Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

In force 3d March, 1837.

AN ACT to improve the Navigation of the Big Vermilion.
1

Commissioners.

Powers.

Sec.[Section] 1. Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly, That Thomas McKibben, George W. Cassedy, Isaac P. Walker, Charles S. Galusha, William Bandy, Frederick Scarborough and Thomas O. Neal, be and they are hereby appointed Commissioners for the purposes herein after mentioned, with power to contract and be contracted with, to sue and be sued, to plead and be impleaded, and to do all other acts and things, to carry into effect the objects of this act, upon the plan, and under the regulations and restrictions herein after pointed out.

Survey of Big Vermilion river.

Duplicate copies to be recorded.

Sec. 2. That said Commissioners are authorized and required, so soon as practicable, after the first day of May, A.D. 1837, to survey or cause to be surveyed, all that part threof the Big Vermilion river, below the mouth of the north fork thereof, lying within the county of Vermilion, in State of Illinois: and if they should deem it practicable to render said stream navigable by slacking the water with dams and locks or slopes, then they are to make out a written estimate of the number of dams and locks, or slopes required, the size of the locks or slopes, the neces-

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sary excavation at such dam, for the admission of boats into the locks or slopes, and the amount it will cost to construct each dam and lock, or slope, and do the necessary excavation aforesaid; to which estimate shall be added a particular statement of the location of each dam and lock, or slope, and the height necessary for each dam: Duplicate copies of said estimate and statement shall be made out by said commissioners, one copy of which shall be recorded in the recorder’s office of said county, and the other retained by said commissioners.

Plat of river.

Copy to befiled with recorder.

Sec. 3. Said commissioners shall immediately after recording one copy as aforesaid, make out a correct plat of said river, noticing thereon the location of each dam; the precise distance between them; and the fall of the stream from each dam to the next one below it, a copy of which plat shall be filed in the Recorder’s office of said county, and a record made thereof.

Proviso.

May contract.

Penalty of contractor.

Consideration.

Sec. 4. Said Commissioners, after performing the duties required by the preceding sections, shall make out drafts of the dams and locks or slopes upon the plan they or a majority of them may think most conducive to the free navigation of said river, Provided, That no draft or plan shall require a greater sum to execute it than is set forth in the recorded estimate; said commissioners shall then contract separately with each and every of the owners of the land where the different dams, and locks, and slopes are to be constructed, for the construction of the same, together with the necessary excavation for the admission of boats according to the plan or draft by said commissioners previously made out, in which contract the contractor shall bind himself under a penalty of double the amount of cost of the work, for which he contracts for the entire completion of the work, by himself, his heirs or assigns, within eighteen months from the date of the contract, according to the plan of the commissioners, which shall be set out in said contract: There shall also be added to said contracts, covenants that the said owner or owners, his, her or their heirs and assigns, shall and will at all times keep said dam and lock, or slope, for the building or constructing of which, he she or they have contracted, in good repair and in readiness for the passage of boats: All of which contracts shall descend and run with the land, where the dam and lock, or slopes, are built. The consideration for which building, construction, and excavation as aforesaid, shall be the free and undisturbed use of the water where the dam and lock, or slope, are to be built, by the person or persons contracting to build the same, there heirs and assigns, for hydraulic purposes.

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Failing to contract.

Convey by deed.

Appraised value of land.

Sec. 5. If the owner or owners of any land where a dam and lock, or slope, are to be constructed, shall not contract with said commissioners as aforesaid, within one month after he, she, or they, may be required, said commissioners are authorised to contract with any other person or persons for the completion of the work in the same manner as is herein before pointed out. In all such cases, said commissioners are required to value so much land on the bank of the river, belonging to said person or persons, failing to contract, as will be necessary for the erection of machinery upon the dams, or slopes aforesaid; and the necessary accommodation of the same; and by deed convey said land to the said contractor upon his paying to the owner or owners thereof, the appraised value of said land, which deed shall operate to vest absolutely in said contractor and his heirs, a title in fee simple to said land.

Different owners.

Sec. 6. When the land on the different sides of the river, where any dam, or lock, or slope are to be built, shall be owned by different persons, the commissioners shall contract with the person or persons owning the land on either side of the river who will bind himself or themselves to pay the largest sum of money, over and above the estimated cost of the particular work—which sum over and above the the estimate cost as aforesaid, shall, when collected be applied by said commissioners to defray theexpenses incurred by them in discharging the duties required by this act

Com.[Commissioners] may employ assistants

Sec. 7. Said commissioners shall have power to employ a competent engineer, to assist them in carrying into effect the requisitions of this act: for whose services, said commissioners shall pay out of the per centage hereinafter mentioned.

Contractors shall pay per cent.

Sec. 8. Said contractors shall each pay to said commissioners before or at the time of entering into contract, as aforesaid, one per cent. upon the estimated cost of the work for which he, she, or they are about to contract, as a compensation to said commissioners for their services, and for the discharge of the expense incurred by said commissioners in procuring an engineer for the purposes aforesaid.

Any person injuring, guilty of misdemeanor.
Fine.

If injure navigation, may be indicted.

Duty of circuit court.
Duty of sheriff.

Costs.

Sec. 9. Any person who shall willfully break, destroy, or injure any dam, or lock, or slope, constructed under the provisions of this act shall be deemed guilty of a high misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof, shall be fined in any sum not less than fifty, nor more than one thousand dollars; and if any person whomsoever shall erect a dam, pier, wier, bridge, abutment, or any thing else by which the navigation of said river shall be injured, or the hydraulic privileges herein mentioned, shall be injured or lessened in value or the enjoyment thereof in any manner disturbed, such person shall be indicted as at common law

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for erecting a common nuisance, and shall, on conviction thereof, be fined in any sum not less than fifty nor more than one thousand dollars, and it shall be the duty of the circuit court, before whom any conviction shall be had, to order the sheriff of the county with his “posse commetatus” to proceed to the place and effectually abate such nuisance, and such person shall, moreover, be liable in a civil action to the persons injured, for all such damages and injury that may have been occasioned by such obstructions or impediments aforesaid, together with costs of suit.

When works are completed.

Commissioners shall deliver all drafts, &c.

Sec. I0. Said commissioners shall have power to sue for all breaches of contracts under this act, pertaining to the final completion of all the dams and locks, or slopes, and necessary excavations required herein; and when all of said works are completed, said commissioners are to assign by endorsement thereon without liability, all contracts made under this act to the county commissioners of the county in which such works are; afterwhich all of said cotracts shall be sued by said county commissioners, when violated said commissioners shall also deliver to said county commissioners all drafts, estimates and accounts which they may have in their possession, relating to the contracts under this act; and from which time their duties shall cease.

Writs of.

Sec. 11. In all cases under this act of a similar nature, the law regulating proceedings under writs of ad quod damnum shall be applicable to the same.

Act repealing, shall not be construed to.

Sec. 12. That the act repealing an act declaring the Big Vermilion a navigable stream, shall not be construed to have any application to this act or any of the provisions thereof.2

Approved, 3d March, 1837.

1On January 10, 1837, George Barnett introduced HB 103, originally entitled “An act to repeal an act entitled an act declaring the Big Vermilion a navigable stream, and for other purposes”, in the House of Representatives. On January 26, the House referred the bill to a select committee. On February 9, the committee reported back to the House, and offered up a substitute bill entitled “An act to improve the navigation of the Big Vermilion river.” The House accepted the substitute bill, and passed it on February 18. On February 23, the bill was introduced in the Senate, where it was sent to a select committee. On February 25, John W. Vance, speaking for the committee, reported the bill back with sundry amendments, of which the Senate concurred. The Senate then passed the bill on the same day. The House also approved the Senate amendment on the same day. On March 3, the Council of Revision approved the bill, and the act became law.
Illinois House Journal. 1836. 10th G. A., 1st sess., 640, 718, 816, 829; Illinois Senate Journal. 1836. 10th G. A., 1st sess., 463-464, 502, 517, 604.

2The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 had established the principle of the free navigation of the navigable waters leading into the Mississippi and St. Lawrence rivers and their tributaries. Early white settlers to Illinois congregated near the state’s rivers, streams, and creeks. Due in part to the lack of improved highways and in part to the belief that watercourses would remain the principle avenues for transporting people and goods, Illinoisans took pains to assure their navigability through statute. Lawmakers began enacting such laws soon after statehood, and continued the practice until 1867. Declaration as a navigable stream generally meant that no dam, mill, bridge, or other public work or obstruction could be placed on the body of water as to impede the navigation thereof, or drive the water from its natural channel so as to overflow the bottoms, or produce stagnate waters in any place. In 1836, Chicago financiers who owned land along the Vermilion River agitated for improving the navigation of the river. If the Vermilion were navigable, it would have connected towns in Vermilion County to New Orleans via the Wabash, Ohio, and Mississippi Rivers, making land along the route more valuable. The Panic of 1837 halted efforts to make the Vermilion navigable at that time.
“An Ordinance for the Government of the Territory of the United States, North West of the River Ohio,” art. 4 (1787); “An Act Declaring the Sangamon River a Navigable Stream,” 26 December 1822, Laws of the State of Illinois (1823), 81-82; Newton Bateman and Paul Selby, eds., Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois (Chicago: Munsell, 1901), 393-94; Lottie E. Jones, History of Vermilion County Illinois (Chicago: Pioneer Publishing, 1911), 1: 92-93, 97-98.