purchaser and that no agreement, express or implied, for the sale of it existed. A pious fraud this was and stimulator to wholesale perjury, for in 1878 it was followed up by the right granted to assign the certificates of sale. The assignee could have land deeded to him by the state without limit on paying the amounts due on the certificates he presented.
Oregon began her land business while still a territory.
Congress, in providing for the organization of the territory,
August 14, 1848, had made the grant for the common schools ;
in the first act providing for the survey of lands in Oregon
and for making donations to its settlers, known as the "dona-
tion land law", the university grant had been made. The first
sale of lands by the territory was at a public auction, August
1st, 1854, of some university lands. 1 The sale of common
school lands was begun two years later, also to "highest
bidder".
The minimum price of the university lands after the first sales in 1854 was fixed at four dollars an acre and retained at that figure during the remainder of the territorial period. 2 This prohibited sales and was part of the tactics for laying the whole matter of establishing a university on the table. The minimum price of the common school lands was placed at two dollars except that lands which had been twice offered at public sale might then be sold at $1.25 an acre. 3 The amount of the university fund accumulated dring the territorial period was $5,793.60. An act of the territorial legislature of 1857 provided for the distribution of the common school fund among the several counties. No reports of county officials are extant giving the condition of the fund at the time of the admission of the state. 4
1 Report of University Land Commissioner, pp. 45-8 App. to H. J. 2 Statutes of Oregon Territory, fifth and sixth regular sessions, pp. 566-7. 3 Laws of Oregon Territory, seventh regular sess., pp. 69-71. 4 Laws of Oregon Territory, ninth regular sess., pp. 43-5-
