Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

In force, Dec[December]. 8, 1835.

AN ACT concerning the sale of certain School Lands, situated in the County of Tazewell.
1

When may be sold.

Sec[Section]. 1. Be it enacted by the people of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly, That whenever congressional townships twenty-eight north, range two west, and of twenty five north, range two west, of the third principal meridian, in the county of Tazewell,2 shall each contain ten resident freeholders therein, such freeholders, together with

<Page 2>
the legal voters residing in the township, may present a petition to the school commissioner of the county, for a sale of the sixteenth section therein; who shall, upon being satisfied that the petition has been signed by all the freeholders and legal voters therein, by the affidavit of two of such voters, present the said petition to the county commissioners’ court of the county, at the next term after the petition shall have been presented to him, as aforesaid; and if the said court shall be of opinion that the sixteenth section in said township, ought to be sold, pursuant to the wish of the freeholders and voters aforesaid, they shall make an order, directing the school commissioners to make sale of the same: and such commissioner shall, thereupon, advertise and sell the said sections, in the manner, and upon the terms, provided for the sale of sections sixteen, in other townships.3

[ certification ]
12/08/1835
Field, Alexander P.

This bill having been laid before the Council of Revision, and ten days not having intervened, before the adjournment of the General Assembly; and the said bill not having been returned with the objections of the Council, on the first day of the present session of the General Assembly, the said bill has become a law.

Given under my hand, this 8th day of December, 1835.
A. P. FIELD,
Secretary of State.

1On January 13, 1835, Benjamin Mitchell of the Senate presented a petition from Tazewell County citizens concerning the sixteenth section of two townships in the county. The Senate referred the petition to a select committee. From that select committee, Mitchell then introduced SB 63 in the Senate on January 21. The Senate passed it on January 27. The House of Representatives concurred on February 2. Because the Senate and House submitted the bill to the Council of Revision within the last ten days of the first session and the Council had no objections, the act became law on December 8, the first day of the second session.
Illinois House Journal. 1835. 9th G. A., 1st sess., 412, 415, 436, 467; Illinois Senate Journal. 1835. 9th G. A., 1st sess., 227, 292, 324-25, 353-354, 404, 445, 448; Illinois House Journal. 1835. 9th G. A., 2nd sess., 398, 401.

2Township 28 North, Range 2 West was in a northern part of Tazewell County that became part of Woodford County in 1841. Township 25 North, Range 2 West was also in northern Tazewell County, but with the creation of Woodford County in 1841, only the northeast quarter of the township became part of the new county.
Martha L. Benner and Cullom Davis et al., eds. The Law Practice of Abraham Lincoln: Complete Documentary Edition, 2d ed. (Springfield: Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, 2009), http://www.lawpracticeofabrahamlincoln.org/Reference.aspx?ref=Reference html files/LandMeasurement.html; A Bill for the Formation of the County of Woodford.

3The Land Ordinance of 1785 reserved section sixteen of all townships to support public schools and regulated the use and sale of those lands.