Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

1
Resolved by the General Assembly of the State of Illinois, That when the Treasurer of this State shall have received drafts of the Secretary of the Treasury of the United States in favor of this State, for her proportion of the public deposites, the said Treasurer shall demand and receive the payment of the said drafts in specie.2

1On December 17, 1836, John D. Whiteside introduced the resolution in the Senate. The Senate adopted the resolution by a vote of 38 yeas to 0 nays. The same day, the House of Representatives rejected a motion to table the resolution by a vote of 3 yeas to 84 nays, with Abraham Lincoln voting nay. The House then adopted the resolution by a vote of 86 yeas to 1 nay, with Lincoln voting yea.
Illinois House Journal. 1836. 10th G. A., 1st sess., 70-71, 72-73; Illinois Senate Journal. 1836. 10th G. A., 1st sess., 72-73, 78.

2On December 16, 1837, the Senate had concurred, by a narrow majority, with an amendment from the House of Representatives to the surplus revenue bill removing the stipulation that Illinois was to receive its proportion of the public deposits in specie. The enrolled bill and subsequent act did not include reference to specie, prompting this resolution. Surplus revenue paid in specie arose within the context of President Andrew Jackson’s “Specie Circular,” which required that government lands be purchased with gold or silver coins, and the general distrust of paper money arising out of Jackson’s conflict with the Second Bank of the United States.
Robert V. Remini, Andrew Jackson and the Bank War (New York: W. W. Norton, 1967), 173.