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Pond, and all others legally interested in this land, of their respective parts thereof, upon their paying into the treasury a sum of money, the interest of which, at six per cent per annum, should be equal to the annual rent with which the land was charged, and upon their making a surrender of all the original leases for the whole tract.

This act would seem to have contained the precise provision for which these petitioners now ask. Why it was not complied with the Commissioners do not know, any farther than that they find, by a report made by the Surveyor-General to the Senate in 1824, that in a petition to that body, signed by David Frost and others, it was stated that the surrender of all the original leases could not be made, and that that fact was alleged as the ground of the failure by the occupants of this land, to avail themselves of the provisions of the the act of 1819.

The next legislation upon the subject is the act of 1827, complained of in the petition. That act authorises the sub-lessees of this land to pay the rents due and to become due upon their respective shares of the whole lot, and to obtain credits to themselves, and upon their respective parcels of land, for all payments then previously made by each of them, according to certain terms and conditions specified in the first section of the act. The persons claiming to be the sub-lessees and occupants of that part of the one thousand acres leased by John Gregg, junior, have availed themselves of these provisions, and have obtained separate accounts to be opened upon the books of the Comptroller's office, in the name of each, for his share of the land, and of the rent,

The parts leased by John Gregg, senior, and by James Alexander, remain under the original leases, so far as the accounts for the rent are concerned, and in relation to those parts nothing has been done under this act.

The second section of this act contains the provision of which the petitioners complain, to wit: That in order to obtain title to their respective portions of the land, they are required to pay into the treasury a sum of money, the interest upon which at five per cent, (and not at six per cent) shall be equal to the rent charged upon their respective parts of the lot.

The question appears to the Commissioners to be purely one of bargain between the petitioners and the state, and to be entirely open and unrestricted by any proceedings heretofore had, unless the Legislature shall consider the act of 1819 as fixing the rate at which the reversion held by the state in this land should be sold. There can be no doubt that the state is bound to pay to the Indians the three hundred dollars, being the amount of these rents, annually forever. It holds these leases as the equivalent for these payments, and it is not questioned that the lands are perfect security for the rents. The only point to be decided therefore is, will the state sell its reversion at all, and take the risk of re-investment for the purpose of establishing some other fund which by its regular income will reimburse the treasury for these payments to the Indians? If so, upon what terms will the Legislature consent to make that sale?

In 1819 it was agreed to be made upon the payment of a sum which, invested at 6 per cent, would meet the payment or equal the rent. This act required that all the leases should be surrendered, and the whole money paid as one transaction. With the terms of this law the lessees did not, or could not, comply. In 1827 another act was passed, agreeing to receive a sum which, invested at five per cent, should indemnify the treasury, and allowing this payment by any person interested and upon any part. No one has expressed a wish to avail himself of this provision of this act. The act of 1819 must be repealed by the act of 1827, though that repeal is not expressed in words, and the substance of the present petition is, in effect, to have that act revived, and so extended, that any one of the persons interested may avail himself of its provisions separate from the others.

The petitioners, no doubt, suppose they are injured by the law of 1827-as they have habituated themselves to suppose that their rent was to be considered as the interest at six per cent, upon the purchase money of their lands. They have probably so valued the incumbrance upon their titles, and the present holders may have purchased with these views. But the Commissioners know of no act of the Legislature, or of any agents of the state, to authorise these conclusions, unless the established rate of interest upon the sale of state lands, or the act of, 1819 above referred to, has done it; and it surely is for the Legislature to determine how far either of these considerations, or the self-created deception of these lessees,

afford the ground of an equitable claim to the relief they ask; as it is also exclusively the province of the Legislature to say upon what terms the state shall receive the money for their reversionary right in these lands.

The Commissioners have considered it their duty, in as much as this subject is before the Legislature, to present them with a statement of these accounts, of the names of the occupants of this land, so far as they appear upon the Comptroller's books, of the quantity of land held by each, of the annual rent chargeable to each, and of the rent in arrear upon each account.

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The statement annexed will show these facts; and it is respectfully suggested that, in any legislation which may be had upon the subject, provision should be made for the payment of all rent in arrear upon any piece of the land, before the title to such piece should pass from the hands of the state.

As it has been formerly alleged by the occupants and sub-lessees of this land, that all the original leases could not be surrendered, it may be well for the Commissioners further to suggest, that under a general act directing them to patent these lands, they should not feel themselves authorised to issue patents for any part, until the original lease for such part was surrendered to them, or until its loss or destruction was conclusively proved. It may, therefore, be necessary for the Legislature to give to the Commissioners special directions upon this point, should they, by any act they may pass, order these lands to be conveyed; as, without the power to produce and surrender the original leases, the petitioners might not otherwise be able to avail themselves of the relief intended.

SILAS WRIGHT, JR. Comptroller,
A. C. FLAGG, Secretary,

SIMEON DE WITT, Surveyor-Gen、

Dated Albany, 13th January, 1831.

SCHEDULE OF LANDS, AMOUNT DUE, &c.

LESSEES.

Quantity land. Annual

Acres.

rent.

James Alexander, sub's. 1 & 2,......... 158.28 $47 22

John Gregg, Sen. sub's. 3 to 9,.........300.00 90 00
John Gregg, Jun. underlet to William

Farrington,............sub. 10 77.29 22 97

David Frost,...

Zaccheus Barber,.

Ar. rent to 1 Feb 1831.

$62 08

306 19

46 78

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Gregg, Hodge & Brunson,......14 49.90
M. Dudley, now P. Freeman,...15 24.92
N. Brown,....
Nicholas Cummings,...........17 99.90

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16 24.92

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IN ASSEMBLY,

January 14, 1831.

MEMORIAL

Of the Citizens of the Village of Ogdensburgh, St. Lawrence county, praying for an act to regulate Sales at Auction of Merchandize in said county.

To the Honorable the Legislature of the State of New-York, in Senate and Assembly convened.

Your memorialists, citizens of the village of Ogdensburgh, would respectfully represent-That public sentiment, in relation to our auction system, has been so generally expressed as to render it unnecessary to detail its demoralizing effects, to satisfy an intelligent community that its restriction within narrower bounds is indispensable to the maintenance of sound morals and the existence of either useful or honorable mercantile dealing.

Were the evils confined to our large cities, or to the wholesale trade, less general would be the cause of complaint; but the same pernicious influence, so loudly deprecated on our sea-board, extends throughout the interior, and pervades every considerable village.Almost every week in the year brings along one or more of itinerant persons, with a stock of goods of a very inferior quality, bought up at the petty auctions in the large cities. These goods are frequently put up in a room adjoining some grocery, and sold, day after day, and night after night, at auction, to purchasers who are unacquainted with, and have no opportunity of examining the quality, very much to the detriment of such purchasers, and especially so to the poorer class of community, injurious to the settled and established merchant, and in the wide field of retailing, extensively affects every class of our citizens, debases their sense of honorable traffic, and, as a necessary consequence of idle and promiscuous as[A. No. 12.]

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