Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

A Bill for an act for the relief of Joseph Street
1
Sc[Section] 1 Be it enacted by the people of the State of Illinois Represented in the general assembly that the marriage contract b^e^tween said Joseph Street, and Mary Ann Street, formerly Mary Ann Cannady, be and the same is hereby dissolved to all intents and purposes this act to take affect & be in force from and after its passage2

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A Bill for an act for the relief of Joseph Street

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[12]/[19]/[1838]
2

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[12]/[19]/[1838]
rejected

1On December 13, 1838, James Copeland in the House of Representatives presented the petition of Joseph Street, requesting a divorce from his wife Mary Ann Street. The House referred the petition to a select committee. In response to this petition, Copeland of the aforesaid select committee introduced HB 34 in the House on December 17. On December 19, the House declined to engross the bill for a third 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), 80, 91-92, 116.

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.