to pass the bill now he should be glad to have it done--concurring, as he
did generally, with the gentleman from Arkansas [Mr. Johnson] that the
postponement might jeopard the safety of the proposition. If, however, a
reference was to be made, he wished to make a very few remarks in
relation to the several subjects desired by the gentlemen to be embraced
in amendments to the ninth section of the act of the last session of
Congress. The first amendment desired by members of this House had for
its only object to give bounty lands to such persons as had served for a
time as privates, but had never been discharged as such, because promoted
to office. That subject, and no other, was embraced in this bill. There
were some others who desired, while they were legislating on this
subject, that they should also give bounty lands to the volunteers of the
War of 1812. His friend from Maryland said there were no such men. He
[Mr. L.] did not say there were many, but he was very confident there
were some. His friend from Kentucky near him, [Mr. Gaines] told him he
himself was one.

There was still another proposition touching this matter; that was, that
persons entitled to bounty lands should by law be entitled to locate
these lands in parcels, and not be required to locate them in one body,
as was provided by the existing law.

Now he had carefully drawn up a bill embracing these three separate
propositions, which he intended to propose as a substitute for all these
bills in the House, or in Committee of the Whole on the State of the
Union, at some suitable time. If there was a disposition on the part of
the House to act at once on this separate proposition, he repeated that,
with the gentlemen from Arkansas, he should prefer it lest they should
lose all. But if there was to be a reference, he desired to introduce his
bill embracing the three propositions, thus enabling the committee and