The point in the case to which he referred arose on the
amendment that was submitted by the gentleman from Vermont [Mr. Collamer]
in Committee of the Whole on the State of the Union, and which was
afterward renewed in the House, in relation to the question whether the
reserved sections, which, by some bills heretofore passed, by which an
appropriation of land had been made to Wisconsin, had been enhanced in
value, should be reduced to the minimum price of the public lands. The
question of the reduction in value of those sections was to him at this
time a matter very nearly of indifference. He was inclined to desire that
Wisconsin should be obliged by having it reduced. But the gentleman from
Indiana [Mr. C. B. Smith], the chairman of the Committee on Territories,
yesterday associated that question with the general question, which is
now to some extent agitated in Congress, of making appropriations of
alternate sections of land to aid the States in making internal
improvements, and enhancing the price of the sections reserved, and the
gentleman from Indiana took ground against that policy. He did not make
any special argument in favor of Wisconsin, but he took ground generally
against the policy of giving alternate sections of land, and enhancing
the price of the reserved sections.
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