Summary of Legislative Debate regarding the Surveyor of Schuyler County, 6 January 18351
Mr. Vandeventer gave notice, that, although a surveyor had been appointed by the two Houses for Schuyler county, there had been no vacancy.2 Mr. Webb said, the last appointment, then, was a nullity. Mr. Lincoln said, “That if, as appeared to be the opinion of le[gal] gentlemen, there was no danger of the [new] surveyor’s ousting the old one so long as he persisted not to die—he would suggest the propriety of letting matters remain as they were, so that if the old surveyor should hereafter conclude to die, there would be a new one ready made without troubling the legislature.” Mr. Stuart offered an amendment to said resolution, striking out all after the word Resolved and inserting a provision requiring the House to rescind their nomination to that office, and requesting the Senate to rescind their appointment; said amendment was concurred in, and on motion of Mr. Thomas the resolution was laid on the table.3
1This summary comes from the Sangamo Journal, a Whig-leaning newspaper published in Springfield. The source text is damaged in places; supplied text in brackets comes from Collected Works. Another summary of this debate comes from the Illinois Advocate, a Democratic newspaper published in Vandalia.
Roy P. Basler, The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1953), 1:31.
2William P. Manlove had been county surveyor since 1829. On December 24, 1834, the House of Representatives passed a resolution nominating Samuel McHatton as the county surveyor. The Senate had confirmed the nomination on December 26. Unbeknownst to the House and Senate, Allen Persinger had apparently already replaced Manlove, and was still operating as county surveyor. Manlove died in 1835.
Illinois House Journal. 1835. 9th G. A., 1st sess., 158; Illinois Senate Journal. 1835. 9th G. A., 1st sess., 136-37; Combined History of Schuyler and Brown Counties, Illinois (Philadelphia: W. R. Brink, 1882), 80, 112, 376; Gravestone of William P. Manlove, Round Prairie Cemetery, Birmingham, IL.
3Webb and Lincoln spoke in response to Vandeventer’s resolution to vacate McHatton’s nomination, to which Stuart offered his amendment.
Illinois House Journal. 1835. 9th G. A., 1st sess., 233.

Printed Document, 1 page(s), Sangamo Journal (Springfield, IL), 17 January 1835, 3:1.