(No 19.) Memorial and resolutions relative to the military roads commenced by the general government, in the state of Michigan. The committee to whom was referred the subject of memorialising congress, relative to the United States military roads, commenced in this state, respectfully submit the following memorial and resolutions. JOHN S. LIVERMORE, To the Hon. the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States in Congress assembled: The legislature of the state of Michigan, convened at the city of Detroit, at their regular session for the year 1839, would respectfully call the attention of congress to the subject of progressing with the several military roads commenced in said state. The importance of those works for the public defence and security, in case of war or invasion by a foreign power, has often been suggested to your honorable bodies, and has, heretofore, received your favorable consideration. The great end and aim, however, of their construction cannot be realized, while suffered to remain as at present, only partially completed. The history of the country demonstrates the importance of Mackinaw as a military station, and its distance and almost entire exclusion from all other inhabited parts of the union, at times when navigation has closed, the great difficulty, delays, and expense in transporting the mail, and the impracticability, if emergency should require it, of transporting troops and munitions of war to that point, at an early day called the attention of the secretary of war and of congress, to the subject of a military road from Detroit to the straits of Mackinaw, which was subsequently located; and although several appropriations have been made upon it, only about seventy miles of it is completed. The same reasoning will in a measure apply to the military roads leading from Detroit to Chicago, from Detroit to Grand river, and from Whiteford in Ohio, to Indiana. And likewise the military road from Detroit to Fort Gratiot, which has been constructed, but is, for want of repair, almost impassable. They are, all of them, deemed works of public utility and im portance. The location by government of these roads has essentially enhanced the value of the public domain, on their several routes, by the inducement it has held out to our citizens, to purchase and settle along their line in advance, to considerable extent, of the present improvements, on lands which otherwise would have been unsaleable, and who are now suffering many privations for want of eligible roads. Your memorialists, therefore, the Senate and House of Representatives of the state of Michigan, would respectfully solicit congress for suitable appropriations of money or lands, or both, for the continuation of said roads. Resolved, (if the Senate concur,) That our Senators be instructed, and our Representative requested, to urge upon Congress the importance of the above appropriations. Resolved. That a copy of the above memorial and resolution be transmitted by the Secretary of State to each of our Senators and Representative. (No. 20.) Report of the select committee to whom was referred sundry petitions and affidavits from citizens of Berrien county, in behalf of certain settlers on University and State lands. The select committee to whom was referred the petitions and affidavits of sundry citizens of Berrien county, in behalf of certain settlers on university and state lands, beg leave to report: That they have given the subject referred to them their attentive consideration, and have come to the conclusion that the prayer of the petitioners is reasonable, and ought to be granted. The petitioners ask for a release, on the part of the state, to the United States, of sundry tracts of land on the Niles reserve, which had been located by the state, upon the improvements of actual settlers, for the benefit of the university, and for state purposes. It appears from affidavits, and other satisfactory evidence before your committee, that in 1826 a grant of seventy-two sections was made to Michigan, for seminary purposes. That in October, 1836, fourteen sections were located, for university purposes, upon such lands as had been previously settled, occupied, and improved, by about fifty families, most of whom had resided thereon from two to three years when said locations were made, and some for a much longer time, and whose property consisted chiefly in the improvements they had made. It appears that the choicest and best of said lands were sold by the Superintendent last November, at the minimum price, at the request of the occupants, and that a considerable portion of the remainder is not worth to exceed three dollars per acre. Your committee are satisfied that great injustice was done to the state and university, as well as to the settlers, by making said locations, and that the quicker the error is retracted, and its evils corrected, the better for all concerned. A bill is now before Congress, which we think will become a law, authorizing this state to make other locations in lieu of those which had been made upon actual settlers, and your committee are credibly informed that there are unoccupied lands of the United States yet to be found in this state, that will become much more valuable than those which the state has endeavored to wrest from actual settlers. Your committee cannot better express their views upon the important subject submitted to them, than by adopting the fol lowing extract from the report of the committee to whom the same matter was referred at the last session of the legislature : "Your committee consider that these settlers, as some of them went on prior to the passage of the pre-emption law in June, 1834, and the rest soon after, under the spirit of the pre-emption system, have equitable rights, which ought not to be disregarded. These rights of the settlers commenced at the time when they commenced their improvements; and the rights of the state, only when the locations were confirmed last summer. The settlers had previously a vested, equitable right to their improvements and the proceeds of their labor; while the state had only a naked right to locate. While the state saw the settlers go on to these lands and improve them, in the expectation of obtaining them at the minimum price of one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre, the claimants could not foresee that the state would defer making some of its locations, and afterwards select their improvements, thus appropriating that value which the means and labor of the settlers had given them, to the uses of the state. The committee are of opinion, from the testimony submitted to them, as to the time that these settlers went on to these lands, as to the good faith of the claimants, and their exemption from the charge of speculation, that they have an equitable claim to payment for their improvements, and are strongly entitled to the humane and considerate regard of the legislature, and from the proof as to their value, have come to the conclusion that it would be for the interest of the state to release them all, provided it can have the privilege of relocating the same number of sections elsewhere; because, supposing them to be of the value of the ordinary farming land in this state, after paying the claimants the just value of their improvements out of the proceeds of the sale thereof, little would be left to the seminary fund." Your committee would respectfully add, that it is their solemn conviction that the state cannot retain the lands in question upon the rule of strict justice, sound policy, or common honesty; and that it is the duty of this legislature to do all in its power to effect a relinquishment to the United States of those lands, in exchange for other unoccupied lands in lieu thereof, and therefore recommend the passage of the accompanying preamble and bill, with a joint resolution on that subject. THOMAS FITZGERALD. (No. 21.) Report of the State Geologist, in relation to the iron ore, &c., on the school section in town five south, range seven west, in Branch county. To the Honorable the House of Representatives of Michigan: In compliance with a resolution from your honorable body, “directing the State Geologist to furnish such information as he may possess in relation to the iron ore and clay on the school section in township five south, range seven west, in the county of Branch," I would respectfully lay the following facts before you, simply premising that all the examinations which were made in Branch county, are of a general or exploratory character, preparatory to the more minute examinations, which are intended to follow. The school section to which my attention is called, by your resolution, is characterised by the appearance of the clay iron stone formation; a formation which has not, as yet, been seen to occur in any other place in our state. The clay iron stone, or kidney ore, appears in the usual form, being composed of thin concentric layers of the carbonate and hydrate of iron, deposited upon nodular masses, mostly composed of lime. These masses of iron ore are imbedded, (in somewhat regular strata,) in a tough semi-indurated and stratified clay, which at first might easily be mistaken for rock. Neither the clay or iron has, as yet, been submitted to a minute chemical examination, nor in fact, is it considered, in this instance, of sufficient importance, to prevent our arriving at conclusions sufficiently accurate for general purposes. It is well known that the presence of lime renders clay unfit for the manufacture of stone ware, fire bricks, &c., for the reason that the clay, by this admixture, is rendered fusible at a low temperature. The clay in question, is nearly, and in some instances, quite destitute of lime, and only differs from that which is denominated pipe clay, in its color and geological position. It is admirably adapted to the manufacture of stone ware, fire bricks, &c., and no further exploration is required, to render it certain that this article exists, in sufficient quantity, to furnish all that will ever be required for those purposes. The iron ore is of the same kind as that which is almost exclusively used in some of the great furnaces of Ohio; and most of the English iron imported into this country, is manufactured from |