PREAMBLE AND RESOLUTIONS relative to public deposites.
1Preamble.
Whereas, by the act of Congress regulating the deposite of the public money in State Banks, approved June 23, 1836,
it was provided that at least one bank should be selected in each State or Territory,
if any such existed willing to be employed as a depository of the public money; and whereas there are two banks in Illinois, both of them, solvent and safe, neither of which is now employed as the depository
of the public money collected in the State; and whereas the money so collected in Illinois is deposited in the State Bank of Missouri, to the manifest injury of our banks and the people of the state; and whereas the Secretary of the Treasury, under the provisions of the act of 1789, has selected
many banks which would have been excluded from the benefits of the deposite act of
1836, as depositories of the public money, which said banks, in common with our own,
could not have been selected as depositories of the public money under the provisions
of the act of 1836:
Instructions.
Be it resolved by the General Assembly of the State of Illinois, That our Senators be instructed, and our Representatives requested, to use every
effort necessary to obtain2 the deposite of the money of the General Government, collected in this state, in the banks of this State, so long as the State Bank deposite system shall be continued: Provided, That we do not intend to express, by this resolution, any opinion of
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this Legislature, either in relation to the Sub-treasury system, or the chartering of a National bank,
or of the State Bank deposite system.3
Resolved, That if any change, by law, be made in the plan of depositing the revenue in banks,
that our Senators be instructed, and our Representatives requested, to provide by
law for the deposite of all the revenue, collected in this State, in the banks of this State, so long as banks may be used as the fiscal agents of the Government.4
Resolved, That we deprecate any policy which gives to banks similarly situated with our the
deposite of the public revenue, whilst the same benefit resulting from the deposite
system is not extended to our own banks.
Resolved, That the Governor be requested to transmit a copy of the foregoing preamble and resolutions
to each of our Senators and Representatives in Congress.
1On January 21, 1839, Isaac P. Walker introduced a resolution in the House of Representatives. On January 22, the House referred the resolution to a select committee, which reported
back to the House a substitute on January 26. The House amended the substitute by
striking out the words “if possible” and adding a proviso in the first resolution.
The House then concurred in the committee’s substitute as amended. Upon a division
of the question, the House adopted each section of the resolution separately: the
first part of the preamble by a vote of 62 yeas to 16 nays; the end of the preamble
by a vote of 60 yeas to 18 nays; the first resolution by a vote of 71 yeas to 4 nays;
the second resolution by a vote of 63 yeas to 7 nays; the third resolution by a vote
of 72 yeas to 5 nays; and the fourth resolution by a vote of 74 yeas to 4 nays, Abraham Lincoln voting yea each time. On February 12, the Senate adopted the preamble and resolution
by a vote of 25 yeas to 8 nays.
Journal of the House of Representatives of the Eleventh General Assembly of the State
of Illinois, at Their First Session (Vandalia, IL: William Walters, 1838), 252-253, 255, 288-93, 394, 428; Journal of the Senate of the Eleventh General Assembly of the State of Illinois, at
Their First Session (Vandalia, IL: William Walters, 1838), 319-21, 348.
2On January 26, 1839, the House amended the resolution by striking out “if possible” at this point.
Journal of the House of Representatives of the Eleventh General Assembly of the State
of Illinois, at Their First Session, 290.
3On January 26, 1839, the House amended the resolution by adding the proviso at the end of the first resolution.
Journal of the House of Representatives of the Eleventh General Assembly of the State
of Illinois, at Their First Session, 290.
4On January 26, 1839, John Calhoun noted that this resolution was the product of a non-partisan unanimous vote by the
select committee to which it was referred on January 22. Calhoun and its supporters
carried the bill through the House by appealing to its non-partisan character. Some Whigs, represented by Edwin B. Webb, argued the compromised resolution had become too conservative and advocated altering
or removing the last clause of the 1st section.
Illinois State Register, 8 February 1839, 2:1-2.
Printed Document, 2 page(s), Laws of the State of Illinois, Passed by the Eleventh General Assembly (Vandalia, IL: William Walters, 1839), 294-295,