Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

In force, Jan.[January] 13, 1836.

AN ACT to establish a State road from Equality to McLeansboro’, and for other purposes.
1

Commissioners appointed.

To report.

Sec.[Section] 1. Be it enacted by the people of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly, That James Hall and Reuben Oglesby, of Hamilton county, and Willis Hargrave, of Gallatin county, be, and they are hereby appointed commissioners, to view, lay out, and mark a road from McLeansboro’, in Hamilton county, to Equality, in Gallatin county, by the nearest and most eligible route for the same, having in view the highest and most suitable ground for the location thereof, and report the same, together with a description thereof, under their hands, to the county commissioners’ courts of the said counties of Hamilton and Gallatin, on or before the first term after the said view, and the number of days employed by them, respective, in each county, in the said work; and the said road, when so viewed, marked, and reported, shall be deemed a state road, and kept in repair as other state roads are.2

When and where to meet.

Commissioners to be sworn.

Compensation.

Sec. 2. The said commissioners, or a majority of them, shall, on or before the first day of June next, or within three months thereafter, meet at the town of McLeansboro’, and, after being duly sworn before some justice of the peace, proceed to lay out said road, as is directed in the preceding section: and the county court of Gallatin shall allow the commissioners a sum equal to two dollars per day, for every day they shall be engaged in viewing and marking said road, so far as the same may be in Gallatin county: and the county court of Hamilton county, shall make said commissioners the same allowance, for such time as they shall be engaged in viewing and marking said road, so far as the same shall be in Hamilton county.

Appropriation to Hamilton.

Sec. 3. The sum of two hundred dollars, heretofore appropriated on the state road leading from McLeansboro’ to Shawneetown, to be expended in Hamilton county; also the sum of one hundred and fifty dollars, heretofore appropriated on the road from McLeansboro’ to Equality, by Blake’s bridge, to be also expended in Hamilton county, are hereby appropriated to be expended under the direction of the county commissioners’ court of Hamilton county, on so much of the road herein directed to be made, as may be in said county of Hamilton.

Acts repealed.

Sec. 4. All acts and parts of acts, coming within the purview of this act, are hereby repealed.

Approved, Jan. 13, 1836.

1On December 16, 1835, Levin Lane in the Senate introduced the petition of citizens of Hamilton County, requesting revival of an act for a state road from McLeansboro’ to Equality. The Senate referred the petition to a select committee. Responding to the petition , Lane of the select committee introduced SB 62 in the Senate on December 31. On January 4, the Senate passed the bill. On January 11, 1836, the House of Representatives passed the bill. On January 13, the Council of Revision approved the bill and the act became law.
Illinois House Journal. 1835. 9th G. A., 2nd sess., 247, 277, 302, 309, 320; Illinois Senate Journal. 1835. 9th G. A., 2nd sess., 132-33, 165, 213, 230, 236.

2State roads were those public roads established or designated by the General Assembly and usually crossed county lines. Only the General Assembly could establish, alter, or abandon state roads, until 1840 and 1841, when the General Assembly gave counties the authority to alter or to abandon state roads upon petition by a majority of voters in the area of the change.
An Act concerning Public Roads, sec. 9; An Act Authorizing Commissioners’ Courts to Alter, Change, and Relocate State Roads; An Act concerning Public Roads.