Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

In force, Dec. 4, 1838.

AN ACT for the benefit of a person therein named.
1

J. A. Hull dissolved from matrimony.

Future name.

Sec.[Section] 1. Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly, That the bands of matrimony now existing between Julia Ann Hull and her husband Jeremiah Hull,2 of Clinton county, Illinois, be, and the same are hereby, dissolved: and the said Julia Ann shall hereafter bear the name of Carrigan.3

[ certification ]
12/04/1838
Field, Alexander P.

Certificate of Sec.[Secretary] State.

This bill having been laid before the Conncil of Revision, and ten days not having intervened before the adjournment of the General Assembly, and the said bill not having been returned, with the objections of the Council, on the first day of the present session of the General Assembly, the same has become a law.

Given under my hand, the fourth day of December, 1838.
A. P. FIELD, Secretary of State.

1Benjamin Bond introduced SB 15 in the Senate July 13, 1837. The Senate passed the bill on July 15. On July 17, the House of Representatives tabled the bill. On July 19, the House agreed to read the bill a third time by a vote of 45 yeas to 21 nays, with Abraham Lincoln voting yea. On July 20, the House passed the bill by a vote of 37 yeas to 27 nays, with Lincoln voting yea. The Senate and House having laid the bill before the Council of Revision, and ten days not having intervened before the adjournment of the special session of the Tenth General Assembly, and the Council not having returned the bill with objections on December 3, 1838, the first day of the first session of the Eleventh General Assembly, the act became law.
Journal of the House of Representatives of the Tenth General Assembly of the State of Illinois, at a Special Session (Vandalia, IL: William Walters, 1837), 75, 95-96, 119-20, 140, 174; Journal of the Senate of the Tenth General Assembly of the State of Illinois, at a Special Session (Vandalia, IL: William Walters, 1837), 45, 51, 65, 118-19, 141

2In 1837, a bill to in the legislature on behalf of a divorce for the Hulls had failed.

3Although rare, legislative divorce was available in Illinois from 1818 until the Illinois Constitution of 1848, although there were no legislative divorces after 1838. The Hull divorce was the last by legislative act in the state of Illinois. After that time, all divorces in the state fell within the jurisdiction of the circuit courts.
Illinois Constitution, Article 3, Sec. 32 (1848); Eugene L. Gross and William L. Gross, An Index to All the Laws of the State of Illinois (Springfield: E. L. & W. L. Gross, 1869), 13; “An Act concerning Divorces,” approved 1 June 1827, The Revised Code of Laws of Illinois (1827), 181.