416
WRITINGS OF 5AM HOUSTON, 1860
arrives their value will be greatly increased. If sold now but little will be realized from them, and before the expiration of twenty years, the time upon which over fifty thousand acres have already been sold, the lands will be worth more than three- fold the amount they should bring now, with accumulated interest. So far as the one hundred thousand dollars of bonds and their interest, taken from the general and applied to the university fund by the last Legislature, are concerned, I believe the condi- tion of the Treasury and our immediate necessities demand that the act be repealed, and the money again placed subject to appropriation. We need money for the protection of our fron- tier, and to save us from taxation; more than for a fund which promises no immediate benefit. Our common school fund already provides for the education contemplated by the Constitution; and if this amount, thus unnecessarily withdrawn from the general fund, will reduce the burthens of taxation, the people will be better able in the future to bear taxation to support a university, if one should be necessary. I have long regarded our present land system as defective; and believe with the framers of the Constitution of the Republic, that our public domain should be sectionized. The Federal Govern- ment has adopted this system with reference to its public lands; and all of the difficulties which surround our titles are obviated. We can not redeem the past, but we can provide for the future. If all of our public domain were surveyed by competent persons, who would be willing to take a portion of our lands as compensa- tion for their labor, it would greatly facilitate the settlement of the country, and give security to our whole land operations. It would also furnish some data upon which to base conclusions as to the value of our lands, and if accompanied by the researches of a geological and agricultural bureau, would vastly tend to the development of the resources of our State. Our lands, if divided into sections, half and quarter sections, would meet a ready sale; whereas, at present, the difficulty attending our land titles makes many persons loth to file their certificates, lest they may conflict with private locations; but if their metes and bounds were de- clared by the State none of this apprehension would exist. I believe that the policy of extending our frontier too rapidly has already resulted in great loss of life, owing to the sparse settlements being an easy prey to savages. If a base line were run at the extreme edge of our present settlements, and the terri- tory beyond withdrawn from location and settlement, we could then, by a liberal policy which would give an alternate quarter
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