Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

In force Jan.[January] 31, 1835.

AN ACT declaring Big Muddy a Navigable stream.
1

Big Muddy declared navigable.

Sec.[Section] 1. Be it enacted by the people of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly, That Big Muddy river be, and the same is hereby declared a navigable stream and public highway, from the intersection of the East and West Forks, in Jefferson county, to its confluence with the Mississippi river.2

This act to take effect and be in force from and after its passage.

Approved, Jan. 31, 1835.

1Stinson H. Anderson introduced HB 67 in the House of Representatives on January 2, 1835. On January 4, the House referred the bill to a select committee. The select committee reported back the bill on January 17 without amendment. The House passed the bill on January 19. The Senate concurred on January 27. On January 31, the Council of Revision approved the bill and the act became law.
Journal of the House of Representatives of the Ninth General Assembly of the State of Illinois, at their First Session, Begun and Held in the Town of Vandalia, December 1, 1834 (Vandalia, Ill.: J. Y. Sawyer, 1835), 155, 201, 210-11, 313, 329, 411, 451, 460; Journal of the Senate, of the Ninth General Assembly of the State of Illinois, at their First Session, Begun and Held in the Town of Vandalia, December 1, 1834 (Vandalia, Ill.: J. W. Sawyer, 1835), 282, 293, 324, 353-54, 383, 390.

2The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 had established the principle of the free navigation of the navigable waters leading into the Mississippi and St. Lawrence rivers and their tributaries. Early white settlers to Illinois congregated near the state’s rivers, streams, and creeks. Due in part to the lack of improved highways and in part to the belief that watercourses would remain the principle avenues for transporting people and goods, Illinoisans took pains to assure their navigability through statute. Lawmakers began enacting such laws soon after statehood, and continued the practice until 1867. Declaration as a navigable stream generally meant that no dam, mill, bridge, or other public work or obstruction could be placed on the body of water as to impede the navigation thereof, or drive the water from its natural channel so as to overflow the bottoms, or produce stagnate waters in any place.
“An Ordinance for the Government of the Territory of the United States, North West of the River Ohio,” art. 4 (1787); “An Act Declaring the Sangamon River a Navigable Stream,” 26 December 1822, Laws of the State of Illinois (1823), 81-82; Newton Bateman and Paul Selby, eds., Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois (Chicago: Munsell, 1901), 393-94.