Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

In force, March 4, 1839.

AN ACT to vacate the plat of the town of Savannah, in Iroquois county.
1

Plat vacated.

Proviso.

Sec.[Section] 1. Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly, That the survey and plat of the town of Savannah, in Iroquois county, be, and the same is hereby, vacated: Provided, The assent of owners of any lots in said town, other than the proprietors, shall first be obtained: which assent shall be made in writing, and recorded in the recorder’s office of Iroquois county.2 This act to take effect and be in force from and after its passage.3

[ certification ]
Field, Alexander P.

This bill having remained with the Council of Revision ten days, and the General Assembly being in session, it has become a law, this 4th March, 1839.
A. P. FIELD, Secretary of State.

1On January 12, 1839, Louis Roberts introduced HB 138 in the House. On January 18, the House passed the bill, and on February 4, the Senate passed the bill. The Council of Revision vetoed the bill on February 7 and returned it to the House with its objections. The Council asked that a proviso be added that would make vacation of the plat dependent upon the assent of any other landowners. On February 14, the House referred the objections from the Council of Revision to a select committee, which reported back with an amendment to the bill on February 15. The House approved the amendment and repassed the bill. On February 20, the Senate approved the amended bill. The Committee on Enrolled Bills presented the repassed bill to the Council of Revision, but they neither approved it nor returned it with objections before the end of the session, and the bill automatically became law on March 4.
Illinois House Journal. 1838. 11th G. A., 1st sess., 205, 214, 225, 236, 345, 351, 358, 361, 404, 412, 453, 480; Illinois Senate Journal. 1838. 11th G. A., 1st sess., 190-191, 207, 272, 285, 340, 354, 387-88.

2On February 15, 1839, the House added this proviso in response to objections from the Council of Revision.
Illinois House Journal. 1838. 11th G. A., 1st sess., 412.

3Illinois experienced a time of intense land speculation in the 1830s that resulted in a number of “paper towns,” settlements that were platted and available for sale but where few or no people actually lived. Many of the proprietors of these settlements abandoned them during and after the Panic of 1837. As a result, the General Assembly received a large number of petitions for vacation during their sessions from 1838 to 1841. In 1841, the legislature passed an act setting parameters for proprietors to vacate town plats themselves. Vacating a plat gave owners greater flexibility in the use, fencing, and sale of the property.
An Act to Vacate Town Plats; Alasdair Roberts, America’s First Great Depression: Economic Crisis and Political Disorder after the Panic of 1837 (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2012), 19, 33, 38; James E. Davis, Frontier Illinois (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1998), 210-11; Robert P. Howard, Illinois: A History of the Prairie State (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 1972), 196.