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HISTORICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ILLINOIS
for a road over a part of this line had been passed by the Legislature in 1834. W. K. Ackerman, in his "Historical Sketch" of the Illinois Central Railroad, awards the credit of originating this enterprise to Lieut. -Gov. Alexander M. Jenkins, in the Legislature of 1832, of which he was a member, and Speaker of the House at the time. He afterwards became President of the first Illinois Central Railroad Company, organized under an act passed at the session of 1836, which provided for the construction of a line from Cairo to Peru, Ill., but resigned the next year on the surrender by the road of its charter. The first step toward legislation in Congress on this subject was taken in the introduction, by Senator Breese, of a bill in March, 1843; but it was not until 1850 that the measure took the form of a direct grant of lands to the State, finally passing the Senate in May, and the House in September, following. The act ceded to the State of Illinois, for the purpose of aiding in the construction of a line of railroad from the junction of the Ohio and Mississippi, with branches to Chicago and Dubuque, Iowa, respectively, alternate sections of land on each side of said railroad, aggregating 2,595,000 acres, the length of the main line and branches exceeding seven hundred miles. An act incorporating the Illinois Central Railroad Company passed the Illinois Legislature in February, 1851. The company was thereupon promptly organized with a number of New York capitalists at its head, including Robert Schuyler, George Griswold and Gouverneur Morris, and the grant was placed in the hands of trustees to be used for the purpose designated, under the pledge of the Company to build the road by July 4, 1854, and to pay seven per cent of its gross earnings into the State Treasury perpetually. A large proportion of the line was constructed through sections of country either sparsely settled or wholly unpopulated, but which have since become among the richest and most populous portions of the State. The fund already received by the State from the road exceeds the amount of the State debt incurred under the internal improvement scheme of 1837. (See Illinois Central Railroad. ELECTION OF 1852.-Joel A. Matteson (Democrat) was elected Governor at the November election, in 1852, receiving 80,645 votes to 64
