Whereas, to bring into actual occupancy and cultivation all the arable lands within the limits of the State of Illinois, is a desideratum of the highest importance to the said State: and whereas it is believed legislative encouragement might do much towards bringing that portion of them into cultivation which is situated in the interior of large prairies, and consequently remote from timber: and whereas, although that encouragement might be a primary motive of action with the Legislature of our own State, it cannot be reasonably expected of the General Government: and whereas, because the proceeds of the sales of the public lands are paid into the national Treasury very slowly, and because those lands are the subject of perpetual expense and vexatious legislation, it is believed that the General Government would be willing to dispose of them for ready money, or by instalments, at a rate for below the present minimum price:
Therefore

Resolved, That the committee on Finance be instructed to inquire into the expediency of proposing to purchase, of the General Government, all the unsold lands lying within the limits of the State of Illinois; and that they report by bill, resolution, or otherwise.2