Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

In force, Mar.[March] 1, 1841.

An ACT concerning county seats and county lines.
1

County lines

Sec.[Section] 1. Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly, That hereafter in all cases of division of any county in this State, by petition or otherwise,2 it shall not be lawful to establish any boundary line within less than3 ten miles of the seat of justice of the county to be divided.

Limits of counties

Sec. 2. Hereafter no county in this State shall be curtailed in its limits so as to reduce the territory to less than four hundred4 square miles, nor shall any county be created hereafter, the territory of which shall contain less than four hundred square miles.5 This act to take effect from and after the first day of March next. 6

Approved, February 27, 1841.

1John Moore introduced SB 48 in the Senate on December 17, 1840. On December 19, the Senate referred the bill to the Committee on Finance, which reported back the bill January 18, 1841, with an amendment. The Senate amended the amendment by striking out the words “three hundred and fifty,” and inserting the words “four hundred.” The Senate adopted the amendment as amended. The Senate passed the bill as amended on January 19. On February 2, the House of Representatives amended the first section of the bill by inserting the words “less than” before the words “ten miles.” The House rejected an amendment to the square mileage in the second section by a vote of 28 yeas to 52 nays, with Abraham Lincoln voting yea. The House refused to table the bill and proposed amendments by a vote of 28 yeas to 48 nays, with Lincoln not voting. The House also refused to postpone consideration indefinitely by a vote of 30 yeas to 46 nays, with Lincoln again not voting. The House rejected a proviso to the second section by a vote of 42 yeas to 46 nays, with Lincoln not voting. On February 3, the House amended the second section by striking out the words “after the passage of this act,” and inserting “hereafter,” and at the end of the said section, the words “this act to take effect from and after the first day of March next.” The House refused to table the bill until July 4, by a vote of 30 yeas to 33 nays, with Lincoln voting nay. On February 11, the House refused to postpone consideration indefinitely by a vote of 24 yeas to 49 nays, with Lincoln voting nay. The House passed the bill as amended by a vote of 50 yeas to 28 nays, with Lincoln voting yea. The Senate concurred with the House amendments on February 25. On February 27, the Council of Revision approved the bill, and the act became law.
Illinois House Journal. 1840. 12th G. A., 248, 255, 313-15, 315-16, 371-72, 523; Illinois Senate Journal. 1840. 12th G. A., 86, 95, 173, 179, 297, 409, 429, 444.

2This legislation represented an attempt to stem the mania for subdividing Illinois counties. The Illinois General Assembly created six new counties in 1841, bringing the total number of Illinois counties to ninety-four. Although the General Assembly authorized eighteen more counties through 1867, voters rejected more than half. Illinois added only eight more counties over the next eighteen years.
Michael D. Sublett, Paper Counties: The Illinois Experience, 1825-1867 (New York: Peter Lang, 1990), 11, 22.

3On February 2, 1841, the House of Representatives added the words “less than.”
Illinois House Journal. 1840. 12th G. A., 313.

4On January 18, 1841, the Senate amended the bill by striking out “three hundred and fifty” and inserting “four hundred.”

5Both of these provisions became a part of the Illinois Constitution of 1848.
Ill. Const. (1848), art. VII, §1.

6On February 3, 1841, the House of Representatives amended the second section by striking out the words “after the passage of this act,” and inserting “hereafter,” and at the end of the said section, the words “this act to take effect from and after the first day of March next.”