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Anson G. Henry and Others to Henry E. Dummer and Others, 2 July 18421
(Confidential)
Springfield July 2d 1842Gentlemen
Some difficulty arises under the apportionment Bill of the last session as to the number of Senators to be elected, and the districts which they are to represent.2 The Locofoco party, availing themselves as usual of every opportunity to secure and increase their power, are running a Senator from Cook and one from Will, while that district has a Senator (Pearson) still in office.3 In the County of Green they run a Senator for Green and Jersey to fill a Vacancy (Allen) and a Senator for Green & Calhoun under the new Law.4 It is very much to be feared, that having already a majority assured in the Senate they would if the votes should be wanted give these Senators to be elected their Seats right or wrong.5 There are difficulties in a good Construction of the Law and it may be a matter of much doubt, as to what the decision may be.
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at any rate your District (Cass & Scott) is entitled equally with the others to a Senator, if they receive them they must receive yours, and if both be should be rejected, things will be as they were.6 We take the liberty therfore to suggest the propriety of running a whig in your new district for a Senator, as it will be down here, and we shall at any rate either get an equal number of Senators by it or prevent them from getting any,7
The chances of a majority for us on joint ballot are so good that we ought not to permit ourselves to loose it by negligence on our part, or fraud on theirs.8
Yours SincerelyA. G. HenryE. D. BakerN. W. EdwardsS. T. LoganA. LincolnJ. Smith9H. E. Dummer Esqr[Esquire]& Other good WhigsP.S. It will of course be better for the Clerk to give notice, of the elections, but want of time in the notice, will by no means Vitiate the election.10
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SPRINGFIELD Il.
JUL[July] 4Henry E. Dummer Esqr.[Esquire]BeardstownIlls.
[ docketing ]
10
1Anson G. Henry wrote the entirety of the document, including all of the signatures as well as the address on the back page, which was folded to create an envelope.
2The previous apportionment legislation had been passed in 1836. Since that time, county boundaries in Illinois had undergone considerable changes, with new counties being carved out of many of the older, geographically larger counties. Of the seven counties mentioned in this letter, three (Jersey, Cass, and Scott) had been created since the previous apportionment legislation. Will County had been carved out of Cook County days before the 1836 law was passed, and so the law contained no provisions for Will County’s representation. One county—Greene—was significantly smaller because Jersey County had been carved out of it. The apportionment passed by the General Assembly in 1841 accounted for all those changes, in addition to the fact that Illinois’ population center was moving gradually northward. However, the law contained no provision to account for mid-term senators whose districts were to be superseded by the 1841 law. This ambiguity caused at least four cases of double representation in the 13th General Assembly, all of which were corrected by a member resigning his seat or by the Senate refusing to seat one of the duplicate representatives.
An Act to Apportion the Representation of the Several Counties in This State; An Act to Apportion the Representation of the Several Counties in this State; Theodore Calvin Pease, The Frontier State, 1818-1848, vol. 2 of The Sesquicentennial History of Illinois (Springfield: Illinois Centennial Commission, 1918), 173-174; An Act to Establish the County of Will; An Act for the Formation of Lake County; An Act to Create the County of DuPage; An Act for the Formation of the County of Cass; An Act to Create and Organize the County of Scott; An Act to Create and Establish the County of Jersey; Theodore C. Pease, ed., Illinois Election Returns, 1818-1848, vol. 18 of Collections of the Illinois State Historical Library (Springfield: Illinois State Historical Library, 1923), 355, n1.
3The 1836 law allowed Cook County one senator. By 1841, Will County had been carved out of Cook, and the 1841 law gave one senate seat to Cook and one to Will. Pearson, the sitting senator representing Cook County, was elected under the 1836 law on August 3, 1840, and was only roughly halfway through his term. Pearson addressed the double representation by offering his resignation effective January 1, 1843. Joel Matteson had already been elected to fill the senatorial seat for Will, Du Page, and Iroquois, and had taken his seat at the start of the session. Despite that, the General Assembly ordered special election to fill the spot. Matteson won the election again, and was again seated by the Senate on January 7, 1843.
An Act to Apportion the Representation of the Several Counties in This State; An Act to Apportion the Representation of the Several Counties in this State; An Act to Establish the County of Will; “An Act Providing for a Special Election of Senator in the District Composed of Will, Du Page, and Iroquois Counties,” 20 December 1842, Laws of Illinois (1843), 136-37; Theodore C. Pease, ed., Illinois Election Returns, 1818-1848, 334, 349, 355, n1; Illinois Senate Journal. 1842. 13th G. A., 1st sess., 3-4, 88, 168.
4The 1836 law allowed Greene County three representatives and one senator; additionally, Greene was to share one representative and one senator with Calhoun County. The 1841 law allowed Greene two representatives; additionally, Greene was to share one representative and one senator with Calhoun as in the previous legislation. In the 1842 election, James Gilham was elected from Cass and Scott counties, and Revel English was elected from Greene and Calhoun; both were seated and sworn into the Senate. John Allen, who had been elected to the Senate under the 1836 law representing Greene and Calhoun, had died, and at a special election to fill the seat, Alfred Cavarly was elected, seated, and sworn into the Senate. To correct the double representation of Greene County, English resigned his seat on December 22, 1842.
An Act to Apportion the Representation of the Several Counties in This State; An Act to Apportion the Representation of the Several Counties in this State; Illinois Senate Journal. 1842. 13th G. A., 1st sess., 3-4, 101-2; Theodore C. Pease, ed., Illinois Election Returns, 1818-1848, 285, 352, 355, n5.
5The Illinois Constitution gave each chamber of the General Assembly the right to “judge of the qualifications and elections of its members.” Senate members voted on resolutions declaring a specific member to be entitled to his seat; the majority party in the Senate could conceivably seat extra Senators even if they had been elected through a misconstruction or misuse of the law.
Ill. Const. (1818), art. 2, §7; Illinois Senate Journal. 1842. 13th G. A., 1st sess., 84, 85, 90-97; Sangamo Journal (Springfield, IL) 26 August 1842, 2:7.
6 The 1836 apportionment gave Morgan County six representatives and three senators; by 1841, both Cass and Scott counties had been carved out of Morgan. The 1841 law reduced Morgan County to four representatives and one Senator; it gave one representative to Cass, two representatives to Scott, and the two counties together shared one senator. Thomas Killpatrick had been elected Senator for Morgan and Scott at the 1840 election, and was midway through his term. At the 1842 election, Democrat James Gillham was elected Senator for Cass and Scott under the 1841 law. He took his seat in the Senate on December 5, but the Senate later voted to refuse him his seat in favor of Killpatrick.
An Act to Apportion the Representation of the Several Counties in This State; An Act to Apportion the Representation of the Several Counties in this State; An Act for the Formation of the County of Cass; An Act to Create and Organize the County of Scott; Theodore C. Pease, ed., Illinois Election Returns, 1818-1848, 333, 352, 355, n4; Illinois Senate Journal. 1842. 13th G. A., 1st sess., 3-4, 133.
7Henry E. Dummer, a Whig, did run against Democrat James Gillham in the 1842 election, and lost. Gillham was seated by the Senate, but was later voted out in favor of mid-term Senator Thomas Killpatrick, who had been elected in 1840 to represent Morgan and Scott.
Theodore C. Pease, ed., Illinois Election Returns, 1818-1848, 333, 352, 355, n4.
8After the 1842 election, Democrats still held a solid majority in both chambers of the Illinois General Assembly. At this time, members of the General Assembly elected U.S. Senators.
Sangamo Journal (Springfield, IL), 26 August 1842, 2:7.
9This is likely John W. Smith, a prominent Sangamon County Whig.
10The law regulating elections required the clerks of the county commissioners’ courts to deliver, thirty days prior to a general election or twenty days prior to a special election, notice to the sheriff of the county of the date, time, and place of the election, in addition to the offices being decided. The sheriff was required to post those notices publicly for fifteen days prior to a general election, and for at least eight days prior to a special election.
“An Act Regulating Elections,” 1 June 1829, Public and General Statute Laws of Illinois (1839), 261-62.

Autograph Letter Signed, 4 page(s), Lincoln Collection, Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum (Springfield, IL).