1st Session. No. 129. IN SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES. MAY 15, 1850. Submitted, and ordered to be printed. Mr. FELCH made the following REPORT: The Committee on Public Lands, to whom were referred the petitions of citizens of Iowa, praying a grant of land for the Fairfield Branch of Iona State University, and of the trustees of said branch for the same purpose; the memorial of the citizens of Arcadia, Missouri, praying for a grant of land for the "Arcadia High School;" and the memorial of the trustees of the "Protestant University of the United States," at Cincinnati, Ohio, also praying for a donation of land to that institution,— submit the following report: The institutions above mentioned are organized under acts of incorporation by the legislatures of the States in which they are respectively located, with the usual objects and with the ordinary powers of colleges or universities. A grant of land to institutions of learning of this character, by name, and for the specific endowment or use of the grantee, however dersirable for the favored institution, would not be in accordance with the former practice of this government. In disposing of the public lands in the new States, Congress has not been unmindful of the subject of education. The reservation of one section in every township, or one thirty-sixth part of the entire area of the State, and in some of the territories of two sections in each township for common schools, attests the liberal spirit with which the subject has been regarded. Grants have also been made in all the new States, known as the land States, for the endowment of universities. In making these grants, it has been the design of the government to give, as far as possible, an equal share to each State, so that all might participate alike in the benefits of such grants. Thus Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Wisconsin, and Iowa, have each received for this purpose forty-six thousand and eighty acres. Ohio has received over and above this quantity three thousand and forty acres; Florida, forty six thousand and eighty acres; Michigan, one thousand eight hundred and seventy acres. A grant of certain lands within her borders was made to Tennessee in 1806, of which, among other conditions, the State was required to reserve one hundred thousand acres for the use of two colleges. These grants were made to the several States above mentioned, and not to designated institutions within their limits. The policy, as clearly designated by former action of Congress, is not to prefer or endow particular institutions, but to give an adequate portion of the public domain within their borders to the States themselves, leaving the proper application of the grant to be made by the legislature in such manner as might best secure the purpose for which it is bestowed. In examining the grants for such seminaries heretofore made by Congress, the committee fixed two instances only which may seem exceptions to the otherwise uniform course of legislation above indicated. The first is a grant of certain lots in Washington city to Columbian College, in 1832. This institution is established in the District of Columbia, which is under the sole legislative jurisdiction of Congress, and there is no State authority to which the grant could be confided. It received its charter from Congress. And the grant was of land belonging to the government in the District where it was located. Government was a land-owner to a large amount within the District; and, upon the same principle upon which it aids the cause of education in the land States, it here aided the same cause, changing the manner only to meet the anomalous relation of Congress to the District. The second instance is found in a reservation in Mississippi, in 1803, of thirty-six sections for the use of Jefferson College, to be selected, in one body, by the Secretary of the Treasury; and two in lots and one out-lot in the town of Natchez, to be selected by the governor of Mississippi Territory, for the use of said college. In 1812, the Secretary of the Treasury was again authorized to locate the abovementioned thirty-six sections on any land in the Territory not sold, &c.; and in 1819, a little more than a year after the admission of Mississippi as a State into the Union, another township in addition to that theretofore reserved for the use of Jefferson College was granted to the State for the support of a seminary of learning therein. Thus the grant to Jefferson college-one of the established institutions of Mississippi-was regarded as a part of the quantity of land to be bestowed on that State for university purposes, and was so evidently received by the State. And, indeed, it is understood that the grant for the specific use of that college was thus made by Congress at the special request of the authorities of Mississippi. The two cases above mentioned-the only instances of a similar character to be found in the statutes--are founded on special circumstances, and, in fact, form no exception in principle to the general policy of the government on this subject. The system of bestowing equally, or on some recognised principle of apportionment, upon each of the States in which the public land is located, for the purpose, is evidently much more just and equitable than bestowing grants on the several institutions which may apply for the bounty of Congress. Indeed, the great number of such institutions, although they are the pride of the country and a source of general knowledge in community, would almost render it impracticable for Congress to receive such individual applications and to decide on the merits of each. To grant to all such applicants, would be impracticable; to discriminate between them, upon just principles, almost impossible. And, in truth, if the applications of all were received and entertained, the means which Congress would have of ascertaining their comparative merits would be so imperfect and unsatisfactory that it is doubtful whether the cost of legislating on the subject would not exceed to the government the value of the bounty solicited by the institutions. The committee, after a careful consideration of the whole matter, are satisfied that the interests of the public will be best subserved by making all grants which Congress may deem proper to bestow for educational purposes to the States, and not to individual seminaries of learning. They appreciate the importance of the general object of the memorialists; they doubt not the high character of the seminaries for which aid is sought, nor the importance of that aid to the full and speedy success of their designs of usefulness; but they cannot, for reasons above indicated, recommend a change in the system heretofore governing Congress in reference to such institutions. If the liberality of Congress should hereafter be exercised in additional reservation for the establishment and support of universities and colleges, they think it should be exercised as heretofore, by grants of equal or proportionate amounts to the several States in which the public lands are located, in trust for that purpose, and not to individual applicants. The committee therefore report the following resolution: Resolved, That the prayer of the memorialists be not granted. 1st Session. No. 130. IN SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES. MAY 16, 1850. Submitted, and ordered to be printed. Mr. BALDWIN made the following REPORT: The Committee of Claims, to whom was referred the memorial of Asa Andrews, asking payment of the amount found due him from the United States by the verdict of a jury, having examined the same, with the accompanying evidence, report: That the claim of the memorialist, upon the evidence now offered in its support, was fully considered by the committee, and an adverse report made thereon to the Senate, at the 2d session of the 30th Congress; which report the committee adopt, and therefore recommend that the prayer of the petitioner be not granted. The Committee of Claims, to whom were referred the memorial of Asa Andrews, of Ipswich, Massachusetts, and a bill for his relief, directing the Secretary of the Treasury to pay to him, or his legal representatives, the sum of one thousand nine hundred and eightythree dollars and eighty cents, found and adjudged to be due him by the district court of the United States for the district of Massachusetts, report: That the said Asa Andrews was collector of the port of Ipswich from the year 1797 till the 30th of June, 1830, when he was removed from office: that on the 30th of August, 1830, his accounts were adjusted by the Auditor, and a balance stated on the books of the treasury to be due from him to the United States of $921 92, for the recovery of which a suit was instituted against him and his sureties, in the district court of the United States for the district of Masschusetts, in 1840: that on the trial before the district court, the defendant claimed an allowance of his account in the set-off filed in the cause, consisting of charges for commissions on disbursements for bounty on fishing vessels from 1799 to 1828, amounting to $1,641 33; of his account for stationery, office rent, fuel, and clerk hire, from 1798 to 1828, inclusive, amounting to $1,555 70; for cash paid deputy collectors from 1798 to 1828, at the rate of fifty dollars a year, $1,450; for his own services as surveyor, estimated at twenty-five days in each year during the period aforesaid, $1,750; and for his services as inspector, at the rate of fifty dollars a year, the further sum of $1,475; amounting in all to $7,872 03: that the jury, under the instruc |