Mr. GRIMES. I think, Mr. Presidentfthat there need not be a very great controversy between the Senfrom Delaware and the Senfrom Massachusetts on the subject of the colored schools, for I imagine that if this bill shall pass there will not be a great man either of white or of colored, schools supported, by the funds that will be created by it. Ilia ould almost be willing to guaranty that these lands will not not to the city governments of Georgetown and Washington, and to the DistCol, ten cents an acre. such, I can assure the Senfrom Massachusetts, has beenthe experience heretofore on the part of all to whom grants of this kind have been made, and such will be the case from my knowledge of the authorities that have the control of atfairs here in these cities and in this District in regard to this scrip if it shall be issued. v The Senfrom Massachusetts bases this grant 1st on the poverty of the city of Washington. In regard to that the Senator is mistaken. According to the assessment returns, this is one of the wealthiest cities there is in the U.S. There may be poor people here, and doubtless there are; but the as sessment returns show what the value of the property is. Will the Senator produce them? Vhy, sir, the poo" people of whom he speaks, who haVe been brought here as mechanics from the North and West, have really the control of l the city government. Why do they not levya tax on the valuable property that is located here? The trouble is not that the people are poor, but the trouble is that they are not willing to tax the property that is subject to taxation for the purpose of educating their children; and no grant of land that can he made, and no scrip that the Senator can get us to authorize to be issued is going to improve the people of the DistCol in that regard. Let him turn out as a missionary and lecture the people in their various wards on the necessity of education, and when he has brought them up to the standard that will justify as in putting money into their hands for this object, let him come in here and ask for an appropriation of money out of the Treasury. that we can grant, that is the r direct way ofreaching this thing but the indirect way that is now proposed, which, while it may posSibly be a slight advantage to the citizens of the District, is destined to be a very great disadvantage to the new States, is not the ind of legislation that We should have. Mr. President, I suppose that the members of this body understan that this bill, if it shall pass, will be the establishment of a new principle. The Senator says that we have been in the habit of making grants oflnnds to the western States for education. That is true: but they have been granted upon altogether a different principle than this. The Government had vast tracts of land. That land was subdivided, by the authority of Congress, into townships, and those townships were subdivided into 36 sections each. You wanted to sell those lands. They were the means from which you expected to derive your revenue for the purpose of carrying on your Government; and you said to the citizens of the North and East, ” If you will go out west and buy these lands, and pay us 55125 an acre for them, we will set apart every 16th section in each one of these townships, which shallbe used by you, and those who may associate with you, for the purpose of educating your children.” It was an in acementto the people from the East, and from other sections of the country, to go to these western lands and locate on them, and pay into your Treasury the money that you said you would take for these lands. But here you propose to grant to the city of Washington lands or scrip, which is the same thing, for the purpose of establishing schools in this District. on might with equal propriety issue scrip to support the schools in tocity of Boston. But if there is such a necessity for the support of schools here, come to us and ask us in a manly, straightforward way to take money out of the Treasury. Does not the Senator know, does not the experience of everybod go to show, that this scrip will in a very short time and at a very low rate find its way into the pockets of the wealthy capitalists, and then it Will be located, spread out on a township of land or several townships of land, and that land will remain for ten, 15, 20, or 25 years without having a single occupant on it? and that is the danger and the do" a that it is to work to the States where trialling; will be located and held in trust for the benefit of the cities of Washington and Georgetown. In 1809, I think the Senfrom Kentucky [Mr. Gurnaie] can probably tell me the date there was granted to a charitable institution in Kentucky a township of land in the State of Florida; and one of the 1st subjects that I heard under discussion when I came to Washington was a hill introduced at the in stance of the State of Florida to compel the State of Kentucky to sell that land. I suppose it has not been sold to this day. The argument that was urged by the State of Florida was that here was an entire township of land in one of their best counties that was Owned by the State of Kentucky, granted fer a charitable purpose, it is true, but there was not a single bonafide settler upon it; it retarded the settlement and prevented the development of the country. Now, the effect of the as s bill is precisely to accomplish the lame “ western States, not in my statehforI. not 5 eakin for her; her public lands reall exauste but I am speaking for the other States and Territories. We have been through this exerienee; and we have got in some portion o our State almost whole counties taken up by non-residents in this way, preventing the settlement, preventing immigrants from coming there, preventing the development of the State; and I am now arguing itbr the purpose of preventing other States an Territories from having the same experience.