Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

1
Whereas in the years AD 1834 and 1835 the school Commissioner of the county of Fulton sold the sixteenth sections of school lands in each of the following townships To Wit, In township six north range three east, in five north, one east, in three north two east, in five north four east, and in six north four east, in said County. And whereas doubts exist relative to the legality of said sales. Therefore,

Sec[Section] 1 Be it enacted by the people of the State of Illinois represented in the General Assembly. That the division and sale of the school lands refered to in the preamble to this act, be and the same are hereby declared to be be confirmed and ratified, and shall be ^as^ good and effectual in law and equity as though the said sale had in all respects been executed agreeably to Law.2

<Page 2>

[ docketing ]
25

[ docketing ]
A Bill For an act relative to certain school lands in the county of Fulton.

[ docketing ]
[01]/[01]/[1836]
2

[ docketing ]
01/01/1836
Prickett, David (Pricket)

to be Engrossed
clk. H R

1Samuel Hackelton introduced HB 101 in the House of Representatives on December 31, 1835. The House passed the bill on January 4, 1836. The Senate concurred on January 15. Neither body enrolled the bill, and it did not become law.
Illinois House Journal. 1835. 9th G. A., 2nd sess., 114, 191, 202, 221, 347; Illinois Senate Journal. 1835. 9th G. A., 2nd sess., 172, 262.

2School lands referred to the land in each township reserved for public education. In 1818, when Congress passed the act enabling the Illinois Territory to become a state, it 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. In 1829, the General Assembly enacted legislation authorizing and governing the sale of school lands. The General Assembly revised this law in 1831.
“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; “An Act Authorizing the Sale of Sections Numbered Sixteen, or Such Land as May be Granted, in Lieu Thereof, to the Inhabitants of Such Townships, for the Use of Schools,” 22 January 1829, Revised Code of Laws, of Illinois (1829), 150-54; “An Act to Amend an Act, Entitled ‘An Act Authorizing the Sale of Sections Numbered Sixteen, or Such Land as May be Granted in Lieu Thereof to the Inhabitants of Such Townships, for the Use of Schools, Approved Jan. 22, 1829,’” 15 February 1831, Laws of Illinois (1831), 172-76.