Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

1
Resolved, That the Board of Public Works be requested to commun[I]cate to this House, at as early a day as practicable:

1st. Such communications (if any) as may have passed between th[e] citizens of Galena, assembled in town meetings, and the Board of Publ[ic]

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Works, relative to the northern termination of the Central railroad; and, also, from the trustees of the town of Galena to the Board of Public Works on the same subject, or to the commissioner of the sixth judicial circuit.

2d. Whether the northern termination of the Central railroad has yet been located; and, if so, whether such termination is north or south of Fever river.

3d. At what place on Rock river the said Board of Public Works have determined that the Central railroad shall cross, and their reasons why a more direct route from Peru, on the Illinois river, to Savannah, on the Mississippi river, has not been adopted.

4th. What amount of money will be required to improve the rapids of Rock river, in range seven east of the fourth principal meridian; and, also, what amount of water-power will be obtained by said improvement.

5th. Whether this water-power could not be brought into more immediate use, and rendered more valuable to the State, if the Central railroad should cross Rock river at that point.

6th. Whether the line of the Central railroad adopted is longer, or shorter, than another line from Peru, on the Illinois river, via the rapids on Rock river, to Savannah, on the Mississippi river, and the comparative cost of construction of the two routes.

7th. And that they report to this House their reasons for leaving an interval of ten or twelve miles between that part of the Central railroad already put under contract from Galena south, and that part proposed by the Board of Public Works to be put under contract, during the ensuing six months, east from Savannah, towards Rock river.

1James Craig introduced the resolution in the House of Representatives on January 14, 1839, and the House adopted it. On January 30, the Board of Public Works responded, and the House tabled this communication and accompanying documents.
Journal of the House of Representatives of the Eleventh General Assembly of the State of Illinois, at Their First Session, Begun and Held in the Town of Vandalia, December 3, 1838 (Vandalia, IL: William Walters, 1838), 208-209, 310.