objection I do not propose to enter into the question whether the claimants are entitled in equity to any compensation for their services beyond that which it is alleged they have already received, or, if so, what would be “a reasonable and fair compensation.”  My sole purpose is to afford Congress an opportunity of reconsidering this case on account of its peculiar circumstances.  I transmit to the Senate the reports of Horatio King, Acting Postmaster-General, and of A.N.  Zevely, Third Assistant Postmaster-General, both dated on the 14th of April, 1860, on the subject of this claim.

JAMES BUCHANAN.

WASHINGTON, June 22, 1860.

To the Senate of the United States: 

I return with my objections to the Senate, in which it originated, the bill entitled “An act to secure homesteads to actual settlers on the public domain, and for other purposes,” presented to me on the 20th instant.

This bill gives to every citizen of the United States “who is the head of a family,” and to every person of foreign birth residing in the country who has declared his intention to become a citizen, though he may not be the head of a family, the privilege of appropriating to himself 160 acres of Government land, of settling and residing upon it for five years; and should his residence continue until the end of this period, he shall then receive a patent on the payment of 25 cents per acre, or one-fifth of the present Government price.  During this period the land is protected from all the debts of the settler.

This bill also contains a cession to the States of all the public lands within their respective limits “which have been subject to sale at private entry, and which remain unsold after the lapse of thirty years.”  This provision embraces a present donation to the States of 12,229,731 acres, and will from time to time transfer to them large bodies of such lands which from peculiar circumstances may not be absorbed by private purchase and settlement.

To the actual settler this bill does not make an absolute donation, but the price is so small that it can scarcely be called a sale.  It is nominally 25 cents per acre, but considering this is not to be paid until the end of five years, it is in fact reduced to about 18 cents per acre, or one-seventh of the present minimum price of the public lands.  In regard to the States, it is an absolute and unqualified gift.

1.  This state of the facts raises the question whether Congress, under the Constitution, has the power to give away the public lands either to States or individuals.  On this question I expressed a decided opinion in my message to the House of Representatives of the 24th February, 1859, returning the agricultural-college bill.  This opinion remains unchanged.  The argument then used applies as a constitutional objection with greater force to the present bill. There it had the plea of consideration, growing out of a specific beneficial purpose; here it is an absolute gratuity to the States, without the pretext of consideration.  I am compelled for want of time in these the last hours of the session to quote largely from this message.