The policy advocated by Mr. Clay in disposing of the public lands, rendered him a fit subject for the continuance of that favor which the people had lavished so unsparingly upon him, and a target for his enemies to give fresh specimens of their skill in archery. The question came up in this manner. Mr. Bibb, of Kentucky, on the twenty-second of March, 1832, moved to reduce the price of public lands, and Mr. Robinson, of Illinois, the propriety of ceding them to the several states in which they were located. The administration party managed to have this question referred (though with manifest impropriety) to the committee on _manufactures_. This they did with the obvious intent of perplexing Mr. Clay, who was a member of that committee. They knew his prompt and decided manner; that he would not dismiss the question, without taking some definite action. They knew, also, that local prejudices and interests were so deeply involved in it, as to make its consideration peculiarly difficult, and to bring down upon the agent of its adjustment, the loud displeasure of that section, whose interests must, in a measure, from its very nature, be sacrificed. Their only motive was to impair his popularity with the east, if he suffered their interest to be transferred to the west, and with the latter, if he made provision for its maintenance. To a narrow-minded politician, this subject would have presented a dilemma, but to Mr. Clay none at all. He gave his enemies fresh and most overwhelming evidence, of the utter fruitlessness of appealing to what scarcely existed within him――_to his cupidity_. He would not deviate a hair from the path of rectitude, to accept the highest gift which the nation could confer. Its reference to the committee on manufactures he knew to be, and pronounced, highly irregular, as well as improper, yet it had been made, and for one he was resolved not to shrink from the duty of examining it. He therefore took up the subject, and according to his notion of equity and justice to all in any way interested in the disposal of the public domain, framed his noted ‘land bill,’ of which the following is a synopsis. It provided, that, after the thirty-first day of December, 1832, twelve and a half per centum of the net proceeds of the sales of the public lands within Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Alabama, Missouri, and Mississippi, should be paid to them independent of what they were entitled to according to the terms of their admission into the confederacy. This was to be appropriated for purposes of internal improvement and education, under the supervision of their several legislatures. The remainder of the proceeds was to be distributed among all the states in proportion to their representative population, for similar purposes, and under similar control, or in liquidation of any debt contracted in making internal improvement.