Monday, March 31.
Lake Superior Copper Mines.
The House, according to the order of the day, again resolved itself into a Committee of the whole House on the report of the committee appointed, on the 5th instant, to inquire into the expediency of authorizing the President of the United States to appoint an agent to purchase of the Indians a tract of land on the south side of Lake Superior, which shall include the great copper bed; and, after some time spent therein, the committee rose and reported a resolution thereupon; which was twice read, and agreed to by the House, as follows:
Resolved, by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the President of the United States be authorized to employ an agent, who shall be instructed to collect all material information relative to the copper mines on the south side of Lake Superior, and to ascertain whether the Indian title to such lands as might be required for the use of the United States, in case they should deem it expedient to work the said mines, be yet subsisting; and, if so, the terms on which the same can be extinguished: And that the said agent be instructed to make report to the President, in such time as the information he may collect may be laid before Congress at their next session.
Ordered, That the Clerk of this House do carry the said resolution to the Senate, and desire their concurrence.