the Republic,-was evidently intended to protect the interests of persons engaged in the meritorious service of the Army, by postponing all surveys and locations of land, till such time as these persons could have an equal opportunity with all others, of making good selections; and not to prevent abstract dispositions of the public domain, so far as required by indispensable necessity-since the location of such abstract titles, could be easily restrained to the time, when all should have a fair & equal opportunity to locate- The argument in favor of its being expected to raise funds by the first recourse to the public domain, is found in the fact that it was notoriously the only available resourse for the purpose, as not a single dollar was to he expected from taxation- It appearing to your Committee for those reasons and still more that might he added, that there is no want of power to dispose of the public lands in the manner proposed, it remains for us briefly to consider the expediency of exercising it at the present moment. We confess we should feel opposed to any disposition of the public domain which might not he demanded by imperious necessity-At this moment however, we think, that that necessity exists-It is known that the supplies now in the country, are but the provision of a day; and that the Various Arrangements now in progress for the future, promise at the best, only, with a certain degree of probability, that further supplies will come in time to meet necessities which we know will certainly arrive, with distressing emergency- To place then, our expectation of supplies upon a basis as certain & secure as possible, & to lessen the risk of their failure your Committee recommend the issuing of Scrip in the manner & to the extent proposed by the application; the very terms of which on one side limit the disposition of public lands to actual supplies to he received, and on the other to those hitherto received, in regard to which Justice as well as expediency call strongly for the arrangement The minimum price of the land to be 50 els per acre and as much more as they will bring.- The past important aid rendered to Texas by the applicants, under the support of the person T. Toby of N. Orleans, who is proposed as Agent fully authorize the expectation, as your committee took, that we shall suffer no disappointment, in regard
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