Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

In force Jan.[January] 16, 1836.

AN ACT to authorise the settlement of the accounts of the board of Commissioners for the improvement of the navigation of the Kaskaskia river.
1

Edward Newsham to settle accouuts, &c[etc.]

To report.

Act repealed & board dissolved

Sec.[Section] 1. Be it enacted by the people of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly, That Edward Newsham, is hereby authorised to settle the outstanding accounts of the board of commissioners for the improvement of the navigation of the Kaskaskia river. Said Newsham is empowered to demand, receive, or sue for any amount due said board; and to pay over, and settle any outstanding accounts, or demands against said board, and report the same to the

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auditor of public accounts, as soon as said accounts and demands are liquidated, for all other purposes than is recited in this act. The said board of commissioners for the improvement of the Kaskaskia river, is hereby repealed, and said board dissolved.2

This act to take effect from and after its passage.

Approved, Jan. 16, 1836.

1On December 24, 1835, Alexander M. Jenkins in the Senate presented a report from the surviving commissioners appointed to superintend the improvement of the navigation of the Kaskaskia River. The Senate referred the report to a select committee. Responding to the report, Adam W. Snyder of the select committee introduced SB 101 in the on January 11, 1836. The Senate passed the bill unamended on January 12. The House of Representatives passed the bill unamended on January 14. On January 16, the Council of Revision approved the bill and the act became law.
Illinois House Journal. 1835. 9th G. A., 2nd sess., 301, 307-08, 329-30, 345, 358; Illinois Senate Journal. 1835. 9th G. A., 2nd sess., 104-105, 203-204, 222, 247, 267, 280.

2With its low, timber-covered banks, the Kaskaskia River was beset by regular flooding and numerous logjams that made navigation difficult if not impossible for much of the year. In 1829, the General Assembly created a Board of Commissioners for the improvement of the river, and for this task they appropriated $2,000 from the sale of the Vermilion Saline Reserve Lands and $2,000 from the sale of Vandalia town lots. The legislature appointed Edward Newsham, Samuel Morrison, Hartshorn White, Charles Slade, and William L. D. Ewing as the Board of Commissioners. No funds were made available from the sales of the saline lands, and in 1835 the General Assembly diverted the $2,000 from the Vandalia lots to a handful of counties for various internal improvement projects. In December 1835, Newsham and Ewing, the only surviving members of the Board, reported to the General Assembly that they had conducted virtually no work on the river due to lack of funding. They recommended that the legislature dissolve the Board and direct that the small amount of remaining funds be used to settle the Board’s accounts. In 1837, the General Assembly passed an internal improvement appropriations law that allocated $50,000 to the Board of Public Works to improve navigation on the Kaskaskia. The Board of Public Works expended over $13,000 on the Kaskaskia River before the General Assembly repealed the internal improvement system in 1841.
Bishop Davenport, A History and New Gazetteer, or Geographical Dictionary, of North America and the West Indies (New York: S. W. Benedict, 1843), 302; “An Act to Provide for the Improvement of the Kaskaskia River,” 23 January 1829, Revised Code of Laws, of Illinois (1829), 124-26; Sec. 12 of “An Act Providing for the Sale of the Vermilion Saline Reserve, and Appropriating the Avails Thereof,” 19 January 1829, Revised Code of Laws, of Illinois (1829), 143-49; John H. Krenkel, Illinois Internal Improvements, 1818-1848 (Cedar Rapids, IA: Torch Press, 1958), 14, 101-02; Illinois Senate Journal. 1835. 9th G. A., 2nd sess., 104-05.