the principal object of any measure for the disposition of the public lands to avert.
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disposition of the public lands to avert Neither the merits of the bill under cors sideratioil, nor the validity of the objections which have felt t to be my daty to make 10 its passage, can he correctly appreciated without full understanding of the manner 1 in which the public lands, upon which it is l | intended to operate, MeEe acquired, and the condition upon which they are nov held itY itY the United States. , will, therefore, pre- cede inc statement. q. those those os.,5jeetiolts by brief but distinct exposition 0. these points. omitted. The substance is embraced in what follows

 By the facts here collected from the early history Of our Republic, 1t appears that the ] subject of the PtbIi; Lands entered into the elements of its institutions. 1t was only upon the condition that the lands should be considered as common property to be disposed of for the benefit of the U. States that some of the States agreed to come into perpetual alunon. Ihestates elait.i1g 1gthose lands, acceded 10 those views, and trans 1 ierred their claims 10 the United States upon certain specific conditions, and on those conditions the grants were accepted. The solemn eompaets, invited by Compress in 2 resolution declaring the purposes to which the proceeds of these lands should be ap- piled, originating before the Constitution, and forming ihe basis on which t was made, bound the United States to particular course of policy in relation 10 them, by ties as strong ias can be invented to secure the 1 faith of nations.

 

 With such care have the United States reserved to themselves in all their acts down to this day, in legislatng for flie Ter ritorles and admitting States into the Gniofl-- the unshackled power to execute in good faith the compaets Of eession made with the original States. From these facts and proceedings 1t plainly and clearly results: I. That one of the fundamental pfinei- pies on which the confederation of the D. States was originally based, was that the waste land of tie West within their limits, should be the common property of the U- States.

 2. That those lands were ceded to the United States by the States which claimed them, and tic tic sessions were accepted, on the express condition that they should be disposed ofior the common benefit of the States according to their respective propor- tons ID the general charge and expenditure, and tor no other purpose whatsoever.

 5. lhat m execution of these solemn eoGpacts, the Congress of the U. States did, under the confederation, proceed to sell these lands and put the ayalls into the coni- mon Treasury; and, under the new Consti- teiion, did repeatedly pledge them for the payment of tine public debt of the United States, by which each State was expected to profit in proportion to the general charge made upon it for that object.

 These are the first principles of this whole subject, which, think, cannot be contested bY any one who exa1.iii;ss; tie proceedings of the revolutionary Con1 gross, these sessions of the several States and tne acts of Congress under the new Constitution. Keeping them deeply inl- pressed upon the mind, let us proceed to examine how far the objects of the sessions have been completed, and see whether those coa'pacts are not obligatory upon the Unit ed States.

 The debt for which these lands were pledged by Congress, may be considered us paid, and they are consequently released rom thas ten. But that pledge fofmed no Psift oi me compact with the States, or of the, conditions upon which the sessions were made. 1t was a contract between new parties+--between the United ;5tatesand their creditors. Upon payment of the debts, the compacts remain ID full force, and the obIi- gatlon of the United States, to dispose of the lands for the common benefit, is neither destroyed nor impaired. Is they cannot now be executed in that mode, the only le. silmate question which can arise Is, in what other way are these lands to be hereafter disposed of for the common benefit of the several States ''aceording to their respect ive and usual proportion in the general charge and expenditure!n The oessseas oi virginia, North Carolina and Georgia, III express terms, and all the rest mpliedy. not only provide thus specifically the pro- portion according to which each State shall | proiit by the proceeds of' the land sales. but they proceed to declare, that they shall be "faitilfully and bona hde disposed of for that purpose, and for no other use or purpose whatsoever" This is the fundamental law of the land at this moment, growing out of compacts which are older than the Gonsti- tuition, and formed the corner stone on which the Union itself was erected.

 in the practice of the government, the proceeds of the public lands have not been set apart as separate fund for the payment of public debt; but have been and are now paid into the Treasury, where they consti-