1On December 10, 1838, the House of Representatives passed a resolution instructing the Committee on Finance, of which Abraham Lincoln was a member, to examine the possibility of collecting State taxes in gold and silver rather than paper money. On December 12, Henry L. Webb of the Committee on Finance reported back that they had considered the resolution
and introduced a new resolution. The House adopted the new resolution by a vote of
76 yeas to 9 nays, Lincoln voting yea.
Illinois House Journal. 1838. 11th G.A., 1st sess., 59-60.
2In July 1836, by executive order, President Andrew Jackson issued the “Specie Circular,” which required all federal government revenue to be
collected only in specie, gold and silver coins instead of bank paper. The order immediately
raised the ire of Whigs like Henry Clay, who argued that it was unsound economic policy and indicative of Jackson’s abuse
of power. While Congress repealed the circular in May 1838, the debate over specie and paper money continued,
and it was usually a highly charged political issue.
Robert V. Remini, Andrew Jackson, 3 vols. (New York: Harper & Row, 1984), 3:327-29; Jessica M. Lepler, The Many Panics of 1837: People, Politics, and the Creation of of a Transatlantic
Financial Crisis (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2013), 5, 66, 107, 220.
Printed Transcription, 1 page(s), Journal of the House of Representatives of the Eleventh General Assembly of the State of Illinois at their First Session (Vandalia, IL: William Walters, 1838), 59