Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

In force 2d March, 1837

AN ACT to encourage the killing of wolves.
1

Compensation for killing wolves

How paid
Proof

Scalp to be produced

Oath.

Sec.[Section] 1. Be it enacted by the people of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly, That every person who shall take and kill any wolf or wolves in this State, shall receive the following bounty, to wit: for each wolf known and denominated as the “big wolf,” of six months old and upwards, the sum of one dollar2; for each wolf of the same kind under the age of six months, the sum of fifty cents 3; and for each wolf known and denominated the prairie wolf of any age, the sum of fifty cents, to be paid out of the State treasury on the certificate of the clerk of the county commissioners court where such wolf or wolves were taken and killed. The person claiming such reward shall produce the scalp or scalps with the ears thereon within thirty days after the same was taken and killed, to the clerk of the county commissioners court within the county where such wolf or wolves were taken and killed; who shall administer to the said person the following oath or affirmation, viz: “you do solemnly swear or affirm, (as the case may be) that the scalp or scalps produced by you, were taken from a wolf or wolves killed within this State within thirty days past, and that you believe such wolf or wolves from which they were taken were over or under six months old, and are of a large or small kind,” (as the case may be.)4

Clerk to give certificate

Sec. 2. It shall be the duty of the clerk of the county commissioners court to grant to such persons as may produce the scalp or scalps of wolves, a certificate, stating the quantity and quality of them, and the amount he is entitled to receive for the same, and shall immediately destroy the scalps so produced.

Good for taxes

Sec. 3. Any person holding a certificate under the provisions of this act, who shall produce the same to the sheriff or collector of any state revenue in payment of any taxes due the state, such sheriff or collector shall receive the same as, and in lieu of money.

Auditor to give credit therefor

Sec. 4. When any sheriff or collector shall produce a

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certificate as before directed to the Auditor of Public Accounts, it shall be his duty to give such sheriff or collector credit for the amount thereof.

Clerk’s fees

Proviso

Sec. 5. The clerk of the county commissioners’ court court shall be entitled to receive from the person applying for a certificate as above, the sum of twelve and a half cents, as a compensation for each certificate: provided, in all cases where there are more than one scalp produced by one person at the same time, the clerk shall include them all in the same certificate.

This act to be in force from and after the first day of March next.5

Approved 15th February, 1837.

1William Edmonston introduced HB 35 in the House of Representatives on December 27, 1836. On January 2, 1837, the House referred the bill to the Committee of the Whole. On January 21, the Committee of the Whole amended the bill by changing “two dollars” to “one dollar” and “one dollar” to “fifty cents,” by a vote of 49 yeas to 30 nays, with Abraham Lincoln voting nay. The House then voted to engross the bill for a third reading by a vote of 50 yeas to 30 nays, Lincoln voting nay. On January 25, the House voted against laying the bill on the table by a vote of 16 yeas to 54 nays, Lincoln not voting. The House then passed the bill by a vote of 46 yeas to 25 nays, Lincoln voting nay. On February 11, the Senate passed the bill by a vote of 21 yeas to 15 nays. On March 2, the Council of Revision approved the bill and the act became law.
Illinois House Journal. 1836. 10th G. A., 1st sess., 54, 124, 163, 322-25, 384-85, 558, 571, 605; Illinois SenateJournal. 1836. 10th G. A., 1st sess., 301, 339, 392, 396, 397, 400-401.

2On January 21, 1837, the House of Representatives amended the bill by changing “two dollars” to “one dollar.”
Illinois House Journal. 1836. 10th G. A., 1st sess., 323.

3On January 21, 1837, the House of Representatives amended the bill by changing “one dollar” to “fifty cents.”
Illinois House Journal. 1836. 10th G. A., 1st sess., 323.

4Illinois was originally home to large numbers of wolves and coyotes (also called “prairie wolves”) that inhabited the margins where the prairie and timber ecosystems meet. Pioneers also chose to settle in these edge habitats, which provided them with lumber, water, pasture, and small game. As settlers depleted deer herds and replaced them with domestic livestock, protection of livestock from hungry wolves became paramount. By the early years of the nineteenth century, counties began paying bounties for wolf scalps and settlers began to organize wolf hunts called “frolics.” The Illinois legislature first placed a bounty on wolf scalps in 1823, but repealed the provision in 1826.
M. J. Morgan, Land of Big Rivers: French and Indian Illinois (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 2010), 201-04; Richard S. Fisher, New and Complete Statistical Gazetteer of the United States of America, Founded on and Compiled from the Census of 1850 (New York: J. H. Colton, 1857), 310; John Mack Faragher, Sugar Creek: Life on the Illinois Prairie (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1986), 12, 135; “An Act to Encourage the Destruction of Wolves,” 28 January 1823, Laws Passed by the Third General Assembly of the State of Illinois (1823), 86-88; Section 15 of “An Act Supplemental to ‘An Act Making Appropriations for the Years 1825 and 1826,’ Approved January 18, 1825,” 28 January 1826, Laws (1826), 90-96.

5In 1839, the General Assembly passed an act that repealed the first section of this 1837 act. In December 1840, the General Assembly considered a bill that would have repealed all laws that allowed the payment of a bounty for killing wolves. In February 1843, the General Assembly passed a law that made bounties payable out of county treasuries, repealing all laws allowing the payment of bounties out of the State Treasury. “An Act authorising counties to give a bounty on wolf scalps,” 15 February 1843, Laws of the State of Illinois (1842), 319-20.