of the arts and sciences, as colleges, academies, &c., and for all purposes of public utility to the attainment of which individual means and exertions are inadequate, under proper and ju. dicious regulations subjecting them to the control of the Legis. lative Assembly, should be encouraged and sustained. The other class, embracing those of a private nature, ought in my opin ion, to be increased in number, Charters for mining companies, ferries, and for other purposes, have been granted to all who have heretofore applied for them. A few persons collec. tively have been invested with corporate priviléges for a length of time beyond the lives of the present generation securing to themselves powers and immunities denied to the rest of the com. munity, creating monopolies not only to rival but to put down individual enterprise.

By the first section of an act to provide for aiding in the con. struction of the Milwaukee and Rock River Canal, "approved February 26, 1839," the Government was authorized to borrow fifty thousand dollars; accordingly bonds were issued to that amount, on the 12th of March last, executed by me in the name of the Territory, and under the authority of the act of Congress, for one thousand dollars each, bearing an interest of six per centum per annum, and payable twenty years thereafter; and in conformity of the twentieth section of the act first referred to above, Byron Kilbourn, Esquire, was appointed the agent of the Territory to make sale of said bonds, and the Bank of Amer. ica in the city of New York, designated as the depository of the funds arising therefrom in the event of a sale. I have not been officially advised by the agent appointed on the part of the Territory, that he has negociated a loan for the amount authorized by law, or any part thereof. In accordance with the provissions of "an act to amend an act to provide for aiding in the construction of the Milwaukee and Rock River Canal," approv. ed January 11, 1840, it is made the duty of the canal commis.

sioners in case a loan should not be effected on or before the first day of September, 1840, to apply all moneys on hand belonging to the canal funds for the construction of the canal; the register and receiver of the canal made their reports of receipts and expenditures, dated on the third of September last; the receiv. er had previously made his report of his receipts and expenditures from November 1, 1839, to August 5, 1840; these reports are submitted for the information of the Legislative As. sembly.

4

I would again respectfully recommend the memorializing Congress, asking them to extend the right of pre-emption to the settlers on the even sections of land reserved by Congress, by the third section of the act making appropriation for the Milwaukee and Rock River Canal; I will submit my views on this subject as expressed on a former occasion: "I deem it an act of justice to the settlers on the line of the contemplated canal, that they should be placed on the same ground they would have oc cupied had they not been located within the limits of the canal lands, and that the right of pre-emption should be granted, them at the minimum price of the public lands; when they made their settlements they no doubt believed they would participate, in common with their fellow-citizens, in purchasing their homes at the Government price; they have had, in common with the other settlers on the public lands, to encounter a series of harrassing difficulties, incident to the formation of new settlements; they have by their energy and industry enhanced the value of the lands of the United States in the immediate vicinity of the contemplated canal route, and are entitled, upon principles of justice as well as the usage of the Government, to the favorable consideration of Congress. It has been the policy of the Government to extend every possible indulgence heretofore to occupants of the national domain; this policy is wise and just; the Government lands should be sold to settlers alone, graduating

tutions of our country, the desert itself in a few years would be. come a fruitful field, and where the unsubdued forest now stands we would have a free, enterprising population. Large tracts of country in this Territory have been purchased by individual speculators or by companies that permit them to lay waste until they will command the highest prices, thereby retarding the set. tlement of the Territory; the true value of the soil can only be explored by labor, and the public lands should cease to be an object of speculation when they are so much required for ag. ricultural purposes.

In conformity to a resolution of the Legislative Assembly authorising the appointment of commissioners in the several land districts for the location of the university lands granted by Congress, at an early period after the adjournment of the last annual session, I appointed three commissioners to make the location the commissioner from the Green Bay land district made his report on the 17th of April last, which was submitted by me to the Secretary of the Treasury under the provisions of an act of Congress, approved June 12, 1838. By a communi cation received from the Commissioner of the General Land Office, it appears that the locations, as far as they have been" made, of the university lands have been approved by the Treasury Department, and the land officers at Green Bay have been furnished with a list of the selected tracts, and have been instructed to withhold them from sale or entry; the number of acres selected from that land district is 10,248. "No reports have been received from the commissioners appointed in the Milwau. kee and Wisconsin land districts: it is deemed important that the selections of the university lands should be made at an early day in order that good selections may be made; it is to be expected that the choice lands will be entered in the different land their price according to their value; we would then have a population, owners of the soil, attached to the republican insti.'

districts, and the selections of these lands may have to be made from the refuse tracts if the locations are deferred.

I would respectfully invite the attention of the Legislative Assembly to the propriety of appointing by law a Territorial Geologist; much good I think might result from the appointment of a competent individual to that office, throughout the Territory, and particularly in the mining region of country; the result of his examinations, reported to the Legislative Assembly annually, and published, would tend to circulate throughout the Union a knowledge of the great natural advantages and resources of Wisconsin, and would embrace the discoveries of lead ore which have been made in the mining region, the location of those discoveries, the peculiar formation of the strata above, below, and in which lead or copper ore is found; and as the information would accumulate, from those examinations they would be extended, the knowledge of the miner would be increased and his labors meet with a sure reward.

I have heretofore in my messages expressed my views fully as to the justice and propriety of asking appropriations from Congress for the improvement of the navigation of Rock river: this river may be made the great connecting link in the chain of water communication between the waters of the Mississippi and those of Lake Michigan by the contemplated canal, a work I deem of the first importance, and must have been considered so by Congress, from the liberal appropriations made by that body in land to aid in its completion: and no good reason can be assigned why Congress should not be equally liberal in granting donations in land for the improvement of the navigation of the Wisconsin and Fox rivers, and uniting the waters of those rivers by a short canal at the Portage, as well as for the improvement of the Pecatonica and Platte rivers; small appropriations by Congress in lands would produce the most beneficial results on the future growth and prosperity of the Territory; besides

the lands would be greatly enhanced in value on the different rivers improved.

Memorials asking appropriations from Congress for the construction of harbors on the shores of Lake Michigan, have been forwarded by the Legislative Assembly annually since the or ganization of the Territorial Government. I respectfully recommend your early action, (as the present is a short session of Congress) on this important subject. I will submit my views at this time in relation to harbors as expressed on a former oc. casion: "The reports of the engineer employed to make the necessary surveys for this purpose, embrace such accurate topographical information, as to enable Congress to determine the points best fitted for such improvements, and the amount of the appropriations necessary for the execution of the work; a due regard should be had in the selection of the points to the com. mercial facilities required at each, and the growth of the surrounding country; within a short period of time, more than a million of dollars have been received into the land office at Mil. waukee from the sales of the public lands; from this fact, and of that of the very small appropriations made by Congress for harbors or other improvements on our lake border, who can fail to observe the great inequality which prevails in the distribu. tion of Government favors; for the protection of commerce on our seaboard, millions are expended in the erection of breakwaters, &c., while for want of harbors on this lake, vessels are compelled to encounter the severest gales during the autumnal season, with little expectation of being able to outride the storm; and it is a well established fact, that the commercial trade of Lake Michigan has increased in a ratio far exceeding that of any other of the waters of the United States: the settled policy of the Government too, heretofore, has been to afford every fa cility to its commerce by diminishing as much as possible the dangers of navigation, and the enterprising citizens who have