Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

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Sec[Section] 1. Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois represented in the General Assembly, That any person who shall kill or take any wolf or wolves, within this State, shall recieve the sum of fifty cents for each wolf.2

Sec 2^nd Be it further enacted, That any person claiming such reward, shall produce the scalp or scalps entire, to the Clerk of the Circuit Court of the proper County, who shall administer to such person the following oath or affirmation “You A. B. do sollmly swear or affirm (as the case may be) that the scalp or scalps produced by you were killed or taken by you, within this state since the first day of May one thousand eight hundred and thirty five” which affidavit the Clerk shall file in his office.

Sec. 3^rd Be it further enacted, that the Clerk before whom such oath or affirmation was made, (after causing the [ears?] to be destroyed in his presence) shall give to the person making

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the same, an order specifying therein the number of scalps, the name and place of residence of the person so qualified, on the Treasurer of the state, for the amount of the money that may be due such person by the provisions of this act, which order shall be received by any collector of Taxes, in discharge of any debts due the state, and the person receiving such order from the Clerk, as aforesaid, shall pay to said Clerk the sum of twelve and a half cents for granting every such order.

Sec 4^th Be it further enacted, that the County Commissioners of any County may rais the bounty on wolf scalps taken or killed within there County, to any sum not exceeding two dollars, which additional bounty shall be paid out of the Treasury of said County, on the order of said Commissioners.

Sec 5^th Be it further enacted, that all acts and parts of acts coming within the purview of this act be and the same are ^hereby^ repeald,

This act to commence and be in force from and after the first day of May next.

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23

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A Bill for An act to encourage the killing of wolves

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2

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[02]/[07]/[1835]
Gordon
Carpenter of Hamilton
Harreld
Van Daventer
Elliott 3

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[02]/[10]/[1835]
Rejected.

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[01]/[27]/[1835]
C. W. H. Saturday.

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[02]/[07]/[1835]
sel com of 5 Gordon
Carpenter of Hamilton
Harreld
Van Daventer
Elliott

1Stinson H. Anderson introduced HB 164 in the House of Representatives on January 27, 1835. The House referred the bill and a proposed amendment to a Committee of the Whole House and made it the order of the day for January 31. On February 7, the House resolved itself into a Committee of the Whole to consider the bill and reported back the bill without amendment. The House referred the bill to a select committee. The select committee reported back the bill on February 10 with an amendment. The House rejected a motion to table the bill and proposed amendment until July 4 by a vote of 18 yeas to 27 nays, with Abraham Lincoln voting yea. The House refused to engross the bill for a third reading by a vote of 24 yeas to 26 nays, with Lincoln voting yea.
Illinois House Journal. 1835. 9th G. A., 1st sess., 183, 405, 501-02, 516-17.

2Illinois was originally home to large numbers of wolves and coyotes (also called “prairie wolves”) that inhabited the margins where the prairie and timber ecosystems meet. Pioneers also chose to settle in these edge habitats, which provided them with lumber, water, pasture, and small game. As settlers depleted deer herds and replaced them with domestic livestock, protection of livestock from hungry wolves became paramount. By the early years of the nineteenth century, counties began paying bounties for wolf scalps and settlers began to organize wolf hunts called “frolics.” The Illinois legislature first placed a bounty on wolf scalps in 1823, but repealed the provision in 1826.
M. J. Morgan, Land of Big Rivers: French and Indian Illinois (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 2010), 201-04; Richard S. Fisher, New and Complete Statistical Gazetteer of the United States of America, Founded on and Compiled from the Census of 1850 (New York: J. H. Colton, 1857), 310; John Mack Faragher, Sugar Creek: Life on the Illinois Prairie (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1986), 12, 135; “An Act to Encourage the Destruction of Wolves,” 28 January 1823, Laws Passed by the Third General Assembly of the State of Illinois (1823), 86-88; Section 15 of “An Act Supplemental to ‘An Act Making Appropriations for the Years 1825 and 1826,’ Approved January 18, 1825,” 28 January 1826, Laws Passed by the Fourth General Assembly of the State of Illinois (1826), 90-96.

3These legislators formed a select committee in the House of Representatives that considered the bill."
Illinois House Journal. 1835. 9th G. A., 1st sess., 501-02.