Fragment of an Amendment to a Bill to Amend “An Act concerning the Public Revenue,”
Approved February 1839, [2 January 1840]1
. . . mors . . . ted . . . in . . .. That hereafter all Revolutionary pensioners within this state, shall be permitted to loan all or any part of the money which they may have acquired
exclusively by means of their pensions, without paying any tax whatever, therefor—
The assessors of the several counties within this state, shall take the production
of the regular pension
certificate from the War office of the United States, as sufficient evidence, that the person therein
shown to be a Revolutionary pensioner is a Revolutionary pensioner; and shall then
take the statement
upon honor of such pensioner, as sufficient evidence of the facts whether he has any
money loaned other
than that acquired by means of his pension, and if so, how much, and on all other
questions deemed
necessary and proper under this act—
<Page 2>
[ docketing
]
A bill for an act exempting Revolutionary pensioners from taxation
on loaned money—
1Abraham Lincoln wrote the text of this bill as well as the bill’s title on page two.
The title and the enacting clause have been torn off the document.
Roy P. Basler, editor of The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, dated “An Act concerning Public Revenue," February 1837, but evidence clearing show
that the act became law in February 1839.
On January 2, 1840, Lincoln introduced this as an individual bill entitled “A Bill
for an Act Exempting Revolutionary Pensioners from Taxation on Loan Money” immediately
after Peter Green introduced a bill entitled “A Bill to Amend ‘An Act concerning the Public Revenue,’ Approved February
26, 1839.”
Lincoln moved his bill as an amendment adding an additional section to Green’s bill.
The House adopted, and referred the bill as amended to the Committee on Finance, of
which Lincoln was a member. Both the House and Senate eventually passed Green’s
bill, and the act became law without Lincoln’s amendment concerning Revolutionary pensioners.
Illinois House Journal. 1839. 11th G. A., special sess., 116-17, 260, 318-19; Illinois Senate Journal. 1839. 11th G. A., special sess., 210.
Handwritten Document, 2 page(s), Lincolniana, Illinois State Archives (Springfield, IL).