Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

In force, Jan.[January] 18, 1836.

AN ACT declaring the Little Wabash River a navigable stream.
1

Little Wabash declared a navigable stream.

Sec.[Section] 1. Be it enacted by the people of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly, That the Little Wabash river be, and the same is hereby declared a navigable stream, up to the point where the northern boundary line of Clay county crosses the same.2

Sec. 2. This act to be in force from and after its passage.

Approved, Jan. 18, 1836.

1Elijah S. Frazer introduced HB 107 in the House of Representatives on January 1, 1836. The House passed the bill on January 9. The Senate passed the bill on January 16. On January 18, the Council of Revision approved the bill, and the act became law.
Illinois House Journal. 1835. 9th G. A., 2nd sess., 158, 197, 229, 262, 364, 370, 372; Illinois Senate Journal. 1835. 9th G. A., 2nd sess., 202, 282, 287, 289.

2The 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.