rider as well as courage, Carlin served as Greene County's first sheriff, then twice won election to the Illinois Senate. He was instrumental in obtaining passage of a bill in January 1829 creating Macoupin County. During the Black Hawk War, Carlin was captain of Greene County's militia companies. In 1834 he received an appointment as collector of federal funds at the land office at Quincy, Illinois, where Carlin would continue to live during his gubernatorial term. In 1838, the Democrats' first choice for governor, James W. Stephenson (of the then-boom town of Galena, Illinois) withdrew as candidate when his accounts were discovered delinquent, and the 1838 Illinois Democratic convention nominated Carlin as the party's candidate. As a Jacksonian Democrat as well as Indian fighter, Carlin supported the President's campaign against the national bank (which scholars now agree contributed to the Panic of 1837 which devastated Illinois' economy) and argued that strict compliance with state charter requirements would profit the young state. Carlin opposed monopolies and wanted the state to own and operate all railroads. During the 1838 gubernatorial election, his opponent, Whig Cyrus Edwards (of Alton, Illinois and youngest brother of Ninian Edwards) favored internal improvements. In 1837, Illinois' legislature had approved moving the state capital from Vandalia to Springfield, despite the opposition of Governor Joseph Duncan, a former Jacksonian Democrat who had split with the President and won election as a Whig. The state government offices were constructed and the move occurred midway during Governor Carlin's term. Carlin's inaugural message blamed the Whig-controlled state bank and the Bank of Illinois at Shawneetown for Illinois' financial distress, which added to hardships encountered by frontier farmers. His predecessor, Governor Duncan, had urged Carlin to scrap the large Internal Improvements Act passed by the legislature in 1837, but Carlin tried to make a go of it, despite the large amount of money required and his lack of financial experience. He appointed former governor John Reynolds to try to sell bonds in Europe, since the Illinois and Michigan Canal from Chicago to the Illinois River (which crossed Greene County near Carrollton) required at least $1 million in financing. The two deals Reynolds arranged were on unfavorable terms to the state, and it lost more than $150,000. One of the parties to a contract, Wright and Company (London bankers) went bankrupt while Governor Carlin vacillated on approving the contract. Illinois ultimately sold bonds with