SENATE DOCUMENTS. REPORT of Select Committee. The select committee to whom was referred the memorial of Thomas K. Green, of the county of Berrien, praying for a grant of lands in consideration of monies overpaid by him on the purchase of primary school lands, have had the same under consideration, and instructed me as their chairman to report the following facts, (with the opinion of your committee upon such as they deem most material,) with the accompanying bill. It appeared by documentary evidence before your committee, that on the 18th day of July, A. D. 1837, said Green bought at a public sale of primary school lands in the county of Berrien, conducted by the Superintendent of Public Instruction, the north east fractional quarter of section number sixteen in township number seven south of range seventeen west containing 134 34-100 acres at sixteen dollars and twenty-five cents, per acre, that said Superintendent then offered for sale in one parcel the north west quarter and the south west fractional quarter of said section containing 310 61-100 acres more which was struck off in one parcel to said Green at $13,75 per acre, that the Superintendent thereupon gave said Green but one certificate for the entire three quarters of said section above described, containing 444 95-100 acres, that said Green paid down. at the time, the advance payment on the whole, amounting to $645 17, and on the first day of December, A. D. 1838, made a further payment on the whole, amounting to the further sum of $1204,88, that the legislature of 1842 rectified the error of the Superintendent so far as to allow said Green to retain the said north east fractional quarter at $16 25 per acre and to apply the monies already paid by him to the payment thereof, that the monies already paid as aforesaid by said Green after the forty per cent reduction authorized by law was allow SENATE.] manner: 2 [No. 1. ed him, paid up in full for said north east fractional quarter, and left a balance due said Green amounting with interest to $725 00. The estimate of what is due said Green was made in the following Your committee cast the interest on the payments made by said Green from the time made up to the passage of the act of January 25th, 1842, making an amount of principal and interest of $2,316 06, they then cast the interest on the price of the north east fractional quarter, containing 134 34-100ths acres, at $16 25 per acre, from the time of the purchase, the 18th of July, 1837, up to the same time, making the amount of principal and interest (after deducting the forty per cent allowed by law) $1716 55, leaving a balance on said 25th day of January, A. D. 1842 of $599 51 to which add, the interest and the amount now due in round numbers, is 725 00, the sum claimed by said Green. From the foregoing facts, it appears that said Green has paid to the primary school fund, for 134 34-100ths acres of land, the sum of $1,309 81, which land, the appraisers of said county, under the act of February 15th, 1842, appraised as worth only four dollars per acre, amounting to $587 36; so that he paid for the fractional quarter, he was allowed to retain, by the act of the 25th January, 1842, the sum of $772 45 more than it was worth; but as he accepted the deed for the same under the provision of the act last mentioned, he is estopped by his own act, and can have no just claim for any thing more than the balance then due, with the interest upon it from that time up to the present. Notwithstanding the positive provisions of law, that the school lands should not be sold in larger quantities or parcels, than 160 acres, and that a certificate should be given for each parcel by itself; the superintendent in this case, sold 210 61-100ths acres in one parcel, and gave a single certificate for 444 45-100ths acres, embracing three distinct parcels. This error, for which the memorialist has suffered so severely, was one for which, he is in no wise responsible; it being a fundamental and fatal one of a public officer, rendering the sale void in its inception. In the opinion of your committee, it is neither just or equitable, that the public should retain and use the funds of individuals acquired by the mistakes or errors of its agents, without rendering a full and satisfactory equivalent. |