When the lines of the canals were established selections of land were to be allowed, and the title in fee at once passed to the States, who were to dispose of the same. The act provided that the construction of the canals should be commenced within five years and completed within twenty years, and upon failure to comply with these conditions the States were to pay the United States the amount received for any lands previously sold. Purchases from the States were protected by the title in fee having passed to the State upon location of the canals. This was equal to a cash advance by the Nation for construction purposes, as the lands were sold by the States and the money thus obtained built the improvements. These acts of March 2, 1827, and May 24, 1828, (with the subsequent legislation thereunder), granting lands to Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois in aid of the construction of the canals named, resulted in the vesting to those States for such purpose of 2,014,816 acres of land; the grant to the Wabash and Erie Canal being, in Indiana 1,457,366.06 acres, in Ohio 266,535 acres, a total of 1,723,901.06 acres; and the Illinois Canal, connecting the Illinois River with Lake Michigan, 290,915 acres. . The act of September 20, 1850, was the first railroad act of real importance, and initiated the system of grants of land for railroads by Congress which prevailed until after July 1, 1862. This grant gave the State of Illinois alternate sections of land (even-numbered) for six sections in width on either side of the [Illinois Central] road and branches, being a grant of specific sections. The second section initiated the "indemnity" practice, or the granting of lands to the company in lieu of lands within the original grant occupied by legal settlers at the time of the definite location of the route, to be taken within fifteen miles of the road, and designated the method of disposition. The third section provided that lands of the United States within the grant limits should not be sold at less than double minimum price ($2.50) being an increase of the price of lands from $1.25 to $2.50 per acre or from single to double minimum. It provided for a forfeiture of the grant, with payment by the State to the United States for lands sold, in case of failure to construct within a certain fixed time. Unsold lands were to revert to the public domain, and purchasers from the State to have good title. This was providing for default and revision thereafter. The road was to be a public highway, to be used by the Government free of toll or other charges, and the mails were to be carried at prices to be fixed by Congress. [A subsequent] act extended like terms and conditions to the States of Alabama and Mississippi in aid of the Mobile and Ohio road which was to connect with the Illinois Central and branches all of which roads are now established. . . By an act of the Illinois legislature, of date February 10, 1851, the Illinois Central Railroad Company was incorporated as a body politic and corporate. The fifteenth section of the act gave the lands ceded to the State for railroad purposes to this company, the governor of the State to make deed in fee therefor to the corporation. . . The Hannibal and Saint Joseph and Missouri Pacific Railroads were the roads built under the act of June 10, 1852, donating to the State of Missouri certain lands. This act contained two features in addition to the main provisions of the Illinois grant, viz. a plan of disposition of the lands granted, and a clause directing the Secretary of the Interior to offer at public sale, at periods, at the double minimum price ($2.50 per acre) the reserved Government sections. The provisions of the Illinois bill requiring the States to reimburse the Government for lands sold, in case of default, were not in the Missouri act; and in the Arkansas act of February 9, 1853, the section to "offer" the reserved lands was omitted. The series of grants to Iowa and other States in 1856, and the Minnesota act of 1857, were in the form and substance of the Missouri grants of June 10, 1852, with the change of "odd" for "even" in the description of the sections granted to the States. . The public having by petition evidenced their opinion to Congress, the Union Pacific Railroad Company was incorporated by a direct act of the Congress of the United States, July 1, 1862. They were to build a railroad and telegraph line from the Missouri River to the Pacifie Ocean. This was a complete change in the system of land bounties to aid in the building of railroads. The grant was direct to the corporation, thus avoiding the established rule of using a State as a trustee and agent of transfer. It had been fiercely contended prior to this that Congress could not create a corporation to do business in a State without the consent of the State. The company was given right of way, allowances for shops, stations, &c., and in aid of construction "every alternate section of public land,” by odd numbers, unless previously disposed of, reserved, or mineral (coal and iron afterward construed not to be reserved by this term), to the extent of five alternate sections per mile on each side of the road. . . . II. ATTACK AND DEFENCE OF THE POLICY Clay's Report on Public Lands, 1832. The committee are instructed by the Senate to inquire into the expediency of reducing the price of the public lands, and also of ceding them to the several States in which they are situated on reasonable terms. The committee will proceed to examine these two subjects of inquiry distinctly, beginning first with that which relates to a reduction of price. . Against any considerable reduction of the price of the public lands, unless it be necessary to a more rapid population of the new States, which will be hereafter examined, there are weighty, if not decisive considerations: 1. The Government is the proprietor of much the largest quantity of the unseated lands of the United States. What it has in market, bears a large proportion to the whole of the occupied lands within their limits. If a considerable quantity of any article, land, or any commodity whatever, is in market, the price at which it is sold, will affect, in some degree, the value of the whole of that article, whether exposed to sale or not. The influence of a reduction of the price of the public lands would probably be felt throughout the Union; certainly in all the western States, and most in those which contain, or are nearest to, the public lands. There ought to be the most cogent and conclusive reasons for adopting 1 Senate Documents, No. 128, 1st Session, 22d Congress. a measure which might seriously impair the value of the property of the yeomanry of the country. Whilst it is decidedly the most important class in the community, most patient, patriotic, and acquiescent in whatever public policy is pursued, it is unable or unwilling to resort to those means of union and concert which other interests employ to make themselves heard and respected. Government should, therefore, feel itself constantly bound to guard, with sedulous care, the rights and welfare of the great body of our yeomanry. Would it be just towards those who have heretofore purchased public lands at higher prices, to say nothing as to the residue of the agricultural interest of the United States, to make such a reduction, and thereby impair the value of their property? Ought not any such plan of reduction, if adopted, to be accompanied with compensation for the injury which they would inevitably sustain ? 2. A material reduction of price would excite and stimulate the spirit of speculation, now dormant, and probably lead to a transfer of vast quantities of the public domain from the control of Government to the hands of the speculator. At the existing price, and with such extensive districts as the public constantly offers in the market, there is no great temptation to speculation. The demand is regular, keeping pace with the progress of emigration, and is supplied on known and moderate terms. If the price were much reduced, the strongest incentives to engrossment of the better lands would be presented to large capitalists; and the emigrant, instead of being able to purchase from his own Government upon uniform and established conditions, might be compelled to give much higher and more fluctuating prices to the speculator. An illustration of this effect is afforded by the military bounty lands granted during the late war. Thrown into the market at prices below the Government rate, they notoriously became an object of speculation, and have principally fallen into the hands of speculators, retarding the settlement of the districts which include them. 3. The greatest emigration that is believed now to take place from any of the States, is from Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee. The effects of a material reduction in the price of the public lands, would be, Ist. To lessen the value of real estate in those three States. 2d. To diminish their interest in the public domain, as a common fund for the benefit of all the States. And, 3d. To offer what would operate as a bounty to further emigration from those States, occasioning more and more lands, situated within them, to be thrown into the market, thereby not only lessening the value of their lands, but draining them both of their population and currency. And, lastly, Congress has, within a few years, made large and liberal grants of the public lands to several States. To Ohio, 922,937 acres; to Indiana, 384,728 acres; to Illinois, 480,000 acres; and to Alabama, 400,000 acres; amounting, together, to 2,187,665 acres. Considerable portions of these lands yet remain unsold. The reduction of the price of the public lands, generally, would impair the value of those grants, as well as injuriously affect that of the lands which have been sold in virtue of them. On the other hand, it is inferred and contended, from the large amount of public land remaining unsold, after having been so long exposed to sale, that the price at which it is held is too high. But this apparent tardiness is satisfactorily explained by the immense quantity of public lands which have been put into the market by Government. It is well known that the new States have constantly and urgently pressed the extinction of the Indian title upon lands within their respective limits; and, after its extinction, that they should be brought into market as rapidly as practicable. The liberal policy of the General Government, coinciding with the wishes of the new States, has prompted it to satisfy the wants of emigrants from every part of the Union, by exhibiting vast districts of land for sale, in all the States and Territories, thus offering every variety of climate and situation to the free choice of settlers. From these causes, it has resulted that the power of emigration has been totally incompetent to absorb the immense bodies of waste lands offered in the market. For the capacity to purchase is, after all, limited by the emigration, and the progressive increase of population. If the quantity thrown into the market had been quadrupled, the probability is that there would not have been much more annually sold than actually has been. With such extensive fields for selection before them, purchasers, embarrassed as to the choice which |