AGRICULTURAL AND MECHANICAL COLLEGE GRANTS. July 2, 1862, Congress enlarged the national educational endowment system by the donation to each State of thirty thousand acres of public land not otherwise reserved (no mineral lands could be selected, and selections must be of quarter-sections), for each Senator and Representative (to which such State was entitled under the apportionment of 1860), for the support of colleges for the cultivation of agricultural and mechanical science and art. It was championed in the Senate by Hon. Justin S. Morrill, of Vermont. The law contained a provision for location in place, and an issue of scrip in lieu of place locations. The Commissioner of the General Land Office, in 1875, in the case of the new State of Colorado, ruled that the grant attaches to a new State without further legislation. "In place" means that the States having public lands in their limits were to take such lands in satisfaction of their allowance under this law. "In scrip" means an issue of redeemable land scrip, assignable, which might be located according to law and stipulations in the act, to States which had no public lands within their limits from which their allowance could be satisfied. Special certificates with printed forms of selections were furnished States making selections from public lands within their limits. The scrip was issued by the Commissioner of the General Land Office. (See Regulations of General Land Office, May 4, 1863, June 17, 1864, September 16, 1874, and July 20, 1875, and subsequently, to registers and receivers.) This scrip can be located upon land subject to sale at ordinary private entry at $1.25 per acre, or used in the payment of pre-emption claims, and the commutation of homestead entries. Circular from the General Land Office of date July 20, 1875, gives full details as to methods of location and entry. The lands entered in "place" were sold by the several States, and the proceeds thereof used to endow agricultural colleges. The "scrip" was sold by the several States (in most cases) and the proceeds from the same used for the same purpose. The following statement shows the number of acres granted for agricultural and mechanical colleges by acts of Congress, the dates of which are given, to such of the States as had sufficient public land within their limits subject to sale at ordinary private entry at $1.25 per acre, inclusive of the scrip provided to be issued to the to the other States of the Union by the act of Congress of July 2, 1862, and supplemental acts: States having land subject to selection, “in place,” under act of July 2, 1862, and acts amendatory thereof. The following statement shows the names and locations of agricultural colleges, with the number of acres of scrip or land in place given to the several States, and the amounts realized therefrom: Agricultural colleges located by the several States under the act of July 2, 1862. 83,000 State Agricultural College, Eau Gallie, Fla. (location questionable; college not yet organized) 150, 000, scrip. 150, 000, place. 90,000, place. 180, 000, scrip. 90, 000, scrip. 110,806 Georgia State College of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts, Athens, 90,000, scrip. Ga. (departments of University of Georgia). 243, 000 Purdue University, La Fayette, Ind 212, 238 Iowa State Agricultural College, Ames, Iowa. 390, 000, scrip. Kansas State Agricultural College, Manhattan, Kans. 290, 000 Agricultural and Mechanical College of Kentucky, Lexington, Ky.. 90,000, place. 165,000 330, 000, scrip. Agricultural and Mechanical Department of Alcorn University, Rodney, Agricultural aad Mechanical College of the State of Mississippi, Stark- University of the State of Missouri: Agricultural and Mechanical College, Columbia, Mo. $178,000 120, 000, place. Agricultural colleges located by the several States, &c.—Continued. New Hampshire College of Agricultural and the Mechanic Arts, Hanover, N. H.. $90,000 90,000, place. 150,000, scrip. Rutgers Scientific School of Rutgers College, New Brunswick, N. J. 116, 000 210, 000, scrip. 990, 000, scrip. University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, N. C 125,000 270, 000, scrip. Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 507, 913 630, 000, scrip. State Agricultural College, Corvallis, Oreg 90, 000, place. Pennsylvania State College, State College, Pa 439, 186 780, 000, scrip. Brown University, Providence, R. I.. 50,000 South Carolina Agricultural College and Mechanics' Institute, Orangeburg, S. C 120, 000, scrip. 180, 000, scrip. Tennessee Agricultural College, Knoxville, Tenn.. 271, 875 300, 000, scrip. Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas, College Station, Tex.. 209, 000 University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wis.. University of Vermont and State Agricultural College, Burlington, Vt.. Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College, Blacksburg, Va. Total of 9,600,000 acres: In place, 1,770,000 acres; scrip, 7,830,000 acres. *Prospective endowment is the Congressional grant to agricultural colleges, amounting in Colorado to 90,000 acres ; not yet in the market. Receives annually from the University of Georgia $3,500, part interest of the land scrip fund. $327,000 of State bonds scaled to $196,200 of new State bonds. Estimated. 180, 000, scrip. 122, 626 150, 000, scrip. CHAPTER XIV. LAND BOUNTIES FOR MILITARY AND NAVAL SERVICES. From the earliest era of our history the policy of rewarding the defenders of the country has been marked by great liberality, and land bounties were promised at a period prior to the Nation's possessing public domain. These grants under general laws to June 30, 1880, amount to 61,028,430 acres. CONGRESSIONAL ACTION. The Colonial Congress, by a resolution passed September 16, 1776, made grants to the officers and soldiers who should engage in the service, and continue therein to the close of the war, or until discharged by Congress, or to the representatives of such officers and soldiers as should be slain by the enemy. Such lands to be provided by the United States-and the expense in procuring them to be borne by the States, as other expenses of the war: For a colonel, 500 acres; for a lieutenant-colonel, 450 acres; for a major, 400 acres; for a captain, 300 acres; for a lieutenant, 200 acres; for an ensign, 150 acres; to each non-commissioned officer and soldier, 100 acres. September 20, 1776, the Colonial Congress amended the above resolve by providing that Congress should not grant lands to any person or persons claiming under the assignment of an officer or soldier. August 12, 1780, the Continental Congress resolved that the land resolution of September 16, 1776, be extended so as to give a major-general i,100 acres and a brigadiergeneral 850 acres. April 23, 1783 Resolved, That when Congress can consistently make grants of land they will reward in this way the officers, men, and other refugees from Canada. The above was the origin in the United States of bounties of lands for military or naval service. In early legislation certain tracts of country with defined limits were set apart for the satisfaction of the warrants, to which in locating they were restricted. The reservations were known as "military districts." MILITARY RESERVATIONS AND LAND DISTRICTS. LAND BOUNTIES FOR SOLDIERS SERVING IN THE CONTINENTAL LINE UNDER AUTHORITY OF CONGRESS. For services in the "Continental Line," during the war of the Revolution, as stipulated in the resolution of Congress of September 16, 1776, bounty lands might be located in the UNITED STATES MILITARY DISTRICT IN OHIO. June 1, 1796, Congress set apart a tract of land for bounties in the "Northwestern Territory," now in the State of Ohio, for the officers and soldiers serving upon their establishment in the Revolutionary war, known as the "United States Military District," Ohio, of about 4,000 square miles, or 2,560,000 acres, embracing within its limits, in whole or in part, the counties of Tuscarawas, Guernsey, Muskingum, Monroe, Coshocton, Holmes, Knox, Licking, Franklin, Delaware, Noble, and Lake. The land warrants granted by the United States, under the act above mentioned, were restricted to and located exclusively in this military district, until after the passage of the scrip act of May 30, 1830, by which the revolutionary warrants, issued either by the General Government or by the Commonwealth of Virginia, could be exchanged for scrip, and the same located either in Ohio, Indiana, or Illinois. The United States military warrants could also be located in the said district up to July 3, 1832, when it was provided by an act of Congress that all the vacant lands therein should be made subject to private sale, and the same were disposed of accordingly, and went into private hands. Since that time these United States warrants could either be converted into scrip, under the said act of May 30, 1830, or the same could be located upon any of the public lands subject to sale at private entry, as the parties in interest might prefer. The right to locate, under act 22d June, 1860, however, expired by limitation of law June 22, 1863. The warrants issued under the act of June 1, 1796, amounted, June 30, 1880, to 2,095,220 acres. VIRGINIA MILITARY DISTRICT IN OHIO. The district known as the "Virginia Military District," lying in the "Northwestern Territory" now in Ohio, between the Little Miami and Scioto Rivers, north of the Ohio River, and estimated to contain 6,570 square miles or 4,204,800 acres, was reserved in the cession by Virginia, in 1784, of her territory northwest of the river Ohio, for the purpose of satisfying the warrants issued, or to be issued, to the officers and soldiers of the Continental line, army and navy, under the laws of Virginia, for military services during the war of the Revolution, as they were promised by the legislature of the State. The United States assumed this military land obligation of Virginia, and issued warrants in favor of individual owners. The Virginia military district was ordered to be set aside in the ordinance of May 20, 1785, which provided for "ascertaining the mode of disposing of lands in the Western Territory," as follows: Saving and reserving always, to all officers and soldiers entitled to lands on the northwest side of the Ohio, by donation or bounty from the commonwealth of Virginia, and to all persons claiming under them, all rights to which they are so entitled under the deed of cession executed by the delegates for the State of Virginia, on the first day of March, 1789, and the act of Congress accepting the same, and to the end that the rights may be fully and effectually secured, according to the true intent and meaning of the said deed of cession, and act aforesaid, be it ordained, that no part of the land included between the rivers called Little Miami and Scioto, on the northwest side of the river Ohio, be sold, or in any manner alienated, until there shall first have been laid off and appropriated for the said officers and soldiers, and persons claiming under them, the lands they are entitled to, agreeably to the said deed of cession and act of Congress accepting the same. The State of Virginia, December 9, 1852, in consideration of the passage of the "scrip" act by Congress of August 31, 1852, granted to the United States all the land in the Virginia military district not previously located by warrants. Up to June 30, 1861, the locations by warrants therein were 3,770,000 acres, leaving a small amount of unlocated land. The "scrip" issued by the act of August 31, 1852, and amended June 22, 1860, was for the commutation of all warrants fairly and justly issued or allowed by the authorities of the State of Virginia for Revolutionary services prior to March 12, 1852; the scrip thus issued in lieu of warrants to be locatable upon any of the public lands of the United States subject to sale at private entry. It was evident that the Virginia military district did not contain sufficient land to satisfy all bounty claims. Up to June 30, 1880, there has been issued scrip for 1,041,976 acres. The unsurveyed and unappropriated lands in this district were ceded to the State of Ohio, February 18, 1871. They amounted to 76,735.44 acres, and were |