Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

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

An ACT to amend an act, entitled “An act to regulate tavern and grocery licenses.”
1

Acts repealed

Sec.[Section] 1. Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly, That the eighth section of the act to which this is an amendment, and the one hundred and twenty-ninth section of the act relating to criminal jurisprudence, be, and the same are hereby repealed. 2

Grocery defined.

Sec. 2. Hereafter a grocery shall be deemed to include all houses and places where any spirituous or vinous liquor is retailed by a less quantity than one quart. 3

Penalties.

Sec. 3. Every person who shall not have a legal license to keep a grocery, who shall barter, exchange, or sell any vinous or spirituous liquor, by a less quantity than one quart, shall be subject to indictment, and on conviction fined for every offence ten dollars. This act to be published immediately upon its passage in the paper published by the public printer, and take effect from and after the first day of March next.4

Approved, February 17, 1841.

1On December 10, 1840, Lyman Trumbull introduced HB 14 in the House of Representatives. On December 14, the House referred the bill to a select committee. On December 19, the select committee reported back the bill with a substitute. Representatives proposed amendments to the substitute, and the House tabled the substitute and proposed amendments. Representatives proposed another substitute which Abraham Lincoln moved to table. The House approved Lincoln’s motion by a vote of 75 yeas to 8 nays, with Lincoln voting yea. The House tabled an amendment to add another section to the original bill. The House tabled the bill. On December 23, the House took up the bill, refusing to recommit the bill to the Committee on the Judiciary by a vote of 18 yeas to 58 nays with Lincoln not voting. On January 1, 1841, the House tabled the amendment to the amendment by a vote of 46 yeas to 32 nays, with Lincoln voting yea. On January 2, the House passed the bill by a vote of 40 yeas to 36 nays, with Lincoln not voting. On February 6, the Senate passed the bill by a vote of 28 yeas to 6 nays. On March 1, the Council of Revision approved the bill and the act became law.
Illinois House Journal. 1840. 12th G. A., 98, 100, 111, 116, 136-37, 150, 172-73, 173-76, 347, 421, 423, 424; Illinois Senate Journal. 1840. 12th G. A., 132, 165, 168-69, 244, 249.

2The eighth section of the act allowed county officials to deny retail licenses for groceries if a majority of the legal voters in their respective counties petitioned against the sale of alcohol. Section 129 of the 1833 criminal code made it a fineable offense for anyone without a legal license to keep a tavern to dispense alcohol in quantities less than one quart.
“An Act relative to Criminal Jurisprudence,” 26 February 1833, The Revised Laws of Illinois (1833), 200.

3In section two of the 1839 act, the quantity was one gallon.

4This section was almost identical to the section 129 of 1833 criminal code, except that the word “grocery” replaced the word “tavern.” Upon the introduction of the bill, some members of the House of Representatives urged harsher penalties for those selling liquor without a license, while others felt the penalties sufficient. Still others opposed the bill because they were against the license system, feeling that licenses made the selling of liquor, which they view as evil, honorable through legislation. Illinois State Register (Springfield, IL), 18 December 1840, 2:1; “An Act relative to Criminal Jurisprudence,” 200.