Summary of Legislative Debate on Bill to Modify the System of Internal Improvements,
30 January 18401
Further proceedings under the call being dispensed with, the question recurred on
the bill in relation to internal improvements.
Mr. McMILLAN moved to lay the bill and amendments on the table until 4th July.
Mr. HARDIN hoped this motion would prevail. But a few days of the session now remained,
during which much business of importance must be transacted; and he hoped that this
measure which had been before them in a dozen different shapes, every day for a month,
would be pressed upon the attention of the House no longer.
Mr. LINCOLN said, he thought this a question of sufficient importance to justify this last effort
in behalf of a proposition, to save something to the State, from the general wreck. It was very true that similar propositions had before been
voted down in this House by large majorities; but it might be a returning sense of
justice, would induce this House to acknowledge, upon this last opportunity, that
at least some portion of our Internal Improvements should be carried on. That after
the immense debt, we have incurred in carrying these works almost to completion, at
least one work calculated to yield something towards defraying its expense, should
be finished and put in operation. Every body acknowledged that this much, if no more,
should be done; and why not come up to the question here, with the same candor, that
we do out of doors?
Mr. McMILLAN withdrew his motion, and the question was put on striking out by ayes
and nays and carried, ayes 42, nays 41.
The question was then put on filling up the blank with the Central rail road, which was lost, ayes 40 nays 43.
Mr. DALY moved to strike out the whole bill and insert the following: That an act entitled
an act to create and maintain a general system of Internal Improvements, and all acts supplementary thereto, be, and the same are hereby repealed; provided,
however, that all liabilities contracted under those laws, shall remain unaffected
by this act, and it is further provided that no money shall be paid for work hereafter
done, under present contracts, unless so directed by law.
The question was first taken on striking out, which was carried, ayes 45, nays 37.3
Mr. Daly’s amendment was then inserted, ayes 44, nays 49.4
The question then recurred on agreeing to the report of the select committee as amended
by Mr. Daly, which was agreed to, ayes 43, nays 39.
The bill as amended was ordered to be engrossed for a third reading.5
1This debate was on House Bill 233, one of several bills in this session designed to modify or abolish the Illinois Internal Improvement System. In November 1839, Governor Thomas Carlin had called the General Assembly into special session to modify the system in light of the state’s fiscal crisis brought
on by the Panic of 1837.
Isaac P. Walker of the Committee on Salines, to which the House of Representatives referred a petition, introduced HB 233 in the House on January 27, 1840. Representatives offered amendments, and the House
referred the bill and proposed amendments to a select committee composed of one representative
from each of the nine judicial circuits in Illinois. The select committee reported
back the bill on January 30 with a substitute. Representatives offered amendments,
and the House refused to table the substitute and proposed amendments by a vote of
38 yeas to 43 nays, with Abraham Lincoln voting nay. The House struck out the words
“upon one railroad only” in the first section by a vote of 41 yeas to 41 nays, with
Lincoln voting nay, but refused to insert in lieu thereof the words “Central Railroad,
from the city of Cairo to the Illinois River,” by a vote of 40 yeas to 43 nays, with Lincoln voting yea. The House agreed
to strike out most of the select committee’s amendments by a vote of 44 yeas to 37
nays, with Lincoln voting nay. The House adopted an amendment repealing the law of February 27, 1837 creating the system of internal improvements by a vote of 44
yeas to 39 nays, with Lincoln voting nay. The House then concurred with the select
committee’s amendments as amended by a vote of 43 yeas to 39 nays, with Lincoln voting
nay. The House refused to table the bill, passing it as substituted by a vote of 48
yeas to 33 nays, with Lincoln voting nay. The House amended the title so as to read
"A Bill to Repeal 'An Act to Establish and Maintain a General System of Internal Improvements,'
and Other Laws Amendatory to the Same." On January 31, the Senate indefinitely postponed consideration by a vote of 19 yeas to 18 nays.
Illinois House Journal. 1839. 11th G. A., special sess., 258, 287-90, 293, 299; Illinois Senate Journal. 1839. 11th G. A., special sess., 220, 226; John H. Krenkel, Illinois Internal Improvements 1818-1848 (Cedar Rapids, IA: Torch, 1958), 157-60.
2The House Journal recorded this vote as 38 ayes and 43 nays.
Illinois House Journal. 1839. 11th G. A., special sess., 288.
3The House Journal recorded this vote as 44 ayes to 37 nays.
Illinois House Journal. 1839. 11th G. A., special sess., 290.
Printed Document, 1 page(s), Sangamo Journal (Springfield, IL), 7 February 1840, 3:1-2.