Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

An act to provide for the payment of Intrest on the state debt.
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Sec 1 Be it enacted by the people of the state of Illinois represented in the General assembly ^Strike out all after enaction clause & insert^ That the Governor be authorized and required to issue, from time to time such an amount of state Bonds, to be Called the Illinois Internal Improvement Bonds as may be absolutely necessary for the payment of so much of the intrest upon the state debts, as there may be no other means of payment

Sec 2 Said Bonds shall bear interest at the rate of per cent per annum, payable half yearly and be reimbersable in years from thier respective issuings.

Sec 3 That the states[’]potion of the revinew hereafter arising from the Tax upon all land Lands which were not taxable in the yeare one Thousand Eight hundred and forty is hereby set apart as an exclusive Fund for the payment of Intrest upon the Said Illinois Internal Improvement Bonds; and the Faith of the state is hereby irrevocally pledged, that Said Fund shall be applyed to that object and no other except at any time their shall be a surplis theirof, in which case said surplis shall become a part of the General Fund or Common Fund of the Treasure.

Sec 4 ^Stricken out^ That hereafter the Said Sum of thirty cents for each one Hundred Dollars worth of all Taxable property shall be paid in to the state Treasury, and no more than forty cents for each one

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one Hundred Dollars worth of such taxable property shall be levied and Collected for county purposes 2

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A Bill for an act to Provide for the payment of Intrest on the Internal Improvement debt

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[12]/[11]/[1840]
Covell, Merritt L.

to be Engrossed M L Covell Secty[Secretary]

1John S. Hacker introduced SB 36 in the Senate on December 10, 1840. The Senate referred the bill to the Committee of the Whole and made it the order of the day. The Committee of the Whole reported back the bill with an amendment, in which the Senate concurred. The Senate further amended the bill by replacing it with a substitute. On December 11, the Senate passed the bill as substituted by a vote of 21 yeas to 15 nays. On December 11, the House of Representatives, by a vote of 41 yeas to 40 nays, with Abraham Lincoln voting nay, amended the bill by adding a proviso. The House, however, refused to read the bill a third time.
Journal of the House of Representatives, of the Twelfth General Assembly of the State of Illinois, At Their Second Session, Begun and Held in the City of Springfield, December 7, 1840 (Springfield, IL: William Walters, 1840), 105, 106-107; Journal of the Senate of the Twelfth General Assembly of the State of Illinois, At Their Second Session, Begun and Held in the City of the Springfield, December 7, 1840 (Springfield, IL: William Walters, 1840), 68-69, 69, 71.

2This draft text is identical to an amendment Abraham Lincoln first introduced in the House of Representatives on December 4. On December 7, Lincoln introduced this amendment as a substitute for another bill to pay interest on the state debt. On December 10, the Senate struck out the fourth section because some senators questioned the constitutionality of a revenue bill originating in the Senate, and because they felt the proposed tax was too large. The bill passed as substituted replaced this original text with a bill that was very similar in content to a bill the House of Representatives would pass on December 15, the chief difference being that the Senate bill authorized the fund commissioner to borrow money to pay the January interest, with repayment of the principal and interest to come through bond sales.
Illinois State Register (Springfield, IL), 18 December 1840, 1:5.