place and other parts of western New-York, the petitioners deem it the most eligible site for the clerk's office.

Your committee believe the assumption of the petitioners to be true, that the establishment of an additional office, and the appointment of an additional clerk of the supreme court west of Utica, was intended to confer upon the citizens of the western part of the State greater facilities in the transaction of business in the said court, and to diminish the expense and delay attendant upon

the transmission of papers from places remote from the office of the clerk. The office was originally located at Canandaigua, and by a subsequent statute, passed 31st March, 1830, the office was removed to Geneva, and the counties of Tioga and Tompkins added to the district annexed to the said office. Although some difference of opinion existed among your committee as to the most eligible site for said office, yet they are unanimously of opinion, that the location of the same at Geneva, however proper it may have been when the office was created, does not now, and cannot be expected hereafter to answer the purposes contemplated in erecting an additional clerk's office in the western part of the State.

Your committec are informed that a building has been erected at Geneva at the expense of the State, and it was deemed just, that the place to which the office was to be removed, should indemnify the State against any additional tax for this object.

Your committee have also deemed it proper to require sheriffs to make returns from the counties originally named in the act creating said office, and omitting the counties of Tioga and Tompkins, which were added in the said amendment.

Your committee believing, for the reasons set forth by the petitioners and those herein suggested, that the prayer of the petitioners should be granted, have directed their chairman to bring in a bill accordingly.

IN ASSEMBLY,

January 17, 1834

MESSAGE

From the Governor, transmitting a communication

from the Governor of Georgia.

To the Assembly.

GENTLEMEN

I herewith transmit a communication from the Governor of Georgia.

W. L. MARCY. Albany, January 17, 1834.

:

COMMUNICATION

From the Governor of Georgia, transmitting a report and resolutions relative to public lands.

Executive DeparTMENT, GEORGIA,
Milledgeville 1st January, 1834.

} Sir-In compliance with the request contained in a resolution thereto appended, I have the honor to transmit to you a copy of a report embracing the views of the public authorities of Georgia, in relation to proposals for disposing of the public lands belonging to the United States. Very respectfully your obedient servant,

WILSON LUMPKIN.

. His Excellency, Governor of New York.

IN SENATE.

The committee on the state of the republic, to whom was reforred so much of the Governor's message as relates to the resolutions of the State of Tennessee, and the report and resolutions thereon by the Legislature of the State of Massachusetts, on the subject of the public lands of the United States, have attended to the duty assigned them, and beg leave to make the following REPORT:

That without specifically inquiring into the means by which the United States government became possessed of the public lands, or the causes which, after the war of the revolution, induced several of the States to transfer to that government; all, or a great portion of their unoccupied lands, under certain limitations and restrictions, specified in the several deeds of cession or relinquishment, your committee deem it sufficient to state that those deeds and relinquishments, and all other purchases of lands by the United States government, were made for the common benefit of the several States, that it is a common fund to be distributed without partiality, and to enure to the equal benefit of all the States.

Your committee can not perceive that an immediate sale of all the public lands as proposed by the resolutions of the State of Tennessee, would be expedient or beneficial; and however laudable the object the Legislature of Tennessee, had in view in the proposed disposition of the proceeds thereof, as permanent fund for the purposes of education; yet your committee are of opinion, that the disposition of the lands would interfere with the true policy of the go

vernment, with regard to its western territory, (to wit:) The speedy occupation of that territory by actual settlers; and further that such an immense body of lands at once thrown into the market, at reduced prices as is contemplated by those resolutions, would place it in the power of a combination of wealthy individuals, to purchase up those lands for the purpose of speculating upon their fellow- citizens, who might wish to become, and who under the present system, can become, however poor they may be, the actual settlers of the country.

Your committee can not perceive that the land-bill, introduced into the Senate of the United States by Mr. Clay, and passed by that body, provides for the distribution of the public lands in that equitable manner contemplated by the States in their several deeds of cession,

The government of the United States have already acted upon a liberal policy towards the new States in admitting them into the Union upon an equality with the old States as speedily as their numerical population would warrant their admission; there can there fore be no good reason why those new States should be entitled to any advantages iu the distribution of the proceeds of the public lands, over the original States by whom these lands were purchased or ceded,

However acceptable to the people of Georgia the receipt of her dividend from the proposed sales, might be, yet your committee regret that they perceive in this proposed distribution of a large portion of the revenues of the General Government, among the several States, only another method about to be adopted, to reduce those revenues, and thereby create a necessity and furnish an excuse to the majority in Congress for entailing still longer upon the people of the south, the unjust and odious tariff system.

Your committee therefore respectfully recommend the adoption of the following resolutions:

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Georgia in General Assembly met, That the General Assembly disapprove of the resolutions of the General Assembly of the State of Tennessee, of the 21st December, 1831, in relation to the sale and disposition of the public lands of the United States.

Resolved, That the General Assembly admit the correctness of the views taken the subject, in the four first resolutions of the General Assembly of the State of Massachusetts of the 281h March, 1833, but can not admit the policy or expediency of a distribution of any part of the revenues of the General Government among the several State's so long as any part of those revenues are raised upon the principle of a protective tariff of duties on foreign imports.

Resolded, That our Senators in Congress be instructed, and our Representatives requested to oppose the passage of any law, having for its object the distribution of the proceeds of the sale of the public lands of the United States among the several States, and that his Excellency the

Governor be requested to transmit a copy of this report to the President of the United States, the Governors of