Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

An act to amend an act entitled “An act to provide for the safe keeping and security of the public money.[”]
1
Sec [Section]1 Be it enacted by the people of the State of Illinois represented in the General Assembly.

That the act entitled “An act to provide for the safe keeping and security of the public money” “approved March 4^th 1837” be and the same is hereby repealed.2

Sec 2 It shall be the duty of the Treasurer of the state and he is hereby required, to immediately demand of the President and Directors of the state Bank of Illinois, all money now held by them under the authority of the above recited act; and the President and Directors of said Bank, are required to pay over the same on the demand of said Treasurer

This act, shall be in force from its passage.3

<Page 2>

[ docketing ]
N^o 34 House

[ docketing ]
A Bill for an act to provide for the safe keeping and delivery of the Public Monies

[ docketing ]
[01]/[05]/[1841]
to be re Engrossed

[ docketing ]
[01]/[05]/[1841]
Re-Engrossed

[ docketing ]
[12]/[29]/[1840]
2

1Wickliffe Kitchell introduced HB 67 in the House of Representatives on December 29, 1840. The House referred the bill to the Committee on Finance, of which Abraham Lincoln was a member. The Committee on Finance reported back the bill on January 4, 1841, without amendment. On January 5, the House tabled an amendment to the second section by a vote of 48 yeas to 38 nays, with Lincoln not voting. The House also tabled a motion to strike out the second section by a vote of 45 yeas to 35 nays, with Lincoln not voting. The House tabled a motion to add a third section by a vote of 51 yeas to 31 nays, with Lincoln not voting. The House amended the second section, after adopting an amendment to said amendment. On January 6, the House rejected the bill as amended by a vote of 41 yeas to 41 nays, with Lincoln voting nay.
Illinois House Journal. 1840. 12th G. A., 161, 181-82, 185, 188-90, 194.

2The 1837 act authorized the auditor of public accounts to contract with the State Bank of Illinois to receive on deposit and disperse state revenue.

3Many Democrats and some Whigs in the Illinois General Assembly were suspicious of the State Bank in particular and banks in general due to the perceived role of financial institutions in the Panic of 1837 and subsequent state debt crisis. As the House of Representatives was deliberating HB 67, Senate was considering SB 67, which was similar in content. Anti-bank rhetoric marked debate on the floors of both the House and Senate. Some of these same issues were evident in the conflict over the Second Bank of the United States.
Illinois State Register (Springfield, IL), 15 January 1841, 2:1-2; Robert P. Howard, Illinois: A History of the Prairie State (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 1972, 202-208; Charles H. Garnett, “ State Banks of Issue in Illinois,” (MA Thesis, University of Illinois, 1898), 35-37.