Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

In force, Dec[December]. 19, 1835.

AN ACT to provide for the sale of the land that has been selected for the use of Schools in lieu of the sixteenth section, in fractional township, thirteen south, range three west, in Union county.
1

To be held by school commissioners

Sec.[Section] 1. Be it enacted by the people of the State of Illinois represented in the General Assembly, That any lands which have been selected in lieu of the sixteenth section in fractional township thirteen south, of range three west in Union county,2 may be sold by the school commissioner, in the same manner now prescribed by law, upon the petition of the majority of the inhabitant voters of said fractional township, for the benefit of the said inhabitants, any law to the contrary notwithstanding.3 This law to take effect from and after its passage.

Approved, Dec. 19, 1835.

1John S. Hacker introduced SB 3 in the Senate on December 10, 1835. The Senate passed the bill on December 12. The House of Representatives concurred on December 16. On December 19, the Council of Revision approved the bill and the act became law.
Illinois House Journal. 1835. 9th G. A., 2nd sess., 39, 40, 67, 72, 83, 113, 121; Illinois Senate Journal. 1835. 9th G. A., 2nd sess.,20, 23, 28, 52, 57, 78, 80.

2The township described here lies in the southwest corner of Union County, bordering the Mississippi River. Because of its placement along the state’s border, the township is not full-sized and does not include a Section 16.

3In 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.
“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.