Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

A Bill to Authorize Certain Debtors of the State to Discharge their Indebtedness in Illinois Internal Improvement Scrip, [27 January 1841] 1

An act authorizing certain Debtors of the State to discharge their indebtedness in Illinois Internal Improvement Scrip—2

Be it enacted by the People of the state of Illinois represented in the General Assembly: That the obligors upon a certain bond executed by sundry citizens of the City of Springfield, in behalf favour of the State of Illinois, for the sum of fifty thousand dollars,3 be authorized to discharge the same or the ballance due thereon, in whole and ^or^ in part, in Illinois Internal Improve^ment^ Scrip—4

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N^o 94 H R

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Lincoln, Abraham (President)

A bill for an act authorizing certain debtors of the State to discharge their indebtedness in Illinois Internal Improvement Scrip—

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[01]/[27]/[1841]
read 1

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[01]/[27]/[1841]
ord[ordered] 2

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[01]/[27]/[1841]
Com.[Committee] Finance

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[02]/[02]/[1841]
Ord. Eng.[Ordered Engrossed]

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4

1Abraham Lincoln wrote the text of the bill and the bill’s title on page two.

2Abraham Lincoln introduced this bill in the House of Representatives on January 27, 1841. The House referred the bill to the Committee on Finance, on which sat Lincoln. Lincoln of the Committee of Finance reported back the bill on February 1, recommending its passage. The House engaged in a lengthy debate, in which Lincoln participated. The House rejected an amendment to add a proviso by a vote of 37 yeas to 41 nays, with Lincoln voting nay. On February 10, the House refused to table the bill, passing the bill by a vote of 57 yeas to 23 nays, with Lincoln voting yea. The Senate concurred on February 27. On February 27, the Council of Revision approved the bill and the act became law.
Illinois House Journal. 1840. 12th G. A., 289, 309-10, 311-12, 320, 362, 552, 569; Illinois Senate Journal. 1840. 12th G. A., 290, 305, 448.

3In the act enacted to permanently located the seat of government, the General Assembly stipulated that the act would be null and void unless individuals in the town selected donated $50,ooo toward the relocation of state offices. Springfield got the capitol by pledging $50,000 and donating the public square.
An Act Supplemental to "An Act to Permanently Locate the Seat of Government of Illinois"; Robert P. Howard, Illinois: A History of the Prairie State (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 1972), 210.

4In 1840, contractors still working on internal improvement projects received their pay in scrip. During 1840, the Board of Public Works issued scrip totaling $1,342,372.82. In October 1840, merchants in Springfield began accepting scrip for goods at eighty-one and one-fourth cents on the dollar.
John H. Krenkel, Illinois Internal Improvements, 1818-1848 (Cedar Rapids, IA: Torch, 1958), 100.