Amendment to “A Bill Authorizing a Survey Therein Named," [28 February 1839]1
Strike out all after the enacting clause and insert the following—
"That the Board of Public Works shall so soon as convenience will permit,2 detail a competent engineer to survey a route commencing at or near the point where
the present location of the Central Rail Road crosses Drury's Creek in Jackson county; thence via Frankfort in Franklin county, Mount Vernon in Jefferson county, and Salem in Marion county to a pint point on the present location of the aforesaid Rail Road at or near Vandalia— Said Board shall also detail a competent engineer to survey another route between
the same starting and terminating points to pass ^at or near the coal banks on mudy— thence^3 through Pinckneyville in Perry county, Nashville in Washington county, and Carlyle in Clinton county—
Sec.[Section] 2. Said engineers shall make full and complete reports of the surveys of said routes
respectively to the Board of Public Works; who, upon a full examination of and comparison of the relative merits of the two said routes and the present location,
with a view to the interest of the state, shall determine which of the three shall be the permanent location of the said Central
Rail Road—
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Sec: 3. The provisions of this act shall be carried into effect as speedily as possible;
but while the same are in progress, the work on the said Central Rail Road shall proceed
as though this act had never passed—
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1Abraham Lincoln wrote this amendment as a substitute to a bill originating in and
passed by the Senate on or before February 22, 1839. The original bill text has not been located. On
February 28, John Crain introduced Lincoln’s substitute in the House of Representatives, and the House adopted it. The House passed the bill as substituted. On March 1,
the Senate concurred in the House amendment. On March 2, the Council of Revision approved the bill and the act became law.
Illinois House Journal. 1838. 11th G. A., 1st sess.,
482, 563-64, 588, 601; Illinois Senate Journal. 1838. 11th G. A., 1st sess., 383, 468, 475-76, 495, 501.
2The Board of Public Works was a seven-person board created in 1837 by the internal improvement act to promote, maintain, supervise, and direct the internal improvements system.
Handwritten Document, 2 page(s), Lincoln Collection, SB 5, GA Session 11-1, Illinois State Archives (Springfield, IL).