Salmon P. Chase

“ In 1850, the United States granted, by act of Congress, to the State of Arkansas, all the swamp and overflowed government lands within its limits, on condition that the proceeds of the lands, or the lands themselves, should be applied, as far as necessary, in reclaiming them for cultivation by means of levees and drains.
The State accepted the grant, and, by an act of the legislature, in 1851, provided for the sale of the lands; for the issue of transferable scrip receivable for any lands, not already taken up, at the time of selection by the holder ”

“ We adopt its language as our argument.
'In the offer of the State the exemption was held out as an inducement to purchasers and contractors to purchase, or, in the language of the act, 'to take up' the lands, and not as an inducement to contractors to take scrip. Until the offer was accepted, or, in other words, until a purchase was made, there was no contract. Did the State not have a right to withdraw her offer? Was she bound to wait, in order that the holders of the scrip, after speculation had ceased to be desirable, might have an opportunity to secure the exemption? ”

“ But if he took scrip, it could, as the law then was, be floated, and with it the contractor could purchase unselected swamp land, lying anywhere within the limits of the swamp land grant, at the same price per acre, even though the land thus purchased should be intrinsically more valuable than those which had been reclaimed. Again: the lands being wild and productive of no present income, the contractor might not be willing to invest the proceeds of his labor in them, and wait indefinitely for the fruits of the investment ”

“ The holder of the scrip could wait and use his own option as to the time of locating his scrip. McGee, as such holder, prior to the 11th day of January, 1855, was not entitled merely to the quantity of land represented by this scrip, but, as an encour-agement, the additional benefit of an exemption of that land from taxation for ten years from the date of entry.
These lands, then, cannot be taxed for state, county, general, special, or any other purposes. They are entirely free from all taxes for the time named. ”

“ It is impossible to say that this exemption was not from taxation for the purpose of making these levees and drains as well as from taxation in general. Any other construction would ascribe to the legislature an intention to take the whole land for the purposes of the improvement, and then to load it with taxation for the same object, in the hands of purchasers whom it had led to expect exemption from all taxation, at least until the land should be reclaimed. ”

“ They are not deceived. No faith has been broken. They are only called upon to contribute their mite to the support of a government which protects them and their property.
II. But supposing the fourteenth section had not been repealed, still the exemption in that section must be construed in reference to state and ordinary county taxes alone, and should not be held to embrace special or local assessments. Every exemption of property from taxation must be strictly received, and terms of ambiguity in the grant must operate against the grantee, and in favor of the public. ”

“ For this object, Congress had put in the hands of the State a fund, by which she was to build these necessary levees, and the State was bound so to apply the fund. Her obligation to do this formed a part of the contract between her and the United States, and the owners of property have the right to have this contract performed by her. The granting act points out the purpose for which the grant was made. No other can be substituted. By the enactment of this levee law, the State declared, that the laying out and building of these levees in Chicot County was necessary. ”