Semi-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1853-18??, 1854-07-12

the Indian tribes. They amount In all to 8g23.
903, 81 acres They were private property and so
acknowledged by the Unted States, but charged in
the report as gifts to the different States.
What an exhibition is here disclosed of the pre-
tended facts submitted the House of Represents
tves, and through them to the people OF this eoun
try Are these things the result OF accident or De
sign They illustrate (" confusion worse confound-
ed =" but they theresult of carelessness II It
be carelessness, what should be said of gentlemen
who thrust upon the House and country such erro-
neous statements The practice of the Government
is to rely upon your legislative documents, and to-
assume that they true, and taken from the re-
cords; but what do these facts disclose q
was highly amused, Mr.. Speaker, with a note
which received from the Commissioner of the Land
Office in reply to letter which sent him, request
ing him to point out the errors in one column OF.
figures in the Statement submitted by the gentle
from New York The note which he sent me
back is in these words:
1t is idle to attempt to correct it for 1t is att err
srors Very respectfully, yours. !"
Prominent among the items which the gentleman
charges to the States those concerning the
sixteenth section for school purposes Now is 1t
essary Mr.. Speaker, in this day and generation,
when men read, when think, when men have
practically so much experience in the every day
transactions OF life is 1t necessary and am compel
ed to go into arguments to illustrate the folly, the
nonsense, the absurdity of such charges Why,
sir, the sixteenth section-as is known to the mem-
berS of this House, and to the country generally
is appropriated for the support of schools, for the
benefit OF the respective townships in the States
One section is so appropriated in every township
In some cases there have been two, but take the
case of the sixteenth section to illustrate the argu
ment the principles involved in both cases is the
same Well, there is lawyer in this House that
doubts, nay, the gentleman from New York himself
mr. Bennett does not doubt and will not attempt
to controvert, the truth of what am about to say
If an individual owner should lay out a tract of
ground into thirty-six parcels such is the div
sion of townshps-and if he should dedicate section
number sixteen and advertise to the world that he
alchn h0 %
ed to the support of schools for the benefit of the
purchasers of the other thrtyve sections there is
not judge nor court in Christendom who would
not sustain that appropriation for that purpose not
as naked gft but grant for a consideration.
SO much so, that say that in Court of law, with
all the rigor which the rules of law require, eject
ment could be sustained by the purchasers of the 9TH
thirty five parcels-and put the case in the strong
est possible lght-against the creditors of insol
vent donee. Now, every lawyer knows that an in
solvent has no right against his creditors to make
gift 1t ne does, the gift is not good. And hence
it is that have put the case in the manner which
have, for the purpose of testing this question.
repeat it. that even in action of ejectment, the
purchasers OF the other thrtyfve parcels could sus
tain and recover IN an action against the creditors of
of even an insolvent donee of section sixteen.
Now, Mr.. Speaker if this can be done, this, then
is grant for the valuable consideration. There
must be consideration to sustain proceedings of |
this sort under such circumstances? No one will
DOUBT 1t. The General Government-as matter OF
policy, and an inducement to purchasers to buy
and settle the public lands-so surveyed and laid |
out this domain. 1t says to them if you will buy |
up these thirty live sections, will in each case,
give you the sixteenth section for your benefit
And here allow me to call the attention of the Honse
to the fact that these donations of lands not to
the States not for the and benefit of the States,
but for the use and benefit of the respective town.
ships. These, then, are not donations, not gifts
and away with these miserable suggestions that I
these grants of school sections naked gifts of I
land to the States and Territories of the west They
col hon ILL.,
sideration, full, ample, and complete.
But sir, to keep up the symmetry of the report, I
the gentleman charges that these grants of sixteenth
sections have been extended to the newly acquired
territories, where the surveyors staff has not yet
been planted and where surveys have ever been
made. Assuming that, he deliberately sets down
and calculates the amount of the sixteenth sections
Of that vast region and charges grants given
the new States and Territories, New Mexico, with
her vast unproductive regions is charged with mill
ions as being granted to her. So with Utah; so
with Oregon; with Washington; and SO with
California
naps, from the exhibits of his report, might natu-
ally be led to doubt his intelligence STILL in this
may be parooned for presuming upon
t to that extent but at least he ought to have
Known, and perhaps, have a right to even presume
hat he did know-that the greater part of these
territories were utterly barren and unproductive;
Useless to pan and for human purposes. God, in
lis wrath, has stamped them with an eternal sterili-
y, and left them with his enduring prohibition
No matter, Notwithstanding this, the gentleman ey-
,hers out the sixteenth part of the entire area and
harges it as naked gift and grant to the new
states and Territories and then ST. down to figure
nut how much it will come to at dollar nd quar-
er an acre. Is this not superbly ridiculous? Then
takes all the private claims secured by treaty stip
lations with foreign Governments and calculates
low much they will come to at the same price per
Gre and claims that New York should have her
proportional allowance for that. He calculates how +
much the sixteenth sections everywhere amount to,
nd says New York ought to have an allowance for
hat No matter whether the Government sells
iece ofand for dollars cents or parts with it for
mple consideration from the States, no matter
Therever the Government, in any transaction, has
arted with any public land though it has been for
consideration as it has been in every case with !,
wo unimportant exceptions alone, excluded, as !.
hall showdown pumps the gentleman from New j,
ork, and cyphers out what it comes to, and says ,
nat New York ought to have an allowance for that
Why, sir, here is his statement of these school
Inds in the Territories
allfornia. 1856, 900 acres.
Minnesota, 6, 429 900 6
regon, 12,1 86, 900 &c Fl
lew Mexico, 100000 $" t
tab, 100000 ,
Lands in the widerness-more thar half of them
tterly valueless, hardly any of them surveyed,
nd to be sold to the purchasers of the respective
wnshlps, but all charged gifts to the States
1d Territories Was ever nonsense more absurd e
he makes out in this item alone in these Terrific :
es some forty millions of grants as qifts
r school purposes and swells his tables by this :
mount. Now, as have endeavored to show, these o
Inr~rl H.