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1
HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION

 
2    WHEREAS, The State of Illinois is functional to the extent
3that its people agree on politics, society, and economics; and
 
4    WHEREAS, The people who constitute a majority of Cook
5County and the people who constitute a majority of the other
6101 counties in Illinois hold different and firmly seated views
7on these important questions; and
 
8    WHEREAS, Cook County, on one hand, and the other 101
9counties, on the other, are each roughly equal in population;
10and
 
11    WHEREAS, Both groups should enjoy the chance to govern
12themselves with their firmly seated values; and
 
13    WHEREAS, Article IV, Section 3 of the Constitution of the
14United States provides that "(n)ew States may be admitted by
15the Congress into this Union; but no new States shall be formed
16or erected within the Jurisdiction of any other State; nor any
17State be formed by the Junction of two or more States, or parts
18of States, without the Consent of the Legislatures of the
19States concerned as well as of the Congress."; and
 
20    WHEREAS, From 1776 to 1820, Maine was a physically separate

 

 

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1but politically contiguous part of the State of Massachusetts;
2and
 
3    WHEREAS, This arrangement did not work very well and
4Massachusetts agreed to the secession in a law approved by the
5Governor of Massachusetts on June 19, 1819; and
 
6    WHEREAS, The law authorized that the inhabitants of Maine
7vote on secession, and the inhabitants voted in July 1819 to
8secede from Massachusetts; and
 
9    WHEREAS, A constitutional convention was held in Portland
10in October 1819 and the delegates adopted a constitution which
11was approved at town meetings held on December 6, 1819; and
 
12    WHEREAS, Congress passed a bill admitting Maine into the
13Union as a separate state and President Monroe signed that bill
14into law on March 3, 1820 and Maine became a state on March 15,
151820; therefore, be it
 
16    RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE
17NINETY-SEVENTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, THE
18SENATE CONCURRING HEREIN, that the General Assembly agrees to
19the separation of Cook County and the other 101 counties into 2
20separate states; and be it further
 

 

 

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1    RESOLVED, That the General Assembly authorizes a
2referendum to be held to confirm the desire of the voters of
3Illinois to separate Cook County and the rest of Illinois into
42 separate states; and be it further
 
5    RESOLVED, That following the adoption of the referendum,
6the General Assembly urges Congress to pass a bill that
7consents to the division of Cook County and the other 101
8counties of Illinois into 2 separate states and urges the
9President to sign such bill into law.