194: TRANSACTIONS OP THE 



and Representative in Congress under the apportionment of that year, 

 to be selected from the public lands within the State subject to sale at 

 one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre, if these be sufficient, and if not, 

 then the State is to receive land scrip for the requisite amount. Tho 

 principal derived from the sale of these lands is to be invested in stocks 

 yielding not less than five per cent, and the interest to be appi'opriated 

 to the endowment of a college for the liberal and practical education of 

 the industrial classes. The ])rinci])al fund is to remain inviolable, except 

 that ten per cent of it ma}' be expended for the ])Ui'ehase of land for a 

 Bite, or experimental farm; but no portion of the fund is to be ap))licd to 

 the purchase, erection, or repair of any building. Tiie States Avere 

 required by the Act to exj^re^s their acceptance of its benefits within two 

 years after its passage, and to ])rovide within five years at least one 

 college of the character stipulated. Our State Legislature accepted the 

 benefits of this Act by joint resolution passed in eighteen hundred and 

 sixtj'-three, but has taken no steps toward providing a college. Under 

 this Act the State is entitled to one hundred and fifty thousand acres of 

 land. This sounds like a munificient gift, and was such an intention; 

 but it is qualified by the provision that this land is granted only after 

 survey, and from lands subject to private entry ; that is, from those only 

 Vt^hich have been offered at private sale and no purchaser been found; 

 which in this State could be of but little value. Besides, the United 

 States makes no surveys of its lands here unless tho fees of its officers 

 are advanced by the parties desiring the surveys. The grant of land to 

 this State, to be selected within its borders, is not likely to be available 

 for an}' purpose except to promote litigation and uncertainty, if we may 

 judge by the present condition of titles to land lieretofore nominally 

 granted to the State, but really withheld from it by the failure of Gov- 

 ernment officers to provide for its segregation. 



By the report of the State Surveyor-General of eighteen hundred and 

 sixty-four, it is shown that of all the grants of land to this State for 

 various purj^oses, not a single acre of any description has been listed or 

 patented to the State, although all the duties required of the State 

 officers have been zealously performed for fourteen years, and very 

 much of the land has been sold by the State. Notwithstanding frequent 

 attempts of the State Legislature to remedy the difficulty, and equita- 

 ble decisions of our Supreme Court, the titles of nine thousand citizens, 

 pioneer purchasers, are in an inchoate state, subject to attack, a frequent 

 source of litigation, and consequent distress and poverty. The pros- 

 perity of the State must be greatly damaged by this unsettled, uncertain 

 condition of titles, for thriftlessness must result. The only remedy is 

 further legislation by Congress to compel the subordinate officers at 

 Washington to comply with the terms of donation, and rescue the titles 

 of our farniers from eml)arrassin<!: uncei'taintv. I am not hoi^eful that 

 the State can realize for many years to come any substantial benefits 

 from the grant of one hundred and fitly thousand acres for an agricul- 

 tural college. The public lands heretofore ceded to the State for s]K;cific 

 purposes must first be segregated, and the titles granted by the State in 

 good faith be recognized by the Government. The remainder must bo 

 surveyed and brought into market. Such portions as then fail to find 

 purchasers will be subject to private entry, and will be available under 

 the college grant lor what they are worth. The lands granted for the 

 pui"poses of this college will tlius be the very last in the Slate upon 

 which there can be anything realized, and nothing can be expected from 

 this source for a long time to come. • Yet by the Act wc are required to 



