Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

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Sec[Section] 1. Be it enacted by the people of the State of Illinois Represented in the General Assembly, That here after the Counties of Sangamon, Tazewell, Macon, M^cClain, La Salle, Putnam, and Peoria Shall Constitute the Eighth Judicial Circuit and Stephen T. Logan Shall perform the duties of Circuit Judge in Said Circuit2

Sec. 2. That the Counties of Pike, Calhoun, Greene, Morgan, Macoupin, and Montgomery, shall constitute the first Judicial Circuit, and the present General Assembly Shall elect a Judge to perform the duties of Judge in said Circuit.

to and the3

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7

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N^o 186

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A Bill for an act regulating Certain Circuits therein named

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[02]/[08]/[1837]
Sel. com.[Select committee]
Wheeler.
English.
Shields.
M^cClernand.
Oneille.
Leary
Atwater4

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[02]/[14]/[1837]
rejected

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[02]/[14]/[1837]
Rejected

1 Revel W. English of the Committee on the Judiciary introduced HB 180 in the House of Representatives on February 8, 1837. The House referred the bill to a select committee, which reported back on February 14, recommending the bill’s rejection. At that point, the House tabled the bill by a vote of 56 yeas to 17 nays, Abraham Lincoln voting nay.
Illinois House Journal. 1836. 10th G. A., 1st sess., 509-10, 589-90.

2When the legislature finally created the eighth judicial circuit two years later, Samuel H. Treat became the judge.
An Act Dividing the State into Judicial Circuits.

3These words appear upside down at the bottom of the page.

4This select committee was unusually large so as to represent each of the existing seven judicial circuits: Revel W. English represented Greene County on the First Judicial Circuit, James Shields represented Randolph County on the Second Judicial Circuit, John A. McClernand represented Gallatin County on the Third Judicial Circuit, Edward J. O’Neille represented Lawrence County on the Fourth Judicial Circuit, Alpheus Wheeler represented Pike County on the Fifth Judicial Circuit, Thomas Atwater represented Putnam County on the Sixth Judicial Circuit, and Albert G. Leary represented Cook and Will counties on the Seventh Judicial Circuit.
Theodore Calvin Pease, ed., Illinois Election Returns (Springfield: Illinois State Historical Library, 1923), 290, 292, 295, 297, 300, 302, 303; An Act Dividing the State into Judicial Circuits; An Act Forming an Additional Judicial Circuit.