Editing Indiana General Assembly (section)

===1816 Constitution===
[[Image:Corydon old capital.jpg|right|thumb|[[Corydon Historic District|Old Capitol Building]] in downtown [[Corydon, Indiana|Corydon]]]]
Indiana's first constitution was ratified on June 10, 1816, and the election of the first General Assembly took place on August 5 of that year.{{Sfn|Dunn|1919|p=377}} They convened in the [[Corydon Historic District|original three-room statehouse]] located in [[Corydon, Indiana|Corydon]]. The body consisted of ten senators and twenty-nine representatives, sixteen of whom had been signers of the Indiana state constitution. There, the General Assembly began its development into the institution it is today.{{Sfn|Dunn|1919|p=388}}<ref name="centerforhistory.org">{{cite web|url=http://www.centerforhistory.org/indiana_history_main3.html|publisher=Indiana Center For History|title=''Indiana History Chapter three''|access-date=May 17, 2008 |url-status=usurped|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080511131847/http://www.centerforhistory.org/indiana_history_main3.html |archive-date = May 11, 2008}}</ref> The original constitution provided that representatives served terms of one year and senators served terms of three years, and permitted an annual meeting of the assembly from December until March.<ref name = INC1816/>

At first, there was only one political party of any consequence in Indiana, the [[Democratic-Republicans]]. The party was, however, broken into three divisions that would later split off into their own parties. The divisions were mainly over the issue of slavery, but they would develop more differences in later years.{{Sfn|Dunn|1919|p=334}} The [[Jonathan Jennings|Jennings]] party, made up of abolitionists, was dominant in the beginning. The [[James Noble (senator)|Noble]] party was in favor of slavery, and the [[William Hendricks|Hendricks]] party was generally neutral, although Hendricks himself was openly anti-slavery.{{Sfn|Dunn|1919|p=334}} In 1818, the Noble party tried to impeach Governor Jennings over his role in the negotiations of the [[Treaty of St. Mary's]]. After two months of debate in the House, and Jennings having destroyed the evidence of his role, the House of Representatives dropped the investigation and issued a resolution that confirmed Jennings in his position as governor.{{Sfn|Dunn|1919|p=378}}

In its first two decades, the General Assembly laid the foundation of the state. They created the framework for the state's public school system, began construction on the [[Indiana University|State Seminary]] and of roads in the southern part of the state. Initially, the General Assembly was faced with low tax revenues. In response to the problem, they created the [[Bank of Indiana]] and sold {{convert|9,000,000|acres|km2|spell=in}} of public lands to finance their projects. The General Assembly relocated the capital to [[Indianapolis]] in 1824, and in 1831 they authorized the construction of the first dedicated statehouse.<ref name="centerforhistory.org"/><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.in.gov/idoa/2550.htm|title=''The State House Story''|publisher=IN.gov|author=Indiana Historical Bureau|access-date=May 17, 2008|archive-date=May 18, 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080518020118/http://www.in.gov/idoa/2550.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref>

In the 1830s, the [[Whig Party (United States)|Whigs]] split from the Democratic-Republicans in response to national policies. The Whigs held a strong majority in the General Assembly in that decade.{{Sfn|Dunn|1919|p=373-374}} In 1843, the remnants of the old slavery party had strengthened into the [[United States Democratic Party|Democratic Party]] and swept into power, the Whigs never regained their majority and the Democrats maintained power until the middle of the [[American Civil War]]. In 1836 the General Assembly passed the [[Indiana Mammoth Internal Improvement Act|Mammoth Internal Improvement Act]] and set plans into motion to modernize the [[Internal improvements|state's infrastructure]]. The [[American frontier|wilderness]] of northern and central Indiana was slowly developed as the General Assembly approved the construction of roads, [[canal]]s, railroads, and numerous other infrastructure projects. This led the state to near bankruptcy in the late 1830s, but it was avoided when the General Assembly spun off the failing canals, and half of their debts, to private companies in 1841. The failure of the projects was the main factor in the Whig's loss of power.<ref>{{cite book|title= An Illustrated History of the State of Indiana |url= https://archive.org/details/anillustratedhi02tuttgoog |author1=Goodrich, De Witt C.  |author2=Tuttle, Charles Richard |pages=[https://archive.org/details/anillustratedhi02tuttgoog/page/n201 189]–192|publisher=R. S. Peale & co.|year=1875}}</ref>

The state constitution had come under considerable criticism beginning in the 1840s because it allowed most government positions to be filled by appointment. The problem with this method of filling positions did not manifest itself until the advent of the state's political parties. Once in power, a party could stack the government with its own members, making it difficult for the minority to regain power. Another problem was that the authority for many trivial issues was not delegated to other authorities. For example, if a man was to divorce his wife, the divorce bill had to be approved by the General Assembly before being allowed to legally remarry.{{Sfn|Dunn|1919|p=443}}