Petition of Anson G. Henry and Others to Congress, [12 May 1842]1
To the Honorable Senate and House of Representatives in Congress assembled:
The undersigned citizens ^of Sangamon County^ of the State of Illinois, respectfully request Congress to establish by law a Tariff of duties, so as to prevent excessive importations of goods, and excessive exportations
of specie; to create a Home market for agricultural productions; a Home demand for
the skill and industry of our people; to raise revenue enough to relieve the nation
from debt and to support the government, and so to foster our manufactures as to make
ou[r] nation Prosperous in Peace and indepen[de]nt in W[ar.]2
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The Petition of 271 Citizens of Sangamon County Illinois for an increase of the Tariff—10
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Manufacture
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05/12/1842
05/12/1842
May. 12— 1842
Refd[Referred] to Commee[Committee] on Manufactures
Refd[Referred] to Commee[Committee] on Manufactures
1This document was located in the National Archives by Roy P. Basler in 1953, but was
not found there in a recent search of the record group. The image shown here is a
photostatic copy made by Basler’s team in 1953. The document was composed of several
sheets of signatures, which were pasted together.
Illinois Congressman John T. Stuart presented the petition in the House of Representatives
on May 12, 1842. The House referred the petition to the Committee on Manufactures.
Roy P. Basler, ed., The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1953), 1:287; U.S. House Journal. 1842. 27th Cong., 2nd sess., 807.
2During President Andrew Jackson’s administration, the U.S. Congress passed the Compromise Tariff Act of 1833, which dramatically lowered tariffs on
imported goods over ten years, with the most dramatic cuts scheduled for 1841 and
1842. The Election of 1840 resulted in a Whig majority in Congress, which supported a higher tariff to restrain imports and protect
domestic industries and manufacturing. In June 1842, the Congress passed a new tariff
bill, but President John Tyler, a former Democrat, vetoed it. On August 30, Congress passed and Tyler signed a compromise bill, the
Tariff Act of 1842.
Michael F. Holt, Rise and Fall of the American Whig Party (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999), 20, 68, 113, 146-48.
3There were multiple men with this name living in Sangamon County in 1842; it is impossible
to determine which one of them signed this petition.
John Carroll Power and S. A. Power, History of the Early Settlers of Sangamon County, Illinois (Springfield, IL: Edwin A. Wilson, 1876), 462-63.
Copy of Printed Document Signed, 2 page(s), Abraham Lincoln Association Files, Lincoln Collection, Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum (Springfield, IL).