Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

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Resolved by the People of the State of Illinois represented in the General Assembly, that our senators in Congress be instructed & our representatives requested, to use all honorable means to procure the passage of a law of Congress, granting to the State of Illinois the right, to enter at one doll on a credit of ten years without interest at one dollar & twenty ^ [?] ^ cents per acre, a quantity ^of United States land lying within^ of land not ^said state not^ exceeding five hundred thousand acres, the said land or the proceeds thereof to be applied under the direction of the Legislature, to2 aid the said state in works of internal improvement, & to be selected and entered by commissioners appointed by the Governor on behalf of the said state.

Resolved further, that, in case such a law should be passed by Congress, the Governor be & he is hereby authorised & required to appoint three commissioners on the part of said state to select and enter the said lands, & to make report thereof to the next session of the legislature.3

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Frazer, Resolution

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State Enter Public Land

1Elijah S. Frazer introduced the resolution in the House of Representatives on January 16, 1836. The House adopted it by a vote of 26 yeas to 14 nays, with Abraham Lincoln voting yea. The House informed the Senate of the resolution, but the Senate took no action.
Illinois House Journal. 1835. 9th G. A., 2nd sess., 360-61; Illinois Senate Journal. 1835. 9th G. A., 2nd sess., 281-82.

2“to” written over “for”

3Improving the means of transportation was one of the most vexing problems facing Antebellum Illinois. Funding the construction of roads, bridges, dams, and other public works proved challenging for the Illinois General Assembly. One of its early gambits was to petition Congress to allow the state to sell public lands, particularly portions of the Saline Reserve Lands, appropriating the money realized therefrom for public works. In 1827 and 1831, the General Assembly passed laws appropriating the proceeds of the anticipated sale of 50,000 acres to various counties for public works projects.
“An Act concerning the Saline Reserves, A Penitentiary, and the Improvement of Certain Navigable Streams,” 15 February 1827, The Revised Code of Laws, of Illinois (1827), 353-60; “An Act Appropriating a Portion of the Avails Arising from the Sale of the Saline Lands, in Gallatin County, to Internal Improvement,” 16 February 1831, The Laws of Illinois (1831), 12-16.