tions of the Legislature of the State of Maryland, relative to the appropriation of a portion of the public lands of the United States, in certain cases, to the encouragement and support of common schools, and other seminaries of learning; and to whom, also, was referred that part of the several communications of His Excellency to both Houses, at the present session, relating to the same subject, and transmitting sundry resolutions of the Legislatures of the States of Vermont, New Jersey, and Kentucky, relative to the same, having, according to order, had the same under consideration, thereupon ask leave, respectfully, to submit the following report.

The encouragement and general establishment of common schools, and the universal diffusion of the means of education among all the people of this Union, is unquestionably one of the most interesting and important objects which can now attract the attention of an American statesman. The principle upon which the structure of government in these States, is founded, is that of representative democracy. Government is established by the general will, and designed for the general good. The great body of the people not only virtually hold, but actually exercise a great portion of that power, which puts in motion all the springs of government. It is essential therefore, that the great body of the people should be so far enlightened and instructed, as to enable them to make a judicious selection of representatives, to inform and interest themselves in the course and tendency, the justice and policy of public measures, and to form some just estimate of the character, conduct, and motives of those, to whom they have confided their political power, and their civil rights. Rulers also, should at all times be able to feel, that they may rely with safety and confidence upon the strength of enlightened public opinion, to sustain them in the adoption of all such measures, as justice, honesty, and the best ultimate good of the people may require. In a state of society and system of government, supported neither by accumulated wealth, hereditary distinctions, or military force, a correct and enlightened public opinion alone can be relied on, to furnish that moral and intellectual power, which is necessary to give activity and efficacy to public measures, and thereby to secure the objects of all government, the protection, liberty, and happiness of the people. But where

so large a portion of power is necessarily entrusted to the great body of the community, should the rising generation be suffered to grow to years of maturity, without education, and the majority of the people thus become ignorant, stupid, and depraved, it is quite apparent that, through the arts of designing and unprincipled men, they would soon become the victims of intrigue, and the instruments of violence. It is quite manifest therefore, that a representative republic cannot be prosperous and powerful, except among an educated and enlightened people.

These considerations are fully sufficient to awaken a lively interest, and to insure the strictest attention to every proposition, which contemplates the promotion of the means of general education. Your Committee, at the same time, are conscious of the propriety and duty of subjecting the principles of every measure, which is proposed for the adoption of the Legislature, to a strict investigation, with a view of ascertaining whether it rests on the safe grounds of justice and expediency. They are sensible that this Legislature, representing the people of the Commonwealth, and the Congress of the United States, whose interposition it is proposed to invoke upon the present occasion, for the purpose of obtaining the object in question, do themselves exercise but a limited and delegated power, entrusted to them in certain measures, and for specified purposes; that it is therefore necessary to be assured, not only that such object is desirable, but that it is just, practicable, expedient, and within the authority of those who are called upon to adopt it.

By the report and resolutions of the Legislature of Maryland, a claim is made upon Congress, in behalf of the old thirteen States, together with Maine, Vermont, and Kentucky, formed out of territory which has never been the property of the United States, to the exclusion of the new States, for a very large grant of public lands, for the purposes of education. This claim is asserted and urged, as one, not of favor, but of justice, and one therefore, which, if well founded, Congress is bound to grant, without regard to any considerations of convenience or expediency.

There seems to be nothing in the circumstances, under which the United States acquired their title to these lands, which can have much influence upon the question. Whatever may have been the case formerly, their title is now universally acknowledged; subject, however, to the para

mount right of the Aborigines, where their title has not already been surrendered. A brief allusion to these circumstances will be sufficient for the purposes of the present inquiry. The early grants made by the English government to the first colonists in North America, were unquestionably made under a profound ignorance of the geographical character and condition of the country. Most of them were extended in terms to the Pacific, or great Western Ocean. It was, no doubt, the policy of that government, to make these grants, large and extensive in terms, with the view of anticipating the progress of other European powers, and thereby giving greater strength, and a wider extent to their own claim of sovereignty, over this part of the new world. The consequence of this utter ignorance of the state of the country, united to a disposition to make liberal grants, soon appeared in many conflicting claims and contested boundaries. These, however, except in the immediate vicinity of actual settlements, were of little importance, because the lands in dispute were of little or no value. But during the war, which terminated in the conquest of Canada, in which the colonists bore an active part, and still more during the revolutionary war, in consequence of the numerous military expeditions which were sent to the northern and western frontier, the fertility of soil, and other local advantages of the Western and North Western Territory, came to be better understood, and more duly appreciated. So triumphant were the arms of America, towards the close of that memorable struggle, and so lofty their pretensions, in consequence of the great interest which their cause had excited in Europe, and the consequent aid derived from numerous powerful and zealous allies, that, at the adoption of the treaty of peace, the American negotiators were left almost at liberty to dictate their own terms, in regard to boundaries. The consequence was, by prescribing very extensive limits, that in many points, large tracts of territory were included within these limits, which were never claimed, and scarcely on any pretence, however extravagant, could be claimed by any of the separate States. These tracts, thus ceded by the treaty of peace, in full sovereignty and property, necessarily belonged to all the States jointly, in their aggregate capacity. After various delays and negotiations, between Congress and the several States, all those States having claims under their antient charters, to tracts of land beyond the bounds

of their actual settlements, with a spirit of conciliation and liberality, highly honorable to them, ceded these claims to the United States, in nearly every instance, without pecuniary considerations. To some of these cessions, conditions were annexed; but none which it is necessary to mention, in connexion with this subject. The object of all these cessions, seems to have been the same, and was well expressed by Virginia, in her formal act of cession. This provides that these lands "shall be considered as a common fund, for the use and benefit of such of the United States as have become, or shall become members of the confederation or federal alliance of the said States, Virginia inclusive, according to their usual respective proportions in the general charge and expenditure, and shall be faithfully and bona fide disposed of for that purpose, and for no other use or purpose whatsoever." The inducement to these liberal cessions of territory, was to raise the credit, and strengthen the resources of the Union, and thus enable the general government to provide the means of paying or securing the debt incurred by the war, more especially that portion of it, which was due for military services.

Subsequently, that vast tract of territory included under the name of Louisiana, and more recently the peninsula of Florida, were acquired by the United States, by purchase; and the consideration being paid out of the common treasury, these lands unquestionably became the common property of the Union. Your Committee, therefore, do cordially concur with the Legislature of Maryland, in the proposition, "that in whatever point of view the public lands are considered, whether as acquired by purchase, conquest, or cession, they are, emphatically, the common property of the Union. They ought to enure, therefore, to the common use and benefit of all the States, in just proportions, and cannot be appropriated to the use and benefit of any particular State or States, to the exclusion of the others, without an infringement of the principles upon which cessions from States were expressly made, and a violation of the spirit of our national compact, as well as the principles of justice and sound policy."

The Legislature of Maryland proceed to inquire how far Congress has acted in conformity with the dictates of impartial justice, in the appropriations of the public lands; and concluding that Congress has not so acted, thereupon

found a very large claim to these lands, in favor of the sixteen old States, to the exclusion of the new States and Territories, which are denominated the favored States. This claim may be thus stated. By the laws and regulations relating to the survey and sale of the public lands, hitherto acted on, and now in force, one thirty sixth part, being one section out of each township of six miles square, and divided into thirty six sections, is reserved to be appropriated to the use of schools, within such township. Certain other appropriations, though of comparatively small amount, and not very distinctly stated, are alleged to have been made for seminaries of learning of a higher grade, assumed by the Legislature of Maryland, to be in the proportion of one fifth of the aggregate amount of the reservations for common schools. It is further assumed, that the same system for the survey and sale of these lands, will be observed, in all future time, until every acre of them is sold; an event, of the certain and speedy accomplishment of which, the Legislature of Maryland seem to entertain no doubt. Taking a computation and estimate upon this assumption, in reference to all the lands of the United States, not only those which have been surveyed, but including all the unexplored surface of the Northwestern Territory, and the more extensive and unknown regions of Louisiana, stated to amount to between four and five hundred millions of acres, the inference is drawn, that the total of literary appropriations, in the new States and Territories, will be fourteen million, five hundred seventy six thousand, five hundred and sixty nine and two thirds acres. At two dollars an acre, the amount in money, will be twenty nine millions, one hundred and fifty three thousand, one hundred and thirty nine dollars and one third of a dollar. Then considering it as proved, that these appropriations to the new States and Territories do furnish a valid claim, in justice to the excluded States, to an equal quantity of land, in proportion to their extent of territory, the Legislature of Maryland come to the conclusion, that nine million, three hundred and seventy thousand, seven hundred and sixty acres of land will be "necessary to do justice to the States which have not yet had any." Such is the claim set forth by the State of Maryland, in behalf of herself and the old States.

Your Committee, in the first place, cannot avoid remarking upon the extraordinary nature and amount of these esti