some other safe stocks, yielding not less than five per centum upon the par value of said stocks; and that the money so invested shall constitute a perpetual fund, the capital of which shall remain forever undiminished, and the interest of which shall be inviolably appropriated by each State, which may take and claim the benefit of this act, to the endowment, support and maintenance of at least one college, where the leading object shall be, without excluding other scientific and classical studies, and including military tactics, to teach such branches of learning as are related to agriculture and the mechanic arts, in such manner as the Legislatures of the States may respectively prescribe, in order to promote the liberal and practical education of the industrial classes in the several pursuits and professions of life.
" Sec. 5. And be it further enacted, That the grant of land and land-scrip hereby authorized shall be made on the following conditions, to which, as well as to the provisions hereinbefore contained, the previous assent of the several States shall be signified by legislative acts:
" First.-If any portion of the fund invested, or any portion of the interest thereon, shall, by any action or contingency, be lost or diminished, it shall be replaced by the State to which it belongs, so that the capital of the fund shall remain forever undiminished, and the annual interest shall be regularly applied, without diminution, to the purposes mentioned in the fourth section of this act ; except that a sum not exceeding ten per centum upon the amount received by any State, under the provisions of this act, may be expended for the purchase of lands for the sites or experimental farms, whenever authorized by the respective Legislatures of said States.
" Second.-No portion of said fund, nor the interest thereon, shall be applied directly or indirectly, under any pretense whatever, to the purchase, erection, preservation, or repair of any building or buildings.
" Third.-Any State which may take and claim the benefit of the provisions of this act must provide, within five years at least, not less than one college, as described in Section 4, or the grant to such State shall cease.
* * * * * * *
" Seventh.-No State shall be entitled to the benefit of this act unless it shall express its acceptance thereof by its Legislature within two years from the date of its approval by the President."
The Ninth General Assembly convened in extra session, passed an act approved September 11, 1862, entitled: " An act to accept the grant and carry into execution the trust conferred upon the State of Iowa by an act of Congress," entitled: " An act granting public lands to the several States and Territories which may provide colleges, etc."
The State hereby accepted the grant, upon the conditions and under the restrictions contained in said act of Congress ; required the governor to appoint an agent to select and locate the land granted in said act, requiring said agent to report to the governor, and making it the duty of the governor to lay the -list of selections before the board of trustees of the agricultural college for their approval, etc. Hon. Peter Melendy was appointed to select the lands, so donated, within the limits of the State. At the rate 30,000 acres for each member of Congress, the amount of land granted to Iowa would have been 240,000 acres. But as Mr. Melendy, after careful examination, selected 50,000 acres of railroad lands, at double the minimum price, the real amount certified to the State under the Congressional grant was 204,309 acres. Nearly all the lands are located in the so-called Fort Dodge, Sioux City and Des Moines districts.