dents to whom the same have been applied, and of all other matters prescribed by said Act of Congress."

This report will be confined to the subject of location of lands, because the Corporation have as yet made no advance beyond that fundamental preliminary.

The "Act donating public lands to the several States and Territories which may provide Colleges for the benefit of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts," was approved July 2, 1862.

Its second section provides that no location shall be made before one year from the passage of the Act.

The second day of July, 1863, was therefore the earliest day on which a location of lands could be made.

Rhode Island was the first State having no Public Lands within its limits, which accepted the grant of land made by the United States; it accepted it at the January Session, 1863, and on the 23d day of said January assigned the same to Brown University.

The Governor of the State, (then Governor Sprague,) and the Corporation of the University, believing it essential to the value of the grant that no official inaction or other hindrances should prevent the earliest possible location of the lands for Rhode Island, induced the Hon. John R. Bartlett, Secretary of State of R. I., in behalf of the State, and Horace Love, agent of the University, (selected as well for his intelligence and interest in the subject, as for his experience in the business of Public Land offices,) to visit Washington immediately, to represent the interests involved.

Within two hours after the passage of the Reso

lution of Assignments, they departed, with authenticated papers, to communicate the action of the State of Rhode Island, and of the University, to the Department of the Interior, and to negotiate for the timely preparation of such official regulations, forms and documents as the Department would adopt, and prescribe to govern the selection and location of lands under the Act of Congress.

After a satisfactory interview with the Secretary of the Interior, the Hon. John P. Usher, he referred them to the Commissioner of the General Land Office, the Hon. J. M. Edmunds, to whose office the details of the business belong.

After a full hearing and free interchange of views as to the United States grant, and proceedings under it, the Commissioner stated that the subject was yet new-that he was not then prepared to issue the Scrip, (which is the official evidence of the right to enter lands at the land offices,) previous to which he should need some time to (as he said,) "eliminate" the Act of Congress; that this application was the first, would be entitled to the first issue, and it should be made in a few weeks.

The Secretary of State then returned to Rhode Island, leaving the agent of the University to expedite, if possible, the issue of the Scrip, and to return with it. The agent was unsuccessful; and between January and May he made two other unsuccessful journeys to Washington, unable to procure from the Commissioner any thing more than assurances that the Scrip should be furnished in ample time, before the lands were open to location. He wrote twice after that to the Commissioner, reminding him that the delay was likely to be very injurious to the interests of Rhode Island.

To be prepared to make the most favorable location, as soon as the time should arrive, the agent of the University, early in May, was despatched to Kansas, and the neighboring region, to examine lands and records in land offices.

With all the persistent diligence used, the Scrip not being procured nor issued in June, the Secretary then again went to Washington to endeavor to obtain it; nearly five months had then elapsed since the first application to the Commissioner, and his assurance that it should be issued in a few weeks.

The Commissioner made various excuses for the delay but continued to promise that it should be issued in time to be sent to Kansas before the 2d day of July.

Senator Anthony also wrote to hasten its issue, as afterwards did Governor Smith.

With all the diligence and pressure applied by Secretary Bartlett, by the agent of the University, by Senator Anthony, and by Governor Smith, the Scrip was not received by the Secretary, in Providence, until the 12th of August, dated Washington August 7th.

The President of the University, who was authorized to locate the lands, having waited in vain for the Scrip until the 22d day of June, provided himself with certified copies of the Acts of the General Assembly, and of the Corporation in relation to the land grant, and proceeded to Kansas, fearing the consequences of longer delay, and hoping the Secretary would receive and forward the Scrip to him from Washington, where he then was.

In Kansas, President Sears joined the agent of

the University, who had been a month there examining the records of land offices, and viewing lands for the purpose of selections; and both united in these investigations, that they might be prepared to make locations of the most valuable lands on the 2nd day of July; daily hoping for the arrival of the Scrip.

At nine o'clock, on the morning of the 2nd of July, the hour at which the land office was opened, the President made his application, and filed a schedule of his locations in due form in the Register's office, in Atchison, Kansas, for the entry of 26,080 acres of land for the University, with all the papers necessary, except the Scrip, which though applied for in January, and repeatedly after, and as repeatedly promised in anticipation of this day, was still held back, and for more than a month thereafter, in the Land Office in Washington.

The entry was thus formally made; and on the 6th of July another entry of 13,920 acres, in the same office; making in all, 40,000 acres; and the legal entry fees, amounting to one hundred dollars, paid, and received at the time of each entry by the Register and Receiver.

About three weeks after our entries were made, one claiming to be agent of a railroad company, (called the Atchison and Pike's Peak Railroad Company,) and professing to be its Engineer, having made a flying survey of about one hundred miles, diagonally, through the whole extent of our selection, drew and forwarded a plan, or survey, to be filed in the General Land Office, in Washington.

If this survey is established it takes the railroad track, and fifteen miles, as we are informed, on each side of the track, through the land selected and lo

cated by us, and doubles the government price of public lands adjoining. A copy of this survey was sent to the Atchison Land Office, from Washington, which if allowed at the General Land Office, authenticates, so far as that allowance can, the supplanting appropriation attempted for the railroad company.

That the Commissioner of the General Land Office in Washington was informed of the proceedings, both of the University and for the railroad company, appears from the following letter of the Commissioner, a copy of which is on file in the Secretary's office of this State, and is as follows:

GENERAL LAND OFFICE,

August 13, 1863.

GENTLEMEN.-I have received your letter of the 3d instant, stating that Rev. Barnas Sears, D. D., President of Brown University, Providence, R. I., was at "your" office, on the 2d and 6th days of July, ultimo, and having given "you" satisfactory evidence of his authority to locate for the benefit of said University, the 120,000 acres Land Scrip accruing to the State of Rhode Island, under the Act of Congress, approved July 2d, 1862, entitled "An Act donating. public lands to the several States and Territories which may provide Colleges for the benefit of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts," he had selected and designated 250 quarter Sections of land in "your" District, and made application to the Register to locate the same with the Scrip aforesaid, and deposited with the Receiver $1000 to pay the fees for such location."