Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

In force Feb.[February] 13, 1835.

AN ACT for the purposes therein named.
1

Appropriation to the counties of Macoupin and Montgomery.

Sec.[Section] 1. Be it enacted by the people of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly, That after the appropriations shall have been received in the several counties, contemplated in the act, entitled “An act appropriating a portion of the avails arising from the sale of the Saline lands in Gallatin county, to internal improvement,”2 there shall be two hundred dollars appropriated to the county of

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Macoupin, to be applied by the county commissioners’ court of said county, to internal improvement, out of the sale of the Saline lands in Gallatin county; also, to the county of Montgomery, the sum of two hundred dollars, to be appropriated in said county in the building of a bridge or bridges, under the direction of the county commissioners’ court of said county.3

Approved, Feb. 13, 1835.

1Thomas B. Trower introduced HB 191 in the House of Representatives on January 29, 1835. On February 5, the House referred it to a select committee. The select committee reported back the bill on February 10 with an amendment, in which the House concurred. Representatives proposed further amendments, and the House referred the bill and proposed amendments to a select committee. The select committee reported back the bill on February 11 with a substitute, in which the House concurred. On February 12, the House rejected amendments concerning Montgomery and Effingham counties and passed the bill as substituted by a vote of 24 yeas to 13 nays, with Abraham Lincoln voting nay. On February 12, the Senate amended the bill to include provision for Montgomery County and passed the bill as amended. On February 13, the House concurred in the Senate amendment. On February 13, the Council of Revision approved the bill and the act became law.
Illinois House Journal. 1835. 9th G. A., 1st sess., 436, 518, 526, 547-48, 562, 564, 570, 573; Illinois Senate Journal. 1835. 9th G. A., 1st sess., 507, 519, 526, 528, 531; Illinois House Journal. 1835. 9th G. A., 2nd sess., 394.

2Improving the means of transportation was one of the most vexing problems facing Antebellum Illinois. Funding the construction of roads, bridges, dams, and other public works proved challenging for the Illinois General Assembly. One of its early gambits was to petition Congress to allow the state to sell portions of the Saline Reserve Lands, using the money realized from the sale for public works. To this end, the General Assembly passed a resolution asking Congress to allow the state to sell 20,000 acres in Gallatin County. Anticipating congressional approval, the General Assembly adopted an act in February 1831 that appropriated the proceeds from the sales to various counties in the State. Section one listed the recipients county by county. Congress approved the General Assembly’s request, and sales commenced.
“An Act Appropriating a Portion of the Avails Arising from the Sale of the Saline Lands, in Gallatin County, to Internal Improvement,” 16 February 1831, The Laws of Illinois (1831), 14-15; U.S. House Journal. 1830. 21st Cong., 2nd sess., 14 February, 302.

3On February 12, 1835, the Senate amended the bill by including provision for Montgomery County. Congress approved the General Assembly’s petition to sell the 20,000 acres, and as of January 1841, agents had paid $9,956.50 into the State Treasury from these land sales. Of this sum, the state had distributed $8,408.08 to sundry counties under provisions of the 1831 act and its supplements, including Macoupin and Montgomery counties.
Illinois Senate Journal. 1835. 9th G. A., 1st sess., 519; “Report of the Committee on the Salines and Saline Lands,” 12 January 1841, Illinois Senate Reports. 1840. 12th G. A., 219.