Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

In force April 1, 1835.

AN ACT concerning the Sixteenth Section in Equality township, Gallatin county.
1

Commissioners appointed to select lands in lieu of said sixteenth section.

Sec.[Section] 1. Be it enacted by the people of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly, That Giles Y. Taylor, Tiler D. Hewitt and Charles Guard, or a majority of them, be, and they are hereby authorized to examine books, maps, &c.[etc] of the commissioner of the Ohio Saline, and if it appears to said commissioners that the section numbered sixteen,2 or any portion thereof, in said Reserve, has been selected and sold by the State, then said commissioners shall be authorized to proceed on the first day of April, or as soon thereafter as convenient, to select, in lots, of not less than eighty acres, in the name of the inhabitants of the proper township, one section of land in lieu of such sixteenth section, selected and sold by the State as aforesaid,

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and report the numbers of the same to the commissioner of the Ohio Saline lands, whose duty it shall be to enter the same upon his books, in the name of the inhabitants of the proper township, and strike off to the State an equal number of acres of lands heretofore selected, which lands so selected by the commissioners aforesaid, shall be applied, or the proceeds thereof, by the inhabitants of such township, to the purposes of education, agreeably to the laws of this State. 3

Compensation.

Sec. 2. Said commissioners shall be allowed by the inhabitants of the township for whose benefit said selection may be made, one dollar per day whilst necessarily engaged in making such selections, to be paid out of the proceeds of said lands.

This act to take effect and be in force from and after the first day of April next.

Approved, Feb.[February] 12, 1835.

1Stephen R. Rowan introduced HB 115 in the House of Representatives on January 15, 1835. On January 16, the House referred it to a select committee. The select committee reported back the bill on January 31 with an amendment. The House referred the select committee’s report, the bill, and the proposed amendment to a select committee. The select committee reported back the bill on February 5 without amendment, recommending its rejection. The House referred the bill to a select committee. The select committee reported back the bill on February 6 with a substitute. The House voted 24 to 21 against an amendment to the bill, Abraham Lincoln voting in the negative. The House approved an amendment to the substitute and concurred in the substitute as amended. On February 7, the House proposed to further amendment the bill by striking out the last line in the first section. The House voted 30 to 20 not to table the bill and proposed amendment until July 4, Lincoln voting in the negative. The House passed the proposed amendment and voted 30 to 20 to pass the bill as amended, Lincoln voting in the affirmative. On February 9, the Senate tabled the bill. On February 11, the Senate took up the bill and passed it. On February 12, 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), 255, 299, 309, 461, 499-500, 539, 548, 555; 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), 465, 472, 498, 509, 515; Journal of the House of Representatives of the Ninth General Assembly of the State of Illinois, at their Second Session, Begun and Held in Pursuance of the Proclamation of the Governor, in the Town of Vandalia, December 7, 1835 (Vandalia, Ill.: J. Y. Sawyer, 1835), 387, 399-400.

2The Land Ordinance of 1785 defined the use of section sixteen of all townships in states in the Northwest Territory.

3On February 7, 1835, the House of Representatives amended the bill by striking out the last line of the first section: “all of which shall be selected in the same section.” 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), 499-500.