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naynlents on accounts of roads SLc. about $.55, Ss6,724. The revenue arising from the public lands, therefore, has not been sufficient 10 meet inc general charges of tie Treasury which have grown out of them, by about sS1I,3l4,&5s. Yet, in having been applied to lessen those charges, the of the con,pacts have been thus fiji. fulfilled, and each State has profted ac cording to its usual proportion in the gene i | tsi ui,ai;.e and expenditure.

 The annual proceeds of land sales have increased and sse charges; have di.inisiiee so that at a reduced price those lands would nov defray all current charges growing out of them, and save the Treasury from fur iher advances on their account. Their originai intent and object, therefore, would be accomplished as fully as 1t has hereto fore been, by reducing the price, and here atier, as heretofore, bringing the proceeds into the Treasury. Indeed, as this Is the only mode h winch the objects of the ori- ginal eotnpacts can be attained, t may be considered for all practical purposes, that 1t Is one of their requirements.

 Inc bill before me begins with an entire subyersion of every one of the eompacts by which the United States became possessed of their western domain, and treats the sub Ject as if they never had existence, and as fl the U. States were the original and un- conditional owners oi ali the pllbilc lands. The first section dIrects--

 ''Ihat from and alter the 3lst day of Dec. 1882, there shall be allowed and paid to each ol the States of Ohio, indiana, ilii- aois, Alabama, Missouri, Mississippi, and Louisiana, over and above what each oi, the said States is entitled to by the terms of the compaets entered into between them re- speetiyely. upon their admission into the tnlon, and the United States, the sum oi twelve and halt per centum, b be applied 10 some object or objects ot internal im- nrogefaent or edaeat:5a within tie said .siates, under the direction of then several iegisiaures.r

 This twelve and haG per centun is to De takea cut of the nett proceeds Of the land safes, before any aPportionnent is made ;; and the same seven States which are first to receive this proportion, are also to receive fAer due proportion ot the resislele. aceesd- Ing 10 tae ratio ef general distribution.

 Now waving all considerations of equity or policy in regard to this provision, what more need be said fo demonstrate its ob- jectonable character, than that if IS n direct and nndlsguised violation of the pledge given by Congress to the States before a single cession was made thai t ahrogates the condition upon which some of fife States came into tho Union and that It sets at nought the terms oi cession spread upon the lace of every grant under which the tille to that portion ol the public iands Is held by the Federal Government.

 In the aPportionment of the remaining seven eighths of lhe proceeds, this bill, in a manner equally undisguised, violates the conditions upon which the United States acquired tiitiie tile 10 the ceded lands. Aban- donlng altogether the ratio of distribution according to the general charge and expen- d.tare, provided by the compacts, 1t adopts that oE the representative population

 '5iiSSt&iNf tttaA OtISi EEttGS9 WHICH CeOcQ ther land upon the express condition, that they yshould receive a benefit from their sales, m proportion to their part of the general charge, are by the bill allowed only DOT tor, of seven-eighths of their proceeds, and that not Tn the proportion of general charge and expenditure, but in the ratio of their federal representative population.

 The Consultation of the United States did not delegate to Congress the power to ab- rogate these compacts. On the contrary, y declaring that nothing in it 'sshall be eon- .strued so as to prejudice any claims of the U. States, or of any particular State, ; it yir- tuaily provides that these compacts and the rights they secure, shall remain untouched by the legislative power, which shall only make ali 'needIul rules and regulations for carrying them into effect. All beyond this would seem to be an assumption of undele- gated power.

 lobe concluded % om. neat.

 Fet5 I OFFICE DEP aRTMENT.

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