Of great importance to the state in the first year of its history were the receipts on account of the revenue due the Republic of Texas. They amounted to $125,993, and are to be compared with about $58,000 of receipts on account of state revenue laws.1 The state received from 1846 to 1856 on account of the revenue laws of the republic, $161,722 in specie.2 As the first years of statehood were very lean years, these specie receipts came in most opportunely.3

The public lands were a source of but small cash receipts during this first period of statehood, unless the cession of the northwestern territory to the United States be considered a sale of land and the $12,750,000 in United States bonds and cash be regarded as the purchase price. The cash receipts from individuals were small because the first general provision for the sale of the lands was not made until February 11, 1858, and, furthermore, the paper liabilities of the republic were made receivable in payment of the fees and dues charged by the general land office.4 The act of 1858 fixed the price of land at $1 per acre, except in the islands and in the alternate sections in the railroad surveys and in the surveys of the Galveston and Brazos Navigation Company the price was $1.25 per acre, and in the Memphis, El Paso and Pacific grant, where the price was $2 per acre.1 The receipts went to the school fund, but they were small because the prices fixed were too high. Land was superabundant and the market price was probably nearer 50 cents than $1 per acre.2 Pre-emption privileges were accorded by the laws during this period, except between August 15, 1856, and February 10, 1858.

1 In Cocke v. Calkin, 1 Tex., 542 (1846), it was decided that the laws of the republic regulating imposts existed in force until February 16, 1846; but this was overruled by the United States Supreme Court in Calkin v. Cocke, 14 Howard, 227. The sum involved in this case was about $7,000.

2 Classification of receipts of this character ceases in 1856.

3 Report of the Comptroller, 1847; House Journal, 2nd Leg., p. 42.

4 Laws of 1849, p. 23.

The act of February 11, 1850, authorized the payment of the public debt in land scrip at the rate of 50 cents per acre, but the creditors refused to take advantage of the act. The most important legislation affecting the public lands during this period was the adoption of the policy of land grants to railroads. The act of January 30, 1854, granted to any company constructing twenty-five miles or more of railroad sixteen sections of land for every mile of completed road.3 The expense of surveying the lands fell upon the railroads, and in this way the state secured without expense the survey of the alternate sections which it retained. The act of February 3, 1854, granted land for the construction of sea vessels in the state.4 There were also grants for the boring of artesian wells between the Nueces and Rio Grande rivers, and it has been said of them that they were "one of the numerous schemes for wasting the public domain afterwards so prolific."5

In 1856 the approval of the commissioner of claims was required for all bounty and donation certificates which had not been patented, and in 1858 it was provided that all claims for land for military services should be presented to the commissioner of claims on or before September 1, 1858, or be forever barred. In 1860 the date beyond which claims could be barred was made June 1, 1861.6

The policy of homestead grants, which had been applied in 1838 to a military road reservation, was expanded during this period. In 1853 an amendment to the pre-emption law of January 22, 1845, accorded to settlers under that act the privilege of claiming a homestead, but both the acts of 1845 and 1853 were repealed by the act of February 13, 1854.1 By the act of 1854 a homestead of not exceeding 160 acres was granted to persons who had settled upon and cultivated for three years a portion of the vacant public domain. This act was repealed by the act of August 26, 1856, and this repeal ended the homestead policy until 1866.2

1 Laws of 1858, p. 193. 2Report of the Comptroller, 1860-1, p. 101. 3Laws of 1854, p. 11. 4Laws of 1854, p. 34.

5 Wooten, A Comprehensive History of Texas, vol. 1, p. 833. Laws of 1858, pp. 84, 130.

6 Laws of 1856, p. 14. Laws of 1858, p. 40. Laws of 1860, p. 48.

By the act of August 30, 1856, one hundred thousand acres of land were granted to each of the asylums for the insane, the deaf and dumb, the blind and the orphaned, and an additional grant of land was made to the school and university funds, but only the university land was authorized to be sold.3

The fees chargeable by the secretary of state, the commissioner of the general land office, the comptroller, treasurer, and attorney general were prescribed in 1848.4 Apparently the receipts from fees were insignificant. Their amounts cannot be ascertained from the reports after 1853, but are included under miscellaneous revenue.

1 Laws of 1853, p. 33. Laws of 1854, p. 106. 2Laws of 1856, Adj. Sess., p. 56. 3Laws of 1856, Adj. Sess., pp. 76, 71. 4Law of 1848, p. 184.