Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

1
RESOLUTIONS of a Joint Select Committee on the subject of exemption of lands from taxation, for five years.

To urge Congress to repeal law exempting lands from tax.

Resolved, That our Senators in Congress be instructed, and our Representatives be requested to urge upon Congress the expediency and propriety of its consent to the repeal of the law exempting lands sold by the government, from taxation for five years after the day of sale.2

Resolved, That the governor of the state be requested to forward a copy of the foregoing memorial, to be laid before each branch of Congress, and that he also send a copy of the foregoing resolution to each of our Senators and Representatives in Congress.

Transmitted January6, 1837.3

1On December 17, 1836, the House of Representatives adopted a resolution calling for the appointment of a joint select committee to draft a resolution to Congress to repeal part of the ordnance between the United States and the state exempting tracts of land sold by the federal government from state taxation for five years after the date of sale. The House appointed three representatives to the committee, and on December 19 the Senate concurred with the resolution and placed two senators on the committee. John J. Hardin of the joint select committee introduced the resolution in the House on December 27, and the House adopted it. On December 29, the Senate referred the resolution to the Committee on Finance. The Committee on Finance reported back the resolution on December 31 without amendment, and the Senate concurred with the House in adopting the resolution. On January 5, the Senate delivered the resolution to Governor Joseph Duncan for his signature.
Illinois House Journal. 1836. 10th G. A., 1st sess., 67-68, 78, 123-24, 156; Illinois Senate Journal. 1836. 10th G. A., 1st sess., 78-79, 123, 131, 147, 159-60.

2On April 18, 1818, Congress passed an act permitting the people of the Territory of Illinois to write a constitution and form a state government. In section six of the enabling act, Congress offered four propositions to the state constitutional convention which, if accepted, “shall be obligatory upon the United States and said state.” These propositions involved acceptance of key provisions in the Land Ordinance of 1785 and the Northwest Ordinance, and federal government leasing of the Saline Reserve Lands to the state for its use. These propositions were contingent on the convention providing, “by an ordinance irrevocable,” that every tract of land sold by the United States should remain exempt from state taxation for a period of five years from and after the date of sale. On August 26, the constitutional convention accepted the propositions and tax exemption condition. The enabling act did not preclude the state from petitioning for exceptions to the tax exemption compact, which the General Assembly did in this and other instances.
“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,” Act of April 18, 1818, Statutes at Large of the United States, 3:428-31; John Moses, Illinois Historical and Statistical (Chicago, IL: Fergus, 1895), 1:545.

3On January 23, 1837, William L. D. Ewing introduced the resolution in the Senate, and William L. May did likewise in the House of Representatives. The House and Senate both referred it to their respective committees on public lands, and the Senate ordered it printed.
U.S. Senate Journal. 1836. 24th Congress., 2nd sess., 150; U.S. House Journal. 1836. 24th Congress., 2nd sess., 268-69.