I desire that adequate provision be made
by law for its safety and that all Executive discretion or control over
it shall be removed, except such as may be necessary in directing its
disbursement in pursuance of appropriations made by law.

Under our present land system, limiting the minimum price at which the
public lands can be entered to $1.25 per acre, large quantities of lands
of inferior quality remain unsold because they will not command that
price. From the records of the General Land Office it appears that of
the public lands remaining unsold in the several States and Territories
in which they are situated, 39,105,577 acres have been in the market
subject to entry more than twenty years, 49,638,644 acres for more than
fifteen years, 73,074,600 acres for more than ten years, and 106,176,961
acres for more than five years. Much the largest portion of these lands
will continue to be unsalable at the minimum price at which they are
permitted to be sold so long as large territories of lands from which
the more valuable portions have not been selected are annually brought
into market by the Government. With the view to the sale and settlement
of these inferior lands, I recommend that the price be graduated and
reduced below the present minimum rate, confining the sales at the
reduced prices to settlers and cultivators, in limited quantities. If
graduated and reduced in price for a limited term to $1 per acre, and
after the expiration of that period for a second and third term to lower
rates, a large portion of these lands would be purchased, and many
worthy citizens who are unable to pay higher rates could purchase homes
for themselves and their families. By adopting the policy of graduation
and reduction of price these inferior lands will be sold for their real
value, while the States in which they lie will be freed from the
inconvenience, if not injustice, to which they are subjected in
consequence of the United States continuing to own large quantities of
the public lands within their borders not liable to taxation for the
support of their local governments.

I recommend the continuance of the policy of granting preemptions in its
most liberal extent to all those who have settled or may hereafter
settle on the public lands, whether surveyed or unsurveyed, to which the
Indian title may have been extinguished at the time of settlement. It
has been found by experience that in consequence of combinations of
purchaser