agnificent domain of five and a half millions of acres practically dwined! And yet we have a full title to these five and a half millions of acres, nd, if proper administrative ability is employed, we can secure them all. The great question for solution, then, is, what machinery shall we or anize to increase our available School Fund from 114,880 acres, as it is, › 5,525,760 acres, as it ought to be ? It is apparent, from what has been said, that two important steps are ecessary: First-that the State formally relinquish the precise sixteenth nd thirty-sixth sections, fixed or to be fixed by the lines of the U. S. Sur. eyors, which prove to be covered by Mexican grants-or fall on mineral inds, or were settled on before survey-and this, it has been shown, will mbrace very nearly all the School sections in the State; and, secondhat through her appointed agents, she select other lands, to an equiva ent amount, in the most desirable parts of the State. The question is, then, practically narrowed down to the selection and ale of about 5,400,000 acres of the best agricultural land that can be ound unoccupied. It is for you to judge, gentlemen, whether the cumbrous machinery of he existing law, before described, will ever effect this. Multiply the comlicated processes required in one county before a School section can be nade available, by the average number of such sections in a county, and hat again by the number of Counties, and you will perceive the infinite livisibility of the responsibility, and the utter impossibility of securing nything like dispatch or system. It is only a high order of administrative ability—and that with full powers—that is equal to the task. COMPLETING THE SURVEYS.—In this connection, your honorable body s earnestly requested to urge upon the Federal Government an appropri ation sufficient to allow the U. Š. Surveyor-General for California to run the Township-lines throughout the mining Counties, and the Counties generally covered by Mexican grants. It is only in this way we can ascer tain to how many sections these Counties are entitled, and this we must ascertain before we can select others in lieu of those relinquished. SECTIONS IN LIEU OF WORTHLESS LANDS.—It is found that a large number of School Sections fall on mountainous, desert, and marshy lands, and are therefore utterly worthless. The grant of such lands is a mere mockery. The toiling millions of China could make nothing out of them. I would recommend your honorable body to instruct our Senators and Representatives to make a vigorous effort to secure from Congress such legislation as will permit us to relinquish these worthless lands, and selec others in more desirable parts of the State. THE FIVE PER CENT. FUND. which In a special communication to the Governor, and, through him, to the Legislature, I called attention, in March last, to the grounds upon California has the right to claim, from the Federal Government, five per cent. of the proceeds of the sales of public lands within our limits. Without going into details, it is sufficient to say, that the policy of mak ing such a grant to the new States, was inaugurated in 1802, in the Act authorizing the people of Ohio Territory to form a constitution and State 23 government. It was re-affirmed in the Act of March 3, 1803, admitting Ohio into the Union. Three per cent. was to be devoted to the laying out, opening, and making of roads within the State, and two per cent. to the construction of roads leading to the State. This grant was not made without a valuable consideration. It was expressly on condition that the State should exempt every tract of land sold by Congress within her limits, from every tax, for the term of five years from and after the day of sale. The policy thus inaugurated was uniformly adhered to, on the admission of each successive new State. The same grant was made to Louisiana by Act of February 20, 1811to Indiana, by Act of April 19, 1816-to Mississippi, by Act of March 3, 1817-to Illinois, by Act of April 18, 1818-to Alabama, by Act of March 2, 1819 to Missouri, by Act of March 6, 1820-and, again, to Mississippi and Alabama, by Act of July 4, 1836-to Arkansas, by Act of June 23, 1836-to Michigan, by Act of June 23, 1836-to Florida, by Act of March 3, 1845 to Iowa, by Act of March 3, 1845-to Wisconsin, by Act of March 3, 1847-and to Minnesota, by Act of February 26, 1857. It will thus be seen that, from the admission of Ohio, in 1803, to that of Minnesota, in 1857, Congress has uniformly granted this Five Per Cent. Fund to the new States, with the single exception of California. The Act admitting our State into the Union, approved September 9, 1850, carefully omitted this grant, while it as carefully imposed all the conditions which had, in the case of other States, formed the consideration for the grant. It stipulated that our people, through their Legislature, or otherwise, "shall never interfere with the primary disposal of the public lands within our limits; that they shall never lay any tax, or assessment of any description whatsoever, upon the public domain of the United States; shall ·not tax non-resident proprietors higher than residents, and that all the navigable waters within the State shall be common highways, and forever free, as well to the inhabitants of the State as to the citizens of the United States, without any tax, impost, or duty, therefor." Here are considerations amply sufficient to justify our claim to the usual grant of five per cent. of the proceeds of the sale of public lands within our limits. They are precisely the same considerations which prompted the grant to all the other States, and there is no reason why we should be singled out as an exception. We have faithfully complied with these conditions. For eight years we have refrained from taxing the lands of the United States. Had we imposed the same tax upon them as upon private lands, the proceeds would have amounted, by this time, to much more than the five per cent. on the sales of United States lands is likely to realize. The omission to make us this grant in the Act of admission, was, no doubt, an oversight on the part of Congress; for it is hardly to be supposed that body deliberately intended to make an invidious distinction in our case-to except us from the benefits of a rule of universal application, both before and since our admission into the Union. I presume it is only necessary to call the attention of Congress to the case, to obtain the passage of an Act granting us this Fund. To that end, I would recommend that our Senators and Representatives be again instructed to use their utmost efforts to secure the neces sary legislation. The matter is of considerable importance to us, as some three million acres of land will probably be offered for sale by the United States dur ing the present year. Should these lands be sold at the minimum price-$1 25 per acre-they will yield $3,750,000, five per cent. of which would be $187,500. This would be a very acceptable addition to our present pitifully smal School Fund. I say, to our School Fund, because the framers of our Constitution, evi dently anticipating that the usual grant would be made to us, expressk provided, in Article IX, section 2, that "such per cent. as may be granted by Congress, on the sale of lands in this State, shall be inviolably appro priated to the support of Common Schools throughout the State." It is true, the original purpose of grants of this kind was to aid in the construction of roads leading to, and within, the several States, but, i two instances at least-Illinois and Florida-Congress has set the prece dent of devoting this Five Per Cent. Fund to the cause of Education. No objection can therefore be urged against the same disposition of it made by our Constitution. STATE UNIVERSITY AND MILITARY INSTITUTE. Without going into details, I renew the recommendation contained in my last Annual Report, that immediate measures be adopted for the es tablishment of a State University on the military plan. For the reason prompting this recommendation, and the details of a proper organization, respectfully refer to that Report. In conclusion, let me express the earnest hope that the recommends tions of the State Superintendent be not treated quite so cavalierly as i some former years. They have not been made for effect, in the comma acceptation of that expression, nor simply because some kind of a repor was required, but from a deep and abiding conviction of their necessity. The views of an officer who has made the subject of Education hi specialty—who has devoted much thought and not a little study to it consideration, are surely entitled to some weight. Respectfully submitted, ANDREW J. MOULDER, Superintendent of Public Instruction. DEPARTMENT OF INSTRUCTION, January 3d, 1859. |