ther proceedings, an appeal
having been taken to the Supreme Court of the United States.

In the report of the Secretary of the Interior, which will be laid
before you, the condition of the various branches of our domestic
affairs connected with that Department and its operations during the
past year are fully exhibited. But a brief reference to some of the
subjects discussed in this able and interesting report can here be made;
but I commend the entire report to the attention of the Congress, and
trust that the sensible and valuable recommendations it contains will
secure careful consideration.

I can not too strenuously insist upon the importance of proper measures
to insure a right disposition of our public lands, not only as a matter
of present justice, but in forecast of the consequences to future
generations. The broad, rich acres of our agricultural plains have been
long-preserved by nature to become her untrammeled gift to a people
civilized and free, upon which should rest in well-distributed ownership
the numerous homes of enlightened, equal, and fraternal citizens. They
came to national possession with the warning example in our eyes of the
entail of iniquities in landed proprietorship which other countries have
permitted and still suffer. We have no excuse for the violation of
principles cogently taught by reason and example, nor for the allowance
of pretexts which have sometimes exposed our lands to colossal greed.
Laws which open a door to fraudulent acquisition, or administration
which permits favor to rapacious seizure by a favored few of expanded
areas that many should enjoy, are accessory to offenses against our
national welfare and humanity not to be too severely condemned or
punished.

It is gratifying to know that something has been done at last to
redress the injuries to our people and check the perilous tendency of
the reckless waste of the national domain. That over 80,000,000 acres
have been arrested from illegal usurpation, improvident grants, and
fraudulent entries and claims, to be taken for the homesteads of honest
industry--although less than the greater areas thus unjustly lost--must
afford a profound gratification to right-feeling citizens, as it is
a recompense for the labors and struggles of the recovery. Our dear
experience ought sufficiently to urge the speedy enactment of measures
of legislation which will confine the future disposition of our
remaining agricultural lands to the u