1
Resolved, That the committee on Finance be requested to report to the House, whether in the opinion of the committee, it is possible in the present condition
of the finances of the State, longer to preserve the faith and credit of the State untarnished, and if so, that they report to the House such plan as in the opinion of the committee will be most likely to accomplish that
desirable object.2
1John Canady introduced the resolution in the House of Representatives on December 29, 1840, and the House adopted it. On January 4, 1841 the Committee
on Finance, which included Abraham Lincoln, reported back the resolution, asking to be discharged from further consideration.
The House rejected this request by a vote of 36 yeas to 38 nays, with Lincoln not
voting. The committee took no further action.
Journal of the House of Representatives, of the Twelfth General Assembly of the State
of Illinois, At Their Second Session (Springfield, IL: William Walters, 1840), 160, 181.
2Given that the Committee on Finance had spent most of December on legislation to resolve
the state’s debt crisis, Ebenezer Peck, chairman of the committee, was less than happy with the tenor of the resolution. In the committee’s report back to the House, Peck labeled the resolution “a mere enquiry with ‘bunkum’ in large characters on
it,” observing testily that the committee had done it duty by submitting numerous
bills on financial matters.
Illinois State Register (Springfield, IL), 8 January 1841, 3:3.
Printed Transcription, 1 page(s), Journal of the House of Representatives, of the Twelfth General Assembly of the State of Illinois, At Their Second Session (Springfield, IL: William Walters, 1840), 160