Resolved by the General Assembly of the State of Illinois, That our Senators and Representatives in Congress, be requested to use their whole influence to procure the passage of a law, redu-

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cing the price of lands claimed by the United States, which have been in market for fifteen2 years, to fifty cents per acre.

Resolved, That it is highly expedient that the propositions of the foregoing resolution, should be pressed forward seriously and ardently, and aside from party considerations, on the ground that such a measure, would facilitate the sale of the public domain—would give to many a poor but honest family a home; would give an equal spring to the improvement of every part of the State; and would, in a few years, increase the means of the State, by making lands taxable, that lie within our limits now untaxed, and likely to remain so,3 without such measures should be adopted on the part of Congress in relation to the sale of Public Lands.

Be it further Resolved, That there is reason and propriety in the suggestion that those lands, thus long in market, should be reduced; because the best selections having long since been made, emigrants frequently pass over those unsold, and seek a newer and better soil at the same price; and because the sale of those lands at this reduced price would, by throwing them into the hands of the honest cultivator of the soil, have a tendency to develope the resources of the country, and to hasten with rapid strides, the progress of the State to happiness and prosperity[.]