SENATE.] Public Lands. [JAN. 19, 1833. money to works of internal improvement, or for the sup- Land Office be directed to report to the Senate a detailed port of schools, within the limits of the several States; statement of the donations of the public lands of the Unithence he concludes that we cannot apply the public ed States, made to the several States of the Union, and lands to these objects. I do not deem it necessary, on the present occasion, to deny the premises of the honorable Senator, in respect to appropriations of the money in the treasury of the United States to internal improvement, or education; but I utterly deny the correctness of the conclusion which he has drawn from these premises. The power to levy and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises, is given for the express purpose of paying the debts, and providing for the common defence, and for the general welfare of the United States. It may well be doubted whether the revenue derived from these sources can be constitutionally applied to any local purpose within the limits of a sovereign State of the confederacy. But the power which it is now proposed to exercise, in distributing among the States, who are the joint owners of all the public lands, the money accruing from the sale of these lands, is of a character wholly different from that which relates to revenue from taxation. In the one case Congress may exercise unlimited discretion over the subject, according to the views which may be taken of the public good; and in the other, the power can only be exercised under the limitations specified in the constitution. The distribution which it is proposed to make of this fund among the States, leaves it subject to the sound discretion of their respective Legislatures; it is not to be applied, in any event, according to the will of Congress. The stockholders, having redeemed the mortgage, which, by general consent, and by acts of legislation, operated as an implied lien upon the public lands for the speedy discharge of the national debt, now desire to make an annual division among the partners, according to an equitable ratio of the joint income to which they are entitled, for the common and separate benefit of each, reserving to themselves the control and application of their respective proportions, but concurring in the general objects to which it shall be appropriated, for the advancement of the prosperity and welfare of the country. And, sir, I ask if there is any rule of moral action, or principle of constitutional restriction, which can be interposed to prevent an arrangement so manifestly beneficial to the parties interested in this great and increasing fund? The construction which has been put upon the powers of Congress, in relation to the disposal of the public lands of the United States, is to be found in every page of our statute book. No limitation on these powers has ever been recognised, but they have been uniformly deemed as broad as language could make them; and in all our legislation under these powers, no questions have arisen, except in reference to the expediency of the various measures which have from time to time been proposed, and adopted, or rejected. The public lands have been granted in donations to private persons, having no other claim to them than actual settlement and cultivation, and the bounty of Congress. Large grants have been made, as a reward for meritorious public services, to colleges, seminaries of learning, and common schools; to institutions for the instruction of the deaf and dumb, to internal improvements, and a variety of other objects, a summary of which is contained in a report of the Commissioner of the General Land Office, in answer to a resolution which I had the honor to submit to the Senate on the 20th April, 1832, which I beg leave to read to the Senate. [Mr. P. then read the report as follows:] "GENERAL LAND OFFICE, May 9, 1832. "SIR:-In obedience to a resolution of the Senate of the United States, passed on the 20th ultimo, in the words following, to wit: "Resolved, That the Commissioner of the Generall 1 Territorial Governments, to bodies corporate created within the States, and to individuals for public services, or for other causes, either by special or general laws, specifying the objects for which such donations have been granted to the States and Territorial Governments. "I have the honor, herewith, to submit the enclosed statement, furnishing the information required. "With great respect, your obedient servant, "The PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE." ernment. STATEMENT rendered in pursuance of a resolution of the Senate of April 20, 1832. Appropriated for internal improvements, education, or charitable institutions. Lands ap- Saline reser-Aggregate of Number of Number of Number of The 1-36th For religions propriated for ternal im- leges, acade-lic lands ap- institutions. provements. mies, and uni-propriated for vations. the foregoing acres granted appropria- as donations tions for each to individuals, State and Ter-exclusive of versities. common ritory. private claims. 1,737,838 (6) 151,700 Indiana, 384,728 46,080 (2) 556,184 2,560 23,040 1,012,592 1,280 Illinois, 480,000 46,080 977,457 2,560 206,128 1,712,225 2,080 Missouri, 46,080 1,086,639 2,449 46,080 1,181,248 320 Mississippi, 46,080 685,884 1,280 732,244 15,571 Alabama, 400,000 46,560 722,190 (3) 23,040 1,620 23,040 1,216,450 14,740 Louisiana, 46,080 873,973 920,053 12,880 Michigan, 46,080 543,893 10,000 599,973 1,679 Arkansas, 46,080 950,258 996,338 Florida, 46,080 877,484 (4) 23,040 1,120 947,724 24,308 Aggregate, (acres) 2,187,665 508,000 7,952,538 89,605 21,589 298,288 11,057,685 224,558 JAN. 19, 1833.] Notes to preceding Table. cumulating on the sales of the public lands, to be used for these important purposes, in manner which may meet in the purchase made by John C. Symmes and the Ohio Company. (2) Including grant." (1) Section No. 29, appropriated for religious purposes the views of the legislative body in each State. No en lands appropriated for schools in "Clark's (3) For the benefit of the Connecticut Deaf and Dumb Asylum. (4) For the benefit of the Kentucky Deaf and Dumb Asylum. (5) Including salt spring reservations, which are authorized to be sold by the State, and the proceeds applied (6) Including donation of 100,000 acres to the Ohio to literary purposes. Company. NOTE.-No measures having been yet taken by the Government for the surveying and disposing of the public lands in the State of Tennessee, no attention has been given to the appropriation made of any part of that domain for the purposes of education, or other objects. ELIJAH HAYWARD. GENERAL LAND OFFICE, May 9, 1832. Mr. P. proceeded- Thus it appears that two millions one hundred and eightyseven thousand six hundred and sixty-five acres of the public lands have already been appropriated by Congress to works of internal improvements in the several States and croachment on State sovereignty, no violation of the reserved rights of the States, or usurpation of power by Congress in this distribution, either expressed or implied, can be inferred from this act of humanity and benevolence. The measure is recommended by every consideration of national policy, and its results cannot be otherwise than salutary in giving strength and stability to the Union, and perpetuating the blessings of our free institutions. It will be seen, by the statement transmitted from the General Land Office, that grants have already been made to the States and Territorial Governments for colleges, and academies, and universities, amounting, in the whole, to five hundred and eight thousand acres of the public lands; and for common schools the grants have amounted to nearly eight millions of acres. Have these grants been made in violation of the constitution, or of the deeds of cession, compacts, or treaties, by which the public domain was acquired? Surely not, sir. I have endeavored to demonstrate the fallacy of this objection to the bill in a preceding part of my argument, and I now refer to an authority which I cannot doubt will satisfy the scruples of Senators who so highly appreciate the source from which it comes, and who have pronounced the eulogy of the distinguished individual whose constitutional opinion is conclusive on this subject. Territories; and the constitutional power of Congress to I have said that the public lands may be disposed of in make the grants has, on no occasion, been contested, until such manner, and for such purposes, as Congress, in the the honorable senator from Tennessee has made the point exercise of a sound discretion, may think proper for the in aid of his argument against the passage of this bill. general good. I am supported in this opinion by the plain The power is fixed in the constitution; it has been carried letter of the constitution, by the uniform practice of the into practical operation, for benevolent purposes, through- Government, and by the Chief Magistrate of the United out the whole history of the Government; it has never States, in his message to Congress of the 4th day of Debeen doubted by any one; and the attempt to connect it cember, 1832. with the general power of appropriating the money in the After an elaborate view of the policy which is recomtreasury to the same objects is equally novel and untena-mended for the final disposal of the public lands, Presible. This view of the subject is fully established by the dent Jackson says: summary which I have just read to the Senate; and it can- "Among the interests which merit the consideration of not be necessary for me to refer in detail to reports of Congress, after the payment of the public debt, one of the committees and other documents, which are on file, and most important, in my view, is that of the public lands. may be seen by any Senator who shall think proper to examine them, clearly demonstrating the principles on which all these grants have been made. I presume it will not be denied, if the lands unsold can be applied to works of internal improvements within the States, to be disposed of under the direction of the Legislatures, that the nett proceeds of the sales of these lands, after they have been sold by the Government, may, with equal justice and propriety, be appropriated in like manner. There can be no reasonable discrimination between a grant of land and its value in the market, whether it be sold by the Government of the United States or of the States to whom the grant is made. But the Senator is alarmed at that provision of the bill which authorizes the States to apply their respective proportions of this fund to the purposes of education. He asks if Congress can exercise the dangerous power of regulating schools in the education of youth within the Previous to the formation of our present constitution it was recommended by Congress that a portion of the waste lands owned by the States should be ceded to the United States for the purposes of general harmony, and as a fund to meet the expenses of the war. "The recommendation was adopted, and, at different periods of time, the States of Massachusetts, New York, Virginia, North and South Carolina, and Georgia, granted their vacant soil for the uses for which they had been asked. "As the lands may now be considered as relieved from this pledge, the object for which they were ceded having been accomplished, it is in the discretion of Congress to dispose of them in such way as best to conduce to the quiet, harmony, and general interest of the American people. "In examining this question, all local and sectional feelings should be discarded, and the whole United States regard sovereign States of the confederacy? I answer the Sena-ed as one people, interested alike in the prosperity of the tor by a simple denial that any such power is claimed, or common country." that the words of the bill justify the inference that a sys- This paragraph in the message of the President covers tem of education is contemplated to be prescribed to the the whole ground of the unlimited powers of Congress, in States as a corollary of the measure now under considera- relation to the public lands, for which I have contended; it tion. The States are left, as heretofore, free to establish is clear, ample, and explicit, and needs no comments from their own systems of education; to provide for the instruc- me to interpret its meaning. Those who claim to be the extion of the poor and indigent orphan; to diffuse the lights clusive friends of the President on this floor have denied the of science among the rising generation, by means of well power which he here asserts to be in the National Legisorganized colleges and seminaries of learning; and to the lature; they go back to the conditions annexed to the anaccomplishment of these great ends, we offer them, not cient deeds of cession to sustain them, and yet they tell us the money in the treasury collected on imposts, but a dis- of the "statesman-like views of the President," which they tributive share of the vast resources which are annually ac- deem worthy of this enlightened age, and of the free and virtuous people over whom he presides. I hold these honorable Senators to their word, and leave them the alternative of surrendering the constitutional difficulty which they have so earnestly urged, or of retracting the eulogy which they have so eloquently pronounced on this message. The discretion, thus admitted by the Chief Magistrate to be vested in Congress, has been asserted in another form by the opponents of the bill, when they urged the policy (and of course the power) of ceding the whole of the lands remaining unsold to the several States in which they are situated. Does such a proposition conform to the deeds of cession so often mentioned, and so much relied on to defeat the distribution among the States of the money arising from the sales of these lands? If the action of Congress is restrained by these deeds, in respect to the distribution for the common benefit of all the States, under what rule of construction do honorable gentlemen propose to bring the sweeping power which they claim to transfer the entire domain to the States within whose chartered limits they are situated? [JAN. 19, 1833. Could such a reduction be made with sufficient guards against a combination of speculators, who might unite with a large capital to purchase all the valuable lands subject to entry at the numerous land offices? I apprehend that this would be found impracticable. The reduction of the price of the lands of the United States, professedly for the benefit of the poor man, is calculated to raise hopes and expectations which can never be realized. No one is more anxious than I am to encourage emigration to the new States, and grant facilities to the emigrant in making a permanent settlement with his family on the waste lands of those States, and thereby not only obtain a home, where by honest industry he may provide the means of their comfortable subsistence, but contribute to open the forests, and redeem them from their state of rude nativity to a condition fit for profitable cultivation. But I cannot believe that the plan of the Executive will be productive of these beneficial results to the poor who may find their way into the Western wilderness. When we speak in general terms of reducing the pub But the President has carried out this broad principle of lic lands to a price which may bring them within the reach discretion by a plan of his own for the final adjustment of of the poorest individual, there is something peculiarly the public lands, which is commended by honorable Sen- pleasing to the ear, which challenges instant and unqualiators as a scheme founded in wisdom, and the most pro- fied approbation, without the reflection and investigation found statesman-like policy. Permit me, sir, to read ano- so necessary to correct the judgment on all questions of ther paragraph from his message, comprising the plan grave legislation. The popular voice is raised in favor of which he recommends, and to offer some of my own re- the benevolent proposition, and the error is not seen unflections on the practical effects which might be expected til it leads to the most deleterous consequences. if it should be the pleasure of Congress to adopt it. The The true policy of the Government consists in fixing President, after maturely considering this great subject, the price of the public lands at a rate which will enable arrives at the following conclusion: a poor man to obtain a quarter-section for a moderate "It seems to me to be our true policy that the public sum, in case he takes possession, and cultivates it for a lands shall cease, as soon as practicable, to be a source of certain number of years, but, at the same time, to preserve revenue, and that they be sold to settlers, in limited par- the minimum price now established by law, which will cels, at a price barely sufficient to reimburse the United effectually prevent large bodies of land from falling into States the expense of the present system, and the cost the hands of moneyed capitalists, who may form themselves arising under our Indian compacts. The advantages of into companies for that purpose, if the sales are made at a accurate surveys and undoubted titles, now secured to lower minimum, and thereby render such investments purchasers, seem to forbid the abolition of the present system, because none can be substituted which will more If we put the lands in market at twenty-five cents per perfectly accomplish these important ends. It is desirable, acre, my word for it, we shall very soon hear of compahowever, that in convenient time this machinery be with- nies, from one extreme of the Union to the other, with drawn from the States, and that the right right t of of soil, soil, and the their millions of dollars, and their agents dispersed over future disposition of it, be surrendered to the States, re- all our land districts, whose business it will be to sespectively, in which it lies." lect the choice lands, and hold them at a price at least profitable to those who make them. This, sir, I consider a clear recognition of the power of equal to their real value, which will operate to make tenCongress to reduce the price of the public lands, or to ants of the poor emigrants, who will thus be excluded from transfer them to the States whose jurisdiction extends over the privilege now enjoyed, of going into the land offices, them; and the question arises, shall we concur in the re- and becoming the owners of small tracts at a price withcommendation of the President, or preserve the present in the means of every man who labors for the maintesystem, and appropriate the money to objects intimately nance of himself and family. connected with the convenience and prosperity of the The proposition has not received the slightest attention country at large? The right to make grants of land to the from the Committee on the Public Lands, to which the States, without a valuable consideration, or to sell them whole subject was referred by the Senate; that important at a nominal price to individuals, involves an authority, if part of the message of the President has been entirely Congress shall so decide, to dispose of the proceeds in any overlooked; and why is it resorted to in debate, and commanner which may be judged expedient. mended as a "statesman-like" view of this great question This point being established, which I humbly conceive by the opponents of the bill? Why do those Senators it has been, I shall next examine the plan proposed by the dwell on the beauty of the system, and tell us of the adPresident, in reference to its probable operation on the vantages which it offers to the settlers, who may remove prosperity of the new States, and the benefits which it is to the new States, and yet submit no definite proposition supposed to confer on emigrants who have not the means to carry it into effect? Sir, it is manifest that the arguof procuring lands at the present minimum price at ment is used ad captandum, to mislead the people of the which they are directed to be sold at private sale. new States, and excite their opposition to the liberal terms If we estimate the sum paid for the extinguishment of of distribution contained in the bill, under the specious Indian title at the average which corresponds with for- guise of a desire to grant the lands for a consideration mer purchases, of four cents per acre, and add the usual merely nominal, and ultimately to cede the waste lands to expenses attending the surveys, and all other expendi- the States wherein they are situated, to be disposed of for tures incident to the sales, the public lands might be safe- their exclusive benefit; a system which no one seriously ly brought down to twenty-five cents per acre, to meet believes will ever be sanctioned by Congress, and which the demands on the treasury under the existing land no one has ventured to bring forward with the proper desystem. tails for the consideration of the Senate. The question JAN. 19, 1833.] Public Lands. [SENATE. which it involves is of the highest importance, because it ate, that, a short time after the close of the war of the reis evident that the system will effectually transfer the pub- volution, Virginia adopted the plan of selling her domain, lic lands from the Government to companies, and subject by issuing what were called treasury warrants, at the rethe emigrants to the onerous terms of the agents of those duced price of two cents per acre, to be located, at the discompanies; thereby making them tenants at will, instead cretion of the purchaser, on any vacant land within the of being the independent proprietors of the soil, at a mo- commonwealth. This might seem to have been low derate price, under the existing, well regulated system of enough to give every man in the State a fair opportunity laws providing for the disposal of the lands of the United of becoming a freeholder, and of making a permanent setStates at the respective land offices established for that tlement for his family. purpose. Under the existing system, the surveys are But was that the result of the policy? No, sir; it attractmade with great care and accuracy by surveyors ap- ed the attention of moneyed men, companies were formed, pointed and paid by the Government; correct maps both in Europe and America; and the vast mountain region are made of the country, designating each tract of land in western Virginia was explored by agents of these comfor sale, by legal subdivisions, from an entire township panies, and surveyors, who located large bodies of lands, down to one-eighth of a section. These maps are open and obtained grants or patents for the trifling sum of two to every one who may desire to purchase. All the officers cents per acre; and thus hundreds of thousands of acres of necessary to carry into effect the public and private sales, land were in many instances granted to a single individuand the safe keeping of the records of titles, are appoint- al, while the poor man, who emigrated with his family to ed, and their salaries from year to year paid, by the Gov- that part of the State, was entirely excluded from a particiernment. No country in the world has ever devised a pation in the benefits of the law, and was compelled either system for the disposal of its domain combining so many to purchase at a high rate from the wealthy speculator, or advantages, and such ample security to those who become set down as his tenant, and labor to improve the country, purchasers, as that which now exists in the United States; not as the proprietor in his own right of the soil, but as shall we then abandon it for some new untried experiment, a temporary occupant, liable to be removed at the will of the effects of which no one can calculate with any degree his wealthy landlord. These were the consequences of an of certainty? I think not. From every view which I attempt to favor the poor by putting the public lands of have been enabled to take of the subject, after the most that State in market, at a price which would bring them careful investigation of all its bearings, I cannot bring my within the means of the poorest citizens; and similar remind to the conclusion that it would be sound policy to dis- sults may be confidently looked for if Congress should turb the regulations heretofore adopted, and now in opera- now legislate on the same principles, under a belief that it tion, for the sale and settlement of the public lands, except in will encourage emigration to the new States, and promote the cases specified in the several amendments which I have the welfare of the laboring classes, who may remove to had the honor to lay on the table, and which have been pub- the rich country in the great valley of the Mississippi. Sir, lished for the use of the Senate. Of these amendments I shall we do not want humble tenants, but independent freemen, speak hereafter. Under the existing laws, a poor man may become the bona fide owner of a quarter-section of valuable land, for the small consideration of one hundred dollars; and he may, if he chooses, purchase half that number tax on the people of these new States; that it withdraws of acres, which, in many of the new States, where slavery from them millions of dollars, which are expended in other is not tolerated, would be fully adequate to all his wants, sections of the Union; and that one of the provisions of and furnish a comfortable settlement for his family. An this bill authorizes its expenditure in removing free peoindustrious frugal man would never find it difficult to ob-ple of color to be colonized in Africa. who are lords of their own habitations, to fill up the population of that fertile and growing portion of the republic. But it is said that the existing system operates as a heavy tain the small sum necessary to make such a purchase, and We are told, also, that the abstraction of the revenue thereby at once become a freeholder, and independent of arising from the sales of the public lands, from the general all the world in the enjoyment of his own domicile. But purposes of the treasury, will perpetuate the present high what would be his condition if, by a sudden reduction of rate of duties on foreign importations, of which the Souththe minimum price to twenty-five cents per acre, we in-ern States so loudly, and I will add, so justly complain. vite speculators into the market, whose investments will Mr. President, I ask if there be any solid foundation on enable them to locate all the valuable lands, and hold them which these objections rest? Sir, permit me to say, and as lords proprietors, to be disposed of at their pleasure, I do so with the utmost sincerity, that if those views of on such terms, and at such rates, as will be productive of the policy under consideration are correct, in all or either the largest amount of profit? No man can shut his eyes of the enumerated cases, I should be disposed to go as to the evil consequences of those monopolies on emigra- far as any honorable gentleman on this floor in my oppotion, and the character of the increasing population of the sition to this bill. But, to my mind, they are the offspring new States. For independent freeholders we should substitute large masses of laboring tenants, who cultivate the soil, as the menials of some wealthy landlord, who fattens on the spoils of the industry and hard earnings of this valuable class of our citizens. These results must happen if we do not guard against them by law, which shall at the same time protect the poor man and keep the public lands at a price a little above the speculating point. of the imagination, and cannot be supported by any solid reason whatever. I will inquire, first, Is the purchase of a tract of land by an individual from the Government a tax on the purchaser, under any circumstances? Nothing can be more clear to me than that it is not. Sir, it is purely a matter of contract, by which a man may improve his condition in life, and for a small sum acquire property, which, when reduced to possession, will be worth three or four times the amount of money paid for it. The experiments which have been made by the States on this subject clearly demonstrate that a reduction to a very low standard of the price of waste and unappropri- Can any distinction be drawn between purchasers of ated lands, with a view to extend benefits to the poor, by real estate from a body politic and corporate, or a natural enabling that class of the community to become the own-person? I presume not: they are founded on the same ers of the soil in small parcels for actual cultivation, has general law of contracts; and it might with the same proinvariably resulted in favor of monopolies and moneyed priety be contended that an emigrant who bargains with capitalists. The example of Virginia illustrates, in a very striking manner, the practical effects of such a system. Sir, the fact must be familiar to almost every member of the Sen a land company for a quarter-section of land, pays a tax to the Government, from which the company purchased it, as to allege that it constitutes a tax on the original purchaser. In either case, it is a voluntary contract, to SENATE.] Public Lands. [JAN. 19, 1833. which each party assents, and nothing more. But if it be hands, that the public domain is the common property of a tax, it is worthy of inquiry to what extent the burden all the States, to be used for their common benefit. On falls exclusively on the people who now reside in the new this ground the whole argument against this measure has States. Let us take the case of a citizen of Massachu- been based: If, then, the States think proper to dispense setts or Virginia, or any one of the old States, who re- with this source of revenue for national purposes, when moves into Mississippi. He takes with him two thousand it is no longer wanted, and to distribute it in just and equidollars in money, or a greater or smaller sum, which he table proportions among themselves, to be applied to the immediately vests in the purchase of a portion of the pub- beneficent and highly valuable objects of internal imlic lands; this amount of money did not previously be- provements, the education of youth, and, if they please, long to Mississippi; it is an accumulation brought into the to colonization of free people of color, is there any danState by the emigrant; and if it be a tax paid into the ger that they will corrupt themselves by such a use of a treasury, it falls on the State from which the money is fund acknowledged to belong to them, as a body of political withdrawn, and not on the State into which it may be sovereignties? The idea appears to me to be both novel carried by the owner for his own individual purposes. and absurd. The natural effect will be precisely the conSir, I utterly deny that such a transaction can be proper-trary. It will render the States more independent; it ly regarded in the nature of a tax on any one who chooses will put an end to the long disputed questions on the poto buy the lands of the United States, for his own conve- licy and constitutionality of internal improvements by the nience or advantage. The next subject of inquiry is, the General Government. Our table will not hereafter be appropriation which each State may make of its distribu- crowded with petitions and memorials for appropriations tive share of the public lands. to open roads and canals from every quarter of the coun The power is denied to Congress to appropriate money try. Each State will look to its own resources for acto internal improvements and education, of which I have complishing its own internal works of improvement, and already spoken. But the most objectionable feature of will, to that extent at least, feel a corresponding indepenthe bill seems to be that which relates to the colonization dence on the action of Congress. It will bind the States of free people of color. I admit, sir, that an appropria- together by a stronger cord of union, and diffuse among tion by Congress of the money in the treasury for this them a feeling of brotherly kindness and affection. The object would be a usurpation of power not to be en- face of the whole country will be adorned and beautified dured. The power has not been claimed in this discus- by an inexhaustible income, which from year to year will sion, and is not incorporated in the bill. No appropria- open to the eye new roads for the accommodation of tration is either made, or contemplated to be made, by Con- velling, and the transportation of agricultural products to gress, in aid of the colonization of free people of color. a suitable and profitable market, and new avenues to inWe know that memorials have been presented from the ternal commerce, by means of canals, and the improveslave-holding States of Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky, ment of our numerous rivers. If, sir, these results are to North Carolina, and, I believe, Tennessee, praying Con- be expected, as I think they may be, from the passage of gress to act on this subject, and grant them the necessary the bill, the corrupting influences so much deprecated means for transporting their free black population to Li- will vanish into thin air, and leave us in the enjoyment of beria. These memorials have been suffered silently to a glorious sunshine of prosperity and union. sleep on our files-they have not been acted on. But On the other branch of this inquiry, relating to the efnow, when the public debt is paid, when the public lands, fects of this distribution on the existing tariff of duties, pledged by the national faith to its payment, are redeem- I confess my great surprise at the conflicting arguments ed, and remain at the disposition of Congress, for the which have been urged by honorable Senators opposed to common benefit of all the States, we propose to give the bill. to each State its proper proportion of this fund; and we The President recommends to Congress to dispense answer the States who have asked assistance in accom- altogether with the public lands as a source of revenue to plishing this benevolent object, so intimately connected the treasury! He says, and truly says, that it is not neceswith their safety and prosperity, by authorizing their re- sary or proper to bring their proceeds into the general spective Legislatures to use the funds to which they may scope of the expenses of the Government. I have albe entitled for this purpose, if, in their discretion, they ready expressed my disapprobation of his plan. But may think fit to do so. Is there any violation of the con- honorable gentlemen have said that they deem it full of stitution in according to the States this privilege? Are wisdom, sound policy, and patriotism, and yet they turn honorable gentlemen afraid to trust this power to the re- round, and gravely tell us that this bill ought to be rejectpresentatives of the people of their respective States? ed, because it withdraws three milllions of dollars from Is my honorable colleague [Mr. BLACK] unwilling to the national treasury to be distributed among the States, confide this discretion to the Legislature of Mississippi? and, as a necessary consequence, requires that amount to If he is, I can only say that I am not. Each State will be supplied by imposts on foreign importations. Both the decide for itself, without the dictation of Congress, or any message and the bill are founded on the postulatum of department of the Federal Government, how far its in- dispensing with the lands of the United States as a source terests may or may not be promoted, by giving the fund of revenue; they differ only in the mode of carrying this for the removal of what are denominated free negroes, principle into effect; and while the one is extolled as a or applying it to the other great purposes enumerated in "statesman-like" view of the question, the other is dethe bill. I am wi willing, for one, sir, to repose in the States nounced as No 3 in the measures proposed to perpetuthis confidence, without the slightest apprehension that it ate on the people an odious and exorbitant tariff of duwill be either abused or perverted. ties. If, sir, it may be designated as No. 1, or No. 5, in The honorable Senator from Tennessee, [Mr. GRUNDY,] the catalogue of the honorable gentlemen who consider and the honorable Senator from Missouri, [Mr. BENTON,] it connected with the question of imposts, it follows, in have declaimed with much vehemence against the pro- that respect, the policy of the Executive; and I have yet posed distribution of the proceeds of the sales of the to learn on what principles they can approve the one, public lands among the States, on the ground of its ten- and condemn the other. But there is, in fact, no such condency to corrupt the States, and extend over them the nexion as the Senators imagine between the two quesdeleterious influences of this Government. Sir, it is the tions; they are wholly separate and distinct, founded on first time in my life that I have ever heard it seriously considerations of policy, entirely independent, and in no contended that either men or Governments were to be manner whatever affiliated. Sir, we all know that the corrupted with their own money. It is agreed on all public lands, bring what they may from time to time into |