at and flourishing
commonwealths. Nothing could be more prejudicial to their interests than
for wealthy individuals to acquire large tracts of the public land and
hold them for speculative purposes. The low price to which this land
scrip will probably be reduced will tempt speculators to buy it in large
amounts and locate it on the best lands belonging to the Government. The
eventual consequence must be that the men who desire to cultivate the
soil will be compelled to purchase these very lands at rates much higher
than the price at which they could be obtained from the Government.

4. It is extremely doubtful, to say the least, whether this bill
would contribute to the advancement of agriculture and the mechanic
arts--objects the dignity and value of which can not be too highly
appreciated.

The Federal Government, which makes the donation, has confessedly no
constitutional power to follow it into the States and enforce the
application of the fund to the intended objects. As donors we shall
possess no control over our own gift after it shall have passed from
our hands. It is true that the State legislatures are required to
stipulate that they will faithfully execute the trust in the manner
prescribed by the bill. But should they fail to do this, what would be
the consequence? The Federal Government has no power, and ought to have
no power, to compel the execution of the trust. It would be in as
helpless a condition as if, even in this, the time of great need, we
were to demand any portion of the many millions of surplus revenue
deposited with the States for safekeeping under the act of 1836.

5. This bill will injuriously interfere with existing colleges in the
different States, in many of which agriculture is taught as a science
and in all of which it ought to be so taught. These institutions of
learning have grown up with the growth of the country, under the
fostering care of the States and the munificence of individuals, to meet
the advancing demands for education. They have proved great blessings to
the people. Many, indeed most, of them are poor and sustain themselves
with difficulty. What the effect will be on these institutions of
creating an indefinite number of rival colleges sustained by the
endowment of the Federal Government it is not difficult to determine.

Under this bill it is provided that scientific and classical studies
shall not be excluded from them. Indeed, it would be almost impossible
to sus