HJ0052 97TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

HJ0052 LRB097 14773 RLC 60016 r

HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, The State of Illinois is functional to the extent that its people agree on politics, society, and economics; and

WHEREAS, The people who constitute a majority of Cook County and the people who constitute a majority of the other 101 counties in Illinois hold different and firmly seated views on these important questions; and

WHEREAS, Cook County, on one hand, and the other 101 counties, on the other, are each roughly equal in population; and

WHEREAS, Both groups should enjoy the chance to govern themselves with their firmly seated values; and

WHEREAS, Article IV, Section 3 of the Constitution of the United States provides that "(n)ew States may be admitted by the Congress into this Union; but no new States shall be formed or erected within the Jurisdiction of any other State; nor any State be formed by the Junction of two or more States, or parts of States, without the Consent of the Legislatures of the States concerned as well as of the Congress."; and

WHEREAS, From 1776 to 1820, Maine was a physically separate but politically contiguous part of the State of Massachusetts; and

WHEREAS, This arrangement did not work very well and Massachusetts agreed to the secession in a law approved by the Governor of Massachusetts on June 19, 1819; and

WHEREAS, The law authorized that the inhabitants of Maine vote on secession, and the inhabitants voted in July 1819 to secede from Massachusetts; and

WHEREAS, A constitutional convention was held in Portland in October 1819 and the delegates adopted a constitution which was approved at town meetings held on December 6, 1819; and

WHEREAS, Congress passed a bill admitting Maine into the Union as a separate state and President Monroe signed that bill into law on March 3, 1820 and Maine became a state on March 15, 1820; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE NINETY-SEVENTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, THE SENATE CONCURRING HEREIN, that the General Assembly agrees to the separation of Cook County and the other 101 counties into 2 separate states; and be it further

RESOLVED, That the General Assembly authorizes a referendum to be held to confirm the desire of the voters of Illinois to separate Cook County and the rest of Illinois into 2 separate states; and be it further

RESOLVED, That following the adoption of the referendum, the General Assembly urges Congress to pass a bill that consents to the division of Cook County and the other 101 counties of Illinois into 2 separate states and urges the President to sign such bill into law.