Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

1
Sect.[Section] 1. Be it enacted by the people of the State of Illinois, represented in the General assembly:

That the Bands of matrimony heretofore existing between Seaborn Wadsworth and Sucky Wadsworth, be and they are hereby dissolved.

Sect. 2 This act to take effect from and after its passage.2

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17

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A Bill
For an act to divorce Seaborn Wadsworth from his wife Sucky Wadsworth:

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[01]/[25]/[1839]
rejected

1On January 21, 1839, William R. Rowan in the House of Representatives presented the petition of citizens of St. Clair County, requesting a divorce for Seaborn Wadsworth from his wife Sucky Wadsworth. The House referred the petition to a select committee. In response to this petition, Rowan of the aforesaid select committee introduced HB 209 in the House on January 25. The House refused the order the bill to a second reading.
Journal of the House of Representatives of the Eleventh General Assembly of the State of Illinois, at Their First Session, Begun and Held in the Town of Vandalia, December 3, 1838 (Vandalia,IL: William Walters, 1838), 244, 279.

2Although rare, legislative divorce was available in Illinois from 1818 until the Illinois Constitution of 1848, although there were no legislative divorces after 1838, when that body granted its last divorce by legislative act. 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.