Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

In force, 26th Feb.[February] 1837

AN ACT to legalize the sales of Sections sixteen in Townships ten north, of ranges eleven and thirteen west, in Greene county.
1
That Whereas, the School Commissioner of Greene county, under the various laws for the sale of sections sixteen in each township for the use of schools, did proceed to sell sections sixteen in townships ten north, of ranges eleven and thirteen west of the third principal meridian in said county, without complying strictly with said laws, in the petition of the inhabitants and the sub-divisions of the said sections: Now therefore, in order to legalize said sales, and quiet the titles to all the lands thus sold in said sections,

Sec.[Section] 1. Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly, That the sales made by the school commissioner of Greene county, of sections sixteen in townships ten north of ranges eleven and thirteen west of the third principal meridian in said county, are hereby declared valid to all intents and purposes both in law and equity, as fully as if said commissioner had strictly conformed to the provisions of the existing laws.2

Sec. 2. That this act shall be in force from and after its passage.

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02/26/1837
Field, Alexander P.

This bill having remained with the council of revision ten days, (Sunday excepted) and the General Asssembly being in session, it has become law, this 26th February 1837.
A. P. FIELD,
Secretary of State.

1On January 9, 1837, Franklin Witt introduced a petition in the House of Representatives from citizens of Greene County, and the House referred the petition to a select committee. Later that day, Revill W. English introduced HB 101 in the House. On January 26, the House referred the bill to a select committee. On February 8, the House passed the bill. On February 10, the Senate referred the bill to a select committee. On February 11, the select committee reported the bill without amendment, and the Senate passed the bill.
Illinois House Journal. 1836. 10th G. A., 1st sess., 224, 396, 425, 519, 555, 571; Illinois Senate Journal. 1836. 10th G. A., 1st sess., 376, 390-391, 393, 400-401.

2In 1818, when Congress passed the act enabling the Illinois Territory to become a state, it granted to every township in the state the proceeds of the sale of land in each township’s Section 16. This money became known as the common school fund.
“An Act to Enable the People of the Illinois Territory to Form a Constitution and State Government, and for the Admission of Such State into the Union on an Equal Footing with the Original States,” 18 April 1818, Statutes at Large of the United States, 3:428-31; W. L. Pillsbury, “Early Education in Illinois,” in Sixteenth Biennial Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction of the State of Illinois (Springfield, IL: H. W. Rokker, 1886), 106-07.