Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

In force Feb.[February] 6, 1835.

AN ACT concerning the School Fund.
1

Commissioners of said fund authorized to remove the same from U. States Bank into State Treasury.

How applied.

State to pay interest on the same at six per cent.

Proviso.

Sec.[Section] 1. Be it enacted by the people of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly, That the Commissioners of the School Fund2 be, and they are hereby required to receive the whole amount of the School Fund belonging to this State, and now deposited in the Branch Bank of the United States at St. Louis, and deposite the same in the Treasury of the State; and the Treasurer is hereby required to receive said money, and receipt for the same; and the said money, when so received, shall be applied to the payment of demands against the Treasury, in the same manner as money derived from the ordinary sources of revenue, and the State shall be chargeable with the interest on the same, at the rate of six per cent. per annum, the interest to be added to the principal annually: Provided, That if any law shall be passed at the present session of the General Assembly to distribute the interest or principal of said fund, the Treasurer shall, on the warrant of the Auditor, pay over to the said School Commissioner the amount so loaned to the State, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, to be distributed according to law.3 This act to take effect upon its passage.4

Approved, Feb. 6, 1835.

1Cyrus Edwards from the Committee on Education introduced SB 30 in the Senate on December 27, 1834. On January 30, 1835, the Senate passed the bill by a vote of 13 to 10. On January 30, the House of Representatives referred the bill to a select committee that included Abraham Lincoln. The select committee reported back the bill on January 31 without amendment. On February 2, the House amended the bill by adding a proviso. Lincoln moved the previous question, bringing the bill to a vote. The House rejected the bill by a vote of 23 yeas to 30 nays, Lincoln voting nay. On February 5, the House re-considered the vote on the passage of the bill. They rejected a motion to strike out their previous amendment by a vote of 13 yeas to 36 nays, Lincoln voting yea. Representatives offered additional amendments, and the House referred the bill and the proposed amendments to a select committee. The select committee reported back the bill later the same day and recommended rejection of the proposed amendments. The House accepted the committee’s report, retaining the February 2 amendment, and voted 31 to 19 to read the bill a third time as amended, Lincoln voting yea. The House passed the bill as amended by a vote of 36 to 15, Lincoln voting yea. The Senate concurred with the House amendment on February 6. On February 6, the Council of Revision approved the bill and the act became law.
Illinois House Journal. 1835. 9th G. A., 1st sess., 442, 450, 455, 468; Illinois Senate Journal. 1835. 9th G. A., 1st sess., 141, 148, 376, 443, 446, 448, 452, 460; Illinois House Journal. 1835. 9th G. A., 2nd sess., 388-89, 395-97, 400, 404, 409.

2When Ohio and Indiana became states, Congress earmarked five percent of the net proceeds of all future sales of government lands within those states for the construction of roads and canals. In 1818, when Congress passed the act enabling the Illinois Territory to become a state, Nathaniel Pope successfully argued that the proceeds from sales of government lands in Illinois should be earmarked for education rather than infrastructure. Upon statehood, Congress granted to Illinois three percent of the net proceeds of all federal land sales in the state to be used exclusively for education; this became known as the “three percent fund”. Congress additionally granted to every township in the state the proceeds of the sale of land in each township’s Section 16. This money became known as the common school fund. Congress specified that one-sixth of the three percent fund was to be used for the establishment of a college or university; this became known as the “college fund.” Congress furthermore specified that the proceeds from the sales of land in two entire townships would be reserved for a seminary of learning; this became known as the “seminary fund.”
“An Act to Enable the People of the Illinois Territory to Form a Constitution and State Government, and for the Admission of Such State into the Union on an Equal Footing with the Original States,” 18 April 1818, Statutes at Large of the United States, 3:428-31; W. L. Pillsbury, “Early Education in Illinois,” in Sixteenth Biennial Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction of the State of Illinois (Springfield, IL: H. W. Rokker, 1886), 106-07.

3On February 2, 1835, the House of Representatives amended the bill by concurring in an amendment that added the proviso.
Illinois House Journal. 1835. 9th G. A., 1st sess., 468.

4 SB 30 and this companion act might have risen out of agitation over the Bank of the United States. On January 9, 1835, the General Assembly had debated and voted on several resolutions involving the Bank and President Andrew Jackson. The General Assembly laid down provisions for the school fund and fund commissioners in the Illinois Free School Act of 1825. On February 7, the General Assembly did pass an act to provide for the distribution and application of the interest of the school fund.