Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

In force, Mar.[March] 2, 1839.

AN ACT to construct a turnpike road from Charleston to Darwin.
1

$35,000 appropriated to build turnpike road.

Tolls and gates.

Proviso.

Sec.[Section] 1. Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly2, That the sum of thirty-five thousand dollars be,3 and the same is hereby, appropriated out of the internal improvement fund,4 to be applied and expended, under the direction and authority of the Board of Public Works,5 in opening and constructing a clay turnpike road from Charleston, via Marshall, to Darwin, in Clark county; the said road to be opened, constructed, and placed on the same footing, in regard to toll-gates and tolls, as the Great Western mail route between Vincennes and St. Louis:6 Provided, That the distributive share of the two hundred thousand dollars belonging to any county through which said road may pass shall compose a part of this appropriation.
7

Duty of county com’rs of Clark county.

Sec. 2. The county commissioners’ court of Clark county shall, without delay, appropriate three thousand dollars to improve the State road8 from York, via Martinsville, to Charleston, to be disbursed under the direction of Jonathan Medsker and Henry Harrison, jr.
9
Approved, by the Council, March 2, 1839.

1On February 19, 1839, William B. Archer introduced HB 335 in the House of Representatives. On February 23, the House refused to engross the bill for a third reading, but reconsidered that vote and referred the bill to the Committee on State Roads. On February 27, the Committee on State Roads reported back the bill with a substitute. The House struck out the committee’s substitute and inserted another substitute. The House amended the substitute by filling in the blank with the words “thirty-five thousand dollars.” The House refused to indefinitely postpone the substitute and proposed amendment by a vote of 27 years to 47 nays, with Abraham Lincoln not voting. The House further amended the substitute by adding a proviso to the first section and an additional section. The House agreed to engross the bill as substituted and amended for a third reading by a vote of 44 yeas to 29 nays, with Lincoln not vote. On February 28, the House passed the bill as substituted. On March 1, the Senate passed the bill by a vote of 19 yeas to 15 nays. On March 2, the Council of Revision approved the bill, and the act became law.
Illinois House Journal. 1838. 11th G. A., 1st sess., 440-41, 487, 540-41, 557, 573, 577, 596; Illinois Senate Journal. 1838. 11th G. A., 1st sess., 457, 470.

2On February 28, 1839, the House of Representatives amended the original text bill by striking out all after the enacting clause and inserting substitute text. This substitute text became the engrossed text of HB 335 and the basis for the act.
Illinois House Journal. 1838. 11th G. A., 1st sess., 540.

3In the original substitute text adopted on February 28, 1839, the dollar amount was left blank. The House of Representatives filled in the blank with “thirty -five thousand dollars.”

4Section twenty of the internal improvement act created the internal improvement fund to hold money designated to finance internal improvement projects.

5Section four of the internal improvement act created the Board of Public Works to direct and supervise the building of internal improvements in Illinois.

6Section six of the 1837 internal improvement act appropriated $250,000 for a mail route from Vincennes, Indiana, to St. Louis, Missouri. Pursuant to the provisions of the act, the Board of Commissioners of Public Works commenced surveys on the Great Western Mail Route, which surveyors completed by the fall of 1837. In August 1837, Illinois entered into contracts with private firms to construct portions of the route, and construction commenced. By December 1838, the Board of Commissioners on Public Works had expended $94, 932.07 on the road, and by December 1840, the amount spent had increased to $244,547,43.
John H. Krenkel, Illinois Internal Improvements 1818-1848 (Cedar Rapids, IA: Torch, 1958), 80, 82, 130.

7On February 27, 1839, the House of Representatives added the proviso. On February 27, 1841, the General Assembly passed an act that extended the proposed turnpike from Charleston to Springfield. On the same day, the General Assembly supplemented this act with another act.

8State roads were those public roads established or designated by the General Assembly and usually crossed county lines. Only the General Assembly could establish, alter, or abandon state roads, until 1840 and 1841, when the General Assembly gave counties the authority to alter or to abandon state roads upon petition by a majority of voters in the area of the change.
An Act concerning Public Roads, sec. 9; An Act Authorizing Commissioners’ Courts to Alter, Change, and Relocate State Roads; An Act concerning Public Roads.

9On February 27, 1839, the House of Representatives added the second section. In 1840, the General Assembly considered but did not enact a bill that included, in the twelfth section, provisions to complete the work on the road.