IN SENATE, FEB. 21, 1833.

The Joint Special Committee of the Legislature, to whom was referred so much of the Governor's Address as relates to the Resolutions of the State of Tennessee, on the subject of the Public Lands of the United States, have attended to the duty assigned them, and beg leave to submit the following

REPORT:

The Committee, upon an examination of the Resolutions referred to them, were of opinion, that the tendency and operation of the measures there recommended could not be understood, without an investigation of the various questions involved in a consideration of the rights and duties of the General and State Governments in relation to the public domain. They have accordingly, with such aids as it has been in their power to obtain, entered upon this investigation, and the report now submitted contains the result of their enquiries.

The Committee have taken this course the more readily, from a conviction, that although this Commonwealth has a deep interest in the subject, it has hitherto received from our citizens comparatively little attention.

It is not difficult to ascertain the causes of this apathy. The lands are situated at remote distances from

us, and the administration of them has been necessarily confined to the general government. The new States have always claimed and possessed the principal agency in their management and disposition. An examination will show that for many years past, the Committee on Public Lands have been selected almost exclusively from those States where these lands lie, and the recommendations of these Committees have generally been adopted without discussion.

As a necessary consequence, a course of legislation very liberal to the new States, has uniformly marked the action of Congress upon this subject. The price of land has been placed as low as it could be without exciting the avidity of speculators; large grants have been made to the new States for public objects; and when by a change of times purchasers were unable to make payments without great difficulty, relief was afforded them by a relinquishment of a great portion of the debt. Not a session of Congress passes, without some special legislation in favor of some of the new States, by the donation of large tracts of the public land.

The Committee have no disposition to complain of this liberal policy. They rejoice, that every request made by the West, has been met with a spirit not only of justice, but of generosity. They cannot however but regret, that this liberality has given rise to pretensions which have no just foundation, and which cannot be yielded to, without jeopardizing our most important interests. Under various pretences, and in different forms, claims are now advanced, which if granted, would soon make all the public lands the property of the several States, within whose limits they are situated. The grounds and extent of these claims

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will be particularly stated in a subsequent part of this report. They have been urged incessantly, for years, and the extinguishment of the public debt has been seized, as an occasion for renewing them with additional confidence and pertinacity. It is quite manifest, that unless this business is soon settled, by placing it. on some permanent basis, the whole interest of the general government must be sacrificed, or these lands must become the occasion of dangerous local excitements, and corrupt political combinations.

Under this impression the Committee have witnessed, with much satisfaction, the effort which has been made in the Senate of the United States, to effect an arrangement of this question. The bill which has recently, for the second time, passed that body, while it is very liberal in its provisions for the new States, is still calculated to secure, in a good degree, the essential rights and interests of the rest. This bill provides substantially, that about two millions of acres shall be granted to some of the new States, in order to render the donations to these States equal;-then reserves to the States within which the lands sold are situated, twelve and a half per cent. of the purchase money, in addition to the five per cent. heretofore allowed on the same account, and divides the rest of the proceeds of the sales among the several States, in proportion to their representative population; to be expended by them for the purposes of education, internal improvement or colonization, at their election.

In the bill itself, and in the report by which it was introduced, and the arguments by which it was defended, another instance has been afforded of the mental forecast and patriotism of that Statesman, with whom the measure originated, and by whose exertions

it has been mainly sustained. His name already stands identified with the great sources of our union and prosperity, but should the proposed measure succeed, there is no event of his life on which his recollection will dwell with prouder satisfaction, or which will more fully challenge the admiration and gratitude of posterity, than the settlement of the conflicting interests and claims growing out of the public domain. The Committee have appended to this report, a copy of the proposed bill, in order that its provisions may be more generally understood. Although, as has been already remarked, its provisions in favor of the new States are very liberal, yet it has encountered from almost the entire delegation from those States, the most determined opposition. Such opposition can only be accounted for, by supposing that they claim and expect to obtain

the whole.

The Committee have thought it their duty to investigate the foundation of these claims, and that they may be properly understood, they would ask the attention of the Legislature to a consideration of the origin and nature of the title of the general government to the public domain-the benefits of the present system of survey and sale the quantity and value of the public lands— the advantages which would resuit from the passage of the bill now before Congress-and the consequences to this Commonwealth of a surrender to the claims of the new States. When these subjects are well understood, it will be comparatively easy to determine upon the justice and expediency of yielding to the demands of our brethren at the West.

The title of the general government to the public domain, is derived either from grants by several of the States, or from purchases made of foreign powers.