Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

In force June 1, 1835.

AN ACT declaring Spoon River a Navigable Stream.
1

River declared navigable.

Proviso.

Sec.[Section] 1. Be it enacted by the people of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly, That Spoon River be, and the same is hereby declared a navigable stream from its confluence with the Illinois river up to Cameron’s mill on said river,2 and the same shall at all times hereafter be a public highway, and free for the passage of boats and water crafts from the mouth of said river up to said mill: Provided, That any person or persons wishing to build a mill dam on said river, may do so, by constructing an apron to such mill dam, so as to permit flat and keel boats to pass the same.3

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

Approved, Feb.[February] 12, 1835.

1Samuel Hackelton presented a petition of sundry citizens of Schuyler County praying the passage of a law declaring Spoon River a navigable stream in the House of Representatives on January 6, 1835. The House referred the petition to a select committee. The select committee reported back House Miscellaneous Bill 3 on an unknown date. On February 6, a select committee reported back the bill with a substitute, in which the House concurred. The House passed the substitute bill on February 11. The Senate concurred on February 11. 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), 223, 517, 530, 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), 496, 497-498, 509, 515.

2The town of Havana was located at the confluence of the two rivers, and Cameron’s mill was about twenty miles upriver.
History of Fulton County, Illinois (Peoria, IL: Charles C. Chapman & Co., 1879), 494.

3The 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.