CHAPTER XV.

THE ATTEMPT TO TAKE FROM THE NATION THE PUBLIC LANDS.

368. No measure of the administration is more deserving of rebuke, than the attempt to wrest from the elder States of the Union, their interest in the public lands, and the rejection of the bill for distributing the net proceeds of the sales of such lands in a just and rateable proportion among all the States.

369. The public lands may be divided into two classes; 1st, such as are within the limits of the United States, as defined by the treaty of peace of 1783; and 2d, such as are within the boundaries of Louisiana and Florida, as ceded by France and Spain, respectively, to the United States.

At the commencement of the revolutionary war, there were, in some of the States, large tracts of waste and unap propriated lands, whilst in others, no lands of this character existed. The States destitute of such lands, claimed, that, as the war was waged with united means and equal sacrifices, the waste lands, which must be conquered from the enemy, should become common property; and, under the recommendation of Congress, 10th October, 1780, "that the unappropriated lands which might be ceded to the United States, by any particular State, pursuant to the recommendation of Congress, of the 6th of September last, shall be disposed of, for the common benefit of the United States," several States made the required cessions.

The condition of the cession, much the same in all the grants, is most fully expressed in that from Virginia; providing, that, all the lands conveyed, "shall be considered a common fund for the use and benefit of such of the United States as have become, or shall become, members of the confederation or federal alliance of the said States, Virginia inclusive, according to their usual respective proportions in the general charge and expenditure; and shall be faithfully and bona fide disposed of, for that purpose, and for no other use or purpose whatever." The lands were thus received, and are holden in trust, for the purposes for which they were conveyed.

The lands of the second class were purchased, beside other considerations, for the aggregate sum of twenty millions of dollars, taken from the common treasury of the United States; and are, consequently, holden for the common benefit of the people of the United States.

370. By an admirable system, applicable to both classes, all public lands, offered for sale, are, previously, accurately surveyed, in ranges of townships, of six miles square each. The townships are subdivided, into thirty-six sections, containing 640 acres each, by right angled lines. The sections are again divided into quarters, eighths and sixteenths; so that, the settler may purchase so small a quantity as forty acres. This system, admitting every industrious man of the community to become a landholder, gives security of title and certainty of boundary, and with them, peace to the possessor. But it does more. It lays the foundation of useful civil institutions, providing for public education and public morals, whose benefits must extend to posterity.

371. The aggregate sum of money expended, by the United States, upon the public lands, including purchase, interest and the expense of sale and management, up to the year 1833, may be about fifty millions of dollars, and the total of the receipts, a million less; exclusive of 4,452,760 acres, donations for military services; 2,290,937 acres granted for roads and canals, in several States; and more than nine millions granted and set apart for schools, academies and universities, and of numerous grants for various purposes. Consequently, the public domain has, greatly, more than repaid its cost and management.

The extent of the domain of the United States is estimated at 1,090,871,753 acres. About 750 millions are supposed to be beyond the boundaries of the States and organized territories, and the balance, 340,871,753 to be within them. These, at the present minimum price of $1 25 per acre, may be estimated at the enormous sum of 1,363,589,691 dollars; and, though a large portion may never bring that price, there are great quantities which at the public sales bring more. According to the mode of selling lands, they are first offered at public auction for what they will bring in a free and fair competition among the purchasers; when the public sales cease, the lands remaining unsold, may be bought, from time to time, at the established rate of one dollar and a quarter, per acre. The annual average sale of these lands has been, for years, steadily on the increase, and is now increasing,

at a ratio of nearly 23 per centum. In 1832, the net product was full three millions of dollars. This is indeed a great estate, producing a present income, of three millions of dollars, steadily and greatly upon the increase and enduring for hundreds of years. It is well worthy to be called national, since from the table in the appendix, it is apparent, that, it may be made to produce to each State in the Union large sums for general internal improvement.* To cherish, and improve this great estate, would seem to be one of the first duties of the first magistrate of the Union; to preserve its direction pursuant to the course given by the grants, in one class, and the appropriate object of the purchase, in the other, his greatest delight. But, instead of this, we find, that magistrate striving to introduce a plan for divesting the Union of this great property, to dissipate it into air, or give it to the new and favoured States.

372. In his message of the 4th of December, 1832, after stating, that the lands were ceded "for the purposes of general harmony and as a fund to meet the expenses of the war," he observes; 66 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 a way as best to conduce to the quiet, harmony and general interest of the American people." And then, with that profession of fairness and disinterestedness, which is ever the harbinger of some gross and monstrous selfishness, he proceeds; "In examining this question, all local and sectional feelings should be discarded, and the whole United States regarded as one people, interested alike in the prosperity of their common country;" and with the instinct of a demagogue seeking to propitiate the most wealthy and influential class of the people, the landholders, he adds; "It cannot be doubted, that the speedy settlement of these lands constitutes the true interest of the Republic. The wealth and strength of a country are its population, and the best part of that population are the cultivators of the soil. Independent farmers are every where the basis of society and true friends of liberty.'

The Union is, then, threatened, that unless some liberal policy be now adopted in relation to the public lands, the question, under the influence of a great sectional influence, may "speedily assume an importance not now generally an

See Appendix, No. I.

ticipated," and "be more dangerous to the harmony and union of the States than any other cause of discontent." He continues;

"Of the various schemes which have been hitherto proprosed in regard to the disposal of the public lands, none has yet received the entire approbation of the Legislature." (Surely the existing system had, and was working to the general satisfaction.) Deeply impressed with the importance of a speedy and satisfactory arrangement of the subject, I deem my duty, on this occasion, to urge it upon your consideration; and to the propositions which have been, heretofore, suggested by others, to contribute those reflections which have occurred to me, in the hope, that they may assist you in your future deliberations."

"It seems, to me, to be our true policy, that the public lands shall cease as soon as practicable, to be a source of revenue; and that they shall be sold to settlers in limited parcels, at a price, barely sufficient, to reimburse, to the United States, the expense of the present system, and the cost arising under our Indian compacts. The advantage of accurate surveys and undoubted titles, now secured to purchasers, seem to forbid the abolition of the present system, because none can be substituted which will more perfectly accomplish these important ends. It is desirable, however, that in convenient time, this machinery be withdrawn from the States, and that, the right of soil, and the future disposition of it, be surrendered to the States, respectively, in which it lies."

We may be very sure, that this very disinterested proposition did not originate in any one of the original thirteen States. Had it come from either of them it would have sprung from "local and sectional feelings;" but coming, as it does, from a projector in a new State, and supported by the President, a citizen of a new State, which is to participate directly in the advantages of the project, it is from those, who are "interested alike in the prosperity of their common country."

373. The reasons assigned for this modest and extraordinary demand are as extraordinary as their progeny. “The adventurous and hardy population of the West, besides contributing their equal share of taxation under our impost system, have in the progress of our Government, for the lands they occupy, paid into the treasury, a large proportion of forty millions of dollars; and of the revenue received, therefrom, but a small part has been continued among them. When to the

disadvantage of their situation, in this respect, we add the consideration, that it is their labour, alone, which gives real value to the lands, and that the proceeds, arising from their sale, are distributed, chiefly, among States, which had not originally any claim to them, and which have enjoyed the undivided emoluments arising from the sale of their own lands, it cannot be expected, that, the new States will remain longer contented with the present policy, after the pay. ment of the public debt."

The purchase money of land a tax! If it be, then is the payment of every commodity, in use, a tax; and the whole system of exchanges, throughout the country, a system of taxation. A tax we have always understood to be a tribute imposed, an exaction of part of a man's substance, without a specific return. But, here, is an exchange of money for the most valuable return,-rich and fruitful land, the origin of life, of wealth and of happiness. But this land is valueless without labour. And pray what primary material is not valueless without labour? The ore from the mine must be elaborated; the wool and the cotton must be manipulated, before they are productive of benefit. The silversmith who buys silver, the cotton spinner who buys cotton, are, therefore, in all their dealings, as much taxed as the farmer who buys from the Government the wild lands of the West. But, forsooth, the forty millions paid for these lands have not been expended among those who paid them. True, they have gone, chiefly, where they should have gone,-to pay the millions expended, for their purchase, for the extinction of the Indian title, for the surveys, and machinery for sales, and for the payment of the general debt. But, with what grace does President Jackson complain that, a small portion of public money is expended in the West? His predecessors were disposed to expend upon the West freely; for, it is there, that the greatest, the most useful, and the most extensive works of internal improvement are required; and "it is in this manner, without doing injustice to any other part of the Union, the proceeds of the sales of the public lands may be applied to the special improvement of the Western country; that, they may be beneficial to all, expended, among the settlers on the public lands themselves, and, while contributing to the improvement of the whole Union, facilitate and encourage the progress of the new settlements, by furnishing, at once, occupation for industry, reward for labour, and the rapid appreciation of the lands upon which the settlers may fix their