The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1866-02-10
.sTmE LAND sWINDLE.,'

bill now before the Legislature, appropria-
ting 10000 acres of land belonging to the
State, for internal improvements, to aid in
the building of Railroads Thu bin pro-
poses to divide the land equally between the
Southern Branch of the Union Pacific.
Commonly called the Neosho Valley road,
the road from Fort Scot: 10 an intersection
with the Missouri river road, and the road
from ElwoOd west through the 7Northeru
tier of counties. fg1h faa 81
The Lawrence Tribune of TIE s5.h inst,
has an article characterizing this measure.
and the men engaged in it. as "ready to
falsify their osths to support The COnstitu
ton of the s!ate-to divert the public
lands Of the State from the most sacred
purpose to which the organic law of the
State appropriated them. if they are moi in
deed. seeking. for unworthy purposes, to
filch from the children of the common
wealth the sacred inheritance guaranteed
them by our COnsttut The Tribune
further asserts that this land is set apart by
the Constitution for the sacred purpose of
aiding the common schools, calls the scheme
before the Legislature swindle. and its
supporters weak souls, etc. n
Now, without wishing to be un3> rstood
as an advocate of the msasure before the
Legislature at this time, we wish to make
few corrections of the gross misstats
ments Of the Tribune, aud also to put the
matter in its true light, that the people may
''see the fraud" and swindle, as some gem
tlemen whose reputation for honesty (?) is
coextensive with the State, calls the meas
ure now under consideration at Topeka.
Where does the State get this FIVE hun
dred thousand acres of land ? The an
swer will be found in the following extracts
from law of Congress of the 4th of Sep
TENDER, 184l, Sec. 8 Of said act is as fol-
lows:
"There shall be granted to each State
specified in the first section of this act, five
hundred thousand acres of land for purpos
eS Of internal improvements. :" X Aud
there shall be and is hereby granted to each
new State that shall be hereafter admitted
into the Union, upon such admission, so
much land, including such quantity as
may have been granted to such s ate before
it's admission, and while under Territorial
Government, for purposes Of Internal I'm
oroVement as aforesaid, as shall make five
hundred thousand acres of land to be SO
lected and located as aforesaid"
Sec. 8. of the same act of Congress pro,
vides
"Tbat the lands herein granted to the.
States above named shall not be disposed of
ct price less than one dollar aud twenty
five cents per acre, until otherwise suLhori-
zed by law of the United States; and the
nett proceeds of the sales of said lands shall
be faithfully applied to objects Of intern al
Improvement within the States aforesaid, re
spectively. namely: Roads, railroads, bridg
es, canals and Improvements of water
courses, and draining of swamps; and such
roads, railways, canals, bridges and water
courses, when made or improved. shall be
free for transportation of the United States
mail and munitions of war, and for the
passage of their troops, without the pay
ment of any toll whatever"
So much for the law of Congress which
gives us this land. Now for our State Con-
stitution, and the Constitution of the Uni
ted States upon this matter.
Sec. of tho ordinance of our State Con
stitution provides
"That the FIVE hundred thou7and acres
of land to which the State is entitled I'M
der tie got of Congress entitled An act TO
appropriate the D, ceeeda afthe sale Of Pub
lie Lands and grant pre- nii;;rTtioh Figh's'
approved September 4th, 184I, snch De
granted to the State for the support of com
mon schools"
Our Constitutional Convention in their
ordinance, asked certain thing of Congress,
upon being admitted; M oug them the item
above quoted. But Congress admitted US
accepting all the propositions contained in
our ordinance except this one of turning
aside this Eve hundred thousand acres of
land from the purposes of internal improve
ments to the common school fund. This
they rejected.
On this point we quote. section 2. article
of the United States Constitution
"This Constitution and tie laws of the
United Statss which shall be made in pur
suanee thereof and all treaties made. or
which shall be MAIDS, under the authority
of the United States, shall be the supreme
Law of the land; and the judgs in every
State shall be bound thereby, anything ia
the Constitution Of the lGsSs Of any State to
the contrary notwithstanding.
So much for the argument that this land
beleIgs. according to the Constitution, to
the common school fund. Any person can
see at once that it not only does not belong
to the school fund, but cannot be used for
that purpose under any circumstances.
We are not talking about what ought to be