Speech #500002660

On the other hand. the public lands hold out. after the discharge of the national debt. ample revenues to be devoted to the cause of education and to sound learning. and to internal improvements. without trenching upon the property or embarrassing the pursuits of the people by burdensome taxation. The constitutional objection to the appropriation of the other revenues of the Government to such objects has not been supposed to apply to an appropriation of the proceeds of the public lands. I call especial attention to the last sentence in this extract from Storys Commentaries. where he says: "The constitutional objection to the appropriation of the other revenues of the Government to such objects has not been supposed to apply to an appropriation of the proceeds of the public lands." Congress having absolute power of disposal over the public lands. conferred by express grant of the Constitution. has made donations of them to colleges and schools. to railroad corporations. to actual settlers. to immigrant foreigners. to soldiers and sailors as bounty. has promoted timber culture by donations of them. has sold them for money. has created reservations for Indians on them. and. indeed. has disposed of them in every way that lands can be disposed of. and nobody questions the power of Congress thus to dispose of them. In accepting donations of land for educational purposes the States have simply taken what Congress had a constitutional right to give. No implication of a right in the National Government to take charge of the schools of the States can arise from such donations. whereas Congress having no power to tax the people except to raise revenue for the support of the Government. and to execute the powers and enforce the jurisdiction of the Government. can not appropriate the revenues thus raised by taxation to the support of common schools in the States. except upon the assumption that the common schools are within the j urisdiction of the National Government. whose duty it is to provide for them.