Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

1
Resolved by the General Assembly of the State of Illinois, That our Senators in Congress be instructed, and our Representatives requested, to use their best exertions to procure the passage of a law, making an appropriation to clear out obstructions to the navigation of the Illinois river, from its mouth to the foot of the Rapids.2

1On January 27, 1835, William Gordon introduced the resolution in the House of Representatives. On January 30, the Senate amended the resolution by striking out “from its mouth to the foot of the Rapids,” and then adopted the resolution as amended. On January 31, the House concurred in the amendment from the Senate. On February 5, the Committee on Enrolled Bills reported that the resolution had been laid before the Governor. On February 25, Illinois Congressman William L. May presented the resolution to the U.S. House of Representatives, which referred it to the Committee on Roads and Canals.
Illinois House Journal. 1835. 9th G. A., 1st sess., 453-54, 458; Illinois Senate Journal. 1835. 9th G. A., 1st sess., 355, 376-77, 437, 442; U.S. House Journal. 1835. 23rd Cong., 2nd sess., 447.

2On January 30, the Senate amended the resolution by striking out “from its mouth to the foot of the Rapids”.
The Grand Rapids of the Illinois River are located at Marseilles. Prior to the opening of the Illinois and Michigan Canal in 1848, Marseilles was the northernmost point on the Illinois River that was navigable for steamboats.