Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

In force Jan.[January] 16th, 1837

AN ACT declaring certain roads herein named State roads.
1

Road from Carrollton by Fayette to county line Macoupin to unite State road from Vandalia to Atlas & the road from Jacksonville to Alton declared State roads.

Sec.[Section] 1. Be it enacted by the people of the State of Illinois represented in the General Assembly, That the road, leading from Carrollton, Greene county to Fayette, in said county, thence to the county line of Macoupin county, so as to unite with a State road surveyed and established in pursuance of “An act to change part of the State road leading from Vandalia to Atlas, in Pike county,” approved December 22d, 1832,2 and the road leading from Jacksonville, in Morgan county, to the town of Alton, in Madison county, by the way of Fayette, in Greene county, be and the same are hereby declared State roads, and shall be opened and kept in repair in the same manner as other State roads are.3

Approved 16th January, 1837.

1James Turney introduced SB 6 in the Senate on December 19, 1836. On December 20, the Senate referred the bill to a select committee. On December 24, the select committee reported back the bill with amendments, which the Senate approved. The Senate passed the bill as amended on December 27. On December 29, the House of Representatives referred the bill to a select committee, which reported back the bill without amendment on January 2, 1837. The House passed the bill on January 9. On January 16, the Council of Revision approved the bill and the act became law.
Illinois House Journal. 1836. 10th G. A., 1st sess., 133, 136, 155, 220, 252, 255; Illinois Senate Journal. 1836. 10th G. A., 1st sess., 77, 83, 105, 112, 180, 205, 211, 238.

2“An Act to Change Part of the State Road Leading from Vandalia to Atlas, in Pike County, 22 December 1832, Private Laws (1833), 196-97.

3State 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.