ds, he could not
have adopted a wiser course to bring them into market and enhance their
value than to give a portion of them for purposes of education. As a
mere speculation he would pursue this course. No person will contend
that donations of land to all the States of the Union for the erection
of colleges within the limits of each can be embraced by this principle.
It can not be pretended that an agricultural college in New York or
Virginia would aid the settlement or facilitate the sale of public lands
in Minnesota or California. This can not possibly be embraced within the
authority which a prudent proprietor of land would exercise over his own
possessions. I purposely avoid any attempt to define what portions of
land may be granted, and for what purposes, to improve the value and
promote the settlement and sale of the remainder without violating the
Constitution. In this case I adopt the rule that "sufficient unto the
day is the evil thereof."

JAMES BUCHANAN.

PROCLAMATION.

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

A PROCLAMATION.

Whereas an extraordinary occasion has occurred rendering it necessary
and proper that the Senate of the United States shall be convened to
receive and act upon such communications as have been or may be made
to it on the part of the Executive:

Now, therefore, I, James Buchanan, President of the United States, do
issue this my proclamation, declaring that an extraordinary occasion
requires the Senate of the United States to convene for the transaction
of business at the Capitol, in the city of Washington, on the 4th day of
next month, at 12 o'clock at noon of that day, of which all who shall
then be entitled to act as members of that body are hereby required to
take notice.

[SEAL.]

Given under my hand and the seal of the United States, at Washington,
this 26th day of February, A.D. 1859, and of the Independence of the
United States the eighty-third.

JAMES BUCHANAN.

By the President:
LEWIS CASS,
_Secretary of State_.

SPECIAL MESSAGE.

WASHINGTON, _March 9, 1859_.

_To the Senate of the United States_:

It has become my sad duty to announce to the Senate the death of Aaron
V. Brown, late Postmaster-General, at his residence in this city on
yesterday morning at twenty minutes past 9 o'clock.

The death of this distinguished public officer, especially at the
present moment, when his eminent services are so much needed, is a great