1
Sec[Section] 1 Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois represented in the General Assembly. That an “act entitled an act making an appropriation for a library for the use of the Legislature and Supreme Court[”] approved February 22nd 1839 be and the same is hereby repealed.
Sec 2 The act entitled “an act to amend an act entitled an act to encourage the killing of Wolves,[”] approved February 15,th 1837, and all other acts and parts of acts, which make provision for the payment of bounty
for the killing of Wolves, 2 be and the same are hereby repealed.3
<Page 2>
[ docketing
]
A bill for an act entitled
^
to repeal
^ an act entitled an act making an appropriation for a Library for the use of the Legislature and Supreme Court—and also to repeal a bill allowing a premium on Wolf scalps4
[ docketing
]
[01]/[19]/[1841]
[01]/[19]/[1841]
on table
[ docketing
]
[12]/[23]/[1840]
[12]/[23]/[1840]
Engrossed.
[ docketing
]
[12]/[31]/[1840]
[12]/[31]/[1840]
read 1
[ docketing
]
[12]/[31]/[1840]
[12]/[31]/[1840]
" 2
[ docketing
]
[12]/[31]/[1840]
[12]/[31]/[1840]
To Com.[Committee] on Jud[Judiciary]
[ docketing
]
01/05/1841
01/05/1841
ord[ordered] 3
[ docketing
]
1
[ docketing
]
11
[ docketing
]
1
[ docketing
]
9
1Nelson W. Nunnally introduced SB 39 in the Senate on December 11, 1840. On December 23, the Senate refused to indefinitely postpone
further consideration by a vote of 16 yeas to 19 nays. The Senate amended the bill
by adding an additional section by a vote of 24 yeas to 11 nays. On December 28,
the Senate passed the bill as amended, amending the title by adding after the word
“Court,” the words “and Also to Repeal a Bill Allowing a Premium on Wolf Scalps.”
On December 31, the House of Representatives rejected a motion to table an amendment that would have struck out the second section
by a vote of 19 yeas to 52 nays, with Abraham Lincoln not voting. The House refused to table the bill by a vote of 36 yeas to 41 nays,
with Lincoln voting yea. The House adopted the amendment striking out the second
section by a vote of 53 yeas to 25 nays, with Lincoln voting yea. The House referred
the bill to the Committee on the Judiciary. The Committee on the Judiciary reported
back the bill on January 5, 1841, with an amendment, in which the House concurred
after slight amendment. On January 18, the House passed the bill as amended, amending
the title by striking out the word “repeal” in the first line, and also the words
“and Also to Repeal a Bill Allowing a Premium on Wolf Scalps.” On January 19, the
Senate tabled the bill.
Illinois House Journal. 1840. 12th G. A., 62, 168-69, 186, 242; Illinois Senate Journal. 1840. 12th G. A.,70, 76, 108-109, 119, 178, 181.
2Illinois was originally home to large numbers of wolves and coyotes (also called “prairie
wolves”) that inhabited the margins where the prairie and timber ecosystems meet.
Pioneers also chose to settle in these edge habitats, which provided them with lumber,
water, pasture, and small game. As settlers depleted deer herds and replaced them
with domestic livestock, protection of livestock from hungry wolves became paramount.
By the early years of the nineteenth century, counties began paying bounties for wolf
scalps and settlers began to organize wolf hunts called “frolics.” The Illinois legislature first placed a bounty on wolf scalps in 1823, but repealed the provision in 1825,
and enacted bounties again in 1837.
M. J. Morgan, Land of Big Rivers: French and Indian Illinois (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 2010), 201-04; Richard S. Fisher,
New and Complete Statistical Gazetteer of the United States of America, Founded on
and Compiled from the Census of 1850 (New York: J. H. Colton, 1857), 310; John Mack Faragher, Sugar Creek: Life on the Illinois Prairie (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1986), 12, 135; “An Act to Encourage the Destruction
of Wolves,” 28 January 1823, Laws Passed by the Third General Assembly of the State of Illinois (1823), 86-88; Section 15 of “An Act Supplemental to ‘An Act Making Appropriations
for the Years 1825 and 1826,’ Approved January 18, 1825,” 28 January 1826, Laws (1826), 90-96.
3On December 23, 1840, the Senate added the second section. On December 31, the House of Representatives struck out the second section. During the House debate, William H. Henderson, John Logan, and other representatives argued that the bounty for killing wolves was needed
to protect livestock in newly-settled counties, and expressed hope that older counties
which had benefitted from the bounty system would not deny similar benefits to newer
counties still struggling to eliminate or control predators. On the contrary, Joseph Gillespie insisted that people living in wolf-infested areas had enough incentive to kill wolves
without the bounty, which he saw as a needless expense.
Illinois House Journal. 1840. 12th G. A., 169; Illinois Senate Journal. 1840. 12th G. A.,108-109; Illinois State Register (Springfield, IL), 8 January 1841, 2:4-6.
4 On December 28, the Senate amended the title by adding after the word “Court,” the words “and Also to Repeal
a Bill Allowing a Premium on Wolf Scalps.” On January 18, the House of Representatives amended the title by striking out the word “repeal” in the first line, and also the
words “and Also to Repeal a Bill Allowing a Premium on Wolf Scalps.”
Illinois House Journal. 1840. 12th G. A., 242; Illinois Senate Journal. 1840. 12th G. A.,119. Illinois State Register (Springfield, IL), 8 January 1841, 2:4-6.
Handwritten Document, 2 page(s), Folder 247, SB 39, GA Session 12-2,
Illinois State Archives (Springfield, IL) ,