Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1859-03-31
The Presidents Vte.


G. Bat dc Con5r,ss IS IS the s'.,w5l.- IN
y the EHnAtlt stiJn, tt mtIt IL donna t,h ot
public Lands g. the dH + mt States Ut tlc Uni N
10 provide ell ss iey t.re p'lp ~; u cd eating
their own p'od!
J r.,s4na tno general Ir ip'-i-an Is nnd,ni-
able, that Congress Do MT pJss"ss the p@ser
| to apprdpri: tt IL ,ny in the treasury raised ~
taxes VII the people If the United States FIR the
purpose ct educating the people o! the respect
I've States, Ii will not be pretended Il ut any
such power Is to BE f1and among tie specific
powers granted to Congress, nor that it is
necessary and proper for rryilg inte exacu
ton any one Of lh4~e powers. Should Con
gress exercise such power, this would be til
break down the barriers which have been Sc
carefully constructed in the Constitution to
separate federal from State authority. We
should then not only clay and collect taxes,
duties, impnsts, and exercises for federal pur-
poses. but for every State purpose which Con
gress might deem expedient or useful. This
would ht an actual consolidation of the federal
and State governments, 50 far as the great tax
ing and money power is concerned, and constl-
tute sort Of partnership between the two IN
the treasury Of tAe United States equally ruin
Gus to both.
1t is contended that the public lands ase
placed upon q different footing from money
raised by taxation, and that the proceeds arts
ing from their sale are not subject to the lim-
tatons Of the constitution, but may be appro-
prated Or given away by Congress, at Its own
discretion, to States, corporations or individu-
ais for any purpose they may deem expedent.
The advocates Of this bill attempt to sustain
their position upon the language Of the second
clauses of the third section Of the fourth arti-
Gle Of the constitution, which declares that
9 the Congress shall have power to dispose Of.
and ma all needful rules and regulations re
specting the territory or other property belong
ing to the United States" They contend that
by fair Interpretation Of the words g dispose
Of in this clause, Congress possess the power
to make this gift of public lands to the States
for the purpose of education.
1t would require clear and strong evidence to
induce the belief that the trainers of the Con
stitution, after having limited the powers OF
Congress to certain precise and specific object,
intended, by employing the words g dispose OF, p
to give that body unlimited power over the vast
public domain. 1t would be strange anomaly
indeed, to have created two funds, the one by
taxation confined to the execution of the emu
merated powers delegated to Congress, and the
other from the public lands, applicable to all
subjects, foreign and domestic, which Congress
might designate. That this fund should be
q" disposed Of, not to pay the debts of the
United States, nor g to raise and support ar
mics, " nor ':to provide and MAINTAIN navy"
nor to accomplish any one of the other great
objects enumerated in the Constitution hut be
Il fA tIa nf
States, to educate their people, and to carry in
to effect any other measure of their domestic
policy This would be to confer on Congress a
vast and irresponsible authority, utterly at war
with the well known jealousy of federal power
which prevailed at the formation of the Con
stitution. The natural intendment would be
that, as the Constitution confined Congress to
we'll defined specific powers. the funds placed at
their command, whether in land or money
should be appropriated to the performance Of
the duties corresponding with these powers. II
not, government has been created with all its
other powers carefully limited, but without any
limitation in respect to public lands.
But cannot so read the words " dispose of
as to make them embrace the idea of 9 giving
away Thetrue meaning of words is always
to be ascertained by the subject to which they
are applied, and the known general intent OF
the lawgiver. Congress is a trustee under the
Constitution for the people Of the United States
to /" dispose Of their public lands, and think
| may venture to assert with confidence, that no
case can be found in which trustee, in the DO.
sition of Congress, has been authorized to ''dis-
pose Of property by its owner, where it has
ever been held that these words authorized such
trustee to give away the fund entrusted to his
care. No trustee, when called upon to account
for the disposition of the property placed I'M
der his management before any judicial tribunal
would venture to present such plan in his de-
fence. The true meaning of these words is
clearly stated by Chief Justice fancy, in deliv.
ering the opinion of the Court, 90 Howard, D.
436.) He says in reference to this clause of the
Constitution, 1t begins its enumeration of
powers by thst OF dsposing in other words,
making sale Of the lands, or raising money from
them, which, as we have already said, was the
main objection of the cesson, (trom the States)
and when is the first thing provided for in the
article 1t is unnecessary to refer to the his
tory of the times to establish the known fact
that this statement of the Chief Justice is per-
fectly we'll founded That it never was intend
ed by the trainers of the Constitution that these
lands should be given away by Congress in man
ifest from the concluding portions OF the same
clause. By it, Congress has power not only
" to dispose Of the territory, but of the ''other
property of the United States" In the Ian
guage of the Chief Justice Up. 437 "And
the same power Of making needul rules respect
ing the territory is in precisely the same Ian
guage applied to the other property of the
United States, assocating the power over the
territory, in this respect with the power over
movable or personal property-that is, the
ships, arms, or munitions Of war, which then
belonged in common to the State snyerelgntes. -
The question is still clearer in regard to the
public land in the State and Territories within
the Louisiana and Florida purchases. The lands
were paid for cut of the public treasury from
money raised by taxation Now, if Congress
had no power to appropriate the money with
which these lar DIS were purchased, is it not
clear that the power over the lands is equally
limited? The mere conversion of this money
into land could not confer upon Congress new
power over the disposition OF land which they
had not possessed over money. If it could
then trustee, by changing the character of the
fund entrusted to his care of special objects for
money into land, might give the land away or
devote it to any purpose he thought proper,
however foreign to trust. The inference is IT.
resistable that this land partakes of the same
character with the money paid for 1t, and can
be devoted to no other objects different from
those to which the money could have been de-
voted. If this were not the case, then, by pur-
chase of a new Territory from foreign govern
ment out of the public treasury, Congress could
enlarge their own powers and appropriate the
proceeds of the sales of the land thus purchased
at their own discretion, to other and far differ
ent objects from what they could have applied
the purchase money which had been raised by
taxation
1t has been asserted truly that Congress in
numerous instances, have granted lands for
purpose of education. These grants have been
chiefly if not exclusively, made to the new
States, as they successfully entered the Union,
and consisted at the first of one section, and af.
fnrx, ,,,fk Al L