Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

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Sec[Section] 1. Be it enacted by the people of the state of Illinois, represented in the general Assembly, that so much of the fourth section of an act entitled “An act to establish the counties of Menard, Logan and Dane” approved the fifteenth day of February one thousand eight hundred and thirty nine, as previous for a change of the boundary line of Menard County in consequence of the location of the County seat thereof, be, and the same is hereby repealed — and that said boundary line of the said County of Menard, on the East side of the Sangamon River, shall remain permanent as is provided in the first section of the act above mentioned 2

Sec 2. That all that portion of Sangamon County lying west of the Sangamon River, and north of the line dividing sections Twenty four and Twenty five is Township seventeen north, Range Seven, west, shall be attached to, and form a part of Menard County.3

Sec 3. That the collector of Menard County, shall collect of the citizens on the East side of the Sangamon River, who are hereby attached to Menard County, the state and county Tax due from them for the year one Thousand, eight hundred and thirty nine, as assessed by the assessor of said County of Menard in said year,

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and that the said collector, shall on or before the first day of June one Thousand eight hundred and forty one, pay over the same, and in the same manner, as he is required to do in the collection of Taxes from other citizens of Menard County.

Sec 4. This act to be in force from and after its passage.

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A Bill for an act to extend the boundaries of Menard County and for other purposes.

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[02]/[12]/[1841]
read 1

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[02]/[12]/[1841]
ord[ordered] 2

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[02]/[17]/[1841]
mo[moved] to lay on table till 4^th July

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[02]/[18]/[1841]
Refused Eng. [Engrossed]

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14

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3

1John Bennett introduced HB 227 in the House of Representatives on February 12, 1841. On February 18, the House refused to table the bill until July 4, with Abraham Lincoln supporting the motion. Lincoln also opposed a motion to read the bill a second time. The House refused to engross the bill by a vote of 29 yeas to 40 nays, with Lincoln voting nay. On February 19, the House refused to reconsider this vote by a vote of 35 yeas to 41 nays, with Lincoln not voting.
Illinois House Journal. 1840. 12th G. A., 375, 422, 428, 444; Illinois State Register (Springfield, IL), 26 February 1841, 2:6; Sangamo Journal (Springfield, IL), 26 February 1841, 2:4.

2The original act establishing Menard County included a proviso in section four that if commissioners located the county seat on the western side of the Sangamon River, approximately 22 sections west and north of Athens would remain in Sangamon County. The affected area did not include the town of Athens, which remained in Sangamon County. The commissioners located the county seat at Petersburg, on the western side of the river. However, the status of these 22 sections remained in question. In 1840, Thomas J. Nance unsuccessfully attempted to address the confusion by repealing the proviso and designating this area as part of Menard County through a bill he introduced. John Bennett introduced this bill to resolve the boundary between Sangamon and Menard counties. After the House refused to engross it, Bennett tried again unsuccessfully to enact its main provisions in HB 282. The General Assembly did not resolve the issue until it passed an act in 1843 adding land west of the Sangamon River to Menard County and an additional act in 1847 adding land east of the Sangamon River, including Athens, to Menard County.
An Act to Establish the Counties of Menard, Logan, and Dane (1839); A Bill to Amend “An Act to Establish the Counties of Menard, Logan, and Dane,” Approved February 15, 1839 (1840); A Bill to Change the Boundary Lines of Menard County (1841); “An Act to define the boundary lines of Menard county,” 2 March 1843, Laws of the State of Illinois, Passed by the Thirteenth General Assembly, at their Regular Session (Springfield, IL: Walters & Weber, 1843), 94; “An Act to add part of Sangamon to Menard county,” 28 February 1847, Private and Special Laws of the State of Illinois, Passed by the Fifteenth General Assembly (Springfield, IL: Charles H. Lanphier, 1847), 39.

3Although this bill was unsuccessful, the General Assembly transferred most of the land encompassed in this section from Sangamon to Menard County in 1843.
“An Act to define the boundary lines of Menard county,” 2 March 1843.