History of public land law development

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310 HISTORY OF PUBLIC LAND LAW DEVELOPMENT Old Jacob Collamer, Senator from Vermont was then in his 72d year, much of which had been in public service; he was a constant and at times a caustic critic of the West for what he regarded as its grasping efforts to take over ever larger parts of the public lands and to- deny the East any benefits from them. Collamer looked unfavorably on the innovation in the Colorado and Nevada measures. He could go along with the use of the 5 percent fund for roads and schools but to allow it to be used for a "general system of irrigation" might open up a program of improvements that would have no end in semi-arid parts of the country. Collamer was well aware how adversely the opening of the Middle West had affected and was at that moment affecting agriculture in his own section. He tried to have the clause providing funds for irrigation deleted but did not sufficiently alarm other members from his section. The three enabling acts provided that there should be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the states, except for punishment for crimes, and that there should be "perfect toleration of religious sentiment." Thus they reflected the changed political situation from the time when the southern Democrats had been almost powerful enough in administrative circles, and at times in Congress, to force slavery upon Kansas. In Nevada, the discovery of the Comstock Lode in 1859 brought in a flood of miners. Much unpleasantness developed with officials, including judges, sent in from outside, and led to an early demand for statehood and the election of local men. Though Nevada had only been created a territory in 1861, congressional leaders were convinced they needed its vote in 1864 and were hoping that it would early acquire sufficient population to merit statehood. Before Congress adopted an enabling act the first territorial legislature authorized an election in 1863 to determine whether the people wanted state- hood and to select delegates to a convention. Public opinion was strongly favorable to Statehood but because the constitution drawn up by the convention provided for taxing mines and mine improvements it was voted down.76 In 1864, having become disillusioned by the corrupt and incompetent officials under whose rule they suffered, the people of Nevada accepted the welcoming hand Congress and the President held out to it, rushed through the proceedings of a new constitutional convention, telegraphed the finished document to Washington immediately and just managed to get under the wire in time to have their vote counted in the Presidential election of November 1864.77 Two years later Congress, in a more generous mood, sanctioned the use of the 500,000-acre internal improvement grant to which Nevada was entitled under the Act of 1841 for educational purposes and donated 46,080 acres for a university and 90,000 acres for a school of mines instead of for a college of agriculture. It also allowed Nevada the unique privilege of having 2 years after surveys were completed in which to select these 636,080 acres without competition from others. The state was privileged to make selections as small as 40 acres, and was thus enabled to eliminate useless land and to secure only the most desirable. State lands were required to be disposed of in lots not exceeding 320 acres to actual settlers and bona fide occupants. They were not required to be sold.78 Nevada was thus the first state to which Congress seemed to imply that the land granted the state should not be offered at public sale with unlimited right of entry. In 1868 Nevada was granted additional privileges in the selection of its public lands. It could select alternate even-numbered sections within the primary grant of the Central 76 Effie Mona Mack, Nevada. A History of the State from the Earliest Times Through the Civil War (Glendale, Calif., 1936), pp. 247 ff. 77 Mack, Nevada, pp. 256 ff. 78 Act of July 4, 1866, 14 Stat. 85.