1st Session. SCHOOL LANDS-LOUISIANA. RESOLUTIONS OF THE LEGISLATURE OF LOUISIANA, IN RELATION To the sixteen sections of school lands. MAY 18, 1840. Referred to the Committee on the Public Lands. Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Louisiana in General Assembly convened, That our Senators in Congress and our Representatives be requested to obtain from Congress the passage of a law giving to the Legislature of Louisiana power and authority to provide, by law, such rules and regulations as may be deemed expedient or necessary to protect them from waste, and to rent or lease out for such period as the Legislature may fix on (not exceeding twenty years), or to sell, for purposes of public education, the sixteenth sections of school lands situated therein; and also authorize the Governor of the State, in all cases where the sixteenth section in any township has been conceded by a previous or valid title, or any part of it, to select and enter, for the benefit of such township, the same quantity elsewhere. Resolved further, &c., That the Governor be requested to forward, as soon as practicable, a copy of this resolution to our Senators and Representatives in Congress. Approved March 17, 1840. WILLIAM DEBUYS, Speaker of the House of Representatives. FELIX GARCIA, President of the Senate. A. B. ROMAN, Governor of the State of Louisiana. 1st Session. LOUISIANA LEGISLATURE-MAIL ROUTE, VIDALIA TO NATCHITOCHES. RESOLUTIONS OF THE LEGISLATURE OF LOUISIANA, IN RELATION To a mail route from Vidalia to Natchitoches. MAY 18, 1840. Referred to the Committee on the Post Office and Post Roads. Whereas the road leading from Vidalia, in the parish of Concordia, via Harrisonburg, to the town of Natchitoches, on Red river, is one of great importance to the northwestern portion of the State of Louisiana and the southwestern portion of the State of Arkansas, it being the shortest and most direct route by which the mail can be conveyed to the northwest portion of Louisiana and southwest portion of Arkansas; and whereas said road is important to the United States in a military point of view, it being the most direct route by which troops could be conveyed from the Mississippi during the fall season of the year, when Red river is low; and whereas there are many warlike and powerful tribes of Indians located immediately on our frontier: Therefore, Be it resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Louisiana in General Assembly convened, That our Senators and Representatives in Congress be respectfully requested to procure from Congress the appropriation of a sufficient sum to construct a road from Vidalia, by the way of Harrisonburg, to Natchitoches, suitable for the conveyance of the mail by stages. And be it further resolved, &c. That the Governor be requested to transmit to our Senators and Representatives in Congress a copy of these resolutions as soon as practicable. Approved March 20, 1840: WILLIAM DEBUYS, Speaker of the House of Representatives. President of the Senate. 1st Session. P. O. Dept. MAIL CONTRACTS. LETTER FROM THE POSTMASTER GENERAL, TRANSMITTING A report of the contracts for carrying the mail for the year ending on the 30th of June, 1839; also, an abstract of the offers for carrying the mail within the said year. MAY 25, 1840. Read, and laid upon the table. POST OFFICE DEPARTMENT, May 23, 1840. SIR: In pursuance of the first article of the twenty-second section of the act of the 2d of July, 1836, I have the honor to transmit, herewith, the annual report of the contracts for the transportation of the mail made within the year preceding the 1st of July, 1839, together with a statement of all land and water mails established or ordered within the same year (Nos. 1 and 2). And, in pursuance of the twenty-fifth section of said act, I herewith report a copy of the abstract of the offers for carrying the mails made within said year (No. 3). I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, Hon. ROBERT M. T. HUNTER, AMOS KENDALL. Speaker of the House of Representatives. |