On December 5, 1836, Abraham Lincoln attended the opening session of the Tenth General Assembly in Vandalia in a newly completed State Capitol built by the citizens of Vandalia on the public square along Gallatin Street between Third and Fourth Street in hopes of keeping the state capital there. The earlier capitol on Fourth Street had been poorly built, soon needed repairs, was demolished, and some of its materials were reused in the new building. Lincoln was joined by eight other legislators from Sangamon County, known as the Long Nine because all stood over six feet tall. Their chief aims during the session were to move the state capital to Springfield and to pass a bill creating a system of internal improvements, and they succeeded in both efforts. Less than twenty years earlier, in March 1819, six commissioners meeting in Kaskaskia had chosen Vandalia as the new state capital because areas farther north, including the future site of Springfield, were still considered Indian Territory. The capitol Lincoln entered that day looked different from the building today: it lacked front and back porticoes, had an octagonal cupola with a rounded roofline, was unpainted brick rather than white, and because the work had just been finished, its plaster was still wet and the interior was said to be humid and damp.