Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

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Sec.[Section] 1. Be it enacted by the people of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly: That the County Commissioners Court of La Salle County, be and is hereby authorized to levy and collect a special tax ^for the years 1839 and 1840^ not exceeding one per cent. on all the taxable personal property, within said county, for the purpose of building a poor house, and mantaining the poor of said county.

Sec. 2. That said Court is hereby authorized to purchase, and the Canal Commissioners authorised to sell, a tract of canal land not exceeding one hundred and sixty acres, situated within said county, at such price as may be agreed upon by said court, and said canal commissioners, as a site, upon which to build a poor house, for the use of said county.

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A Bill For an Act for the relief of the poor of La Salle County

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[02]/[11]/[1839]
Com[Committee] Canals & Canal Lands

1On January 17, 1839, Joseph W. Churchill in the House of Representatives presented the petition of citizens of La Salle County, requesting passage of an act to collect a special tax to fund facilities to relieve the poor in the County. The House referred the petition to the Committee on Finance, of which Abraham Lincoln was a member. In response to this petition, Isaac P. Walker of the Committee on Finance introduced HB 282 in the House on February 11. The House referred the bill to the Committee on Canals and Canal Lands. The Committee on Canals and Canal Lands did not report back the bill.
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), 222, 377.