Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

In force Feb.[February] 25th, 1837.

AN ACT relative to certain school lands in the county of Fulton.
1

Division and sale of school lands by the school commissioners of Fulton county, ratified and confirmed.

Sec.[Section] 1. Be it enacted by the people of the State of Illinois represented in the General Assembly, That the division and sale of the school sections of land numbered sixteen, by the school commissioner of the county of Fulton, in the years 1834 and 1835, in each of the following townships to wit: in township six north, in range three east, in five north one east, in three north two east, in five north four east, and in six north four east, in said county, be and the same are hereby ratified and confirmed, and shall (be) as good and effectual in law and equity, as though the said sales had in all respects been executed agreeably to law.2

[ certification ]
Field, Alexander P.

This bill having remained with the council of revision ten days, sundays excepted, and the general assembly being in session, it has become a law this 25th day of February 1837. A. P. FIELD,
Secretary of State.

1On December 30, 1836, Samuel Hackelton introduced SB 33 in the Senate. On January 30, the Senate passed the bill. On February 8, the House of Representatives passed the bill. On February 25, the Council of Revision approved the bill and the act became law.
Illinois House Journal. 1836. 10th G. A., 1st sess., 433, 470, 520, 586, 594; Illinois Senate Journal. 1836. 10th G. A., 1st sess., 129, 140, 314, 320, 378, 413.

2School lands referred to the land in each township reserved for public education. In 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. In 1829, the General Assembly enacted legislation authorizing and governing the sale of school lands. The General Assembly revised this law in 1831.
“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; “An Act Authorizing the Sale of Sections Numbered Sixteen, or Such Land as May be Granted, in Lieu Thereof, to the Inhabitants of Such Townships, for the Use of Schools,” 22 January 1829, Revised Code of Laws, of Illinois (1829), 150-54; “An Act to Amend an Act, Entitled ‘An Act Authorizing the Sale of Sections Numbered Sixteen, or Such Land as May be Granted in Lieu Thereof to the Inhabitants of Such Townships, for the Use of Schools, Approved Jan. 22, 1829,’” 15 February 1831, Laws of Illinois (1831), 172-76.