EXECUTIVE MANSION, _September 24, 1888_.
_To the House of Representatives_:
I am unable to give my assent to a joint House resolution No. 14 and
entitled "Joint resolution to authorize the Secretary of the Interior to
certify lands to the State of Kansas for the benefit of agriculture and
the mechanic arts," and I therefore return the same with a statement of
my objections thereto.
By an act of Congress passed July 2, 1862, certain public lands were
granted to such of the several States as should provide colleges for the
benefit of agriculture and the mechanic arts.
Under the terms of this act the State of Kansas was entitled to 90,000
acres of land, subject, however, to the provisions of said statute,
which declared that when lands which had been raised to double the
minimum price, in consequence of railroad grants, should be selected by
a State such lands should be computed at the maximum price and the
number of acres proportionately diminished.
Of the lands selected by the State of Kansas, and which have been
certified, 7,682.92 acres were within certain limits of a railroad
grant, and had therefore been raised to the double minimum in price, so
that the number of acres mentioned and thus situated really stood for
double that number of acres in filling the grant to which the State of
Kansas was entitled.
It is now claimed that after the selection of these lands the route
of said railroad was abandoned and another one selected, and that in
consequence thereof such lands included within its first location were
reduced to the minimum price and restored to public market at that rate.
It is supposed upon these allegations that justice and equity require
that an additional grant should now be made to the State of Kansas from
the public lands equal to the number of acres selected within the limits
of the first railroad location.
But an examination discloses that the joint resolution is predicated
upon an entire misunderstanding of the facts.
The lands heretofore mentioned as amounting to more than 7,000 acres,
selected by the State of Kansas, and charged at double that amount
because their price had been raised to the double minimum in consequence
of their being within a railroad location, have all except 320 acres
remained either in the new or old railroad location up to the present
time, and if now vacant would be held by the Government at the double
minimum price.
It seems clear to me that the State of Kansas has been granted all the
public land to which it can lay any legal or equitable claim under the
law of 1862.