Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

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

AN ACT to provide for settlements with the representatives of deceased contractors upon public works, and for other purposes.
1

Representatives of contractors to receive amount due.

Sec.[Section] 1. Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly, That in all cases when contractors upon the Illinois and Michigan canal, or upon any of the public works authorized by the State, have departed, or may depart, this life, before completing the contract, and the representatives of such contractor shall relinquish their right to complete the contract; such representatives shall be paid the value of the work executed, according to the price stipulated for in the contract; but this provision shall not interfere with the remedy of the State, or any board with whom the contract may have been made, for non-compliance with the contract, except in respect to the completion of the work after the death of the contractor.

Discretionary powers of commissioners.

Sec. 2. The Board of Commissioners of the Illinois and Michigan canal are hereby invested with discretionary power to pay over to James Brooks, canal contractor, out of the canal fund, any sum of money not exceeding three thousand dollars, in full indemnification of the saidBrooks for the loss of his property by the lawless and violent proceedings of a late mob on said canal.2

Approved, March 2, 1839.

1An unknown senator introduced Miscellaneous SB 6 in the Senate on or before February 26, 1839. The Senate referred the bill to the Committee on Canals and Canal Lands. The Committee on Canals and Canal Lands reported back the bill on February 26 with amendments, in which the Senate concurred. The Senate passed the bill as amended. On March 1, House of Representatives amended the bill by adding a new section. The House passed the bill as amended, amending the title by adding the words “and for other purposes.” On March 2, the Senate concurred in the House amendments. Later that same day, the Council of Revision then approved the bill, and the act became law.
Illinois House Journal. 1838. 11th G. A., 1st sess., 521, 585-86; Illinois Senate Journal. 1838. 11th G. A., 1st sess., 420, 471-72, 496, 506, 510, 512.

2On March 1, 1839, the House of Representatives added this section. On February 19 and 20, 1838, Irish canal workers near Joliet, upon learning that the bank notes given to them for their wages were only worth a fraction of their face value, had ceased work and attacked Brooks, injuring him and destroying his property. In a letter to the canal commissioners, Brooks complained that “outrages by the Irish” made it “unsafe” to continue work on the Canal and, moreover, if it were safe, he would be unable to work because of his injuries. He noted further that he had a “large amount of property on or about my works” which was “exposed to the rapacity of the Irish,” and “no men who can, or who dare to take measures to preserve my property.”
Illinois House Journal. 1838. 11th G. A., 1st sess., 585; James Brooks to the Commissioner of the Illinois and Michigan Canal,” February 22, 1838, in Robert E. Bailey and Elaine Shemoney Evans, The Illinois and Michigan Canal 1827-1911: A Selection of Documents from the Illinois State Archives (Springfield: Illinois State Archives, 1978), 11.