The true Democrat., 1854-08-23

amount ot money which you should have paid, if you had paid taxation on your property in the proportion that each citizen has done.- What would it have accumulated to, If you had paid the same tax, through all the time that has passed, upon the government proper ty? Would it be $5OOOOO? I imagine, sir, it would be very far above the whole appro- priation that is now proposed. Still 1 am ln- clined to support the view and principle adopt ed in the amendment of the Senator from Lou isiana, with slight exception. I should pre- fer the proposition suggested by the chairman of the finance committee, to make the amount contributed by the city one fourth instead of one third; and therefore shall vote against the amendment of the Senator from Louis iana in anticipation of the Senator from Vir- ginia offering the proposition in itsmodified form. ;t .ar 'ss..a. ....... .- l Mr.. Slidell's amendment was rejected and the amendment of Mir. Hunter, chairman of the finance committee, was adopted.
 HOMESTEAD B1LL-HUNTER's SUBSTITUTE AS l IT PASSED THE SENATE.
 | So the amendment as amended was agreed to, as follows:
 l Be at enacted, etc., That the minimum price of the public lands of the United States shall re- main unchanged until the commencement of the fiscal year, beginning J uly l, 1855, but after that period the price shall be reduced according to the following scale: All lands which shall bave been offered at public sale, and remaining unsold five years, shall be reduced to the price of one dollar per acre, all lands which shall have been offered at public sale and remaining unsold ten years, shall be reduced to seventy five cents an acre; and all lands which shall have been offered at public sale, and remaining unsold fifteen years, shall be sold at fifty cents an acre; and all lands which shall have been offered at public sale, and remaining unsold twenty years, shall thereafter be reduced to price of twenty-five cents an acre; aad all lands which shall have been offered at public sale, and shall remain unsold thirty years thereafter, shall be reduced to a price of twelve and half cents an acre: Provided That the gradua- ting process, from fifty cents to twenty-five cents an acre, shall not take place until the lands in the fifty cent class shall have been ex- posed to sale for period of at least two years, at the price of fifty cents per acre; after which the price of the said lands shall be reduced to twenty-five cents per acre.
 SEC. 2. Andb be it ftuther enacied That when ever State shall desire to acquire a pre-emp- tion right to all the lands, of any certain class and price, as provided in the first section of this act, within its borders, for other purposes than railroad or canal, and signify the same to the President of the United States, by an act oi its Legislature at a general session, duly passed and authenticated, it shall be granted on the following terms, and in the manner hereinafter prescribed: That said State may fix the price of said lands above that prescribed in the first section of this act, reserving the excess to itself Provided, That the title shall not pass to the purchaser until he has paid the price fixed in the said first section to the Uni ted States; which, upon said payment, and the presentation of a certificate of the title from the State, duly authenticated shall, through its proper officers, issue patent for said land to the purchaser; PTovided, howeuer, That the lands shall be subject to the same legal subdi- visions in the sale and survey as are now pro- vided by law; nor shall the sites of Notifications navy and dock yards, arsenals, magazines, and other public buildings, be considered as includ- ed within the provisions of this act And pro- vicled ftutaer, That any State which shall ac- cept the provisions of this act, and shall pre- empt any lands under it, shall take them in full ot the five per cent fund thereafter to become due from the proceeds of said lands; but the State thus accepting the provisions of this and the preceding sections, shall take the lands at 'iAo PiiNS AANN AoA SoIAi flItIC CldSS except that no lands shall be sold by them for twenty five cents an acre, until they shall have been previously subject to entry through period of two years at the price of fifty cents per acre. to be paid to the United States.
 SEC. 3. And be t further enoctel. That whenever State has chartered or shall char ter, railroad or canal to run through the lands ot the United States, or when any company shall have been organized for that purpose under any general law of any State, and such State shall except the benefit of the provisions hereinafter prescribed by an act to be passed at "a general session of It's Legislature, upon due notice being gwen Of the fact to the Secretary of the Interior, It shall be his duty to set apart Fof thepubhc lands, seven thousand six hundred and eighty acres per mile of railroad or canal. within twelve mlleS Ou each Side and as near the route ot such railroad or canal as possible and the same shall be withdrawn from sale or entry by pubhc advlSement of the Secretary of the Interior, except in the manner and form hereinafter prescribed: The price of these lands shall be one dollar per acre for those which have not yet been offered at public sale, or for those that have been subject to private entry less than live years; seventy-hve cents for those which have been so subject to entry more than five years and less than ten years: fifty cents for those which have been so subject to entry more than ten years and less than twenty years; and twenty-five cents per acre for those which have been so subject to entry more than twenty years: Provided, that the price which the lands bear when first set apart shall remain uniform, and be subject to no graduation during the ten years herein prescribed as the period within which the States may dispose of the lands.
 SEc f. And be at .ft,taer enacted, That when- ever State through which the railroad or canal passes, and in which the said lands lie. shall desire to do so, it may select, as pre-emptor. all the lands so reserved at the minimum prices de- signated in the third section of this act, but the State must take up and pay in cash for said land within ten years from the time when set apart by the Secretary of the Interior, or other wise its rights to such of them as remain unsold shall be forfeited. But before the expiration of this period the State may sell the lands thus reserved to individuals or corporations: Pgovi ded, That no title shall vest in the purchaser until he present to the receiver of the proper land office of the United States certificate of l purchase, duly authenticated according to the l law of the State from which it was iSsno1 o,l