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Sec.[Section] 1. Be it enacted by the people of the State of Illinois represented in the General Assembly That from and after the passage of this act operations upon all the rail roads inumerated in an Act to establish and maintain a General System of internal Improvements and
in all all acts Supplementary or amendatory thereto, shall cease, except upon one one rail road only2, which shall be prosecuted to Legal completion, in the manner hereinafter [?].
Sec. 2. The office of the Board of Commissioner of public works be and the same is hereby abolished
Sec. 3. That the office office of Fund commissioner is hereby abolished.
Sec. 4. After the passage of this act and before the adjournment of the present session
of the Legislature, both Houses of the General Assembly shall meet in the Hall of the House of Representatives and vote by ballot, for the road which shall be completed according to the exception
& provision of the first section of this act. And the rail road receiving the highest number of votes shall be the road ^so^ to be completed.
Sec. 5. That there shall be elected at the same time that the rail road to be completed is selected as aforesaid, one Commissioner of public works, whose
duties shall be the same as those now performed by the commissioners of the Board
of public works, except that his duties shall be [confined?]
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to the works not hereby [subscribed?], which commissioner shall receive a salary of dollars per. annum, and shall have power to employ. one chief engineer at a salary not exceeding
dollars per. annum, and as ma^n^y
assistant Engineers as shall ^be^ endispensibly necessary, at salaries not exceeding dollars, per annum.
Sec. 6. That hereafter the Governor shall perform all the duties heretofore required
to be performed by the Fund Commissioners.
Sec 7. That all persons who now have contracts upon any of the rail roads in this state may transfer the same to the road [?] to be completed by this act. And all damages occasioned to contractors by such transfer
shall be paid by the state.
Sec. 8. That from and after the passage of this act, and the election
Sec. 8. That it shall be the duty of the present commissioners of of public works, so soon as the new commissioner of public works is elected under
this act, to deliver over to him all Books, papers, vouchers, maps, drawings[,] and moneys, now in their or any of their hands. And is shall be the duty of the
fund Commissioners to deliver over to the governor, all Books, papers[,] vouchers[,] and contracts now in their hands so soon as this act takes effect.
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Select Com[Committee] 7
1Isaac P. Walker of the Committee on Salines, to which the House of Representatives referred a petition, introduced HB 233 in the House on January 27, 1840. Representatives
offered amendments, and the House referred the bill and proposed amendments to a select
committee composed of one representative from each of the nine judicial circuits in
Illinois. The select committee reported back the bill on January 30 with a substitute.
Representatives offered amendments, and the House refused to table the substitute
and proposed amendments by a vote of 38 yeas to 43 nays, with Abraham Lincoln voting nay. The House struck out the words “upon one railroad only” in the first
section by a vote of 41 yeas to 41 nays, with Lincoln voting nay, but refused to insert
in lieu thereof the words “Central Railroad, from the city of Cairo to the Illinois River,” by a vote of 10 yeas to 43 nays, with Lincoln voting yea. The House agreed
to strike out most of the select committee’s amendments by a vote of 44 yeas to 37
nays, with Lincoln voting nay. The House adopted an amendment repealing the law of
February 27, 1837 creating the system of internal improvements by a vote of 44 yeas
to 39 nays, with Lincoln voting nay. The House then concurred with the select committee’s
amendments as amended by a vote of 43 yeas to 39 nays, with Lincoln voting nay. The
House refused to table the bill, passing it as substituted by a vote of 48 yeas to
33 nays, with Lincoln voting nay. The House amended the title so as to read "A Bill
to Repeal 'An Act to Establish and Maintain a General System of Internal Improvements,'
and Other Laws Amendatory to the Same." On January 31, the Senate indefinitely postponed consideration by a vote of 19 yeas to 18 nays.
Illinois House Journal. 1839. 11th G. A., special sess., 258, 287-90, 293, 299; Illinois Senate Journal. 1839. 11th G. A., special sess., 220, 226; An Act Dividing the State into Judicial Circuits.
2On January 30, 1840, the House of Representatives agreed to strike out the words “upon one railroad only.”
Illinois House Journal. 1839. 11th G. A., special sess., 288.
3On January 30, 1840, the House of Representatives amended the bill’s title so as to read "A Bill to Repeal 'An Act to Establish and
Maintain a General System of Internal Improvements,' and Other Laws Amendatory to
the Same."
Illinois House Journal. 1839. 11th G. A., special sess., 299.
4These legislators formed a select committee in the House of Representatives that considered the bill.
Illinois Senate Journal. 1839. 11th G. A., special sess.,
258.
Handwritten Document, 4 page(s), Folder 196, HB 233, GA Session 11-S, Illinois State Archives (Springfield, IL) ,