The governor and judges of the supreme court constitute a council of revision, to which all bills that have passed the assembly must be submitted. If objected to by the council of revision, the same may become a law by the vote of a majority of all the members elected to both houses.
The right of suffrage is universal. All white male inhabitants, citizens of the United States, twenty-one years of age, and who have resided within the State six months next preceding the elections, enjoy the right of voting. Votes are given viva voce. The introduction of slavery is prohibited. The Constitution can only be altered by a convention.
GENERAL REMARKS.
1. Farms somewhat improved, are almost daily exchanging owners, and a considerable spirit of enterprise has been awakened within a year or two past. The prices of farms and improvements vary greatly, and are influenced much by factitious and local circumstances. From St. Clair county northward, they average probably from five to ten dollars per acre, and are rising in value. In some counties, farms will cost from 2 to 5 dollars per acre. A farm in Illinois, however, means a tract of land, much of it in a state of nature, with some cheap, and, frequently, log buildings, with 20, 40, 60, 80, or 100 acres, fenced and cultivated. Good dwellings of brick, stone, or wood, begin to be erected. Amongst the older residents, there have been but few barns made. The want of adequate supplies of lumber, and of mechanics, renders good buildings more expensive than in the new countries of New England or New York.
2. Merchant's goods, groceries, household furniture, and almost every necessary and comfort in house-keeping, can be purchased here; and many articles retail at about the same prices as in the Atlantic States.
3. The following table will exhibit the cost of 320 acres of land, at Congress price, and preparing 160 acres for cultivation or prairie land:
| Cost of 320 acres at $1,25 per acre, | $400 |
| Breaking up 160 acres prairie, $2 per acre, | 320 |
| Fencing it into four fields with a Kentucky fence of eight rails high, with cross stakes, | 175 |
| Add cost of cabins, corn cribs, stable, &c. | 250 |
| Making the cost of the farm, | $1145 |
In many instances, a single crop of wheat will pay for the land, for fencing, breaking up, cultivating, harvesting, threshing, and taking to market.
4. All kinds of mechanical labor, especially those in the building line, are in great demand; and workmen, even very coarse and common workmen, get almost any price they ask. Journeymen mechanics get $2 per day. A carpenter or brick mason wants no other capital, to do first rate business, and soon become independent, than a set of tools, and habits of industry, sobriety, economy and enterprise.
5. Common laborers on the farm obtain from $12 to $15 per month, including board. Any young man, with industrious habits, can begin here without a dollar, and in a very few years become a substantial farmer. A good cradler in the harvest field will earn from $1,50 to $2 per day.