Roy P. Basler, editor of The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, wrote that Lincoln introduced this bill on December 7, 1840. Research in the House Journal and contemporary newspapers, however, reveals that Lincoln introduced a different bill--which started as an amendment on December 4--on December 7.

The special session--known as Session 12-1-ended on December 7 without any substantive legislation. On December 15, 1840, the General Assembly passed an act making provision for the payment of the interest due on the internal improvement debt on January 1. During a debate on this legislation on December 12, Lincoln spoke in support of it as a stopgap measure to pay the January interest. During debate on December 15, representatives echoed similar sentiments, though some voiced concern about the absence of additional tax revenue, arguing that the State should either raise property taxes or sell public lands and deposit the receipts into a permanent fund from which the state would make future interest payments. The act only provided for payment of January interest; as Barrett had reported on December 3, the state would have to make another interest payment of $175,560 on July 1.

Debate in January and February centered on legislation for the July interest and a permanent solution. On February 20, 1841, the House of Representatives adopted a resolution calling for the creation of a committee of seven to report upon the best means to provide for the payment of interest on the public debt and the disposition of the internal improvement system. The House appointed Lincoln and six others to this committee, then added two additional members, making it a select committee of nine. On February 23, 1841, the select committee of nine issued majority and minority reports in response to the resolution. Cyrus Edwards issued the majority report; Leander Munsell issued the minority report. After a lengthy debate, The House tabled the reports. Accompanying the reports, the committee reported four bills on public revenue: a bill for a loan for canal purposes, a bill for the early completion of the Illinois and Michigan Canal, a bill in relation to the State Bank, and HB 6, authored by Lincoln, to provide for the payment of interest on the state debt. On the morning of February 24, the House took up Lincoln’s bill and tabled it. In the afternoon session, the House engaged in long debate on Lincoln’s bill, in which Lincoln participated. Lyman Trumbull offered an amendment providing that no interest would be paid upon bonds sold contrary to law. The House refused to table the amendment by a vote of 35 yeas to 45 nays, with Lincoln voting yea. The House adopted Trumbull’s amendment by a vote of 43 yeas to 35 nays, with Lincoln voting nay. The House amended the first section by striking out “twenty” and inserting “ten” in lieu thereof. The House tabled an amendment to the fifth section placing restrictions on bonds issued by a vote of 50 yeas to 25 nays, with Lincoln voting yea. The House also tabled an amendment to strike out the third section and insert in lieu thereof the words “all lands shall be valued in reference to their true value,” by a vote of 46 yeas to 33 nays, with Lincoln voting yea. The House refused to order the bill engrossed for a third reading by a vote of 27 yeas to 50 nays, with Lincoln voting nay.

In the evening session of February 24, the committee of nine reported back Lincoln’s bill, first introduced on December 7, 1840, amended by the Committee on Finance on February 4, and referred to the committee of nine on February 22, without amendment, and the House discharged it from further consideration. The House formally laid aside the bill. Lincoln moved to amend this bill as amended by striking out all after the enacting clause and inserting as a substitute the bill the House had rejected earlier in the day, plus Trumbull’s amendment. The House adopted an amendment to the third section striking out “$4” and inserting in lieu thereof “$3” as the minimum value at which all lands shall be valued. The House refused to amend the first section by striking out "ten" before the words “cents on every hundred dollars worth of property,” by a vote of 29 yeas to 42 nays, with Lincoln voting nay. The House also tabled a motion to add an additional section. The House adopted Lincoln’s substitute as amended, and ordered it engrossed for a third reading by a vote of 43 yeas to 27 nays, with Lincoln voting yea. On February 25, the House passed Lincoln’s substitute as amended by a vote of 40 yeas to 37 nays, with Lincoln voting yea.

On February 25, the Senate referred the House bill to the Committee of the Whole and made it the special order of the day for February 26. On February 26, the Committee of the Whole reported back the bill without amendment, and the Senate referred the bill to the Committee on Internal Improvement. In the afternoon session on February 26, the Committee on Internal Improvements reported back the bill with amendments, in which the Senate concurred. On February 27, the House concurred in the Senate amendments. On February 27, the Council of Revision approved the bill and the act became law.

The act enacted on February 27 did not prove adequate to permanently resolve the debt crisis. The tax increase did not bring in sufficient revenue, and on July 1, the state defaulted on its interest payment. Solution of the debt problem did not come until a full recovery from the Panic of 1837 and return to prosperity after 1842 and the passage of several laws to liquidate the debt.