I have thus presented to the committee the terms on which, and the reasons why, the canal company are willing to relinquish the rights secured to them by their charter, so far as regards the construction of the canal; and I would respectfully request the committee to spread the same before the Council, and also before the House of Representatives, if there is any parliamentary mode by which it can. be done.

The resolution requesting in general terms such information as may be of service to the Legislature, in considering any proposal which may be made, opens a wide field of inquiry, which did time permit, I would take pleasure in surveying to some extent. But restricted by circumstances, I will forego that pleasure, and barely revert to one or two items of popular doctrine, busily promulgated for special purposes, and then discharge the subject, committing it to the able and enlightened care of the Legislature.

If the purpose of purchasing out the canal company be to retrocede the lands to the government, as is loudly demanded by some who set themselves up as lights and guides to the people only to betray them, I would suggest two or three difficulties which would prevent the Legislature from adopting that course, and the injustice of it, if adopted, to the people themselves who have the deepest interest at stake.

As a fiscal measure on the part of the Territory, it would be unwise for the reason that liabilities have been incurred by the Territory to the amount of some $40,000 to 50,000, predicated on those lands as a specified security, and which would have to be utimately raised by the Territory or State by taxation, if that security be in any manner impaired.

As a measure of Territorial policy, such a proceeding would tarnish the fair escutcheon of the Territory, by implicating her faith in the performance of a fair deliberate act of contract.

As a proceeding involving the rights of purchasers of the canal lands, it would be an act of rash injustice. There are those, I am aware, who swell the cry of the "dear people," "the poor settlers," &c., whose motives I will not pause to examine, but who will find in the end that they are on a false scent, and that these same

"dear people," and "poor settlers," are not half so stupid as these same disinterested philanthropists imagine. What would be the condition of many a citizen on the canal lands, if they were now to revert to the Government and be reduced to $1,25 per acre,and brought immediately into market, as they certainly would be if that course were pursued? How many of those settlers could within the present year raise the cash to enter their lands, without borrowing it? I venture to say that a large majority would have to borrow, but suppose only one-fourth of their number were under that neeessity-nay, suppose that only one-tenth of their number were under that necessity -what would be the right policy on the score of true philanthropy? Those who are thus compelled to borrow would be subjected to the hard terms which others have been subjected to in other parts of the country, and pay double the amount borrowed, in four years time, with annual interest on the whole sum at seven per cent; thus the "poor," for whom so much sympathy is attempted to be excited, would fall the victims of the Shylocks of the land, to gratify the vain ambition, the heartless policy, and the malignant hatred of a few mischievous demagogues who unhappily infest our community.

Let it be borne in mind, that these same "poor settlers" are not the persons who have sent up the numerous petitions to the Legislature on this subject-let it be borne in mind that out of five regular meetings, calling upon the settlers on canal lands to attend, not one of them was upon the canal grant. One meeting only has been held on the grant, not however notified as a general meeting, and held by persons chiefly who from the beginning have been opposed to the canal. At those several meetings it may safely be admitted that a few persons living on the outskirts of the grant, or being prompted by hostile feelings to the canal company, or being so constituted by nature that they could not withhold themselves from mischief, have been present; and no doubt some few who being alarmed by the hue and cry raised abroad and sent in upon them, have, from the best of motives, attended those meetings to ascertain if possible, what was the cause of all the hubbub.-But when all these motives have operated in concert, it has produced but a small result in bringing out the real bone and muscle, the real settlers, and the real parties interest

ed. They had rather pay to the Territory $2,50 per acre for their lands, and have the amount expended in building a canal or rail-road in their own vicinity, than to pay the same price to speculators who would carry the money out of the country to be expended for the benefit of another people; and especially would this be the case if the interest can be remitted, not only what is past, but that which is hereafter to become due, until twenty miles of the rail-road shall be completed, agreeably to the project of the bill contained in this paper. Our people are not dolts and blockheads enough to be gulled by the clamor which has been raised against the canal company for the benefit of politicians; and though some of them are poor, they are not so ignorant as to advocate such measures as would inevitably ruin themselves, for the benefit of any set of politicians, however fair might be their professions.

It might not be amiss by way of demonstrating the motives which in part impels and sustains these movements so hostile to the people, to mention that a certain prominent leader and boisterous declaimer for the "poor settlers," the "poor against the rich," &c., was himself, an agent to lend money to the "poor settlers" off the canal grant, at 100 per cent. advance in four years, with interest annually on the compound sum; and it may be possible that he would like to please the "poor settlers" on the canal grant to the same tune, and therefore has great anxiety to get it reduced to $1 25 per acre.

But suppose there were no poor "settlers" at all, but that every man had the means in hand to enter his land when brought into market would it be just to those who have purchased and paid for their land in full at $2 50 per acre, without the expectation of the canal being made, to abandon the work entirely, and thus deprive them of the advantages which they expected to secure by paying the high price? Certainly not.

Many there are who have thus paid for their lands to the canal fund, and the Territory has paid it to their officers, not to the canal company, and for work done on the canal.

If the whole enterprise were abandoned by the Territory, have not these persons a fair claim on the territory for $1 25 per acre for all lands by them thus purchased and paid for? There is also another

class of our citizens who cannot be overlooked by a wise and impartial Legislature, who are the guardians of the whole people, and not of any class-and these are the purchasers of the even sections from government within the boundaries of the grant, who have paid $2 50 per acre for their lands, under the pledge and faith of the Territory, for the prosecution of the canal. Shall the people be neglected or sent to Congress with an idle petition,begging to have refunded from the National Treasury the sum of $1 25 per acre, for the land by them purchased and paid for, in anticipation of benefits to be derived from expenditures on the work? Certainly not. No Legislature can adopt the course urged upon it at this time, by those who are attempting to get up an excitement unless it shall have resolved to disregard every obligation of faith, law, and right, as a sovereign power, and as a paternal government, to be careless of the dearest rights of the citizen.

It is worse than idle, then, to urge the Legislature to ask of Congress to reduce the price of those lands, or to authorize them to be surrendered to the government. Such a course would not only be oppressive and unjust to the settlers on those lands, but it would leave the Territory liable for all debts incurred by its authority; and not only so, would leave it subject to the provisions of the act of Congress making the grant, to refund to the government all the moneys which had been received in payment for the lands sold.

These are reasons sufficiently conclusive to my mind, why the Legislature would not entertain such a proposition, and also why Congress would grant no such request, if made.

If, then, it should be considered a settled point that the lands ought not and will not revert to the Government, the question recurs what shall be done with them. Shall they be applied to the construction of the canal? Circumstances have rendered this difficult, if not impracticable. Shall they then be permitted to lie dormant, an injury to the settlement and improvement of the country, and of no use to the Territory.

This would appear impolitic. Is there then any better course to pursue, than so to use them as to secure the construction of a railroad, binding together the great inland seas of our continent with the father of waters, with an iron band; and by means of the business

facilities thus secured, binding together indissolubly the people of the remote sections of our own favored Territory-and by the same operation to relieve the Territory at once and forever free of all liabilities incurred-the purchasers of lands from their present liabilities, and lighten those of the future-and doing justice to an incorporation whose members have labored anxiously and zealously in the cause of improvement, and, as they believe, in the cause of the country. Very respectfully,

The Committee's obed't serv't,

BYRON KILBOURN,

Pres't Mil. and R. R. Canal Co.

Document N.

JOINT RESOLUTIONS IN RELATION TO THE ADMISSION OF TEXAS INTO THE UNION.

Resolved, unanimously, by the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Alabama, in general assembly convened, First: That with the rising prospects of the new and noble Republic of Texas, the reasons why we should not forbid, but rather seek earnestly her admission into our union, constantly and rapidly accumulate: "their people are our people," and we believe them the bold, fearless friends of liberty; their admission cannot weaken, but will add strength, wealth and power to the Union: Second,

Resolved unanimously, That it is hereby made known to Texas and to the World; that we, as the representatives of people of Alabama, are decidedly in favor of the admission of the Republic of Texas in the Union, with equal rights and upon an equal footing with the Sovereign States of the United States of America: Third,

Resolved unanimously, That the Governor of Alabama, the President of the Senate, and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, in behalf of their respective Houses, be requested to subscribe