“In close connection with this subject, is my former recommendation, to which I again solicit your attention, that the law as it respects those held in service should be rendered less severe, and more accordant with our political institutions and local situation; and that more severe penalties should be enacted against the unnatural crime of kidnapping, which then prevailed to a great extent and has since considerably increased, in consequence of the defects of the present law. Regarding the former, our laws in general are a mere transcript of those of the more southern states, where the great number of slaves makes it necessary for the safety of the whites, that the laws for their government, and concerning free blacks, should be very strict.—But, there being no such motive here, the necessity of such laws ceases, and consequently their injustice and cruelty are the more apparent. The latter are found every day more and more defective and inefficient; and kidnapping has now become a regular trade, which is carried on to a vast extent to the country bordering on the lower Mississippi, up the Red River, and to the West Indies. To put an immediate and effectual stop to this nefarious traffic, is the imperious duty of the Legislature.”(522) The house of representatives referred the governor’s remarks concerning kidnapping to a select committee. A bill was reported, but after being weakened by amendments it was tabled.(523) In his message in 1826 the governor renewed his recommendations,(524) and a section of the criminal code of January, 1827, provided that kidnapping should be punishable by confinement in the penitentiary for not less than one nor more than seven years.(525) An act of January, 1825, provided that anyone who had failed to give the bond required by the black code of 1819 from those who emancipated slaves, should be released from any verdict or judgment arising from such failure, upon indemnifying the county for any money expended for the relief of the freedmen.(526) By an act of 1829 relating to slaves, whites were not to marry blacks, slaves were not to come to the state in order to be free, and runaway slaves should be advertised in the newspapers of the state.(527) The number of slaves in Illinois decreased after 1820. In 1820 there were 917 slaves in the state; in 1830, 747; in 1840, 331,(528) and before the next census slavery in the state was abolished.