To the honorable the Senate and the House of Representatives in General Assembly Convened.

Your petitioners citizens of the County of Bureau be leave to represent

That on the second day of March A.D. 1839 a certain act was approved by the Governor of this state authorising the President trustees and other corporate authorities of the town of Princeton in said county of Bureau to levy and collect an ad valorem tax upon all the real estate within the corporate limits of said town,

That the said corporate authorities did proceed to levy the same in conformity with said act and in so doing included three churches in said town together with the lots on which they stand being about one half acre each.

Now your petitioners are of opinion that it was not designed by your predecessors who passed the above named act that any part of said tax should be levied upon houses of public worship, but that the same should be free from the tax above named as they now are by law from all other taxes

Your petitioners therefore desire that your honorable body will take this matter under immediate consideration and pass a special act remitting the tax aforesaid upon the three following houses of public worship to wit the one owned and ocupied by the first Independent Congregational Society the one owned and occupied by The Hampshire Colony Congregational Church & the one owned and occupied by the Methodist ^Episcopal^ Church, together with the lots on which they stand those being the only houses of public worship on which said tax has been levied in said town of Princeton