her
property belonging to the United States." The only territory then
belonging to the United States was that then recently ceded by the
several States, to wit: By New York in 1781, by Virginia in 1784, by
Massachusetts in 1785, and by South Carolina in August, 1787, only
the month before the formation of the Constitution. The cession from
Virginia contained the following provision:

That all the lands within the territory so ceded to the United States,
and not reserved for or appropriated to any of the before-mentioned
purposes or disposed of in bounties to the officers and soldiers of the
American Army, shall be considered a common fund for the use and benefit
of such of the United States as have become or shall become members of
the Confederation or Federal Alliance of the said States, Virginia
included, according to their usual respective proportions in the general
charge and expenditure, and shall be faithfully and _bona fide disposed
of_ for that purpose and for no other use or purpose whatsoever.

Here the object for which these lands are to be disposed of is clearly
set forth, and the power to dispose of them granted by the third section
of the fourth article of the Constitution clearly contemplates such
disposition only. If such be the fact, and in my mind there can be no
doubt of it, then you have again not only no implication in favor of the
contemplated grant, but the strongest authority against it. Furthermore,
this bill is in violation of the faith of the Government pledged in the
act of January 28, 1847. The nineteenth section of that act declares:

That for the payment of the stock which may be created under the
provisions of this act the sales of the public lands are hereby pledged;
and it is hereby made the duty of the Secretary of the Treasury to use
and apply all moneys which may be received into the Treasury for the
sales of the public lands after the 1st day of January, 1848, first,
to pay the interest on all stocks issued by virtue of this act, and,
secondly, to use the balance of said receipts, after paying the interest
aforesaid, in the purchase of said stocks at their market value, etc.

The debts then contracted have not been liquidated, and the language of
this section and the obligations of the United States under it are too
plain to need comment.

I have been unable to discover any distinction on constitutional grounds
or grounds of expediency b