Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

1
Whereas there is a large quantity of unsurveyed land lying within the military tract in this State, all of which is now occupied by industrious and actual settlers, whose interest, as well as the interest of the State and the General Government, requires that those lands should be surveyed and brought into market: Therefore,

Resolved by the Senate, the House of Representatives concurring herein, That our Senators in Congress be instructed, and our Representatives be requested, to procure the passage of a law to provide for the surveying and selling the aforesaid lands.

1On December 31, 1838, the Senate passed a resolution creating a select committee to draft a resolution to Congress, requesting a law whereby some of the lands in the military district of Illinois might be surveyed and brought into market. In response to this resolution, Franklin Witt introduced the resolution in the Senate on January 5, 1839, and the Senate adopted it. The House of Representatives concurred on January 7.
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), 175, 176; Journal of the Senate 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), 122, 136.