Congress would be forced to the abandonment of large portions of the
public lands to the States for which they might be reserved, without
their paying for them. This he understood to be the substance of the
objections of the gentleman from Ohio to the passage of the bill.

If he could get the attention of the House for a few minutes, he would
ask gentlemen to tell us what motive could induce any State Legislature,
or individual, or company of individuals, of the new States, to expend
money in surveying roads which they might know they could not make.

(A voice: They are not required to make the road.)

Mr. Lincoln continued: That was not the case he was making. What motive
would tempt any set of men to go into an extensive survey of a railroad
which they did not intend to make? What good would it do? Did men act
without motive? Did business men commonly go into an expenditure of money
which could be of no account to them? He generally found that men who
have money were disposed to hold on to it, unless they could see
something to be made by its investment. He could not see what motive of
advantage to the new States could be subserved by merely keeping the
public lands out of market, and preventing their settlement. As far as he
could see, the new States were wholly without any motive to do such a
thing. This, then, he took to be a good answer to the first objection.

In relation to the fact assumed, that after a while, the new States
having got hold of the public lands to a certain extent, they would turn
round and compel Congress to relinquish all claim to them, he had a word
to say, by way of recurring to the history of the past. When was the time
to come (he asked) when the States in which the public lands were
situated would compose a majority of the representation in Congress, or