Payment on account of the purchase of Florida: Principal..... Interest to 30th September, 1831., $4,985,599 82 1,265,416 67-$6,251,016 49 1,065,484 06 Payment of compact with Georgia. Amount of money received at the Treasury as the proceeds, of public lands, to 30th September, 1831... 1,830,808 04 11,852,182 56 3,563,834 54 $48,077,551 40 $37,272,713 31 Since 1832, several treaties have been made with the Indians, for the extinguishment of their title, the cost of which we have not the means of ascertaining. But, within the last sixteen years, the expenditures of the government have been about $30,000,000, on account of the public lands; and their whole cost, up to 1848, as stated in Congress by Gov. Brown, of Mississippi, was $77,130,498. We have seen nothing official on the subject later than 1832, as quoted. The whole amount received for sales to 1848, is $130,280,156, leaving a clear gain to the government of $53,149,428, according to Gov. B., who, no doubt, had proper data. The lands unsold, to which the Indian title has been extinguished, amount to 242,342,802 acres. By a table from the commissioner, showing the area of the states holding public lands, it will be seen that the government has about 800,000,000 acres unsurveyed in the north-west territory. SALES OF LANDS IN 1846 AND 1847.-Merely to post up, we annex a table showing the receipts at the Treasury for lands sold in 1846, and in the three first quarters of 1847, together with the amount of incidental expenses in each state, where offices are open, for the same period. As to the incidental expenses stated in the report, we are at a loss to conjecture the items which constitute them. We presume that registers, receivers, and agents, to whom a fixed compensation is allowed, are not embraced; but that surveys, and other objects which necessarily involve an expenditure, form the basis. The footing up shows a fraction over five per cent. on $2,904,637, the gross amount of purchase money in 1846. Of this sum, $2,713,648 was paid in cash; $20,816 in treasury notes; $300 in forfeited land stock; $19,460 in military scrip, and $150,412 in Choctaw certificates-in all, $290,988, which, with expenses deducted, left the balance paid into the treasury. For three quarters of 1847, as stated, the receipts were nearly equal to the whole of 1846. If the last quarter was in proportion, the receipts for 1847 fall very little short of $3,000,000-an average requiring forty-three years to make the sum total received by the government. By reference to a preceding table of sales, from 1833 to 1839 inclusive, it will appear that in those seven years the sum of $70,017,547 accrued to the treasury from the public lands-more than half the whole amount since the origin of the government. AREA OF THE LAND STATES.-In the table furnished by the Commissioner, is an estimate of the area of the states and territories containing public lands, the quantity surveyed, that in process of survey, and the number of acres not yet surveyed or put under con tract. Connected with this subject, it may be curious to pursue the calculation. Estimate the vacant lands to which the title of the government is complete, at 240,000,000, and the domain north-west more or less encumbered by the Indian tribes, at 800,000,000, and the aggregate is 1,040,000,000 acres, which, at fifty cents per acre, would VOL. VI.-NO. II. 2 yield five hundred and twenty millions of dollars to the Treasury! Add New Mexico, say 500 miles in length and 200 in width, the area will be 100,000 square miles, or 64,000,000 acres; and California, 600 miles long and 300 wide, will amount to 180,000 square miles, or 115,000,000 acres ;-both together about 180,000,000. Suppose the whole population of the United States, 20,000,000, were destitute of land, the government could supply each man, woman and child, white and black, with sixty acres of the public domain. Reduced into families of five persons, the share would be 300 acres to each head of a family,-enough, with diligent cultivation, to produce ample support. This, however, is a mere speculative view, without any disposition to favor a grant on such a scale; yet we believe that the more liberally government acts in behalf of settlers, the happiness of the people and the prosperity of the Republic will be increased. It may be urged against too free a use of the public lands, that they should be retained for emergencies, so that the government may establish a sufficient credit on this security, should occasion require a loan, especially if revenue from imports be cut off by war with European powers. This necessity can never arise. In case of war the people will cheerfully submit to taxation in any form to sustain our flag; and such are the admitted resources of the country, and willingness to contribute, that government bonds will be at par value in all parts of the world. Besides, the sooner government can dispose of its lands, the better for all parties. So long as they remain a subject of political discussion, the public mind will be influenced by appeals alike unworthy a high standard of statesmanship, or of an intelligent constituency. It is right that every man who desires, should have a domicil; -and we go farther in public policy,-that domicil, with acres enough for industry to live upon, should be inalienable. The best hold government can have upon the affections of the citizen, is reciprocity of interest; the one rewarding with kindness the sacrifices which the public service may at any time demand, and the other performing with alacrity, because, if disabled or slain, provision will be made for his relief, or those dear to him. In this spirit of mutual obligation, the Republic has its safest guaranty. PRE-EMPTION RIGHTS.-The Commissioner advises a course toward actual settlers in which we fully concur,-the law to be so modified as to embrace every family who may in good faith seek a home on the public lands, whether surveyed or not, provided the Indian title has been extinguished. We cannot find better expression than the reasoning of the Report, p. 29: "A policy thus liberal towards a very large class of our fellow-citizens cannot fail to produce the most beneficial results. It will facilitate the settlement and improvement of the frontier portions of the country, raise up a hardy race of back woodsmen for its protection against the encroachments of our Mexican and Indian neighbors, afford them the means of improving their condition in many respects, and, above all, to educate their children, and will impress those patriotic frontiersmen with deeper feelings of regard for their government, when they find that they are no longer in danger of losing their hard-earned improvements, by being brought into competition with a more wealthy class of citizens at the land sales." GRADUATION OF PRICE.-The views of the Commissioner on this head are sound and expedient, viz: that the refuse lands, for many years culled over, should be reduced in price so as to find sale, thereby aiding the treasury, and relieving it proportionably from interest. on loans; and also to enable the states within which the lands lie, to impose the necessary tax to which other lands are subject, after five years, from sale. WAR BOUNTIES.-Any objection to grants of land to the soldiers who fought our battles, should rest for validity on some ground other than loss of revenue. With a national domain exceeding ten hundred millions of acres, the quantity, even a section to each man, would be a trifle. Say that 40,000 soldiers were in Mexico at different stages of the war, all entitled to 160 acres, the aggregate would be only 6,400,000 acres, scarcely to be felt in the administration of this interest. If allowed half a section, (320 acres,) the result would be twice, and if a section, (640 acres,) four times the quantity,-total, 25,600,000 acres. This may appear extravagant, and, compared with former legislation, is somewhat startling. If soldiers would settle upon their bounty lands, and thereby reap the full benefit, we should defend the liberality we have suggested; but as nine-tenths barter off their scrip for a trifle, from 25 to 40 cents per acre, merely serving as prey to speculators without any solid advantage to themselves, we cannot justly advocate such an appropriation by Congress. A direct pecuniary grant, which shall produce to the holder par value in any market, is preferable, and government stock would be laudably issued for this object. The bounty lands granted by Congress to soldiers of the Revolution, and the war of 1812, in lieu of money, amounted in the aggregate to 9,750,000 acres. MINERAL LANDS.-The report includes much information from Lake Superior, and from Wisconsin and Iowa, respecting ores on the public lands. Dr. Jackson, a learned geologist, has explored the Lake region with a sufficient corps, and in summing up his discoveries, says: * * * * * "We certainly have the most wonderful veins of native metals there that have ever been seen in the world. "With regard to the government, it will certainly be considered a liberal and enlightened policy to explore each new region, and to lay before the public a true account of what may be expected in the rocks and soil. The settlement of the country by emigration from more populous districts, and from Europe, will be the necessary result, and an active business will be created along the line of our great lakes, communicating with our mineral lands. Mining will cause a settlement of that district by our active population of miners, mechanics and farmers, when, if only agricultural lands were sought for, no one would think of going to the shores of Lake Superior, while so many fertile lands offer their attractions elsewhere." Dr. Owen, U. S. Geologist for Wisconsin and Iowa, furnished an interesting narrative of his labors, from which we should be glad to extract passages, if the limits of this article were not already too extended. Art. III. THE AMERICAN INDIANS.* THE government observes a policy which secures the highest good to the Indians,-holding stocks, and applying the interest as stipulated by treaty. In many instances the purpose is declared, say for orphans, education, afflicted persons, &c. We have prepared a table, showing the amount of stocks and annual interest for the several tribes sustaining this relation. In addition, the government pays interest of five per cent. annually, on the following sums, in lieu of investing the same in stocks: We have seen no estimate of the number of each tribe in the ter *Concluded from p. 274. Vol. V. |