After this, acts of pre-emption were, at various times, passed by Congress, but limited and remedial in their character, until the 4th September, 1841, when our present prospective and general pre-emption law was passed. This was the second great improvement in the system.

A graduation bill, founded upon the exercise of the discretion a proprietor exhibits--discriminating in price according to the value of his lands-I consider the third great improvement in the system. This, although often urged upon Congress as a constitutional and wise mode of disposing of the large tracts of nearly worthless land owned by the general government within the limits of the land States, has never yet become a law. A bill of this character, introduced by the gentleman from Alabama [Mr. COBB], passed this House a few weeks since, and now awaits the action of the Senate.

SUCH IS THE HISTORY OF THE ORIGINAL ACQUISITION OF THE PUBLIC LANDS BY THE GENERAL GOVERNMENT, AND THEIR ORGANIZATION UNDER OUR PRESENT LAND SYSTEM.

The machinery for their administration was inaugurated in the idea that the public lands were common property, pledged for the common debt, under the exclusive, but not unlimited, control of the general government, and to be used for the common benefit. It acted upon them as a surrender in the common interest, surrounded by the same checks, and to be disposed of subject to the same constitutional limitations, as the funds of the common treasury. Their management was placed under the Treasury Department; their proceeds paid into the common fund; and, except in the discrimination imposed by a proprietorship in kind, rather than in money, the same principles were to govern their administration.

Under these views, the machinery of the system has been developed from a single room in the Treasury Department, at an annual expense in 1802, in Washington, of $1,754, and throughout the country $4,765 26-total, including land offices and surveyors, $6,519 26-into a General Land Office, created in 1812, with a Commissioner, appointed by the President, and elevated, in 1848, into almost a distinct branch of the government, under the Secretary of the Interior, at a cost, according to the estimate of this year, of $189,875 for the Land Office at Washington, and $842,640 for the other land offices and surveying departmentsin all $532,515, exclusive of California.

The land system began its operation upon the land Acres. in the Territories alone, amounting to ..... 243,990,821 Acquired from Virginia, New York, Massachusetts,

and Connecticut...

From Georgia..

..158,660,299

58,898,522

From North and South Carolina....... 26,432,000 And has extended to those since acquired, amounting to..........

..1,165,389,741

within the Territories and thirteen States of the Union.

It had in 1802, eleven employés throughout the Union. It has now in the Territories and thirteen land States 336 federal officers, operating upon interests purely local, and of the highest importance to the citizens of the States-all controlled by, and in direct correspondence with, the general office at Washington.

Under its administration there had been surveyed, up to June 30, 1853, 336,202,587 acres-leaving then unsurveyed, 1,073,177,975 acres.

The expenses of all the branches of the government have increased in the same time, from $3,737,080 in 1802, to about $50,000,000 in 1853.

The population of the United States at the time of the system's organization, in 1800, was 5,305,925; in 1850, 23,191,876.

THE BILL THAT I HAVE OFFERED AS A SUBSTITUTE TO THE ONE BEFORE THE HOUSE, IS IN THE IDEA THAT THIS SYSTEM HAS BECOME UNWIELDY; AND FROM A DEVELOPMENT, UNANTICIPATED AT ITS INSTITUTION, FAILED TO ACCOMPLISH THE PURPOSES OF ITS CREA

TION.

It proposes to take nothing from the present land system which experience has shown to be valuable; but freeing it of incumbrances, to make permanent its three great improvements, and render them more effective.

It does not propose to sell or give away the public lands to the States within which they lie, but simply to transfer to them their administration, on conditions highly just and equitable to all the States-insuring greater attention to local interests, contravening no mooted constitutional point, simplifying the system, curtailing executive patronage, and confining its operation, as originally, to the Territories.

The amount of public lands within the States, [ex cluding California, which has 113,682,436 acres,] the administration of which will be conferred upon the States, is 168,178,818 acres; the amount of public land in the Territories, upon which the present system will continue to operate, is 864,069,170 acres.

Mr. Chairman, the vast importance of this public domain to the future interests of the country cannot be appreciated. While in Great Britain proper and equal distribution of land would give a little over two acres to each individual, in the United States it would give 105 acres. This is the great peculiarity of our country. It is our security, and a magnificent basis upon which to erect our future greatness. We should not hasten to destroy it,

but leave its settlement and reduction to cultivation to the operation of natural causes, aided by permanent laws.

I HAVE SAID THE SUBSTITUTE I OFFER IS DIRECTED AGAINST A VICE OF ORGANIZATION, AND NOT OF PRINCIPLE. I will be better understood, perhaps, if I say the evils of our present land system result chiefly from its organization. These evils will be best considered in connexion with the remedies proposed.

WHAT IS THE SUBSTITUTE?

PROVISIONS OF THE BILL."

It provides for the cession of the public lands in the States of Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Florida, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Iowa, Wisconsin, and California, to these States respectively, on certain conditions.

The said States are to pay into the United States treasury 75 per centum on the gross amount of their sales of such lands.

"That the minimum price, as now fixed by law, shall remain unchanged until the 30th day of June, 1855; but, after that period, the price may be reduced by the States respectively, according to the following scale: all lands theretofore offered at public sale, and then remaining unsold ten years or upward preceding the 30th day of June, 1855, aforesaid, may be reduced by said States to a price not less than one dellar per acre; and all lands that may have been offered at public sale, and remaining unsold fifteen years or upward preceding the said 30th day of June, 1855, may thereafter be reduced to a price not less than seventy-five cents per acre; and all lands that may have been offered at public sale, and remaining unsold twenty years or upward preceding the said 30th day of June, 1855, may then be reduced by said States to a price not less then fifty cents per acre, and alt lands that may have been offered at public sale, and remaining unsold twenty-five years or upward preceding the said 30th day of June, 1855, may thereafter he reduced by said States to a price not less than twenty-five cents per acre; and all lands that may have been offered at public sale, and remaining unsold thirty years or upward preceding the said 30th day of June, 1855, shall le ceded immediately to the States in which said lands are situated: Provided, That all lands which shall remain unsold after having been offered at public sale for ten years, and which do not come under the above provisions, shall be subject to the provisions of pre-emption, graduation, and disposition aforesaid, at the respective periods of ten, fifteen, twenty, twenty-five, and thirty years after said sale, commencing from the expiration of ten years after the same had been offered at public sale."

The lands are to be subject to the existing legal subdivisions, reserving for each township and fractional township the sixteenth section for the use of schools. Land sold at public auction to be subject to entry for cash only, according to a fixed graduation.

Acts of Congress in force at the time of the passage of this act to remain unchanged, unless modified by this act.

Lands after private entry may be sold, at the option of the purchaser, in quarter quarter sections This disposition of lands to the States shall be in full of the five per cent. fund not already accrued to any State-said State to be liable for all the expense of sales and management of said lands, and for extinguishing Indian title.

On failure to comply with the provisions of this act, the cession of lands to any delinquent State to be void; and all grants or titles thereafter made by any such State to be also void.

After every reduction in the price of the lands by the States, as provided for, the State legislatures may grant to the settlers on such lands rights of pre-emption, to last for 12 months, at such reduced rates; lands not taken by settlers at the end of that time may be entered by any other person, until the next reduction takes place, when, if not previously purchased, they shall be subject to the right of pre-emption for 12 months; and so on, from time to time, as said reductions take place.

The President to close the land offices, surveyor's office, &c., in any State included in this act, that shall, as provided, accept the provisions of this act; and

the commissions of said land officers and surveyors to expire at a period not beyond six months after the time for the law to take effect.

That from the passage of this act the States accepting the transfer under the terms offered, shall be relieved from all restrictions to tax any land by the authority subject to the sale thereof; and all maps, papers. books, and accounts, relative to said lands, now in the General Land Office at Washington, shall be sub. ject to the order of the Executives of the accepting States.

This was the bill as originally introduced by Mr. Speaker Boyd. To this I have added two amendments. The first amendment is a proviso to the first section, and is designed to authorize the States to grant alternate sections of land for railroad purposes. It is as follows:

"Provided, That the State may, on the payment of the price fixed by this bill for the land along any railroad line, indemnify itself for the grant of alternate sections of land to such railroad by disposing of the remaining sections along the line at double the price fixed by this bill."

This amendment embraces the question of granting alternate sections of land for railroads, and transfers the question to the States within which the lands are situated.

It authorizes the States to grant alternate sections of land along railroad lines within their borders, and idemnify themselves by disposing of the remaining sections along the line at double the price fixed by the bill.

By it each State may grant, at its discretion, that aid to railroad interests within its borders that is now asked of the general government. Under its operation, the general government is guarantied by the State against any loss in the grant of alternate sections, and each State is made the judge, under the responsibil ity of a pecuniary interest, in what cases the grant should be made; for, as soon as a grant is made of alternate sections to any railroad, the State pays the regular per centage that would be due, upon the sale of those lands, to the general government, and is reimbursed, as already stated, by the sale of the remaining sections at double price. The other amendment extends the time for right of pre-emption, in the second section, from ninety days to twelve months, and is for the benefit of actual settlers.

The lands in Territories are not affected by the provisions of the bill.

Under this bill the railroad interest is amply protected, the general government is more than reimbursed for the purchase and survey of the public lands, and relieved of an onerous and annoying agency in their disposal, while the citizens of all the States are guarantied the advantages of a graduation in their price.

The States are benefitted by having settled within their borders all those annoying land claims and conflicting titles that come up to Washington from all quarters, to be decided frequently upon imperfect testimony.

Most of the western States have already State as well as federal land offices within their limits. Under this bill the State land of fices will do the work of both.

At present the general government pays to each State five per cent. upon the public lands within their borders, and the State cannot tax them for five years after they are sold.

By the substitute this is reversed: the State pays a certain percentage to the general government. The receipt of this per-centage by the general government is insured by the titles under the State being dependent for their legality upon its payment.

In few words, it proposes to transfer all the lands within the States to the States in which they lie, on two conditions:

First, that the States shall dispose of them at $1,75 cents, 50 cents, and 25 cents, according as they have been offered for sale, ten, fifteen, twenty, and twenty-five years.

Second, that the States pay to the general government 75 per cent. upon the net amount realized from their sale. This percentage is to be paid quarterly as the lands are disposed of at the State land offices; those remaining unsold at the end of 30 years to belong to the States.

A GREAT ARGUMENT IN FAVOR OF THE SUBSTITUTE IS, THAT IT CURTAILS EXECUTIVE PATRONAGE. By its adoption 228 federal offices will be abolished, and their duties imposed upon State officers.

Mr. Calhoun, to whom it was given to detect danger to the constitution before it was visible to most minds, and whose eloquence was but the earnest protest of the future against the present, once said that the greatest instruments of consolidation under our government were the land office, the currency, and the post office.

The constitution, as originally interpreted by its framers, left the great mass of legislation to the States, and restricted the federal government to the management of foreign affairs, and a few internal matters. Yet, so disguised under a pride of national greatness has been the tendency to consolidation, that, insensibly, one power after another has been assumed, until the general government, almost to the exclusion of the State governments, has made itself felt in all the relations of life. Its encroachments have been invisible, but constant.

With the addition of each new State, the relative greatness of the general government has been increased, and that of the individual States diminished. With increased power to reward, its offices have become more valuable.

The popular mind has associated increase of constitutional power with national development. Congress has absorbed nearly all the legislation of the country-its sessions increasing in length, while those of the State legislatures have become less frequent and shorter.

Under the administration of Mr. Jefferson, in 1802, there were but five heads of department: there are now seven. There were then but 3,806 federal officers: there are now in the employment, throughout the country, 35,456.