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Resolved by the general assembly two thirds concurring herin[herein], that it be recommended to the people
^electors^ of the State of Illinois at their next general election ^for Representatives^ to vote for or against a convention2 to amend the constitution of this state3
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1On February 7, 1837, John Hamlin introduced a resolution in the Senate, calling for the creation of a joint select committee to prescribe the time of holding
courts in Illinois’ 6th and 7th Judicial Circuits. The Senate adopted the resolution on February 8. On February
14, the House of Representatives referred the resolution to a select committee, which reported back with a substitute
on February 23. The substitute resolution proposed the amendment of the state constitution
in several ways, including the prohibition of slavery, making members of the General Assembly ineligible for positions appointed by the General Assembly, prescribing term limits
for Circuit and Supreme Court Judges, abolishing the Council of Revision, and several other changes. Stephen A. Douglas proposed amending the substitute by striking out everything except the paragraph
shown here. The House voted to insert Douglas’s amendment by a vote of 55 yeas to
29 nays, Abraham Lincoln voting nay. On February 27, the Senate voted to table the resolution by a vote of
20 yeas to 8 nays.
Illinois House Journal. 1836. 10th G. A., 1st sess., 525, 590-91, 683-86, 737; Illinois Senate Journal. 1836. 10th G. A., 1st sess., 362, 369, 512, 539-40.
3Illinois did not hold a state constitutional convention until 1847, and then by a
vote of the people the state ratified a new constitution on March 6,1848. Like the
previous one, the new constitution prohibited slavery. It also added a prohibition
on civil appointments and appointments to statewide office for members of the Illinois
General Assembly, it defined nine-year terms for Illinois Supreme Court justices and
six-year terms for circuit court judges, and it abolished the Council of Revision.
“Constitution of the State of Illinois,” approved 6 March 1848, Laws of the State of Illinois (1849), 3-26.
Handwritten Document, 2 page(s), Folder 496, GA Session 10-1, Illinois State Archives (Springfield, IL) ,