In force, Dec. 4, 1838.
AN ACT to prohibit the circulation of bank notes of a less denomination than five
dollars.
1No person allowed to issue notes less than five dollars.
Penalty for so doing.
Proviso.
Sec.[Section] 1. Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly, That from and after the first day of September next, no person or persons shall be permitted to utter or pass in this State, as or in lieu of money, any bank bill or note, made or issued by any banking institution,
or purporting to have been made or issued by any banking institution, of a less denomination,
or for a less sum than five dollars; and each and every person or persons offending herein, shall forfeit and pay the
sum of five dollars for every offence; which may be recovered, with cost of suit,
by action of debt, or assumpsit, before any justice of the peace, by any person who
will sue for the same: Provided, The provisions of this act shall not apply to the uttering or passing of any bank
bill or note, issued by any banking institution in this State authorized by its charter to make, utter, or issue, bills or notes of a less denomination
than five dollars.2
Such notes not collectable.
Sec. 2. That any person or persons who shall use or lend any bill or note of any bank
within the provisions of the first section of this act, for a less denomination than
five dollars, and who shall take obligations in writing, or verbal promise, for the
re-payment thereof, of any note or bill of the charter (character) and description
aforesaid, loaned as aforesaid, shall not be permitted to collect the same; and it shall be competent for the defendant,
in any suit brought for the collection thereof, to plead that the obligation in writing,
or verbal promise, was made and executed or given for and in consideration of notes
and bills of a less denomination than five dollars, made, uttered, and issued by incorporated
companies, or by banking institutions, other than those excepted in the proviso to
the first section of this act; which plea, when so made, shall be deemed good in law:
and the plea so pleaded shall be deemed a bar to the action.
<Page 2>
Plea in bar of demand, good.
Liability of issuing.
Sec. 3. If any person or persons shall utter or pass, as or in lieu of money, any note
or bill issued and published by any joint stock or other company not incorporated,
or purporting to have been so issued or published; such person or persons shall not
be permitted to collect any demands arising therefrom; and the plea allowed in the second section of this act, shall be taken and allowed
a good and sufficient plea, in bar of any such demand; and such person or persons
so uttering or passing notes or bills issued and published as aforesaid, shall be
deemed and considered swindlers; and shall be liable to indictment as such; and, upon conviction, shall be fined,
in any sum not less than one hundred dollars, nor more than one thousand dollars,
for each offence.3
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12/04/1838
12/04/1838
Certificate of Sec.[Secretary] State.
This bill having been laid before the Council 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.1Peter Pruyne introduced SB 56 in the Senate on July 15, 1837. The Senate referred the bill to the Committee on the Judiciary.
The Committee on the Judiciary reported back the bill on July 20 with an amendment,
in which the Senate concurred. The Senate passed the bill as amended on July 21.
The House of Representatives concurred on the same day. 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 of the General Assembly (Vandalia, IL: William Walters, 1837), 151, 163-64, 175; Journal of the Senate of the Tenth General Assembly of the State of Illinois, at a
Special Session (Vandalia, IL: William Walters, 1837), 69, 104-105, 117, 139, 141.
2At this time, other states were passing similar laws to limit bank notes of small
denominations, Congress had enacted a law prohibiting such notes on public accounts,
and President Andrew Jackson noted this trend in his Eighth Annual Message to Congress
as evidence of anti-banking sentiments in America.
Sangamo Journal, 7 January 1837, 4:4; “An Act Making Appropriations for the Payment of the Revolutionary
and Other Pensioners of the United States, for the Year One Thousand Eight Hundred
and Thirty-six,” 14 April 1836, Statutes at Large of the United States, 5:9; Andrew Jackson, Eighth Annual Message to Congress, 6 December 1836, U.S. Senate Journal, 24th Cong., 2nd sess., 6 December 1836, 26: 17.
Printed Document, 2 page(s), Laws of the State of Illinois, Passed by the Eleventh General Assembly (Vandalia, IL: William Walters, 1839), 79-80, GA Session: 11-1