ON THE PUBLIC LANDS BILL.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES, DECEMBER 29, 1835.

The public lands, from their wide extent and immense value, have been an interesting subject in our legislation. The reader will be interested to know the views of Mr. CLAY upon the disposal to be made of them. The following is a speech upon the subject, delivered in the Senate, December 29, 1835.

ALTHOUGH I find myself borne down by the severest affliction with which Providence has ever been pleased to visit me, I have thought that my private griefs ought not longer to prevent me from attempting, ill as I feel qualified, to discharge my public duties. And I now rise, in pursuance of the notice which has been given, to ask leave to introduce a bill to appropriate, for a limited time, the proceeds of the sales of the public lands of the United States, and for granting land to certain States.

I feel it incumbent on me to make a brief explanation of the highly important measure which I have now the honor to propose. The bill, which I desire to introduce, provides for the distribution of the proceeds of the public lands, in the years 1833, 1834, 1835, 1836 and 1837, among the twenty-four States of the Union, and conforms substantially to that which passed in 1833. It is, therefore, of a temporary character; but if it shall be found to have salutary operation, it will be in the power of a future Congress to give it an indefinite continuance; and, if otherwise, it will expire by its own terms. In the event of war unfortunately breaking out with any foreign power, the bill is to cease, and the fund which it distributes is to be applied to

the prosecution of the war. The bill directs that ten per centum of the net proceeds of the public lands, sold within the limits of the seven new States, shall be first set apart for them, in addition to the five per centum reserved by their several compacts with the United States; and that the residue of the proceeds, whether from sales made in the States or Territories shall be divided among the twenty-four States, in proportion to their respective Federal population. In this respect the bill conforms to that which was introduced in 1832. For one I should have been willing to have allowed the new States twelve and a half instead of ten per centum, but as that was objected to by the President, in his veto message, and has been opposed in other quarters, I thought it best to restrict the allowance to the more moderate sum. The bill also contains large and liberal grants of land to several of the new States, to place them upon an equality with others to which the bounty of Congress has been heretofore extended, and provides that, when other new States shall be admitted into the Union, they shall receive their share of the common fund.

The net amount of the sales of the public lands in the year 1833 was the sum of three millions nine hundred and sixtyseven thousand six hundred and eighty-two dollars and fifty-five cents; in the year 1834 was four million eight hundred and fiftyseven thousand and six hundred dollars and sixty-nine cents; and in the year 1835, according to actual receipts in the three first quarters and an estimate of the fourth, is twelve million two hundred and twenty-two thousand one hundred and twenty-one dollars and fifteen cents; making an aggregate for the three years of twenty-one million forty-seven thousand four hundred and four dollars and thirty-nine cents. This aggregate is what the bill proposes to distribute and pay to the twenty-four States, on the first day of May, 1836, upon the principles which I have stated. The difference between the estimate made by the Secretary of the Treasury and that which I have offered of the product of the last quarter of this year, arises from my having taken, as the probable sum, one third of the total amount of the three first quarters, and he some other conjectural sum.

Deducting from the twenty-one million forty-seven thousand four hundred and four dollars and thirty-nine cents, the fifteen per centum to which the seven new States, according to the bill, will be first entitled, amounting to two million six hundred and twelve thousand three hundred and fifty dollars and eighteen cents, there will remain for distribution among the twenty-four States of the Union the sum of eighteen million four hundred and thirty-five thousand and fifty-four dollars and twenty-one cents. Of this sum the proportion of Kentucky will be nine hundred and sixty thousand nine hundred and forty-seven dollars and forty-one cents, of Virginia the sum of one million five hundred and eighty-one thousand six hundred and sixty-nine dollars and thirty-nine cents, of North Carolina nine hundred and eighty-eight thousand six hundred and thirty-two dollars and forty-two cents, and of Pennsylvania two million eighty-three thousand two hundred and thirty-three dollars and thirty-two cents. The proportion of Indiana, including the fifteen per centum, will be eight hundred and fifty-five thousand five hundred and eighty-eight dollars and twenty-three cents, of Ohio one million six hundred and seventy-seven thousand one hundred and ten dollars and eighty-four cents, and of Mississippi nine hundred and fifty-eight thousand nine hundred and fortyfive dollars and forty-two cents. And the proportions of all the twenty-four States are indicated in a table which I hold in my hand, prepared at my instance in the office of the Secretary of the Senate, and to which any Senator may have access. The grounds on which the extra allowance is made to the new States are, first, their complaint that all lands sold by the Federal Government are five years exempted from State taxation; secondly, that it is to be applied in such manner as will augment the value of the unsold public lands within them; and lastly, their recent settlement.

It may be recollected that a bill passed both Houses of Congress, in the session which terminated on the third of March, 1833, for the distribution of the amount received from the public lands, upon the principles of that now offered. The President, in his message at the commencement of the previous session,

had especially invited the attention of Congress to the subject of the public lands; had adverted to their liberation from the pledge for the payment of the public debt; and had intimated his readiness to concur in any disposal of them which might appear to Congress most conducive to the quiet, harmony, and general interest of the American people.

After such a message, the President's disapprobation of the bill could not have been anticipated. It was presented to him on the second of March, 1833. It was not returned as the Constitution requires, but was retained by him after the expiration of his official term, and until the next session of Congress, which had no power to act upon it. It was understood and believed that, in anticipation of the passage, of the bill, the President had prepared objections to it, which he had intended to return with his negative; but he did not. If the bill had been returned, there is reason to believe that it would have passed, notwithstanding those objections. In the House, it had been carried by a majority of more than two thirds. And, in the Senate, although there was not the majority on its passage, it was supposed that, in consequence of the passage of the compromise bill, some of the Senators who had voted against the land bill had changed their views, and would have voted for it upon its return, and others had left the Senate.

There are those who believe that the bill was unconstitutionally retained by the President and is now the law of the land. But whether it be so or not, the general government holds the public domain in trust for the common benefit of all the States; and it is, therefore, competent to provide by law that the trustee shall make distribution of the proceeds of the three past years, as well as future years, among those entitled to the beneficial interest. The bill makes such a provision. And it is very remarkable, that the sum which it proposes to distribute is about the gross surplus, or balance, estimated in the Treasury on the first of January, 1836. When the returns of the last quarter of the year come in, it will probably be found that the surplus is larger than the sum which the bill distributes. But if it should not be, there will remain the seven millions held in the Bank of

the United States, applicable, as far as it may be received, to the service of the ensuing year.

It would be premature now to enter into a consideration of the probable revenue of future years; but, at the proper time, I think it will not be difficult to show that, exclusive of what may be received from the public lands, it will be abundantly sufficient for all the economical purposes of Government, in a time of peace. And the bill, as I have already stated, provides for seasons of war. I wish to guard against all misconception by repeating, what I have heretofore several times said, that this bill is not founded upon any notion of a power in Congress to lay and collect taxes and distribute the amount among the several States. I think Congress possesses no such power, and has no right to exercise it until such amendment as that proposed by the senator from South Carolina (Mr. Calhoun) shall be adopted. But the bill rests on the basis of a clear and comprehensive grant of power to Congress over the territories and property of the United States in the Constitution, and upon express stipulations in the deeds of cession.

Mr. President, I have ever regarded, with feelings of the profoundest regret, the decision which the President of the United States felt himself induced to make on the bill of 1833. If it had been his pleasure to approve it, the heads of departments would not now be taxing their ingenuity to find out useless objects of expenditures, or objects which may be well postponed to a more distant day. If the bill had passed, about twenty millions of dollars would have been, during the three last years, in the hands of the several States, applicable by them to the beneficent purposes of internal improvement, education, or colonization. What immense benefits might not have been diffused throughout the land by the active employment of that large sum? What new channels of commerce and communication might not have been opened? What industry stimulated, what labor rewarded? How many youthful minds might have received the blessings of education and knowledge, and been rescued from ignorance, vice, and ruin? How many descendants of Africa might have been transported from a country where