4. Lease and Sale of the Lands

By the terms of all of the early grants the lands were given to the townships or to the states for the use of schools. Nothing was said about their sale, and they were put under lease. The great quantity of cheap land made leasing unprofitable, and, in 1824 and again in 1825, Ohio applied to Congress for permission to sell her school lands. The essentials in the Ohio petition

were:

RESOLUTION AND MEMORIAL TO CONGRESS ON THE SUBJECT OF SCHOOL LANDS

[American State Papers, Public Lands, III, p. 654.]

Communicated to the Senate on March 10, 1824

Resolved, That the following memorial be submitted to the Congress of the United States, during the present session, or as soon as may be practicable.

To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States in Congress assembled: The memorial of the State of Ohio, in General Assembly, respectfully represents :

(Here follows a detailed recital of all land grants for schools, and a request for a grant in the western part of the Connecticut Reserve, to complete the one-thirty-sixth part grant to the state. The memorial then continues :)

That, in relation to the lands already appropriated as above described, the Legislature of the State of Ohio, in pursuance of the trust aforesaid, and in aid of the great and important object contemplated, have resorted to various methods of rendering them productive, and, in particular, that of leasing them to such individuals as have applied therefor; that experience, however, has fully demonstrated that this fund will be wholly unavailing in their hands in its present shape.

That, in order that the beneficial and laudable objects contemplated by the grants aforesaid may be secured to the people of the State of Ohio, it will, as your memorialists conceive, be necessary that the Legislature should possess the unlimited control over the lands aforesaid, with the power of disposing of them in fee.

The objections which are urged against the present mode of administering that fund are, in the first place, that, by reason of the facilities which the State of Ohio affords of acquiring a property

in real estate, a necessity exists of leasing the lands in question to persons almost wholly destitute of pecuniary means, whereby the avails of these lands are rendered at least uncertain. In consequence, also, that, as these lands are detached over the whole State of Ohio, the expense which must necessarily be incurred by creating a superintendence over them, render them much less productive than your memorialists conceive they might be rendered if the lands were sold, and the proceeds concentrated in one fund. . The fact, also, before adverted to, that these lands must necessarily be entrusted to the possession of those of the lowest class of the community, and who possess no permanent interest in the soil, has produced a waste upon these lands of their timber, and otherwise, equal, perhaps, to the whole revenue which may have been derived from them.

The fact, also, that, by holding them under the present tenure, your memorialists are compelled to offer, upon lease, so great a proportion of their soil as will invite and retain a population within her boundaries of a character not to be desired, and in amount so great as to create an evil which can only be conceived of in a country where every individual, possessing a very moderate portion of industry and economy, may, within a single year, appropriate to himself, in fee, a quantity of land sufficient to furnish the means of support for an ordinary family, is also a circumstance which your memorialists conceive is not undeserving of consideration.

While the State of Ohio, in common with her sister States, shall have her ordinary proportion of idle and unprofitable members, this great proportion of land which must be held by lease, must, of necessity, produce a corresponding feature in her population. Although many industrious and valuable citizens may be found among the lessees of school lands, yet it must be admitted that the great body of those who constitute the strength and basis of every Government, and who are to be considered as the friends of good order and public improvement, are among those who are the owners as well as the occupiers of the soil.

These evils, as your memorialists conceive, arise wholly from the system of granting these lands upon leases and are such as cannot be remedied by any course of legislation whatever, if, as some have supposed, the State have not the power, under the term of the original grant, of disposing of these lands in fee. Notwithstanding your memorialists may be of the opinion that they already possess this right, yet, so long as the question shall admit of any doubt, it must, of necessity, have the effect to restrain its exercise. ***

Therefore, your memorialists represent that it would be of ad

vantage, and conduce to the future prosperity of the State of Ohio, that a law of the United States be passed declaring the authority of the State of Ohio to dispose of the said lands granted for the use of schools within the State, in fee, and that the proceeds thereof be invested in some permanent fund, the proceeds of which shall be applied, under the direction of the Legislature, for the use of common schools within the townships or districts to which they were originally granted in said State, and for no other use or purpose whatever: Provided, That the sections numbered sixteen, granted as aforesaid for the use of schools, shall not be sold without the consent of the inhabitants of such original surveyed township; and that they may be authorized and empowered to sell and dispose of the aforesaid six miles reservation, including the Scioto salt springs, the salt springs near Muskingum river, and in the military tract, with the sections of land which include the same, and apply the proceeds thereof to such literary purposes as the Legislature of the State of Ohio may hereafter direct.

Resolved further, That the Governor be requested to forward the foregoing memorial to the Government of the United States, and take such order and disposition of the funds as may seem to him proper.

JOSEPH RICHARDSON, Speaker of the House of Representatives. ALLEN TRIMBLE, Speaker of the Senate.

Congress granted permission to Ohio to sell, as requested, in 1826, and granted similar permission to Alabama in 1827, and to Indiana in 1828. The following act, granting permission to four states to sell, illustrated the nature of the permission granted:

ENABLING ACT FOR SALE OF LANDS

[U. S. Statutes at Large, V, p. 600.]

AN ACT to authorize the legislature of Illinois, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Tennessee to sell the lands heretofore appropriated for the use of schools in those States. Approved, February 15, 1843.

Be it enacted by the Senate and the House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the legislatures of Illinois, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Tennessee be, and they are hereby, authorized to provide by law for the sale and conveyance in fee simple of all or any part of the lands heretofore reserved and appropriated by Congress for the use of schools within

said States, and to invest the money arising from the sales thereof in some productive fund, the proceeds of which shall be forever applied, under the direction of said legislatures, to the use and support of schools within the several townships and districts of country for which they were originally reserved and set apart, and for no other use or purpose whatever: Provided, Said land, or any part thereof, shall in no wise be sold without the consent of the inhabitants of such township or district, to be obtained in such manner as the legislatures of said states shall by law direct; and in the apportionment of the proceeds of said fund each township and district shall be entitled to such part thereof, and no more, as shall have accrued from the sum or sums of money arising from the sale of the school lands belonging to such township or district.

SECT. 2. And be it further enacted, That the legislatures of said States be, and they are hereby, authorized to make such laws and needful regulations as may be deemed expedient to secure and protect from injury or waste the sections reserved by the laws of Congress for the use of schools to each township, and to provide by law, if not deemed expedient to sell, for leasing the same for any term not exceeding four years, in such manner as to render them productive and most conducive to the object for which they were designed.

SECT. 3. And be it further enacted, That if the proceeds accruing to any township or district from said fund shall be insufficient for the support of schools therein, it shall be lawful for said legislatures to invest the same in the most secure and productive manner until the whole proceeds of the fund belonging to such township or district shall be adequate to the permanent maintenance and support of schools within the same: Provided, That the legislatures aforesaid shall in no case invest the proceeds of the sale of the lands in any township in manner aforesaid without the consent of the inhabitants in said township or district, to be obtained as aforesaid.

SECT. 4. And be it further enacted, That any sales of such lands, reserved as aforesaid, as have been made in pursuance of any of the laws enacted by the legislatures of said States, and not inconsistent with the principles of this act, are hereby ratified and confirmed so far as the assent of the United States to the same may be necessary to the confirmation thereof.

5. Protests of the Older States

In 1821 the legislature of the State of Maryland called attention to the grants made to the new states, and adopted a long

and detailed report on the subject, which concluded with the following resolutions :

Resolved, by the general assembly of Maryland, That each of the United States has an equal right to participate in the benefit of the public lands, the common property of the Union.

Resolved, That the States in whose favor Congress have not made appropriations of land for the purposes of education, are entitled to such appropriations as will correspond, in a just proportion, with those heretofore made in favor of the other States.

Resolved, That his excellency the governor be required to transmit copies of the foregoing report and resolutions to each of our Senators and Reprsentatives in Congress, with a request that they will lay the same before their respective Houses, and use their endeavors to procure the passage of an act to carry into effect the just principle therein set forth.

Resolved, That his excellency the governor be also requested to transmit copies of the said report and resolutions to the governors of the several states of the Union, with a request that they will communicate the same to the legislatures thereof, respectively, and solicit their co-operation.

The resolutions of Maryland were indorsed by the legislatures of Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Delaware, and Kentucky. The following indorsements from New Hampshire and Kentucky are illustrative.

[American State Papers, Public Lands, III, p. 499.]

Application of New Hampshire for a grant of land for the purpose of Education.

Communicated to the Senate, December 19, 1821

STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE

The committee to whom was referred so much of His Excellency's message as relates to a communication from the Legislature of the State of Maryland, ask leave to report:

That the communication submitted to them embraces a report and certain resolutions thereupon adopted by the Legislature of the State of Maryland; the object of which is to call the attention