In force, Mar.[March] 2, 1839.
AN ACT to improve the navigation of Spoon river.
1Board Public Works to make survey of Spoon river.
To estimate cost of improving.
Sec.[Section] 1. Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly, That the Board of Commissioners of Public Works2 be, and they are hereby, authorized and required to cause to be made, as soon as
conveniently
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may be done, an examination and survey of Spoon river, from its junction with the Illinois river to as high a point on the said river as may be thought to be susceptible of being made profitably navigable for steam,
keel, and flat-boats, with a view of ascertaining the nature and extent of the several
obstructions to the navigation of the said river, and of estimating the probable cost of removing or overcoming the said obstructions;
and that a report and estimate be made, and filed in the office of the Commissioners
of Public Works, as is required by the internal improvement law.3$5,000 for improvement of river.
Sec. 2. That the sum of five thousand dollars be, and the same is hereby, appropriated, out
of the internal improvement fund,4 for the improvement of the navigation of said river, to be applied and expended, under the direction of the Board of Commissioners of
Public Works in such manner as they may deem most judicious and proper to carry into
effect the intentions of this act; said improvements to be commenced at the obstructions
nearest the mouth of said river, and proceed upwards as far as the sum so appropriated will extend.5
Right of way.
Water power.
Sec. 3. The right of way, and land for the erection of dams, locks, or other necessary appendages
to said improvement, shall be obtained in the manner and by the authority prescribed
by law, for the time being; and the said Board shall have due regard to the greatest and most useful amount of
water-power to be created by the works they may erect for the improvement of the said
river, for the use of the State.
Com’rs[Commissioners] of 4th circuit to survey part of Big Vermilion.
Sec. 4. That the Commissioner of Public Works for the fourth judicial circuit6 shall, as soon as practicable, cause to be surveyed and examined all that part of
the Big Vermilion river lying below Danville and within this State; and report to the next General Assembly the practicability of improving the navigation of the same so as to admit of steamboat
navigation thereof; and the cost of such improvement, after paying all damages to
private property; and, further, what revenue the State would receive from said work in tolls and water-power.
Approved, March 2, 1839.
1On January 22, 1839, Samuel Hackelton introduced this bill in the Senate. On February 27, the Senate passed the bill by a vote of 17 yeas to 11 nays. On
March 1, representatives in the House of Representatives offered amendments, and the House referred the bill and proposed amendments to the
Committee on Internal Improvements. The Committee on Internal Improvements reported
back the bill on March 2 with amendments, in which the House concurred. The House
agreed to read the bill a third time as amended by a vote of 36 yeas to 26 nays, with
Abraham Lincoln voting yea. The House passed the bill as amended by a vote of 38 yeas to 25 nays,
with Lincoln voting yea. The Senate approved the House amendments later the same
day. The Council of Revision approved the bill, and the act became law.
Illinois House Journal. 1838. 11th G. A., 1st sess.,
539, 573, 591, 594, 605; Illinois Senate Journal. 1838. 11th G. A., 1st sess., 204, 226, 440-41, 471, 504, 506, 510.
2Section four of the internal improvement act created a seven-person board of public works to promote, maintain, supervise, and
direct the system of internal improvements.
3Section twelve of the act authorized the Board of Public Works to make surveys of rivers to be improved as
part of the internal improvement system, and to retain the original surveys.
4Section twenty of the internal improvement act created a fund to finance construction of the public works envisioned in the act.
5The appropriation for the Spoon River represented an expansion of the internal improvement system at a time when concerns over the state’s finances in the aftermath of the Panic of 1837 had some members of the General Assembly and the general public clamoring for a modification or repeal of the system.
John H. Krenkel, Illinois Internal Improvements 1818-1848 (Cedar Rapids, IA: Torch, 1958), 86.
6Milton K. Alexander was the commissioners for the fourth judicial circuit.
Illinois House Journal. 1838. 11th G. A., 1st sess., 447.
Printed Document, 2 page(s), Laws of the State of Illinois, Passed by the Eleventh General Assembly (Vandalia, IL: William Walters, 1839), 285-86, GA Session: 11-1,