1To the Senate and house of Representatives of the United States in Congress Assembled
The General Assembly of the State of Illinois respectfully represent to your Honorable bodies That there is at present established a surveyor General’s office for the States of
Illinois and Missouri and Territory of Arkansas which is located in St Louis. Your Memorialists are satisfied that the business of that office has so accumulated
as to render it almost totally incompetent to perform the duties devolved upon it
within any reasonable time. Your memorialists, in proof of this assertion, alledge that the land office at2 Quincy was established near four years ago and that Scarcely any of the Township plats for
the district have as yet been furnished that Office; Also more than five years Since
it was made the duty of the Surveyor General was required to cause the Town of Galena to be surveyed and sold so that the inhabitants might be secured in their possessions
which has not yet been done In fact all the business of the office in this State is two or three years behind hand And there is no reasonable prospect of a that the business of that office will in anywise accelerated in the future. Your memorialists also state that two new land Offices have lately been
established in this State, which will have to be furnished with the necessary plats field notes &c[et cetera]
...?] improvements Your memorialists also state that there are vast quanties of land yet to be surveyed; returns to be made and examined and plats thereof to
be furnished. And that On account of the accumulation of business in the office of
St Louis many of Our County surveyors are unable to procure the necessary field notes to enable
them to perform the duties of their offices. Wherefore your memorialists pray your
Honorable bodies to establish a Surveyor General’s Office for the State of Illinois3
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and which cannot be done under present circumstances for two or three years thereby
delaying the sale of the public lands and disappointing the actual settler in securing
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Memorial to Congress relative to the establishment of a Surveyor Generals office within this State.
1Edmund D. Taylor from a select committee appointed to draft a petition to Congress praying the establishment of a surveyor general’s office in the state, introduced the petition in the Senate, and the Senate adopted it, on December 30, 1834. The House of Representatives concurred on January 2, 1835. On January 7, the House and Senate delivered the petition
to Governor Joseph Duncan for his signature. 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), 185, 200, 223, 241; 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), 154, 173, 192, 196.
Handwritten Document, 4 page(s), Folder 311, GA Session: 9-1,
Illinois State Archives (Springfield, IL)