Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

1
Resolved, That the Governor be requested to furnish the House of Representatives of this State, all the information in his power, in relation to a memorial passed at the last session of the General Assembly, praying Congress to pass a general law for the government of the Militia of the United States, and what is likely to be the probable issue thereof;2

1On December 4, 1834, Christian B. Blockburger introduced the resolution in the House of Representatives. The House did not adopt the resolution.
Illinois House Journal. 1835. 9th G. A., 1st sess., 42.

2In July 1833, the New Hampshire legislature passed a resolution calling on Congress to pass a law for “a more perfect and uniform organization of the Militia of the several States of the Union.” They directed the governor to send a copy of the resolution to all other governors to submit to their respective legislatures. Governor John Reynolds submitted it to the Illinois House of Representatives, which referred it to the Committee on the Militia. On December 17, 1833, the Committee submitted the resolution: “Resolved, by the House of Representatives, (the Senate concurring herein,) That the Senators of this state, in the Congress of the United States be instructed, and our Representative requested to use their exertions to procure the passage of a law for the more perfect organization of the militia of the several States.” The House approved the resolution, and the Senate concurred the following day. Congress made no major revisions to the Militia Acts of 1792 until the twentieth century.
Evarts Boutell Greene and Clarence Walworth Alvord, eds., The Governors’ Letter-Books, 1818-1834, Executive Series, vol. 1, vol. 4 of Collections of the Illinois State Historical Library (Springfield: Illinois State Historical Library, 1909), 235-36; Illinois House Journal. 1833. 8th G. A., 1st sess., 118-19; Illinois Senate Journal. 1833. 8th G. A., 1st sess., 92-93; Sangamo Journal (Springfield, IL), 5 January 1833, 2:1; “An Act to provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the laws of the Union, suppress insurrections and repel invasions,” 2 May 1792, “An Act more effectually to provide for the National Defence by establishing an Uniform Militia throughout the United States,” 8 May 1792, Acts of the Second Congress of the United States, Passed at their First Session (1792), 264-65, 271-74.