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Opinion of the Court.

to issue to each of the States in which there is not the quantity of public lands subject to sale at private entry at one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre, to which said State may be entitled under the provisions of this act, land scrip to the amount in acres for the deficiency of its distributive share; said scrip to be sold by said States, and the proceeds thereof applied to the uses and purposes prescribed in this act, and for no other use or purpose whatsoever: Provided, That in no case shall any State to which land scrip may thus be issued be allowed to locate the same within the limits of any other State, or of any Territory of the United States, but their assignees may thus locate said land scrip upon any of the unappropriated lands of the United States subject to sale at private entry at one dollar and twenty-five cents, or less, per acre: And provided, further, That not more than one million acres shall be located by such assignees in any one of the States: And provided, further, That no such location shall be made before one year from the passage of this act.

"SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That all the expenses of management, superintendence, and taxes from date of selection of said lands, previous to their sales, and all expenses incurred in the management and disbursement of the moneys which may be received therefrom, shall be paid by the States to which they may belong, out of the treasury of said States, so that the entire proceeds of the sale of said lands shall be applied without any diminution whatever to the purposes hereinafter mentioned.

"SEC. 4. And be it further enacted, That all moneys derived from the sale of the lands aforesaid by the States to which the lands are apportioned, and from the sales of land scrip hereinbefore provided for, shall be invested in stocks of the United States, or of the States, or some other safe stocks, yielding not less than five per centum upon the par value of said stocks; and that the moneys so invested shall constitute a perpetual fund, the capital of which shall remain forever undiminished, (except so far as may be provided in section fifth of this act,) and the interest of which shall be inviolably appropriated, by each State which may take and claim the benefit of this act,

Opinion of the Court.

to the endowment, support and maintenance of at least one college where the leading object shall be, without excluding other scientific and classical studies, and including military tactics, to teach such branches of learning as are related to agriculture and the mechanic arts, in such manner as the legislatures of the States may respectively prescribe, in order to promote the liberal and practical education of the industrial classes in the several pursuits and professions in life.

"SEC. 5. And be it further enacted, That the grant of land and land scrip hereby authorized shall be made on the following conditions, to which, as well as to the provisions hereinbefore contained, the previous assent of the several States shall be signified by legislative acts:

"First. If any portion of the fund invested, as provided by the foregoing section, or any portion of the interest thereon, shall, by any action or contingency, be diminished or lost, it shall be replaced by the State to which it belongs, so that the capital of the fund shall remain forever undiminished; and the annual interest shall be regularly applied without diminution to the purposes mentioned in the fourth section of this act, except that a sum, not exceeding ten per centum upon the amount received by any State under the provisions of this act, may be expended for the purchase of lands for sites or experimental farms, whenever authorized by the respective legislatures of said States.

"Second. No portion of said fund, nor the interest thereon, shall be applied, directly or indirectly, under any pretence whatever, to the purchase, erection, preservation, or repair of any building or buildings.

"Third. Any State which may take and claim the benefit of the provisions of this act shall provide, within five years, at least not less than one college, as described in the fourth section of this act, or the grant to such State shall cease; and said State shall be bound to pay the United States the amount received of any lands previously sold, and that the title to purchasers under the State shall be valid.

"Fourth. An annual report shall be made regarding the progress of each college, recording any improvements and exper

Opinion of the Court.

iments made, with their costs and results, and such other matters, including state industrial and economical statistics, as may be supposed useful: one copy of which shall be transmitted by mail free, by each, to all the other colleges which may be endowed under the provisions of this act, and also one copy to the Secretary of the Interior.

"Fifth. When lands shall be selected from those which have been raised to double the minimum price, in consequence of railroad grants, they shall be computed to the States at the maximum price, and the number of acres proportionally diminished.

"Sixth. No State while in a condition of rebellion or insurrection against the government of the United States shall be entitled to the benefit of this act.

"Seventh. No State shall be entitled to the benefits of this act unless it shall express its acceptance thereof by its legislature within two years from the date of its approval by the President.

"SEC. 6. And be it further enacted, That land scrip issued. under the provisions of this act shall not be subject to location until after the first day of January, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three.

"SEC. 7. And be it further enacted, That the land officers shall receive the same fees for locating land scrip issued under the provisions of this act as is now allowed for the location of military bounty land warrants under existing laws; Provided, Their maximum compensation shall not be thereby increased. "SEC. 8. And be it further enacted, That the governors of the several States to which scrip shall be issued under this act shall be required to report annually to Congress all sales made of such scrip until the whole shall be disposed of, the amount received for the same, and what appropriation has been made of the proceeds."

On the 5th of May, 1863, the legislature of the State of New York passed an act, (Laws of New York of 1863, c. 460,) entitled "An act relative to the lands granted to this State by the act of Congress entitled 'An act donating public lands to the several States and Territories which may provide

Opinion of the Court.

colleges for the benefit of agriculture and the mechanic arts," approved second July, eighteen hundred and sixty-two, and authorizing the sale thereof, and the investment of the proceeds of such sales." By this act, the State duly accepted the grant and gave its assent to the conditions thereof. The Comptroller was authorized to receive the land scrip, (as the State had no public lands of the United States, unappropriated, within its borders,) and to sell the same, and to make all necessary arrangements, employ agents, etc., as he deemed expedient, for effecting a judicious sale of such scrip. Land scrip representing 989,920 acres of land was then issued by the Secretary of the Interior to the Comptroller, and was embraced in 6187 pieces of scrip for 160 acres each. The Comptroller sold scrip for 68,000 acres at the rate of 85 cents an acre, and for 8000 at 83 cents an acre.

By an act passed May 14, 1863, (Laws of New York, of 1863, c. 511,) the legislature appropriated the income and revenue which might be received from the investment of the proceeds of the sale of any of the lands granted to the State by the act of Congress of July 2, 1862, to the People's College, located at Havana, in Schuyler County, on certain conditions expressed in the act.

On the 27th of April, 1865, (Laws of New York, of 1865, c. 585,) the legislature passed an act creating Cornell University as a corporation, and appropriating to it the "income, revenue and avails which shall be received from the investment of the proceeds of the sale of the lands, or of the scrip therefor," granted to the State by the act of Congress of July 2, 1862, to be paid over to the trustees of the university "for its use and behoof, in the mode and for the purposes in said act of Congress defined." This gift was expressed in the act to be upon the condition that Ezra Cornell should give $500,000 to the university and $25,000 to the trustees of Genesee College, located at Lima, New York, and the provisions of the act were to take effect only in case of the noncompliance of the trustees of the People's College at Havana with the provisions of the act of May 14, 1863. Section 5 of the act of April 27, 1865, was in these words: "§ 5. The cor

Opinion of the Court.

poration hereby created may hold real and personal property to an amount not exceeding three millions of dollars in the aggregate." Both of the gifts above specified were made by Mr. Cornell.

In this state of things, as the Court of Appeals says in its opinion (p. 116), "the great question then arising was in regard to the best means of disposing of such scrip for the best price, so that the income for the university should be increased to the greatest extent therefrom. The result of throwing into market such an enormous amount of the public lands as had been donated by Congress to the several States was a fall in the market value of the land, and, of course, of the scrip which represented it. In the fall of 1865, Mr. Cornell had purchased some scrip of the comptroller, representing 100,000 acres, for $50,000, and had given his bond for that sum upon condition that all the profits which should accrue from the sale of the land should be paid to the Cornell University."

The legislature then passed, on the 10th of April, 1866, an act (Laws of New York, of 1866, c. 481) entitled "An act to authorize and facilitate the early disposition by the Comptroller of the lands or land scrip donated to this State by the United States," and which was in the following words:

"SECTION 1. The Comptroller is hereby authorized to fix the price at which he will sell and dispose of any or of all the lands or land scrip donated to this State by the United States of America, by act of Congress approved July second, eighteen hundred and sixty-two, and entitled 'An act donating public lands to the several States and Territories which may provide colleges for instruction in agriculture and the mechanic arts. Such price shall not be less than at the rate of thirty cents per acre for said lands. He may contract for the sale thereof and sell the same to the trustees of the Cornell University. If the said trustees shall not agree with the said Comptroller for the purchase thereof, then the commissioners of the land office may receive from any person or persons an application for the purchase of the whole or any part thereof at the price so fixed by the said Comptroller, and may, if they are satisfied that the said person or persons will fully carry out and perform

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