Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 5.djvu/490



District of Columbia shall be entitled, shall be applied to free schools, or education in some other form, as Congress may direct: And provided, also, That nothing herein contained shall be construed to the prejudice of future applications for a reduction of the price of the public lands, or to prejudice of applications for a transfer of the public lands, on reasonable terms, to the States within which they lie, or to make such future disposition of the public lands, or any part thereof, as Congress may deem expedient.

. And be it further enacted, That the several sums of money received in the Treasury as the nett proceeds of the sales of the public lands shall be paid at the Treasury half yearly on the first day of January and July in each year, during the operation of this act, to such person or persons as the respective Legislatures of the said States and Territories, or the Governors thereof, in case the Legislatures shall have made no such appointment, shall authorize and direct to receive the same.

. And be it further enacted, That any sum of money, which at any time may become due, and payable to any State of the Union, or to the District of Columbia, by virtue of this act, as the portion of the said State or District, of the proceeds of the sales of the public lands, shall be first applied to the payment of any debt, due, and payable from the said State or District, to the United States: Provided, That this shall not be construed to extend to the sums deposited with the States under the act of Congress of twenty-third June, eighteen hundred and thirty-six, entitled “,” nor to any sums apparently due to the United States as balances of debts growing out of the transactions of the Revolutionary war.

. And be it further enacted, That this act shall continue and be in force until otherwise provided by law, unless the United States shall become involved in war with any foreign Power, in which event, from the commencement of hostilities, this act shall be suspended for the continuance of such war: Provided, nevertheless, That if, prior to the expiration of this act, any new State or States shall be admitted into the Union, there be assigned to such new State or States, the proportion of the proceeds accruing after their admission into the Union, to which such State or States may be entitled, upon the principles of this act, together with what such State or States may be entitled to by virtue of compacts to be made on their admission into the Union.

. And be it further enacted, That there shall be annually appropriated for completing the surveys of said lands, a sum not less than one hundred and fifty thousand dollars; and the minimum price at which the public lands are now sold at private sale shall not be increased, unless Congress shall think proper to grant alternate sections along the line of any canal or other internal improvement, and at the same time to increase the minimum price of the sections reserved; and in case the same shall be increased by law, except as aforesaid, at any time during the operation of this act, then so much of this act as provides that the nett proceeds of the sales of the public lands shall be distributed among the several States, shall, from and after the increase of the minimum price thereof, cease and become utterly null and of no effect, any thing in this act to the contrary notwithstanding: Provided, That if, at any time during the existence of this act, there shall be an imposition of duties on imports inconsistent with the provisions of the act of March second one thousand eight hundred and thirty-three, entitled “,” and beyond the rate of duty fixed by that act, to wit: twenty per cent. on the value of such imports, or any of them, then the distribution provided in this act shall be suspended and shall so continue until this cause of its suspension shall be removed, and when removed,