SENATE.] Law Department. [APRIL 30, 1830. and expresses surprise that he should be found enlisted in its support, while the Senator from South Carolina stands in his behalf opposed to the administration. Mr. T. in the first place, denied that the odium of this measure rested with the President. True, he had recommended some further provision for the Revolutionary soldier, in his message; but had the committee of either House consulted him as to the provisions of this bill? How then could this be called nise the finger of the President in this particular measure, he would say to the Senator from Maine, that he had but one light to guide his footsteps, and that was the light of his own judgment. He was alone responsible to those whom he represented here, and to none other; and while he was prepared to give to the administration a fair support, yet, when he believed it in error, his duty to the country would require of him a candid expression of his opinions. Mr. CHASE foliowed in support of the bill; when, about four o'clock, The Senate adjourned. was called on to make oath to his inability. All who were means of living in comfort, yet Congress tells you otherthus incapacitated to earn their daily bread, fell under its wise, and you must, therefore, swear, in direct opposition provisions, with a limitation which he had considered un-to your own honest conviction." Was there ever held just--to the nine months continental troops. Thus ex-out to men a greater temptation to perjury? We actually cluding from its benefits all the State troops and militia, offer a bounty for false swearing! without regard to the fact that they too had, in many in- But the gentleman from Maine [Mr. HOLMES] informs stances, served for a longer period than nine months, and us that this measure is recommended by the President; that their services had been as truly valuable as the services of the continentals. Here justice had halted, not to say that injustice had commenced. The gallant corps of Marion and of Sumpter, to mention none others, had great cause to complain. They had stood forth for the country, in its hour of greatest peril and deepest gloom. Strangers to every comfort, their tent was the canopy of heaven, and their encampment the morass. Theirs was a pure and unalloyed patriotism, stimulated by no prospect a measure of the administration? Whilst he did not recog of reward either in land or money. Their idol was their country-their only wish, its emancipation. But still the principle of the law was well ascertained and easily to be understood. That principle was necessity-great penury on the part of the soldier. It rested upon charity. He was unable to see any just principle in the bill before the Senate. What was the condition on which the claim to the pension was proposed to be placed? The possession of property not exceeding one thousand dollars in value. Now where was the justice of this limitation? Why not extend it further? If a man have but so much over the one thousand dollars as would turn the scale in a degree however slight, he was to be excluded. This served to show that the bill was placed on improper ground. It was proposed to let go the principle of charity on which former laws had rested, and to assume an arbitrary landmark. Apply it to real life, and how would it work? One man, worth property amounting in value to one thousand dollars, is much more independent than another with a property of one thousand five hundred dollars. One might have no family, while the other might be surrounded with a numerous offspring. He had said that the bill proposed to give up the principle of charity in the Government, and necessity in the soldier. Could any Senator doubt it? Look throughout the Union, and this doubt would be dispelled. It might well be questioned whether more than half the citizens of the United States possessed cstates of greater value than one thousand dollars; and yet they were independent; they had their fifty acres of land, and were surrounded by comforts. We were then to manifest our munificence, not our charity. Why then stop at the limits marked out by the bill? Why not embrace all who send in the resolution, without regard to their condition in life? He desired not to be misunderstood. He should not advocate the bill if it was thus modified. He was showing the unjust operation of that now On the question to agree to the amendment of the combefore the Senate. The Government had no right to be mittee, Mr. HOLMES asked for a division, and the ques munificent at the expense of the people, nor was there tion was accordingly taken on striking out of the original bill all after the enacting clause, and decided in the amany proper occasion for it. mative. He had another objection to the bill, which was with him all-controlling. He took a view of it, which he was satisfied had not been taken by the committee. He was satisfied that the committee would recommend no measure which they believed to be corrupting in its tendency. And yet he considered this bill as obnoxious to that objection. FRIDAY, APRIL 30, 1830. LAW DEPARTMENT. On motion by Mr. ROWAN, the bill to re-organize the establishment of the Attorney General, and erect it into an Executive Department, was resumed in Committee of the Whole, with the amendment reported to it by the Judicia 1y Committee, which provides For the establishment of an Executive Departinent, to be called the Law Department, and the Attorney General, for the time being, to be its chief officer, at a salary of six thousand dollars; For the transfer thereto of the duties required by law from the "Agent of the Treasury," &c. Mr. FORSYTH moved an amendment, excluding the Attorney General from the exercise of private practice; which was rejected. A long debate took place on the proposed substitute of the Judiciary Committee, in which Messrs. ROWAN, HAYNE, JOHNSTON, SANFORD, and FRELINGHUYSEN, advocated it, and Messrs. BELL, FOOT, CHAMBERS, WEBSTER, and WOODBURY, opposed it and the original bill. The question was then taken on inserting the substitute reported by the Judiciary Committee, and decided in the affirmative by yeas and nays, 24 to 22. Mr. FOOT then moved the following as an additional section: By the acts of 1818 and 1820, the applicant was required And be it further enceted, That the offices of Second to swear that he was in indigent circumstances, and re- Comptroller and Second Auditor be, and are hereby, abo quired the assistance of his country for his support. Here-lished, and the duties now performed by the Second Comp tofore, many who were, fortunately for them, in posses- troller shall be performed by the First Comptroller,ard the sion of property much less in value than one thousand duties now required by law to be performed by the se dollars, had abstained from taking this oath. They could cond Auditor shall be transferred to the Third Auditer. 'not reconcile the oath to their consciences. Now, what Mr. WEBSTER then moved that the bill and proposed are we called on to do? We are required to say to these amendment be laid upon the table; which was decided in men, "lay aside your scruples--swear that you stand in the affirmative by yeas and nays, 29 to 17. need of the assistance of your country for support, whatever may be your opinion upon that subject, and although, in truth, all your neighbors know that you possess the Mr. W. then gave notice that he would on Monday next ask leave to bring in a bill to establish the office of Solici tor of the Treasury. MAY 3, 1830.] PENSION LAWS. Pension Laws.-Judge Peck. Mr. FORSYTH moved that the bill and amendment be indefinitely postponed; which was decided in the affirmative, by yeas and nays, 25 to 20, as follows: YEAS-Messrs. Adams, Barton, Benton, Bibb, Brown, Burnet, Clayton, Ellis, Forsyth, Grundy, Hayne, Iredell, Johnston, Kane, King, Livingston, McKinley, McLean, Noble, Rowan, Smith, of South Carolina, Tazewell, Troup, Tyler, White-25. NAYS-Messrs. Barnard, Chambers, Chase, Dickerson, Dudley, Foot, Frelinghuysen, Hendricks, Knight, Marks, Naudain, Robbins, Ruggles, Sanford, Seymour, Silsbee, Sprague, Webster, Willey, Woodbury--20. [SENATE. price of the public lands, to make provision for actual setThe Senate then resumed the unfinished business of tlers, and to cede the refuse, upon equitable terms and for yesterday on the bill from the House of Representatives, meritorious objects, to the States in which they lie. "declaratory of the several acts to provide for certain Mr. BENTON requested that the Secretary of the Sepersons engaged in the land and naval service of the Unit-nate should read the memorial of the General Assembly of ed States in the Revolutionary war," with the amendment Missouri, praying its passage; which was done. Mr. B. reported thereto by the Committee on Pensions. then explained the different sections of the bill. He said that the bill applied, not to the mass or whole body of the public lands, but to that part only which had been offered at one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre, and could not find a purchaser at that price. The quantity of these unsold and refuse lands he stated at about seventy millions of acres, and read extracts from the reports of the registers and receivers of the land offices, to show their quality and average value, and the length of time which they had been in market. These reports showed a large proportion of these unsold lands to be unfit for cultivation, and fixed their average prices at twelve or fifteen cents per acre in some districts, and in others as high as sixty or seventy cents. They showed that most of these lands had been a long time in market, many of them fifteen, twenty, or thirty years under the laws of the United States; and, in the countries acquired by the Louisiana and Florida treaties, they had been picked and culled for half a century, and, in some instances, a whole century, before they came into the hands of the A message having been received from the House of Re- United States. This was the character and value of the presentatives, notifying that they had appointed Mr. Bu- land to which the bill applied; and the idea was altoge CHANAN, of Pennsylvania, Mr. STORRS, of New York, Mr. [ther erroneous which gave it a wider scope, and made it MCDUFFIE, of South Carolina, Mr. SPENCER, of New York, applicable to the whole body of the public lands. The and Mr. WICKLIFFE, of Kentucky, managers to conduct terms on which the bill proposed to dispose of this unsold the impeachment of James H. Peck, Judge of the District and refuse parcel of land, was the next point to be consiCourt of the United States for the District of Missouri, dered; and on this head, [Mr. B. said,] there were two On motion by Mr. TAZEWELL, it was sets of provisions contained in two different sections, and Resolved, That, at twelve o'clock to-morrow, the Senate applicable to two descriptions of purchasers. The first will resolve itself into a Court of Impeachment, at which set of provisions was open to all purchasers, and offered time the following oath or affirmation shall be administer-the lands at annual periodical reductions of price, begined by the Secretary to the President of the Senate, and byning at one dollar per acre, and falling twenty-five cents him to each member of the Senate, viz. in the acre, at the end of each year, until the price fell to MONDAY, MAY 3, 1830. Mr. WEBSTER, on leave, brought in a bill to provide for the appointment of a Solicitor of the Treasury; which was read, passed to a second reading, and ordered to be printed. JUDGE PECK. "I solemnly swear (or affirm, as the case may be) that, twenty-five cents. The second set of provisions, conin all things appertaining to the trial of the impeachment tained in the second section, was intended for the beneof James H. Peck, Judge of the District Court of the Unit-fit of actual settlers, and gave them a preference over ed States for the District of Missouri, I will do impartial general purchasers. The preference was secured by ofjustice, according to law." fering to the actual settler the privilege of buying the Which Court of Impeachment being thus formed, will, land at twenty-five cents less in the acre, at each succesat the time aforesaid, receive the managers appointed by sive graduation of price. Thus, when the price to the the House of Representatives, to exhibit articles of im-general purchaser was one dollar per acre, it would be peachment, in the name of themselves and of all the peo- seventy-five cents to the settler; when seventy-five to the ple of the United States, against James H. Peck, Judge of former, it would be fifty to the latter; when fifty to one, it the District Court of the United States for the District of would be twenty-five to the other; and when twenty-five Missouri, pursuant to notice given to the Senate this day cents to the general purchaser, it was only five cents to the by the House of Representatives, that they had appointed actual settler; a provision which was intended to operate managers for the purposes aforesaid; and that the Secre- as a donation in favor of poor people. There were two tary of the Senate lay this resolution before the House of other sections which might be considered as subsidiary to Representatives. the others, and merely intended to give more full and Resolved, That after the Managers of the Impeachment complete effect to their intention; one of them contained a shall be introduced to the bar of the Senate, and shall have provision for gratuitous donations in favor of poor famisignifiel that they are ready to exhibit articles of impeach-lies, without the payment of any price; the other was inment against James H. Peck, the President of the Senate tended to secure those who had taken permits as tenants shall direct the Sergeant-at-Arms to make proclamation, at will to the United States, under the act of 1807, or who who shall, after making proclamation, repeat the following might not take such permits, a preference over all other words: "All persons are commanded to keep silence, on settlers or occupants, in purchasing the land on which pain of imprisonment, while the grand inquest of the na- they were settled. Having stated the principles and protion is exhibiting to the Senate of the United States articles visions of the bill, Mr. B. went on to show that the prices of impeachment against James H. Peck, Judge of the District fixed in the different sections were just and reasonable; Court of the United States for the District of Missouri." that they were calculated to accelerate the sales, and to After which, the articles shall be exhibited, and the Pre- obtain a fair and full price for the land. He said that the sident of the Senate shall inform the managers that the Se- two sections established a competition between purchasers, nate will take proper order on the subject of the impeach- which would prevent any one from waiting for the land to ment, of which due notice shall be given to the House of fall below its just value. When it was at one dollar, the Representatives. On motion by Mr. BENTON, the Senate resumed, as in Committee of the Whole, the amended bill to graduate the general purchaser could not wait for it to fall to seventy-five cents or fifty cents per acre, because the actual settler would have the preference at twenty-five cents less in the SENATE.] Judge Peck. [MAY 3, 1830. DANIEL ROSE, Land Agent. Augusta, July 21, 1828. acre at each reduction, and would intercept the purchase. good sureties, payable in three equal annual instalments The competition would be keen and decisive throughout, with interest annually. the settler always having the advantage, both in point of price and of time. With the settlers themselves, who had made improvements, and considered the land as their Having read the advertisement, Mr. B. commented upon home, they would be glad to take the land at its fair value, the advantage which the State of Maine had over the other whenever it fell to it, and would be more apt to buy it at new States, in being the mistress and sole disposer of her a rate above than below its value, in order to save their own public lands. Her own Legislature fixed the terms, labor and their home. There was one point of view, and fixed them equitably; and put it into the power of [Mr. B. said,] which ought to be decisive in favor of these every citizen to become a freeholder. Missouri would reductions of price; it was this: that every tract to which be glad to do the same, but her public lands were at the this bill was applicable, was a tract of inferior value, con- disposal of Congress, and he could only quote the example sisting of a few acres only fit for cultivation, the rest worth- of Maine as one worthy for Congress to follow. But he less and sterile; and if one dollar twenty-five cents all said the advertisement he had read was only one out of round is for ever demanded for these broken spots, where thousands which had been put forth; that he had been the bad land is five or ten times greater in quantity than told of others which fixed the minimum prices as low as the good, it would bring the good land to five or ten ten and five cents an acre; and that Massachusetts, who dollars an acre, instead of the mininum price, which is now owned half the public lands in Maine, also sold them at demanded. He illustrated this idea, by saying that all the the same low and easy terms. Mr. B. said that he would surveys were run out at right angles; that the lines paid no quote Maine for another purpose-for the purpose of showrespect to the quality of the soil; that a quarter section ing the groundless folly of being alarmed about speculawould sometimes have a patch of twenty or thirty acres tors. There were no speculators in Maine; he had heard of good land in one corner, and the rest good for nothing; of but one large purchaser there, and he was injured by or it would lie across a creek, or a branch, where there the purchase. It was a Mr. Bingham, who had bought would be a narrow bottom of rich ground, and the ends of two and a half millions of acres from Massachusetts, at ten the quarter section stretching into sterile hills and ridges. cents an acre, and, from all reports, would rejoice to get Mr. B. adverted to the price of lands in the State of rid of his bargain, (or rather his heirs would,) and get back Maine, where the Legislature of the State fixed the prices, the principal without interest, or interest without princiand adapted the price to the quality, and made that price, pal. Nothing in the graduation bill descended so low as even at its highest minimum, as low as the lowest, and these prices in Maine, yet the Maine lands were all fresh sometimes lower than the last minimum which the gradua- and unpicked, and sold upon a credit of one, two, and tion bill proposed. To show this, he read the following three years. Such were the advantages which the State advertisement for the sale of lands in Maine, in the year 1828. THE ADVERTISEMENT. Timber Lands.—The minimum prices at which the following townships and tracts of land may be sold, having, under the advice and direction of the Governor and Council, been fixed and determined upon, they will be offered for sale at public auction, at a price per acre not less than that set against each township or tract, on the terms and conditions provided by the sixth and seventh sections of the act entitled "An act to promote the sale and settlement of Public Lands," as follows: Township No. 1, range 1, Titcomb's survey, containing 22,900 acres, 20 cents per acre. of Maine derived from the prudence of Massachusetts, in withholding her public lands from the Federal Government. But justice was justice. Equity was the same the example of Maine and Massachusetts, in selling their under a federal or the State Government; and, therefore, lands at prices adapted to their quality, and on terms so moderate as to put it into the power of every citizen to become a freeholder, might well be quoted in this chamber, and held up as presenting an example which the Congress ought to follow. Mr. B. said, there was another piece of information, necessary to enlighten the decision of the Senate, which he and unquestionable form, that the great fact which it prehad taken pains to procure, and to procure in an authentic sented might come before the Senate with the full weight Township No. 7, range 2, Titcomb's survey, contain- of certain and undeniable truth; it was the great number ing 30,000 acres, 20 cents per acre. of non-freeholders in the new States and Territories. His Township No. 3, range 4, Norris and McMillan's sur-travels and personal observation had convinced him that vey, containing 23,1634 acres, 20 cents per acre. Township No. 4, range 5, Norris's survey, containing 23,040 acres, 25 cents per acre. Township No. 2, range 9, Norris's survey, containing 23,040 acres, 25 cents per acre. but an accurate and official statement could produce a conthis number was great, incredibly great, and that nothing viction of the fact. obtain this accurate statement; he had moved a resolution He had, therefore, taken measures to Township No. 3, range 14, Norris's survey, containing the new States and Territories a return of the number of in the Senate two years ago, to obtain from the marshals in 19,787 acres, 25 cents per acre. the free taxable inhabitants who are not freeholders, as Tract A 2, in ranges 13 and 14, Norris's survey, contain- exhibited by the tax lists; the return had been made to the ing 17,920 acres, 25 cents per acre. Tract X, range 14, Norris's survey, containing 5,778 acres, 25 cents per acre. Department of State, and communicated to the Senate, printed by its order, and forms a document in the session of 1828-29. He would read the table of recapitulation, which showed the number of these non-freeholders. THE TABLE. These lands are considered to be valuable for timber, and will be reconnoitered, and divided into parts of townships and tracts. No larger tract than a township of six Abstracts from the returns of free taxable inhabitants, miles square, nor a less quantity than would be contained who are not freeholders; made to the Department of State, in one mile square, can be sold to one individual or com- by the Marshals of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Alapany. When a township or tract may be divided and sold bama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Florida, and Michigan, in in separate lots, the minimum price of each part will be compliance with the resolution of the Senate of the Unitregulated according to its relative value to the whole town-ed States, of April 25th, 1828. ship or tract. The terms of payment required by law, are one-fourth part of the purchase money at the time of sale, and the residue to be secured by notes of the purchaser, with| 1. Ohio, 3. Illinois 56,286 13,485 9,220 10,118 MAY 3, 1830. 5. Alabama 9. Michigan Judge Peck. 39,368 [SENATE. bill, sometimes in physicians' bills, or lawyers' fees, and in the various contingencies of fraud and accident and misfortune, to which the life of man is subject. This is a reason, a true and natural one, why so many people, without any fault of their own, are unable to accumulate 10. Arkansas, (no return.) the sum, to them an immense one, of one hundred dollars, Having read the document, and shown the number of to buy a piece of federal land. But it is not the only reanon-freeholders in each of these States and Territories, son why they do not buy. There is another and most deMr. B. stated that the aggregate exceeded one hundred cisive reason why they should not if they could. It is this: and forty thousand; and ventured to affirm that the like That these refuse lands upon which they live are not spectacle was not to be seen elsewhere upon the face of worth one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre, and they the earth; that there was not another country under the ought not to give that sum for it, even if they had thouwide canopy of heaven, in which a government having sands! Look at the reports of the registers and receivmore land than it could sell, or even give away to cultiva-ers. See the quality and value of these lands as returned tors, would deprive so large a portion of its citizens of by them. The greater part returned as unfit for cultihomes for themselves and families, by holding up refuse vation; the rest chiefly as second or third rate, averaging and inferior land for a price five times and ten times above twelve and a half cents, fifteen cents, eight cents, twenty its value. This was the exact case with the Federal Go-cents, five cents, three and a half cents, in most instances, vernment. It held about seventy millions of acres of re- per acre; and seldom rising as high as fifty, sixty, or The fact is, that these refuse tracts fuse lands in the States and Territories, where these one seventy-five cents. hundred and forty thousand non-freeholders live, and yet are mixed with good and bad, the greater part bad, often would not let them have an acre of it at its value! Mr. not more than twenty or thirty acres fit for cultivation, B. did not speak of the new lands which the Government the rest fit for nothing; and it would be absurd, iniquitous, possessed, and which would come hereafter into market; and cruel to the poor, to whom these little tracts are usethey amounted to hundreds of millions of acres, and would ful, to demand the same price all round, as if every acre These refuse tracts are not worth the prestill continue to be sold at one dollar and twenty-five cents was first rate. per acre; he spoke of the refuse lands only, those which sent minimum price. They are not worth what the first had been offered at one dollar and twenty-five cents, and choices were, and it is a folly to ask it, as much so as it can find no purchaser; those which are the remains of all would be in a butcher to ask the same price for the shanks the sales which have taken place since the commencement and necks and offal of his beef, as he demanded for the of the land sales, and many of which had been previously hind quarter. Individuals adapt the prices of the land picked and culled under foreign Governments, as in Mis- they offer for sale, to its quality and actual value. All the souri, Arkansas, Louisiana, Florida, and a part of Missis-States did the same when they had land to sell. MassaAnd it is out sippi, Illinois, and Michigan, before the United States ac-chusetts and Maine are now doing the same. quired them. These were the lands of which he spoke, of the question for this Federal Government, which has and for which he claimed a reduction of price. It was on become the great landholder of the West, and pays no these that the one hundred and forty thousand non-free-taxes upon its hundreds of millions of acres, to have but holders were chiefly settled, and where they were losing one price for all qualities; to demand the same for first their time between hope and fear-hoping that the Go-rate, second rate, third rate, and no rate at all; to demand vernment will reduce the price, to enable them to pur- the same for a quarter section of broken, hilly ground, chase, and fearing to make any beneficial or valuable im- half barren, part rock, part swamp, part sterile ridges, provement, lest it should excite the avarice of some un-without a spring or well, which is demanded for a quarter principled speculator to enter the land over their heads, section of rich, level land, well watered and timbered, for the sake of the improvement which had been put upon and every acre fit for the plough. This is the case at preit. It was a mistake to suppose that this large body of sent; this is the present mode of conducting land sales by non-freeholders were idle and vicious people; and that it the Federal Government; but it is an unjust mode, it is conwas their vice and idleness which kept them too poor to demned by the common consent and universal practice of It cannot be defended. No man can stand buy land at one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre. Mr. all mankind. B. said that he knew better; he knew this class of people up and say it is right. Justice to the new States and Terwell; he had travelled among them, slept in their houses, ritories, and the interest of the federal treasury, requires it ate at their tables, and knew them to be the best of citi. to be altered-requires the price to be adapted to the zens; men who did not think of living upon the public, quality of this refuse land; and the bill which is now bebut upon their own labor; whose object was to cultivate fore the Senate is intended to accomplish that just and the earth, and to defend it; who were industrious farmers equitable object. at home, and brave soldiers in time of war; who were hos- Mr. B. recurred to the early prices which had been pitable, brave, and honest, and merited the esteem of all proposed for the public lands, and showed that able statesgood men, as well as the favor and protection of the Go- men had fixed lower prices than the graduation bill convernment. How then, it might be demanded, did it hap-tained. He quoted General Hamilton's reports, when Sepen that these persons were not able to buy land at one cretary of the Treasury, the first of which fixed twenty dollar and twenty-five cents per acre? Mr. B. would an- cents, and the next one fifteen cents per acre, as the aveswer that inquiry with the precision and triumph of truth. rage value of the public lands. He quoted also the report In the first place, it is a difficult undertaking for a poor of the first committee of the House of Representatives man, in a new country, where there is but little money, under the organization of the present form of Governand few objects which will command it, to accumulate as ment, which recommended thirty cents per acre; and armuch money as would buy a half-quarter section of land at gued that it would have been better for the United States that price. It would require one hundred dollars to make that these low prices should have been fixed when prothe purchase; and the greatest proportion of poor people, posed near forty years ago, as the sales of the lands would in new countries, never see the day when they have that have been rapid, and the proceeds of them promptly resum on hand. They marry early; their daily labór is ne- ceived and applied to the extinguishment of the public cessary to support their families; they have little to spare debt. Every sixteen years, he said, the price of the land for market, and the proceeds of that little are absorbed was lost in the payment of interest on the public debt. in the purchase of salt and iron, in the payment of taxes, The whole capital was sunk in every period of sixteen in small expenses when they go abroad, in the blacksmith's years, and the lands would have gone as far towards the SENATE.] Judge Peck. [MAY 3, 1830. payment of the debt at thirty cents an acre sixteen years or will give. Let the price be suited to the quality, and ago, as at sixty cents now; and so in future. Mr. B. also the sales will be rapid where they are now stagnant. adverted to the price fixed on the public lands by the or-Farmers will buy the land which they now use gratis; and, dinance of the old Congress in 1788, which was one dol- instead of waiting for it to fall to the lowest minimum, lar per acre, and to the vote then given by the States of they will be careful to buy as soon as it falls to its true va New York, New Jersey, Maryland, and South Carolina, lue, lest some other person should buy before them, and to reduce that price to sixty-six and two-thirds cents; and then contended, that if the price of one dollar per acre (and which, in the opinion of so many other States, ought to have been but little more than half that sum) was the original price when the lands were fresh and unpicked, it ought to be reduced at least as low as the graduation bill proposed to reduce it, after all the good tracts had been sold out, and nothing but broken and refuse tracts remained behind. With respect to the donation clause, which the bill contained, Mr. B. advocated it at length, and with many facts and arguments. He stated that it was the policy of Mr. Jefferson, at the first acquisition of Louisiana, to make donations to actual settlers, for the purpose of populating the country and defending it. He had proposed that a donation of a quarter section should be made to the first thirty thousand settlers that should go to the country; and considered their services, in settling and defending the country, in subduing the wilderness, and spreading the blessings of civilization, as the most meritorious price which they could pay for the land. either hold the land to their annoyance and injury, or make them pay an advanced price for it. This would be the operation of the bill. One hundred and forty thousand occupants would be raised to the condition of freeholders; several hundred thousand farmers would buy additional tracts; the receipts into the public treasury would be doubled; the State taxes would be increased; the exports would be augmented; the revenue collected from imports would be augmented in the same proportion; and every interest, federal, State, and individual, would be promoted and confirmed. upon now, and with a view to the single and equitable ob ject which the bill presented--that of reducing the price of the refuse land, which will not sell for one dollar twen ty-five cents per acre, and making equitable provision for actual settlers and cultivators. Mr. B. said that he had spoken so often on this subject, that he was afraid of being tiresome to the Senate. This fear restrained him from following up the subject. He carnestly wished that every Senator could see the question in the light he did; could have the benefit of his own observation; and he would feel safe as to the result. In place of that personal knowledge, he must refer them to the voice of the members who came from the West; to the numerous memorials from the State Legislatures, which prayed for the passage of this bill; and to the reports of Mr. B. considered the settlement of the country, and the the registers and receivers, which showed the average va cultivation of its soil, as the true wealth of the Union; the lue of the land to be less than the graduated prices which mere price of the land, received into the treasury, was a the bill proposed for it. The bill was a favorite one with trifle compared to it. The whole amount of money re-him; but he was not blindly wedded to it. He liked it be ceived for the sale of public lands, was thirty-four millions cause he thought it was good; he preferred it because he of dollars; from which there was to be deducted the heavy thought it was best; but he was not madly enamored of it expenses of surveying and selling it; while the amount because it was his own. He was for the good of the peoreceived during the same time, from the cultivation of the ple; he was for doing what was the best for the country; land, in the shape of duties collected from the imports and if any member of the Senate could produce a better which were bought with the cotton, tobacco, rice, grain, plan, he would gladly embrace it. One thing he was provisions, and other articles, raised on the soil, and ex-particularly anxious about; and that was, that this bill ported, amounted to five hundred and twenty millions of should be tried upon its own merits, and passed or reject dollars. Such was the difference between the sale and the ed accordingly; that it should not be postponed for the cultivation of the soil, but not all the difference; for the final policy which might govern the disposition of the pubprice of the land sold could be received but once, while lic lands after the payment of the public debt; but acted the collection of duties from the produce of the land was perpetual and eternal. As long as crops are raised, duties can be collected. The greater the crops, the greater the revenue. And it certainly would be wise policy, in a mere money-raising point of view, for the United States to make a donation of a quarter section of land to every family Mr. BARTON next rose. He said that he did not intend that would settle and cultivate it. Instead of that, our ci- to enter into this debate; but, as no other member scemed tizens are not allowed to purchase at a fair price; they are disposed to take part in it, he would take this opportunity not allowed to buy land at its first value; one hundred to put himself right before his constituents, with respect to and forty thousand free taxable inhabitants are without an accusation contained in the postscript to a former speech land, in the new States and Territories abounding with va- upon this subject, [Mr. BENTON's speech upon the Gradu cant land. They are sighing for the waste land which ation bill, May 16th, 1826,] which had been circulated lies around them; realizing the fabulous picture of the throughout Missouri. As the postscript had not been spo man who perished for a drink of water, while standing in ken on this floor, he had no opportunity to refute the water up to his chin. Nor was it these one hundred and charge contained in it at the time; but would now call upforty thousand only that wanted to purchase, but almost on the Senators from Virginia and Louisiana [Messrs. every farmer in the new States and Territories. The TAZEWELL and JOHNSTON] to testify in his behalf as to its whole of these, as their means and families increase, truth. Mr. B. said, the speech of 1826, alluded to, was want more land. They wish to add to the size of their made on the 16th of May, at the close of the session, when farms, either for the purpose of extending their fields, or the Senate was much pressed with business, and concludsecuring wood, or keeping open an outlet, or keeping off ed with an express declaration of the mover of the bill an intrusive neighbor, or making pasture, or providing that he did not intend to ask for a decision upon it at that settlements for children. For some of these various pur- session. Under these circumstances, and no member poses, almost every farmer and landholder, now in the showing any disposition to say any thing upon the subWest, would be desirous to make new purchases, and ject, [Mr. B. said] he moved to lay the bill on the table, would make them, if the price of the land was adapted to its which was unanimously assented to as a matter of ourse; value. As it is, they take the public timber gratis, injuring and the Senate proceeded to the great mass of business the land, and paying no price to the Federal Government, before it, Mr. B. said, the part of the postscript to which nor any tax to the State Government. But this is not their he now called the attention of the Senator from Virginia, fault, but the fault of the Government, which demands a was the following; in which the author [Mr. BENTON] price above the value, and which no man ought to give, says- |