any other State; nor any State be formed by
the junction of two or more States or parts of States, without the
consent of the legislatures of the States concerned as well as of the
Congress._

Territories first apply for admission to the Union, and then either of
two processes may follow: (1) Congress passes an enabling act
authorizing the Territory to frame a constitution, which is submitted to
Congress for approval. (2) Or, the Territory frames its constitution
without waiting for the enabling act; with this in its hand the
Territory then applies to Congress for admission. In either case,
before giving its approval to the admission of a State, Congress must
see that the constitution submitted contains nothing that is
inconsistent with a republican form of government.

Our Public Land Policy.--In the Territories which lay between the
Allegheny Mountains and the Mississippi River, and in all the
acquisitions that have since been made, the unoccupied[60] lands became
the property of the United States. So the National government became the
possessor of many millions of acres of land, and it still holds immense
tracts in the Western States and in its distant possessions. Upon the
admission of a Territory as a State, the ownership of its public lands
does not pass to the new State, but remains with the National
government. The latter has followed a most liberal policy in dealing
with its lands, (1) It has granted great amounts to the States. The
school lands which are the basis of the common school funds in the
Western States were acquired in this way. (2) Many thousands of square
miles have been granted to railroad companies as aid in the construction
of their lines. These lands are still being purchased at low rates by
settlers in the West. (3) The "homestead law" provides that citizens may
acquire 160 acres of land, or less, free of cost, on condition of living
upon it for five years and improving it. (4) Millions of acres are still
held by the government, subject to sale at low prices.

[Footnote 60: Exceptions to this statement must be made to cover certain
lands reserved by some of the original States that ceded their claims to
the United States; as, for instance, the Western Reserve in Ohio
retained by Connecticut, and other lands in the same State retained by
Virginia.]

At present the larger part of the public lands of the United States are
arid; that is, they cannot be cultivated without irrigation. By a la