recognized as one of the most popular political figures in the state. Governor In 1822 Hendricks ran unopposed for the position of Governor of Indiana and succeeded Jonathan Jennings; Jennings in turn succeeded Hendricks in his congressional seat. Hendricks won 100% of the 18,340 votes, the only governor in Indiana history to win by that margin. He assumed the office on December 5, 1822. While governor he occupied the Governor's Headquarters in Corydon, which he purchased from Davis Floyd. He served as governor from 1822 until 1825. He was the last governor to serve while the capital remained in Corydon. When he came to office, the state was still in a poor financial condition because the state's bank failures caused by the Panic of 1819 and the ensuing collapse of the modest internal improvement programs. The state's bonds had been depreciated in 1821 and severely hurt the state's credit and ability to borrow funds. The state budget was still in deficit, and the state's sparse population was producing very little revenue. The situation was resolved by selling public land to raise money to pay off a significant portion of the outstanding debt, and government accounts were moved to the Second Bank of the United States since there were no banks operating in Indiana. The foundation of state's school system—the first state-funded system in the nation—also began to be laid during Hendricks's administration. During his tenure as governor each township was granted land on which a public school could be established. The value of these improvements