A Bill for: An Act to prescribe the punishment of offences committed by Mobs.
1Sec.[Section] 1. Be it enacted by the people of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly, That when any two or more persons shall assemble them selves together, either Secretly,
or riotouly, for the purpose of inflicting any bodily injury on any other person, or persons,
or for the purpose of injuring, or destroying any building, or other property, Such
assemblage of persons shall be deemed a mob
Sec. 2. If the crime of murder shall be committed by any person engaged in a mob, all
the persons engaged in such mob shall ^Severally^ be deemed guilty of Murder. And upon conviction thereof, shall, Severally, be punished,
as in other cases of murder. provided, that if said conviction shall be had upon circumstacial evidence, only, the punishment shall be, by confinement in the penitentiary for any
term, not less than two years, but may extend to life.
Sec. 3. That if any other offence, or crime, under the laws of this state, shall be committed by any person engaged in any mob, all the persons engaged in
such ^mob^ shall be deemed guilty of the offences, ^or crime^ what ever it may be, in principal; and shall upon conviction, shall be severally punished in the manner prescribed by the
...?] of the offence, or crime ^was committed^ by some one, or more, engaged in such mob; and that the accused was engaged in
such mob, at the time, intentionally. And provided further: that it shall, in no case, under this act, be necessary to prove that more than
two persons were engaged in such mob.
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the laws of this state, for the offence or crime for which such conviction may be had. Provided: that in prosecutions under this act, it shall be necessary, only, to prove the mob,
that commission of the [Sec. 4. That each and all persons assembling in the manner & for the purposes prescribed
in the first section of this act, shall be deemed guilty of a high misdemeanor; and
may be Jointly or severally indicted. therefore, and upon conviction thereof, shall
be fined in any sum not less than fifty dollars, nor more than one thousand dollars
^each^, or emprisoned any term not less than six months, nor more than five years.
Sec. 5. This ^act^ shall be construed liberally in favor of the prosecution: Its object being to prevent
persons, so disposed, from taking the laws into their own hands, and commiting violence upon others or their property, for supposed, or actual crime, without ^giving^ them a trial, according to their constitutional rights
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304.
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36
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A Bill for An Act to prescribe the punishment of offences committed by mobs
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[02]/[20]/[1839]
[02]/[20]/[1839]
2
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[02]/[25]/[1839]
[02]/[25]/[1839]
com Judiciary vote not taken
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[02]/[25]/[1839]
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Rejected
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rejected
1Isaac P. Walker of the Committee on Finance, of which Abraham Lincoln was a member, introduced HB 365 in the House of Representatives on February 20, 1839. On February 25, the House refused to order the bill engrossed
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), 459, 505.
Handwritten Document, 4 page(s), Folder 302, HB 365, GA Session 11-1, Illinois State Archives (Springfield, IL)