Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

In force, Jan.[January] 16, 1836.

AN ACT providing for the sale of Section Sixteen, in Township Three South of Range Eight West.
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Sec.[Section] 1. Be it enacted by the people of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly, That whenever a majority of the householders and freeholders of township three south, of range eight west, in the county of Monroe, shall make known by petition to the school commissioner of said county, praying the sale of section sixteen in said township, the school commissioner shall proceed to sell the same, in the same manner as is provided for the sale of school lands in the act entitled “an act authorizing the sale of sections numbered sixteen, or such lands as may be granted in lieu thereof, to the inhabitants of such townships, for the use of schools,” approved January 22, 1829.2

Approved, Jan. 16, 1836.

1On December 31, 1835, James A. Whiteside in the House of Representatives presented the petition from citizens of Monroe County, requesting the sale of the sixteenth section in Township 3 South, Range 8 West. The House referred the petition to the Committee on Education. Responding to the petition , Charles Gregory from the Committee on Education introduced HB 115 in House the on January 2, 1836. The House passed the bill unamended on January 11. The Senate passed the bill unamended on January 16. On the same day, the Council of Revision approved the bill and the act became law.
Illinois House Journal. 1835. 9th G. A., 2nd sess., 191, 205-06, 230, 266, 275, 349, 371; Illinois Senate Journal. 1835. 9th G. A., 2nd sess., 219, 270, 283, 288.

2In 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 that township’s Section 16. This money became known as the common school fund and was to be used to fund that township’s public school. The 1829 Act governing school lands mentioned here stipulated that Section 16 should be sold by the commissioner whenever 90% of the resident landowners in the township petitioned him in writing for the sale; in 1831, the legislature changed this requirement to 75%. This Act applied the 1829 rules to the township that formed the eastern end of Monroe County.
“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; Secs. 5, 6 of “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.