The Arkansas advocate., 1831-11-30

pose of raising fund to'eHet . public.I building al this place, here insert, that my views and objections may be the better understood.
 s.Sec. |. Be t enacted by the Senate dnd House of Rspresenfatices of ihe Uasted States of .1mfrica i't Congress assem6ied,
 That the Legislature oi the Territory of Arkansas be, and they are hereby, authorize to select, or cause to be seleee ed. a quantity of the unappropriated public lands insthe Territory of Arzan- sas. not not exceeding ter. sections, and in portions not less than ore quarter sec ton, which is hereby granted to said Territory, for the purpose ef raising fund for the erection of a public build- ing at Little Rock, the Seat of Goyefn- ment of said. Territory.
 sSec. ,. And bc | farther enacted, That the Legislature oi sald iep.itoFy
 be, and they are hereby, authorized to adopt such measures for the sale ot said
 tract of land, or any part thereof,at such times and manner, and convey the same
 by such deeds. as they shall deem ex-
 pedient; and, upon the presentation of
 such deeds of conveyance as shall be d. dopted by said Legislature and given to the purchasers, to the Commissioner of the General Land-Oaice, 1t shall be the duty of the President to issue pa tents to the purchasers, as in other ca ses.n Approved; March I'd, 1881.
 These two sections constitute the whole act of Congress, except the title,
 on which the bill under consideration IS based. It will be perceived. that, by the first section of the act, the Legisla- ture is authorized 10 seleet,or cause to
 be selected, ten sections of land, which
 ten sections Of land is granted to the
 Territory. Nov, let us inquire what
 is granted to the Territory? Not the
 authority of the Legislature to select,
 for that is not the subject of the grant,; but the land to be selected; and the
 gfaat te the Territory cannot take com pleto effect, for any particular land, un- til designated by the Legislature, il conformity to the authority delegated.
 The authority is given to the Legislature
 to select, the land is granted to the Ter
 ritory, and a complete title vests in tue Territory, for the land selected, whene- yer the selectioais is made: and may then be described, sold, and conveyed by deeds of conveyance, before patentis is-
 sues. This is not only the literal, but the fair import, and intent of the first
 section. But, if doubt can be enter tained of the correctness of this eot- struction of the first section, 1t is entire ly removed by the phraseelogy of tie second section, which authorizes 2 sale
 and conveyance by deed. The idea of deed of conveyance of an authority
 to select land, is too absurd and prepos- terous to be tolerated for a moment. Congress says to the Legislature of af- kansas, you are authorized to select ten sections of land, and these ten sections we grant, not to you, but to the Territo. Y. We grant to the Territory, not the right to select, but the land to be select cd and the authority to select we vest n the Legislature. Congress, then, au- thorizes the Legislature, not to sell their authority, but the land, or anyspart of. it, which they are authorized to select. Land has locality, and must be so iden- tifed that 1t can be described with some degree of certainty. Until the tensec- tions are designated by selection, there is no certain land for deed to operate on. But, if this were not so, and my construction untenable, still it would be the imperious duty of the Legislature, to make the selection of the ten sections, according to the authority given, and let the title vest and he complete in the Territory, so that the people could un- derstand the nature and value of the donation made by Congress, and time and opportunity given to judge of the disposition of it, before it is placed be yond their control. Congress never in- tended to throw these ten sections of