Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

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Whereas, By an Ordinance adopted by this State, at the time she became a member of the Union, it was provided by the 3d article of said Ordinance, that one sixth of three fifths of five per cent. of the nett proceeds of all lands sold in said State should be applied by the Legislature for a College or University; and by the fourth article it is further provided, that the proceeds of two entire Townships of land should, in like manner, be under the control of the Legislature for the support of a Seminary of learning.

And Whereas, It would be more beneficial to the people of this State, if the above specified funds could be appropriated for the support of Common Schools;2

Thereupon:—

Resolved by the House of Representatives, (the Senate concurring therein,) That our Senators in Congress be instructed, and our Representatives requested to use their exertions to procure the repeal of so much of said Ordinance as requires the appropriation of the above funds, for the support of a College, or University and a Seminary of learning; and that the same be under the control of the Legislature, for the support

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of Common Schools, and the consent of the State is hereby given to the same3.

1On December 5, 1834, William Moore introduced the resolution in the House of Representatives. The House referred the resolution to the Committee of the Whole. On December 11, the Committee of the Whole reported back the resolution with amendments. The House approved the amendments and then passed the resolution. On December 12, the Senate referred the resolution to the Committee of the Whole. On January 16, 1835, the Committee of the Whole reported back the resolution with the amendment of striking out the words “or to be by the Legislature applied to the purposes mentioned in the ordinance.” The Senate approved the amendment and passed the resolution by a vote of 17 ayes to 6 nays. On January 23, the House concurred in the amendments of the Senate by a vote of 33 yeas to 17 nays, Abraham Lincoln voting nay. Illinois Senator Elias Kane presented the resolution in the U.S. Senate on February 25, 1835, and the Senate tabled it.
Illinois House Journal. 1835. 9th G. A., 1st sess., 46-47, 80, 91, 97, 104, 311-312, 328, 366, 389; Illinois Senate Journal. 1835. 9th G. A., 1st sess., 85, 86, 101-02, 264-67; U.S. Senate Journal, 23rd Cong., 2nd Sess., 25 February 1835, 190.

2On January 16, 1835, the Senate amended the bill by striking out “or to be by the Legislature applied to the purposes mentioned in the ordinance.”

3When Congress passed the act allowing Illinois to organize as a state and create a constitution, it proposed four measures that, once Illinois’ constitutional convention adopted them, became obligatory. The propositions affecting education included a grant to every township in the state of the proceeds of the sale of land in each township’s Section 16, which became known as the common school fund; and a grant of three percent of the net proceeds of all federal land sales in Illinois to be used exclusively for education; this became known as the “three percent fund”. Congress specified that one-sixth of the three percent fund was to be used for the establishment of a college or university; this became known as the “college fund.” Congress furthermore specified that the proceeds from the sales of land in two entire townships would be reserved for a seminary, which possibly referred to a teachers’ school; this became known as the “seminary fund.” The condition of accepting these grants was that the state promised that all federal lands would remain untaxed.
“Ordinance of the Illinois Constitutional Convention regarding Public Lands,” 26 August 1818, Constitution of the State of Illinois (Washington, DC: E. DeKrafft, 1818), 23-24; “An Act to Enable the People of the Illinois Territory to Form a Constitution and State Government, and for the Admission of Such State into the Union on an Equal Footing with the Original States,” 18 April 1818, Statutes at Large of the United States, 3:428-31; W. L. Pillsbury, “Early Education in Illinois,” in Sixteenth Biennial Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction of the State of Illinois (Springfield, IL: H. W. Rokker, 1886), 106-07;