Report on the public lands House of Representatives, Saturday, January 29th, 1831. Mr. Gatewood, the chairman of the committee ... to whom was referred the message of the late governor, Ninian Edwards, on the subject of the public and unappropriated lands, with instructions to draft a memorial to Congress on the subject of surrendering, on equitable terms, whatever claim to the public lands the United States may be supposed to possess, to the states in which they lie, made the following report ...