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school lands are, "for pine timber lands the whole amount; for other timber lands, which are chiefly valuable for the timber thereon, seventy-five per cent., to be paid at the time of sale, and all other lands fifteen per cent., to be paid at the time of sale, and the balance of the purchase-money at any time thereafter, from time to time, within twenty years, at the option of the purchaser, with interest annually in advance, at the rate of seven per cent. per annum on the unpaid balance, payable on the first day of June, or within six days thereafter, in each and every year." The purchase-money received "may be invested in Minnesota bonds (railroad bonds always excepted) or in United States bonds bearing not less than six per cent. interest."

The first sales of school lands occurred in the autumn of 1862, at a most unpropitious period, many able-bodied citizens having volunteered as soldiers in defence of the nation's honor, and hundreds having abandoned their farms in the frontier counties to escape the tomahawk and scalping-knife of the savage Sioux, while those who expected to settle in the State halted in regions supposed to be more secure. The results of the sales in the face of all these discouragements surprised the most sanguine, and created a fresh interest in popular education. More than thirty-eight thousand acres were disposed of, at a little more than 6 dollars per acre, as will be seen by examining the following Statement of annual sales of school lands.

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Acres of school land unsold June 1, 1867, 2,775,898. The total permanent school fund of the State, arising from the land. grant, on November 30, 1866, was $1,333,161 60.

The current school fund distributed in 1866 amounted to $78,519 60, and the number of persons between five and twenty-one, 87,244, making an apportionment of ninety cents for each person.

The interest on school fund for the year 1867, according to estimate of the Hon. Mark H. Dunnell, State Superintendent of Public Instruction, will amount to $117,435.

LAND GRANT FOR TERRITORIAL UNIVERSITY.

In February, 1851, the Territorial legislature memorialized for a grant of lands for a Territorial University. On the 19th of February of the same year it was enacted by Congress, says a report of the Regents

"That the Secretary of the Interior be, and he hereby is, authorized and directed to set apart and reserve from sale out of the public lands within the Territory of Minnesota, to which the Indian title has been or may be extinguished, and not otherwise appropriated, a quantity of land not exceeding two entire townships, for the use and support of a University in said Territory, and for no other use and purpose whatever, to be located in legal subdivisions of not less than one entire section."

Shortly after this congressional enactment the Regents of the Territorial University organized, obtained a site, erected a building thereon, and commenced instruction therein-the first instance on record of a Territorial University going into operation at so early a period in the history of a Territory.

The Regents also, with the approbation of the Secretary of the Interior, proceeded to select a large portion of the lands granted for the Territorial institution. Subsequently they erected a costly edifice and mortgaged it, by virtue of a power granted by the Territorial Legislature of 1856, for $15,000, to secure the payment of certain bonds, and by another act passed in 1858, on the eighth day of March, before the admission of Minnesota into the Union, mortgaged lands that had been selected by the Regents, to secure the payment of a further sum of $40,000 borrowed by the Regents for the Territorial institution.

The whole number of acres obtained by act of 1851 is 46,080, of which there has been sold 10,750 for the sum of $52,412. Acres unsold of the Territorial grant are 35,530.

STATE UNIVERSITY LAND GRANT.

Governor Marshall, in his last message to the Legislature, alludes tò a claim of the State for a land grant for a State University not yet perfected. This claim was first made by the Regents to the Governor, April 5, 1860, in this language:

Heretofore Congress has made grants to Territories not having organized any Universities, and the lands being free from all prospective incumbrances, the Enabling Acts of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Iowa have used the following similar phraseology:

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"Seventy-two sections of land set apart and reserved for the use and support of a university, by an act of Congress approved on day of hereby granted and conveyed to the State, to be appropriated solely to the use and support of such university in such manner as the legislature may prescribe." The condition of Minnesota being different, so far as a territorial university was concerned, we expect and find different language in the enabling act. There is no reference, as in acts alluded to, to previous reserves, but it is prospective. It says, if certain provisions are accepted:

"That seventy-two sections of land shall be set apart and reserved for the use and support of a State university to be selected by the governor of said State, subject to the approval of the Commissioner of the General Land Office."

Although a territorial university had been in existence for years, and the regents had selected lands, there is no reference thereto, but the language prescribes selections for a future State university.

Certainly it was not the intention of Congress to turn over the debts and prospectively encumbered lands of an old and badly managed territorial institution, but to give the State that was to be, a grant for a State university, free from all connections with territorial organizations.

Will you, therefore, take the steps indicated in the enabling act, and appoint, at an early day, some one to select two townships of land for the State university, incorporated by the last legislature?

AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE LAND GRANT.

Under “An act donating public lands to the several States and Territories which may provide colleges for the benefit of agriculture and the mechanic arts," approved July 2, 1862, Minnesota is entitled to 120,000 acres, of which none has been sold.

THE FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND ACRES DUE THE STATE.

The five hundred thousand acres due the State by the provisions of an act of Congress entitled "An act to appropriate the proceeds of the sales of the public lands," etc., approved the fourth day of September, one thousand eight hundred and forty-one, which, by provisions of the Constitutions of Wisconsin, Iowa, Oregon, Kansas, California, and Nevada, are appropriated to educational purposes, do not appear as yet to have been set apart by Minnesota.

TABLE I.-Historical and statistical data of the United States.
[Compiled from Report of the Commissioner of the Land Office for 1867.]

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*Area taken from geographical authorities and not from public surveys. Total population in 1860 was 31,500,000; estimated in 1867 to be 38,500,000.

To the white population in Nevada should be added 10,507 Indians; and in Colorado, 2,261 Indians.

That portion of District of Columbia south of the July 9, 1846, (Stat. vol. 6, p. 35.)

As estimated January 1, 1865.

Potomac river was retroceded to Virginia
By census of 1867.

TABLE II.-Showing the area of the several States and Territories containing public lands, and the quantity devoted for educational purposes by Congress up to June 30, 1867.

[Compiled from Report of the Commissioner of the Land Office for 1867.]

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Sq. miles.

Acres.

Acres.

Acres.

Acres.

Acres.

Acres.

Acres.

Ohio

39, 964

25, 576, 960

704, 488

69, 120

Indiana..

33, 809

21, 637, 760

650, 317

46,080

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* The whole quantity liable to be issued under the act of July 2, 1862, is 9,600,000 acres.

488,803. 03 1,920. 00 411, 959. 70

475, 989. 58 1, 120.00

2,097.43 20, 924. 22

500. CO 2,050.00

2,000.00

1,835, 892. 71
6,915,081. 32
4,930, 893. 56
6,582, 841.54
5, 180, 640. 63
11, 757, 662.54
17,540, 374.00
3, 113, 464. 18
10,016, 700. 87
106, 062, 392. 13
36, 776, 170.89
52,742,078.96
43, 148, 876. 44
67,090, .382. 62
42, 523, 627.38
41, 627, 464. 39
73, 005, 192, 00
51, 139, 646. 00
145, 295, 284.97
62,870, 665.83
86,904, 605. 00
68,855,954. 09
54, 963,343.00
44, 154, 240, 00
369, 529, 600.00

67,983, 914

1,082, 880 1, 159, 499. 65 3, 192, 582. 22

44, 971. 11

1,414, 567, 574.96

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