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Resolved That By the General Assembly of the State of Illinois That our Senators and Representatives in Congress be requested to support the passage of a Law granting pre emption rights to settlers
on the
^un surveyed as well as surveyed^ public Lands to take effect on the expiration of the Law now in force on that subject
upon the same principles with except the necessary alteration of time that pre emption rights are now granted
with a provision that where floating Claims are granted they shall in all cases be
located in the same section the pre emption ^right^ was granted in or adjoining said pre emption right in an adjoining Section
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Maxwell’s Resn[Resolution]
1George W. P. Maxwell introduced the resolution in the Senate on December 17, 1835. The Senate adopted it, and the House of Representatives concurred on December 23.
Illinois House Journal. 1835. 9th G. A., 2nd sess., 109, 138; Illinois Senate Journal. 1835. 9th G. A., 2nd sess., 52-53, 103.
2In 1834, Congress passed a law extending pre-emption rights to settlers on public lands for two years.
That law expired June 19, 1836. Congress again extended pre-emption rights in 1838.
“An Act to Revive the Act Entitled, ‘An Act to Grant Pre-emption Rights to Settlers
on the Public Lands,’ Approved May 27, 1830,” U.S. Statutes at Large 4 (1834): 678; “An Act to Grant Pre-emption Rights to Settlers on the Public Lands,”
U.S. Statutes at Large 5 (1838): 251-52.
Handwritten Document, 2 page(s), Folder 227, GA Session: 9-2,
Illinois State Archives (Springfield, IL) ,