Illinois drew French explorers Louis Jolliet and Father Jacques Marquette to its fertile prairies as they explored the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers in 1673. France held the region until 1763, when it surrendered it to Great Britain by the Treaty of Paris. During the American Revolution, George Rogers Clark and his small army captured Kaskaskia without bloodshed for the Commonwealth of Virginia, and Illinois became a county of Virginia. The area was ceded to the United States in 1784, then became part of the Northwest Territory and later the Indiana and Illinois Territories, before entering the Union as the twenty-first state on December 3, 1818. U.S. 36 touches six counties that were part of the Eighth Judicial Circuit, which Abraham Lincoln traveled from 1839 to 1860 as court moved from county seat to county seat, bringing him to Paris, Sullivan, Monticello, Decatur, and Springfield for the bi-annual terms. West of Decatur, the highway passes near the Lincoln Trail Homestead State Park on the Sangamon River, site of the first Lincoln home in Illinois after the family came from Indiana in 1830. The following spring Thomas Lincoln moved to Coles County, while Abraham moved to New Salem, 20 miles northwest of Springfield. U.S. 36 also passes through Springfield, where Lincoln's home and tomb are state memorials and where, at the Old State Capitol, he delivered his famous "House Divided" speech.