Cases have arisen where settlers have found it necessary, temporarily, to leave their tracts in view of Indian incursions. In such cases the department will treat the temporary absence as caused by duress, and as of no prejudice to the settler where all other requirements of the statute have been complied with, and where the parties return to their claims as early as may be consistent with personal safety to themselves and their families.

LAND GRANTS IN AID OF POPULAR EDUCATION.

Free institutions are incompatible with popular ignorance. Republicanism, the beau ideal of civil government, to which man has arrived only after a long and painful experience of error and suffering, can subsist only with popular elements developed by intellectual culture, enlightened by the lessons of history, and subjected to effective moral discipline. The incapacity of many nations of the Old World to maintain popular institutions may serve as a partial excuse for the continuance of monarchical or aristocratic authority; but for the loss of self-government by a people once in its enjoyment there can be no excuse whatever. Every free society is placed under imperative obligations to perpetuate its beneficent constitution by a careful training of each successive generation of its people.

Never in history was this social obligation so fully and unreservedly recognized as by the founders of this republic. Prior to the Revolution in the different colonies, the subject of popular education had attracted attention, and provision had been made for its practical realization to a surprising extent when we take into consideration the circumstances of the world in that age. The theory of general education found no basis in the aristocratic social constitution of the mother country, while in the colonies themselves were to be found influences decidedly hostile to it, both in theory and practice. The injustice and persecution, however, which had caused the immigration to this country, especially to the northern colonies, had wonderfully neutralized the religious and political prejudices of our forefathers, and prepared them to accept doctrines of very opposite tendency. The comparative feebleness of aristocratic prestige in the forests of the New World, permitted to the sentiment of independent manhood a development which it never would have realized amid the overshadowing prescription of feudal Europe. Whatever reactionary public opinion may have resisted, the idea of democracy was uprooted and reversed by the Revolution, that wonderful social influence by which so many effete principles and institutions were swept away. The establishment of democracy was followed by the natural development of its principles, especially in the direction of popular education.

In regard to the endowment of educational institutions by the government, very little difficulty seems to have been experienced by our fathers. They assumed, without question, that a government, as the organ of society, enjoys the right and is vested with the power to meet this social necessity. No member of the Continental Congress seems to have raised the question in the discussions upon the provision in the noble ordinance of March 20, 1785, the nucleus of the present public-land system, by which section 16 of every township was set apart for the endowment of public schools. This policy at once met with enthusiastic approval from the public, and was tacitly incorporated into the American system as one of its fundamental organic ideas. It has become part and parcel of every democratic movement in the Old World, and is repudiated only

by parties and interests allied with reactionary despotism both political and ecclesiastical.

This reservation of a section, or one mile square, of six hundred and forty acres, in each township, for the support of public schools, was specially provided for in the organization of each new State and Territory up to the time of the admission of Oregon, in which instance the policy was inaugurated of duplicating the quantity, section 36, as well as sec tion 16, being granted "in place," or, where covered by prior adverse rights, indemnified elsewhere by selection from unsold public land made by authority of the State interested. This increased donation was repeated in the admission of each subsequent State except West Virginia, which had no public lands within her limits.

For the endowment of educational institutions of a higher grade, at least two townships, embracing seventy-two sections, have been granted to each new State. Special grants have also been made to private enter prises. The fruits of this enlightened liberality are seen in the elevated tone of even our pioneer civilization.

By act of July 2, 1862, our educational endowment system was enlarged by the donation to each State of thirty thousand acres of public land for each senator and representative to which it was entitled under the apportionment of 1860, for the support of colleges for the cultivation of agricultural and mechanical science and art. From the able report of the superintendent of public schools of Missouri for 1868 is taken the following account of the actual disposal of several of the State quotas under this grant, having been compiled from correspondence with the State authorities.

Massachusetts received 360,000 acres, which were sold for $236,307. Of the income derivable from this fund, two-thirds are devoted to an agricultural college located at Amherst, and the other third to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

North Carolina received scrip to the amount of 270,000 acres, upon which, at the date of the correspondence, nothing had been realized. The scrip had been sold, but under such circumstances that the trustees of the university to whom it was granted declined to receive the proceeds. If the act under which the sale was made should not be invalidated, the university will realize $135,000; a sum insufficient for the support of an agricultural institution.

New Jersey had sold her 210,000 acres for $110,000; this, being insufficient to maintain a separate institution, was added to the endowment of Rutgers College and Scientific School.

Indiana had received $200,000 for her 390,000 acres ; a sum inadequate to the establishment of a separate institution, which will require additional endowment from the State.

West Virginia had a grant of 150,000 acres, for which she received $85,000. No institution as yet established.

Kansas seems to have disposed of her 90,000 acres on unusually advantageous terms, realizing $360,000, which, if judiciously managed, will, it is thought, support a college.

Minnesota was still more fortunate, receiving $600,000 for 120,000 acres, constituting a respectable endowment for a college.

Michigan had sold but a small proportion of her 240,000 acres, holding it at $2 50 per acre. It was proposed to reduce the price so as to secure an early sale of the land, with the expectation of realizing some $500,000. The college that had received the endowment had, at the date of the correspondence, been for eleven years in successful operation.

Connecticut had sold land scrip representing 180,000 acres for $130,000, which was invested in State bonds at six per cent., the annual proceeds, $8,100, being annually paid over to Yale College for support of the Sheffield Scientific School.

Kentucky realized $165,000 for her 330,000 acres. Her agricultural college is part of the State University. It is fully organized, and has two hundred students.

Illinois has sold a part of her 480,000 acres for $250,192 50, and it was hoped the disposal of the remainder, unsold, would augment the sum to a large endowment. The college is a separate institution.

Ohio had sold 629,920 acres for $342,450 80. The proceeds had been invested at six per cent. per annum, but no plan of organization had been determined upon.

Wisconsin had devoted her 240,000 acres to an agricultural department of the State University. It had not been disposed of, but promised to realize a respectable endowment. The people of the county wherein the institution is located had given $40,000 in furtherance of the enter prise. An experimental farm was part of the investment.

Pennsylvania had received for her 780,000 acres $439,186 80. The State had given $150,000 in addition, yet the united sum was thought insufficient to maintain the college, which is a separate institution.

Iowa located 240,000 acres of scrip within her own limits, and the plans of sale and lease have both been followed, the latter being preferred. The lands selected are valued at $480,000. The college is located upon a farm of six hundred and forty acres, with buildings valued at $111,000. Maryland from the sale of 210,000 acres realized but $105,000. This was assigned to an agricultural college already in existence, yielding an income of $6,000. The secretary of state, after expressing doubt of its sufficiency to support a separate institution, adds: "But the best agriculturists and educators are dissatisfied. The prophecy is that the State will sink $100,000 and that the college will go under. It cannot thrive as a purely agricultural school."

California's quota under this grant is 150,000 acres. It was proposed therewith to found at Oakland "the college of agriculture, mining, and mechanic arts," part of the State University, to be located at this place.

Missouri received a grant of 330,000 acres, but many of the selections being double-minimum land on the line of the South Pacific railroad, it was reduced in quantity to 280,000 acres. A year previous these selections were estimated at the value of $336,000, but according to the estimate of the State register this estimate had risen twenty-five per cent. by June 15, 1869, on account of the general rise in value of lands along the line of the railroad.

New York received under the grant scrip representing 990,000 acres. The entire proceeds of this munificent gift were appropriated to Cornell University, at Ithaca, upon several conditions, among which the most important were that Ezra Cornell should give to the institution $500,000, and that one student from each of the one hundred and twenty-eight assembly districts should be educated free of expense for tuition, such students being designated by a competitive examination on a plan laid down in the act. Mr. Cornell has donated not only the $500,000 required, but also two hundred acres of land, the Jewell collection of geology and paleontology, which had cost him $10,000, and $25,000 in subsequent donations. Besides all this, Mr. Cornell had invested $300,000 in purchasing the scrip and in locating the lands of the university. He had previously erected at Ithaca, at a cost of nearly $100,000, a free public library, with large halls and lecture-rooms, affording extensive supplementary accommodations to the institution.

The failure of many of the States to realize a competent endowment from the bounty of Congress may be attributed to hasty and inconsiderate disposal. Those States which still hold their lands either on lease or awaiting the rise of the market bid fair to receive adequate means for the support of their agricultural colleges. The benefits even of the most unpromising of these enterprises, however, amply justify the expenditure.

In 1860 the entire number of educational establishments in the United States was 113,006, with 148,742 teachers and 5,417,880 pupils; the annual income was $33,990,482. Of these aggregates 445 were collegiate institutions, with 54,969 students. The academies and other schools not designated as public schools numbered 6,636, with 455,559 pupils. The number of public schools was 106,915, with 4,917,552 pupils. The aggregate number of public libraries was 27,730, embracing 13,316,379 volumes. The extension and perfection of our educational system has kept in advance of even our wonderful increase in population and physical resources. It is not directed by any overpowering interest to the promotion of selfish ends. It is controlled and directed by the people themselves. Intelligence is at a high premium in every free State, and is ample security for the faithful execution of this popular power.

Rigid disciplinarians bewail the lack of symmetry with which these popular efforts are conducted, but true wisdom teaches us to delay the formation of a complete system of American education until our experience shall have developed the true elements and necessities of the work. Inasmuch as no general enumeration has been made since the census of 1860, it is impossible to procure aggregates representing the present status of educational enterprise in this country. A few items, selected from the school reports of the public-land States, will serve to illustrate at once the wonderful advance in the educational work of the nation, and the influence of the public-land system in its promotion.

The commissioner of common schools for the State of Ohio, in his report of the school-year ending August 31, 1868, shows that there were 1,019,192 youths between the ages of five and twenty-one years entitled to the benefits of the common-school system, being an increase of 23,942, or two and a half per cent., upon the previous report. The total value of school-houses and grounds in the same year was $10,330,097, being an increase of $1,257,654 over the value in 1867. The whole number of schools in 1868 was 11,783, an increase of 44; pupils enrolled, 731,772, an increase of 27,005; average daily attendance, 411,721; increase, 13,235; teachers, 21,592; increase, 24.

In summing up results of the enlightened and beneficent legislation of the national government in this respect, it is ascertained that the aggregate endowments in the cause of education are

For common schools...

For universities....

Acres. 67,983, 914 1,082, 880

78, 576, 794

In virtue of the agricultural and mechanic college grant... 9,510,000

Total.....

If the third grant above referred to be extended to the eleven Territories when admitted as States, and on the basis of two senators and one representative each, the agricultural and mechanic college grant would receive an increase of....

990,000

Making the princely endowment by Congress in the cause of education of 79,566,794 acres, or 124,323 square miles-a larger surface than the united areas of England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, and all the surrounding islands in the English seas.

CONCESSIONS IN AID OF INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS.

Congress, by the act of 3d March, 1863, granted 200,000 acres of land to the State of Michigan "to aid in building a harbor and ship-canal at Portage Lake, Keewenaw Point, Lake Superior." The State has taken the action required by the statute, and through agents has filed lists of the whole 200,000 acres. Of that quantity 192,050 acres have been certified to Michigan, the residue being in course of adjustment. These lands were required to be selected from those nearest the line of improvement, by alternate sections, and are accordingly being so selected. By the act of July 3, 1866, a further grant of 200,000 acres was made for the purpose above mentioned; 150,000 acres to be taken from alternate odd-numbered sections, and 50,000 acres of the even-numbered sections, all in the Upper Peninsula, and of lands to which homestead or pre-emption rights did not exist. Of this grant, 133,058 acres have been certified to the State, and the residue is in process of adjustment.

As heretofore stated, the grants to the State of Wisconsin, by acts of 8th August, 1846, and 3d August, 1854, for the improvement of the Fox and Wisconsin Rivers, have been finally adjusted. Such is also the case with the grant of 100,000 acres, made by the act of July 3, 1866, in aid of the construction of a ship-canal to connect the waters of Lake Superior with Lac La Belle, which has been finally closed. The grant of 200,000 acres made to Wisconsin by the act of April 10, 1866, to aid in the construction of a breakwater and ship-canal at the head of Sturgeon Bay, to connect the waters of Green Bay with Lake Michigan, has been fully satisfied.

As shown in the last report, it was decided by the department that the grant of 500,000 acres, made by the act of September, 1841, and extended to Nebraska by act of February 9, 1867, should not be reduced by the quantity granted by the act of April 19, 1864, for the reason that the latter grant was for purposes wholly distinct from those contemplated by the act of 1841. Under this grant the State has selected 386,957 acres, which are in process of adjustment, and the whole will soon be finally adjusted and settled.

The munificence of Congress in aid of internal improvements is shown in the grants for that object

Under act of 1841, which, when fully satisfied, will be equal to .

To which add, on account of prior grants for roads and improvement of rivers

Des Moines improvement.

Fox and Wisconsin River improvement

Canal purposes.

Total....

Estimated for wagon-roads....

Evidence of title has already been furnished in aid of

Acres.

7, 306, 544. 67

623, 716. 14 833, 079. 70 683, 728. 42 4, 405, 986. 00

13, 853, 054.93

3,782, 213.27

railroads

22, 221, 308. 87