CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS. Adopted in Convention at Springfield, May 13th, A. D. 1870 1 PREAMBLE. We, the people of the State of Illinois-grateful to Almighty God for the civil, political and religious liberty which He hath so long permitted us to enjoy, and looking to Him for a blessing upon our endeavors to secure and transmit the same unimpaired to succeeding generations-in order to form a more perfect government, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity; do ordain and establish this Constitution for the State of Illinois. 1 Ratified by the people, July 2, 1870. In force, August 8, 1870. Amendments were adopted in 1878, 1880, 1884, 1886, 1890, 1904, and 1908. ARTICLE I-BOUNDARIES The boundaries and jurisdiction of the State shall be as follows, towit: Beginning at the mouth of the Wabash river; thence up the same, and with the line of Indiana, to the northwest corner of said State; thence east, with the line of the same State, to the middle of Lake Michigan; thence north along the middle of said lake, to north latitude forty-two degrees and thirty minutes; thence west to the middle of the Mississippi river, and thence down along the middle of that river to its confluence with the Ohio river, and thence up the latter river along its northwestern shore to the place of beginning: Provided, that this State shall exercise such jurisdiction upon the Ohio river as she is now entitled to, or such as may hereafter be agreed upon by this State and the State of Kentucky. The act of Congress, April 18, 1818, enabling the people of Illinois to form a state, established the boundaries of Illinois.1 The constitutions of 1818, 1848 and 1870 each describe the boundaries of the state in the language used in the enabling act. The precise eastern limit is not defined other than by reference to the Wabash river, and the Indiana state line. In the act of Congress, February 3, 1809, dividing the Indiana Territory into two separate governments and establishing the territory of Illinois, this boundary is referred to as "the Wabash river, and a direct line drawn from the said Wabash river and Post Vincennes due north, to the territorial line between the United States and Canada." This is substantially the language of the ordinance of 1787, for the government of the Northwest Territory.3 The language of the enabling act for Indiana, approved April 19, 1816, and of the Indiana constitution fix this boundary "by a line drawn along the middle of the Wabash river, from its mouth to a point where a due north line drawn from the town of Vincennes would last touch the northwestern shore of the said river; and from thence by a due north line This language plainly includes within the state of Illinois whatever territory may be west of the Wabash river, south of the point where the Vincennes line due north last touches the Wabash river, even though such land may lie to the east of a line due north from Vincennes. The Attorney General has said: "The jurisdiction of this state over the waters of the Wabash river which touch the counties of Lawrence and Wabash in this state, extends to the center thread of the main channel thereof, except where said center thread may be east of a line drawn from Post Vincennes due north." This inaccuracy doubtless arose from over 1 Act of Congress, 3 Stat. at large 428 (1818). 2 Act of Congress. 2 Stat. at large 514 (1809). 3 Article V. Ordinance of 1787. 4 Act of Congress, 3 Stat. at large 289 (1816). 5 Constitution of Indiana 1851. article 14, section 1. "Report Attorney General 1916, p. 623. looking the fact that the due north line from Vincennes only becomes the eastern boundary from the point where it last touches the northwestern shore of the Wabash river, which point lies north of Lawrence and Wabash counties. By the ordinance of 1787, the northern boundary for the western state in the Northwest Territory was fixed along the territorial line between the United States and Canada to the Lake of the Woods and Mississippi with the proviso that Congress should have authority "to form one or two states in that part of the said territory which lies north of an east and west line drawn through the southerly bend or extreme of Lake Michigan." The bill to authorize the formation of the state of Illinois was introduced with the northern boundary along an east and west line from the southern extreme of Lake Michigan but, on motion of the territorial delegate from Illinois, this was amended by fixing the northern boundary along latitude forty-two degrees and thirty minutes. The due north line from Vincennes was not extended to meet the line along this latitude but the boundary line from the northwest corner of Indiana was run east along the northern boundary of Indiana to the middle of Lake Michigan and thence north along the middle of the lake to latitude forty-two degrees and thirty minutes and thence west along that latitude. The United States Supreme Court has held that the boundary of the state includes all that portion of Lake Michigan lying east of the main land of the state and the middle of the lake south of latitude forty-two degrees and thirty minutes.8 The ordinance of 1787 provided that the western state in the Northwest Territory should be bounded by the Mississippi river. This boundary line is fixed by the enabling act for Illinois "along the middle" of the Mississippi river from the northern boundary to the Ohio river. The Supreme Court of Illinois and the United States Supreme Court have held this to mean the middle of the main navigable channel as usually followed. If the river changes imperceptibly from natural causes, the river as it runs, continues to be the boundary, but if it should suddenly change its course or desert the original channel, the boundary would remain the middle of the deserted bed. The deed of cession from Virginia conveyed to the United States the territory northwestward of the river Ohio.10 The United States Supreme Court in deciding whether certain land lay in Kentucky or in Indiana, said "when a great river is the boundary between two nations or states, if the original property is in neither and there be no convention respecting it, each holds to the middle of the stream. But when, as in this case, one state is the original proprietor and grants the territory on one side only, it retains the river within its own domain, and the newly created state extends to the river only. The river, however, is its boundary.""" The same court in a later case held that the state of Kentucky extended to low water mark on the Indiana shore.12 The boundary line between Illinois and Kentucky is, also undoubtedly, the low water mark on the northwestern shore of the Ohio river. The Illinois Supreme Court held that there was no liability under the workmen's compensation act for a death occurring while the deceased was working on a bridge pier south of the low water mark of the Ohio river on the Illinois shore.13 In an earlier case, the same court in sustaining the wharfage rights of a riparian owner on the northwestern bank of the Ohio river said that the property of a riparian owner extended at least to low water mark "although as the state Article V. Ordinance of 1787. 8 I. C. R. R. Co. v Illinois, 146 U. S. 387 (1892). St. Louis v Rutz, 138 U. S. 226 (1891); Iowa v Illinois, 147 U. S. 1 (1893); Buttenuth v St. Louis Bridge Co., 125 Ill. 535 (1888); Keokuk and Hamilton Bridge Co. v People, 145 Ill. 596 (1893); Keokuk and Hamilton Bridge Co. v People, 176 Ill. 267 (1898). 10 Deed of Cession, XI Hen. Stat. Va. 571 (1784). 11 Handley's Lessee v Anthony, 5 Wheaton (U. S.) 374 (1820). |