1821.J VACANT LOTS IN NEW ORLEANS. 37

20TH CONGRE~S.] No. 596. [1ST SESSION.

APPLICATION OF ARKANSAS FOR A GRADUATION OF THE PRICE OF THE PUBLIC L.Al~D AND AN EXCHANGE OF SCHOOL LANDS.

COIDIUNICATED TO THE SENATE DECE:llBER 31, 1821.

To the honorable the Senate and House if Represe-fltati'Ces if the United States if .America in Congress assembled: Your memorialists, the general assembly of the Territory of Arkansas, respectfully represent: That

the interests of said Territory are intimately connected with the measures which Congress may adopt in relation to the sale and settlement of the public lands of the United States. Your memorialists humbly conceive it to be the intention of Congress to appropriate the vast unsettled regions of the west to supply the wants and promote the happiness of the citizens of the United States. The western country is peculiarly the asylum of the oppressed, and may emphatically be called the poor man's home. Your memorialists believe that any law which will open to the indigent a way to independence, and give to them and their children a grade above that of tenants, and a permanent home on their own soil, well subserves the cause of humanity, and is in strict accordance with the principles adopted by our government.

Your memorialists further respectfully represent that the rich lands of our Territory are situated in detached parcels, and generally confined to the water-courses; that the intermediate lands are generally of a quality that cannot for a long time, if ever, be sold, to the manifest injury as well of the general government as of this Territory. To advance, then, the interests of the general government, as well as those of our own Territory, your memorialists would respectfully suggest that the laws of the United States regulating the primary disposal of the public lands should be so altered as to permit the same to be disposed of in the manner proposed in the bill introduced in the Senate of the United States by the Hon. Thomas H. Benton, a senator in Congress from the State of Missouri, "to graduate the price of the public lands," his views on that subject being in perfect accordance with the views of your memorialists. Your memorialists believe that the passage of such a law would greatly increase the strength of our frontier settlements, and in a few years place us in a situation to protect and defend ourselves against the various tribes of faithless Indians that now surround us, and create an annual increase of revenue of many thousands of dollars in favor of the treasury of the United States.

The general assembly of the Territory of Arkansas have presented this important subject to the Congress of the United States with the fullest confidence that its decision thereon will be in perfect accordance with our views and wishes.

A. H. SEVIER, Speal:er if the House of Represe-f!tatil;es. D. S. WITTER, P1'esident if the Legislatil;e Council.

To the llOnomble the Senate and pouse if Representatit'es of the United Slates of .America in Congress assembled: The memorial of the leg'islative council and hOllse of reprel'lentatives of the Territory of Arkansas

respectfully represents: That of the lands designated by the laws of the United States for the use of schools in the 'l'erritoryof Arkansas the following tracts have been confirmed to individuals under grants from the Spanish government, viz: section sixteen, in township eig'ht south, in range three west of the fifth principal meridian, and section sixteen, in township eight south, in range two west of the fifth principal meridIan.

Your memorialists would therefore respectfully ask the passage of an act of Congress authorizing the Commissioner of the General Land Office to set apart for the use of schools in said townships two other sections of the public lands in lieu of those appropriated as aforesaid. And your memorialists, as in duty bound, will ever pray.

20TH CONGRESS.]

A. H. SEVIER, Speaker if the House if Represe-fltalit'es. D. S. WITTER, Preside-flt of the Legislatil;e Council.

No. 597 [1ST SESSION.

APPLICATION OF THE CORPORATE AUTHORITIES OF NEW ORLEANS TO BE ALLOWED TO SELL THE VACANT LOTS ON THE Q.UAYS OF THAT CITY.

CmnIUNICATED TO THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES DECEMBER 31, 1821.

To the honorable the members if the Senate and Hov.se of Representatives if the United Slates if .America in Congress o.ssembled:

The memorial of the mayor, aldermen, and inhabitants of the city of New Orleans most respectfully showeth: That your memorialists, relying on the justice of your honorable bodies, come before them and pray that they may be permitted freely to exercise the right which they think they actually possess of alienating', for the use and benefit of the corporation of New Orleans, certain spaces of ground, being a