Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

In force 2d March, 1837.

AN ACT concerning Wayne county.
1

Laws repealed.

To build a bridge

Sec.[Section] 1. Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois represented in the General Assembly, That the first section of an act entitled “an act to amend an act appropriating a portion of the avails arising from the sale of the saline lands in Gallatin county to internal improvements,” approved February 16th, 1831, approved February 11th, 1835 be, and the same is hereby repealed, and the sum of four hundred dollars appropriated by the act to which that act is an amendment, shall be expended as in said last mentioned act, provided, viz: two hundred dollars to build a bridge across Elm river, on the mail route from Fairfield to Maysville; and the other two hundred dollars to repair the state road2

Repair state road.

from Fairfield to Albion; any law to the contrary notwithstanding.3

Approved March 2, 1837.

1Daniel Turney from the Committee on Internal Improvements introduced HB 223 in the House of Representatives on February 11, 1837. The House passed the bill on February 18. On February 23, the Senate referred the bill to a select committee, which reported back the next day with an amendment. The Senate approved the amendment and then passed the bill. On February 28, the House concurred in the amendment from the Senate. On March 2, the Council of Revision approved the bill and the act became law.
Illinois House Journal. 1836. 10th G. A., 1st sess., 552-53, 640, 696, 762, 792, 806; Illinois Senate Journal. 1836. 10th G. A., 1st sess., 463-464, 505, 509, 589, 622, 635-636, 639.

2State roads were those public roads established or designated by the General Assembly and usually crossed county lines. Only the General Assembly could establish, alter, or abandon state roads, until 1840 and 1841, when the General Assembly gave counties the authority to alter or to abandon state roads upon petition by a majority of voters in the area of the change.
An Act concerning Public Roads, sec. 9; An Act Authorizing Commissioners’ Courts to Alter, Change, and Relocate State Roads; An Act concerning Public Roads.

3Improving the means of transportation was one of the most vexing problems facing Antebellum Illinois. Funding the construction of roads, bridges, dams, and other public works proved challenging for the Illinois General Assembly. One of its early gambits was to petition Congress to allow the state to sell portions of the Saline Reserve Lands, using the money realized therefrom for public works. To this end, the General Assembly passed a resolution asking Congress to allow the state to sell 20,000 acres in Gallatin County. Anticipating congressional approval, the General Assembly passed the 1831 act that appropriated the proceeds from the sales to various counties in the state. Section one listed the recipients county by county. Congress granted its permission to sell the 20,000 acres, and as of January 1841, agents had paid $9,956.50 into the State Treasury from such land sales. Of this sum, the state had distributed $8,408.08 to sundry counties. Wayne County had yet to received its appropriation. In a report to the Senate, Levi Davis, auditor of public accounts, affirmed that Wayne County would receive its appropriation out of money realized through future sales.
“An Act Appropriating a Portion of the Avails Arising from the Sale of the Saline Lands, in Gallatin County, to Internal Improvement,” 16 February 1831, The Laws of Illinois (1831), 14-15; U.S. House Journal. 1830. 21st Cong., 2nd sess., 14 February, 302; “Report of the Committee on the Salines and Saline Lands,” 12 January 1841, Illinois Senate Reports. 1840. 12th G. A., 219.