Whereas All that portion of the United States Public Domain lying between the North Shawneetown ^Ill.^ & St Louis M^o Included between within the limits of Shawneetown & Kaskaskia Land districts has been in Market now for Twenty years, and much of those lands have been sold by the Government, and the best selections have long since been made, and whereupon that portion of the State of Illinois was many years ago the only inhabited part of the state, but that since that time imigration has advanced northward and public attention has more than ordinarily been drawn towards the northern section ^of^ this growing State, and while this has been going on The eyes of Congress our common council seems to have been turned almost exclusively to the contemplation of the magic like march of that enchanting land, delighted at the progress of things there it2 is not unkind or selfish to call the attention of congress to that old and almost forgotten gem of the state, while public works of vast magnitude and importance are progressing in ^other^ sections of the State that seem to have every fertility of soil & innumerable advantages, thus increasing the sale demand for the public domain, & enhancing the [...?] value of property ^this section has comparatively stood still^ And whereas the country between Shawneetown and S^t Louis and that whole section of the state might be vastly benefited by the a donation of land to aid in the construction of a road from Shawneetown through Franklin county to S^tLouis

Resolved that our ^the^ Senators of this State in Congress are hereby instructed, and our Representatives requested to procure the passage of a law granting Certain

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lands to aid in the construction of a road leading from Shawneetown through Franklin county to S^t Louis

Resolved that by such a grant of land many advantages would accrue to that section of the country in the increase of transportation facilities and the accession of population and that also it would tend to develope the resources of that section ^region^ of the country, by giving life and activity to commerce and agriculture, and be the means of increasing the demand & sale of the Public Domain in all those land districts before mentioned