The act was to continue five years, except in case of war. Additional provisions were to be made for any new state that might be admitted during its continuance. The minimum price of the lands was not to be increased, and not less than eighty thousand dollars per annum to be applied in completing the public surveys. Land offices were to be discontinued, where the net proceeds of the sales in them should not be sufficient to defray the expense of their continuance, and that certain designated quantities of land should be granted to six of the new states, not to be sold at a less than the minimum price of lands sold by the United States. Such was the bill introduced by Mr. Clay, and great was the astonishment of the administration party in view of its munificent provisions, and that exemplary impartiality, which consulted the interests of all sections of the country alike. Being a candidate for the presidency, they had confidently expected that he would make such a disposition of the question as to secure the support of all the western states, or, at least, so manage as to make it bear favorably on his election. Great, therefore, was their astonishment, in subjecting his bill to their microscopic scrutiny, in not being able to find the remotest reference to _self_, not the slightest looking towards the presidency, and great was their disappointment also. They had tried various schemes to destroy his popularity, without success, and, thinking that he would reason on this subject as _they themselves_, concluded that he would become entangled in their snare. They almost began to chuckle over the anticipated cry of ‘bargain’ and ‘corruption,’ with which they should be able to fill the land, on the appearance of his bill. Great was their disappointment, therefore, when his sterling integrity, his purity of intention, appeared in their place. On the twentieth of June, Mr. Clay’s land bill was taken up by the senate. He exerted himself nobly in its defence, and was opposed by Mr. Benton, who, together with other administration men, strenuously supported the policy of reducing the price of a part of the public lands, and of surrendering the remainder to the states in which they lie.