Illinois 1818, President Monroe and a boast

Law and Public Issues

By Ann M. Lousin

Ann M. Lousin has been a professor at The John Marshall Law School since 1975. Before then, she was a research assistant at the 1969-1970 Illinois constitutional convention and parliamentarian of the Illinois House of Representatives. Her treatise “The Illinois State Constitution: A Reference Guide” was published in December 2009. She can be contacted at 7lousin@jmls.edu.

Posted December 3, 2018 11:16 AM

While there was plenty of celebrations going on around Illinois in 1818 when statehood officially came, there was undoubtedly interest in corresponding with the national capital and its chief executive on some big plans for the nation’s newest state.Let’s image one of the new Illinoisans took pen to paper to spread the news. To: President James Monroe, The White House, Washington, D.C.December 3, 1818Dear Mr. President:Word has reached us here on the prairie that you just signed the enabling act …

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