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An act for relief of the persons therein named
sec[section] 1st Be it enacted by the people of the State of Illinois represented in the General Assembly, That the bands of matrimony shall be and are hereby dissolved between the following persons: [...?] ^[...?]^ Pat[...?][...?] and Julyan Patter[...?] and between James P[...?]t[...?] and Margaret Bat[...?]man of Randolph County.2
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32
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No 288.
A Bill for “an act for the relief of the persons therein named.
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[02]/[11]/[1837]
2
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[02]/[11]/[1837]
Com. Propositions & Grv.[Grievances]
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[02]/[22]/[1837]
C. W. H.[Committee of the Whole House] special or[order] for 7 0’clock P. M. 22nd inst
1James Shields from the Committee on the Judiciary introduced the bill in the House of Representatives on February 11, 1837. The House referred the bill to the Committee on Propositions and Grievances. On February 22, the committee reported back the bill with a substitute. The House amended the substitute by adopting first one amendment and then another amendment, both adding the names of couples desiring a divorce. The House refused to table the bill and proposed amendments until July 4 by a vote of 35 yeas to 39 nays, with Abraham Lincoln voting nay. The House referred the bill to the Committee of the Whole and made it the special order of the day for the evening session. On February 24, the House considered several additional amendments before tabling the bill and proposed amendments until July 4 by a vote of 37 yeas to 30 nays, with Lincoln voting nay.
Journal of the House of Representatives of the Tenth General Assembly of the State of Illinois, at Their First Session (Vandalia, IL: William Walters, 1836), 560, 669, 705-06.
2Although rare, legislative divorce was available in Illinois from 1818 until the Illinois Constitution of 1848, although there were no legislative divorces after 1838, when that body granted its last divorce by legislative act. After that time, all divorces in the state fell within the jurisdiction of the circuit courts.
Illinois Constitution, Article 3, Sec. 32 (1848); Eugene L. Gross and William L. Gross, An Index to All the Laws of the State of Illinois (Springfield: E. L. & W. L. Gross, 1869), 13; “An Act concerning Divorces,” approved 1 June 1827, The Revised Code of Laws of Illinois (1827), 181.

Handwritten Document, 2 page(s), Folder 154, HB n/a, GA Session: 10-1, Illinois State Archives (Springfield, IL) ,