Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

In force, Feb.[February] 26, 1841.

An ACT to amend an act to incorporate the Colleges therein named.
1

Section repealed.

Sec.[Section] 1. Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly, That the twelfth section of the above entitled act is hereby repealed.2

Proviso repealed.

Sec. 2. That the proviso to the seventh section of said act, be, and the same is hereby repealed.3

Proviso.

Sec. 3. Provided further, That the same privileges be extended to McDonough college, and all other incorporated colleges within this State that have the same restrictions in their charters.4

Approved, February 26, 1841.

1On December 29, 1840, John J. Hardin in the House of Representatives presented the petition of trustees of Illinois College, requesting an alteration in the College’s charter. The House referred the petition to a select committee. In response to this petition, Hardin of the aforesaid select committee introduced HB 162 in the House on February 3, 1841. The House referred the bill to the Committee on Internal Improvements. The Committee on Internal Improvements reported back the bill on February 4 with amendments, in which the House concurred. On February 10, the House further amended the bill by adding a third section. The House passed the bill as amended. The Senate concurred on February 24. On February 26, the Council of Revision approved the bill and the act became law.
Illinois House Journal. 1840. 12th G. A., 158, 316, 323-24, 341, 361-62, 494, 522, 529, 530; Illinois Senate Journal. 1840. 12th G. A., 290, 296, 385-86.

2Section twelve of the act allowed the colleges incorporated thereby to own or hold in perpetuity up to but not exceeding 640 acres. Donations of land over 640 acres could be held for three years, at which time the land would revert back to the donor.

3Section seven of the act stipulated in part that the trustees of the respective colleges incorporated could establish additional department of study as the needs of their respective communities dictated. The proviso stipulated, however, that the right to establish new departments did not authorize trustees to establish theology departments in any other their respective colleges.

4On February 10, 1841, the House of Representatives amended the bill by adding this section. Section four of the act incorporating McDonough College prohibited establishment of a department of theology. Section nine included the 640-acre limitation on land ownership. Prior to 1849, Illinois had no general incorporation law governing colleges and universities. Incorporators of prospective colleges were required to petition the General Assembly for individual charters. Early Illinois general assemblies were less than enthusiastic about colleges and universities, as many legislators were unconvinced about the value of higher education and suspicious of the movement to establish institutions of higher learning. The fact that the impetus for schools came from Baptists, Presbyterians, and other Protestant denominations added to the legislators’s discomfort fears about undue religious influence in education and divisive sectarianism. Schools incorporated prior to 1835 had provisions in their charters prohibiting the establishment of theological departments and use of religious tests in selecting trustees and admitting students. During Abraham Lincoln’s time in the General Assembly, legislators incorporated approximately thirteen schools whose charters included prohibitions on theological departments, restrictions on land ownership, and strictures insuring religious liberty and toleration. By 1840, however, views on education had changed, prompting repeal of restrictions on theological departments and land ownership. In January 1849, the General Assembly enacted a statute for the general incorporation of institutions of higher learning. This statute placed no restrictions on theological departments, but it did limit land holdings to one thousand acres at any one time.
Illinois House Journal. 1840. 12th G. A., 361-62; Newton Bateman and Paul Selby, eds., Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois: Cook County Edition (Chicago: Munsell, 1905), 1:111-12, 291; Charles E. Frank, Pioneers’s Progress: Illinois College, 1829-1979 (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1979), 29-30; “An Act for the Incorporation of Institutions of Learning,” January 26, 1849, Laws of the State of Illinois (1849), 86-87.