Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

1

Whereas the act of congress, entitled “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” passed April 18^th 1818 & by the Constitution of the State of Illinois formed in pursuance of said act of Congress, the Northern boundary line of said state is defined to be 42 degrees 30 minutes N. Lat:[North Latitude] and whereas said the aforesaid constitution of the said state of Illinois is declared by a resolution of congress approved Dec 3. 1818 to be republican & in conformity to the principles of the articles of compact between the original states and the people and states in the Ty. N. W. of the River Ohio passed on the 13^th July 1787 & whereas it is further declared by said Resolution that the said state of Illinois shall be one, of the United States of America, and to be admitted into the Union on an equal footing with the original states in all respects whatever. And whereas the

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aforesaid Northern boundary line of said state has since been regularly established by commissioners on the part of the U.S. & of said state; and whereas claims have been interposed ^before^ by Congress by Michigan & the [~~...~~?] Wisconsin Territories to a portion of the T’y of said said state lying south of said boundary line.

Therefore be it resolved by the General assembly of the state of Illinois that Congress tha Congress has no power to divest the state of Illinois of any portion of her territory [~~...~~?] lying within her constitutional limits, and vested in her & guaranteed to her in the solemn manner aforesaid

Resolved that our Senators in Congress be instructed & our Representatives requested to oppose any claim that may be urged upon Congress in any shape whatever to any por-

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tion of territory lying within the constitutional limits of the said state of Illinois

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01/17/1835
Prickett, David (Pricket)

adopted by H. R. Jan 17. 1835
D. Pricket Clk[Clerk] H. R.

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14

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Resolutions instructing our Senators and requesting our representatives to oppose the claims of Michigan to any portion of our northern territory lying within the constitutional limits of this state.

1On December 24, 1834, the House of Representatives formed a select committee to draft resolutions instructing the state’s senators and requesting its representatives in Congress to oppose any claims of the Wisconsin and Michigan territories to territory along Illinois’s northern boundary. Orlando B. Ficklin from the aforesaid select committee introduced a resolution to that effect in the House on January 17, 1835, and the House adopted it. On January 20, the Senate tabled the resolution.
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, IL: J. Y. Sawyer, 1835), 155, 316-17; 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, IL: J. W. Sawyer, 1835),277, 287-88.