Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

In force, Feb. 12, 1839.

AN ACT for the relief of the Judge of the sixth judicial circuit of the State of Illinois.
1

$500 appropriated to judge of 6th circuit.

Sec.[Section] 1. Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly, That the sum of five hundred dollars be, and the same is hereby, appropriated to Dan Stone, judge of the sixth judicial circuit of the State of Illinois; and that the Auditor of Public Accounts be, and he is hereby, required to issue his warrant for the same.

Salary increased.

Sec. 2. That from and after the first day of January 1839, the salary of the judge of the sixth judicial circuit shall be one thousand dollars annually.2

Approved, February 12, 1839.

1George W. Harrison introduced SB 66 to the Senate on January 9, 1839. The Senate passed the bill on January 17. The House passed the bill on February 9. The Council of Revision approved the bill on February 12 and the act became law.
Illinois House Journal. 1838. 11th G.A., 1st sess., 232, 282, 316, 369, 386; Illinois Senate Journal. 1838. 11th G.A., 1st sess., 147, 157-158, 183-184, 306, 313, 323.

2In 1835, the same year the legislature created the sixth circuit, a new law established the annual salary for circuit judges as $750. It is not clear why the judge of the sixth circuit, which consisted of counties in the extreme northwest corner of Illinois—Boone, Carroll, Jo Daviess, Rock Island, Stephenson, Whiteside, and Winnebago—would have earned $1,000 instead of $750. Perhaps the sixth circuit’s remote location and more difficult travel in the area explained the need for $250 more than the other circuit judges. All of this became moot, however, in 1841, when the General Assembly enacted legislation to give each of the nine Illinois Supreme Court justices responsibility for one of the nine circuit court districts and paid them each $1,500 annually.
An Act Regulating the Times of Holding the Supreme and Circuit Courts, and Fixing the Salary of the Circuit Judges; An Act Fixing the Time of Holding the Supreme Court and the Circuit Courts in the First, Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth Circuits; An Act to Establish Circuit Courts; An Act Dividing the State into Judicial Circuits.