Indiana Palladium, Volume 6, Number 4, Lawrenceburg, Dearborn County, 30 January 1830 — Page 1

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EQUALITY OF RIGHTS IS NATURE'S PLAN AND FOLLOWING NATURE IS THE MARCH OF MAX. Barlow,

Volume VI.

Twenty-First Congress. FIRST SESSION. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. Dec. 17. Mr. Hunt, of Vermont, submitted (or consideration the following resolution: Resolvtd, That the committee on the public lands be instructed to inquire into the expediency of appropriating the nett annual proceeds of the sales of (be public lands among the sever al states, for the purpose of education and internal improvement! in proportion to the representation of each in the bouse of representees. To which resolution Mr. Martin, of S. Cnroiina, proposed an a men dm nt, making it an inquiry into the amount and value of the public lands given by congress to any state, or to the public or private institutions of any stale. The question bring on the adoption of the amendment proposed by Mr. MARTIN,Mr TESTj f Indiana rose to address the Chair. Before he began, be s w.rn.d by the Speaker, that it was the q nsiion on the amendment which was before tne House, and be must eoufinc bis remarks to the question. Mr. Test remarked, thrtt he thought he understood the question, and should endeavor to confine himself to it s nearly as he could, but he considered the original proposition and am ndtneni so connected together, that he could not do justice to the subject without a partial notice of both. Coming from the pari of the country where I do (said Mi. Test), and where a question ct this kind so vitally affects the interest of my con stituents, it will be expected that 1 should say something upon the subject. Indeed, 1 should think myself derelict from mv duty if I were to remain silent. The amendment, sir, looks forward to the general operation of the original resolution. I shall therefore be necessarily led into the examination of the prin ciples of the latter, to come fairly at the effects of the former. What, sir, is the ouestion before the House? The first or original proposition is to appropriate the nett proceeds ot the public lands to ward internal improvements and the promotion of learning, to be divided among the States according to their representation in Congress. The amendment offered by the gentleman from S. Carolina proposes an inquiry into the quantity and value of those lands, in order,as understand it,to a division among the States, with a view to cmo at a fair settlement as he calls it; and that those States, who have received a porton of those lands, may be charged in the account current with what they have r ceived. It is necessary to look into the motive or consideration which induced the state of Virginia, and others, to cede their wild lands to the United States; and then to see if the proposition now before the Houe is calculated to promote the grand object which those state had in view, when they made these cessions; and the determination of this point will test the utility of the measure. It is considered, on all hands, that one of the motives was, to enhance the resour ces of the federal government, which were at that time very limited indeed, and to enable them to discharge their ob ligations to their creditors; but, sir, J am very far from believing this was the mst prominent or urgent motive. There were higher and more important consid erations. The prime object of all was, to maintain and secure a continuation of the confederation. Virginia possessed almost as much territory as any two or three of the other states, and it was readily seen, that in a course of time, an Increase of population, must give her a vast ascendency over the balance of them. Looking with a philosophic eye through the course of events, it was not t difficult to discern, that the growing greatness of an individual State, already the most powerful in the confederation, would be calculated, in the very nature of things, to create fears and jealousies in the rmaller states, which might, in time, grow into discontents and bickering?, which beingfostered by those fears and jealousies, would lead directly to a dissolution of the Unionor confederation. The prime motive then, must have been to provide against that event, by redunit; aiuuuiji ui kjiikuij til iuu iuiger states, and limiting their size as near to an equality as possible, thereb) to produce a balance of power in some measure like that of Europt. Passing lor the sake of brevity over all the intermediate steps, and without adverting to further evidence, it must appear clear to any gentleman in the house,that that must have been the most powerful inducement

LAWRENCEBURGH, (INDIANA j) SATURDAY,

or motive (and truly patriotic it was), in ihe hirger states, to make this great sacrifice of their power and resources; which, coupled with the idea of doing justice to their creditors, and relieving the confederation from its distressing embarrassments, form the consideration upon which these lands were ceded to the general government; and 1 hold it to be the duty of congress, to sacredly regarde d this consideration in all its legislative acts, and to promote the generous and benevolent views of the states in making those enormous, though nef T j i 1 cessary saennces. uei us see tnen whether the amendment to the resolution which forms the proposition before the House is calculated in its consequen ces 'o promote that great and magnanimous object. So far from doing so, 1 view it as the most dangerous proposi tion hat ever was agitated in this House, or brought bef re tl is nation. What is it, Sir? It is to divide the public lands among the lifferent states and to require the ne v rtates to answ r, and pay far ill t';e appropriations, made by the government, toward their improvement, while y M have reaped the benefits of those improvements to a much greater degree than they. You have furnished the capital, we have done the labor, and are in w to be call d upon to pay hack all that we have received, after doing the labor for you. How are you going to make this calculation of value? w hat is to be the standard ? where are you to begin? at what pointof time? shall it be calculated for the future? will you make it as now, or shall it be nunc pro tunc? We are very gravely told by the gentleman from South Carolina, that to talk about the benefits, the United States receive from these appropriations for improvements, is the most fallacious and preposterous idea he ever heard suggested. Let us see if it be so silly and fallacious a that gentleman supposes. What is the effect of these appropriations and improvement of the country ? Do hey enhance the value of your land, or d-i they not? Do they not induce pop ulatiou to flow in by hundreds of thous antfs? Are i hey nut the means of selling thousands and millions of acres of votir land, which would othcrvisc lie waste and wild ? Does nor this add to the resouicesofour country, besides augment ing the valu - of the lands? To reduce to practical results the argument of, the gentleman, I will make such a calculation as I suppose he would ask the committee to make, and see whether he be right or wrong. Shall we make it at t, e minimum or maximum price? Sir, I pre-urn th . iientleman would calculate tnem at Ihe price which they sold for. 1 will gratify him in making it so; then, sappo-e by your appropiiations and our labor the lands shall bring ten dollars por acre, do you gain nothing? And the more labor we add to the appropriation, the more it enhances the price, and W" are to ne charged at that price. Sir, it amounts to this, the more labor we do, the rn'ire we have to pay, the more money you receive in consequence of our improvements, the more we have to pay you we could have purchased the land of you at the minimum pnee, but in con sequence of receiving it as a donation (is the gentleman would call it) we have to pay three prices. It is a valuable gift to you, but it beggars us and I should say, take back your "Deganire," take back your fatal gift, tis poi?oned. Sir, it is like a man laying out a town and selling his lots for a high price, and afterwards calling upon the purchasers to pay him for the streets and alleys which he had laid out. You have been cunning enough to give, and we silly enough to receive. Sir, it is reversing the whole order of things; upon this calculation the less we have of your gifts the better. Poor Indiana, there is a terrible day of reckoning coming, she has been silly enough to receive some of ycur gifs, and on the great day ol reck oning, if it shall be found that she has received more than her share of the lands, she must pay up the balance, & how is she to do it? Sir, she never will do it, no new state will do it, and to enforce such a proposition would be to strike them from the confederation and dis-oUe the Union. Do you believe, sir, that the new slates would stand and look on, and see you carrying away the fruits of their Hard labor, without a struggle to prevent it. It would take awaj every moiive in them to remain a part in the confederacy, every ground of attachment to the Union, and cause them to look to their own resources for protection. have said, that your appropriation? had been the inducement to thv-isnd

EwniiriagiwtrrtirMtfywrtaifTiiirtn

to emigrate to those new 6tates. They have broken up, and left their home to seek a home in the wilderness, allured by your deceitful gift?, aud after arriving there, they find themselves called upon to pay back the pretended boon. What will they say to you? Would they admire yourjustice, or would they despise your avarice and fraud? Sir, 1 have inquired at what point of time will ou refer this calculation of value and division of the spoil. Will you commence at the present period? Will you go back to the time when those land were ceded to the states, or will you re fer it to some point of time in advance? II you refer it to the time when the cessions were made, little Delaware would receive as much as any of you in the general distribution, for she had as many representatives in congress then as New York ; & would she not contend with you i hat thai was the correct principle? Si r had then, and has yet, all the burthens rf sovereignty to support, without the means of the other States, aud the lands bring a gift to you, at a lime when she had as much right in the confederation as any ol you, it would seem au argu men! in her favour to fix the division or allotment at that point of time. Th object of the trust having now expired, and the trustees about to take the estate into their own use. It seems to me it would be rqually if not more just, to distribute it according to the bituation and relation in which the partie? stood at the time of its creation. 1 sav, by this sort of distribution, Delaware would get a share. Suppose you refer the calculation and distribution to the present time, how would itstand? What would Delaware get? However, sir, I will pass by this part of the subjret for ihe present, and take another view of it. Sir, I sh.ill never consent, nor will my state, or the new states generally, consent to stop here with the division, calculation, or distribution. We must go he whole, or perchance we shall not be able to pay you for the liberal donations you have made us; and where will be the justice of distributing a part of the pub lic donation without the whole? Hera Mr. TEST was reminded by the Speaker, that the hour for the discussion of resolutions bad passed by, & that he must desist. On the next morning, the resolution being ugiin read, and the amendment thereto Mr. Test rose and said, that he had but a few words more to say, and he -hould close. 1 think sir, said Mr. Test. 1 was calling the attention of the House to the modus operandi under the provisions of (he amendment to the resolution, by the gentleman from S.Carolinajfc particularly what was to be taken into this account current, which was to be made ou!. I had said, we shall call upon yon to go the whole: we shall not only call upon you to throw in all Ihe lands in this District, besides the useless millions you have laid out upon this building and the President's house; but we shall call upon you to take an account of your Navy also, tor it will be extremely onerous to call upon us in the new States, to pay for the lands you pretend to give us, without allowingus todrawout of the general stock v ur money-portion of the funds. I shall be told that these public buildings are a part of the staple improvements of the country, which were never intended as a fund; this I admit: and so by your pretended gift, these lands (so far as they have been applied) have become a part of the permanent improvements of the country as much as your public buildings; but we are called upon to pay for them, and we cannot do so except we be permitted to draw upon the joint stock. It will be no answer te our proposition to tell us, that the cost of these buildings, &c. are money appropriations, and not land. Sir, I would inquire of the gentleman from South Carolina, ....... what distinction he will draw between an appropiation of money, and of land except that money is preferable? The state of Indiana would have much preferred the money, or 1 would for her. It would have been much easier mana g d. I shall he told the Navy ought not to be taken into the account, because it is tor the security of the country and the protection and facility of commerce so are the roads and canals erected, and to be erected from, the proceeds of those land appropriations; they serve as means to transport your arms and munitions of war trom one point to another, and to disseminate the various objects of merchandise through the country. Yes, Sir, the Navy in time of peace, serves only to protect the merchants in their commercial pursuits. We can, therefore, with perfect propriety, call upon them to aid m in paving back our share

JANUARY 30, 1830.

of these appropriations, so generously made, by paying us our share of the value of the Navy. We shall call you to an account for your forts, your arsenals, your armories, your light-houses your sea-wall, and all the improvements upon the sea-board; and shall I be told they are for the general protection of the nantime frontier? bir, our public cc private improvements protect your inland fiontier much more effectually than al) your navies, and forts, and arsenals do our maritime. How lng since this very sport was a howlinc wilderness in fested withlhu wild beast and the Savage? Now, Sir. the improvement and settlement of the new States form an im passable barrier between them and you; and when you have not made us appropriations towards the erection of these improvements and we have not been able to make them ourselves, we have presented our breasts as a rampart to protect you It is to the industrv. the enterprise, the toil, and the labor of these new States thai you owe a creater share of protection than from all vour navies and forts, and yet you ask us to suffer you to retain the Navy, together will all your permanent improvements, whih voucall upon us to pay back to you a miserable appropriation of land in the midst ot tht wilderness. Could the gentleman from South Carolina have the face to ask it? Sir, are w to be charged with all these improvements which have been calledj Western? Shall we have to pay for the Cumberland Road, and all its repairs too? I hope not. But, according to the gentleman's amendment of the resolution, Virginia, with all her constitutional scruples about Internal Imnrovpments, and Pennsylvania, with all her objections to the termination of thn Cumberland Road, will, have to pay the expense oi making and repairing it, unless it can be shown that there is somp distinction between appropriations far land and money. Do you think, Sir, . , t Virginia ol rennsylvama will ever pa) you back the appropriations for that road ? I will answer for them, and I will answer for all the Western Statesthey will neither of them ever do so. I think. Sir, the gentleman from South Carolina, Sz every gentleman in thisllouseonnot but see the gross i. justice he would do the people of the new States by carrying into effect the principles of the amendment to this resolution. It is calculated to injure and oppress the bravest, the hardiest, and most virtuous part of your community. Men who have borne the burtheu iu the heat of the day men who, when your country was invaded by both the civilid and the Savage foe, stepped forward with alacrity to defend it No murmuring was heard. They never inquired, Is my country right or wrong. The only inquiry was, Where are her enemies? The story of these appropriations which you desire us now to repay, drew thousands of emigrants to hesenew States, unon the faith of ihp Government, that they were real, not fictitious. They settled down in the midst of a wilderness, where berhaps the human foot never trod ; they have honestly toiled and laboured till they have made themselves a little home, perhaps near the spot where, by your donations (as you were pleased to call them) you seduced us to make a road or canal. What will they say when they are told they must pay back this deceitful, this Iudian gift? Sir, you would create heartburnings and discontents that time will never heal. Sir. I will sav something more to the ereotleman from South Caro-! lina, concerning his calculations of the price oi tnese public lands: Are his calculations of the value of these lands to have a retrospective opera tion or not? If so, and you go as far back as to the time of the cession of these lands, why then the small States will get a full proportion; but then great injustice must be done if you place them at the present lime the small States would get almost nothing. The State of Delaware, for example, would get the two hundred and thirteenth part, and Indiana would get three two hundred and thirteenth parts: for it is to be kept iu mind that the territories as well as the States, are to share in the plunder. xts, air, and while Delaware1 and Iudiana receive this little miserable portion. New York will be entitled to about onesixth of the whole of your wild lands. rix it prospectively, still injustice must bedone : so that as an orioinai proposition and established on the veiy best footing, it is evident that the grossest lniustice must fall somewhere; and to carry it through upon any principle, would lend to defeat the great, indeed the prime object of the donors of the trust. So fai

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WMtirinrui iii mumtkumm i mmm 1111 u r'-j rorn tranquilizing the people of this conederation, it would lead to a state of public feeling, in every respect the re verse. A few words to my friend from Ver mont, and I have done. I have never been more astonished than at seeine the course which he has taken; and when I call him friend, 1 do so sincerely. I have alwa)S found him generous of heart, liberal in his sentiments, and the steady untiring supporter of all the valuable; institutions of the country. 1 found him with me in obtaining the appropriation of land for the Wabash and Erie Canal, and my heart has never ceased to recol lect with gratitude his kind aid on that occasion; but if he now turns about and calls upou us to pay back the amount of that appropriation, I shall have, howe ver reluctantly, to cease to cherish those pleasing recollections. To sav there have been appropriations made without a view to the general benefit of the whola nation, is a direct imputation upou the honesty and integrity of the gentlemen who composed that Congress; and I am ready to answer for my friend from V't, that he never gave a vote in the House through mere whim and caprice; but when he did vote on any question, it was an honest, and, generally, a very judicious one. Here Mr. MALLARY rose, and begged to be heard in explanation. He said he was sorry that he should have been eo misunderstood; that he had declared in the outset, that he had no disposition to call upon the new State to repay the appropriations made them; that he believed them to be of a national benefit, calculated rather to enhance the value of the public demair, than to diminish it. Mr. Test resumed. My friend from Vermont has misunderstood me, and not I him. If he had waited a moment, I should have satisfied him and this House, that I never iutended to attribute to him any such intention. I had intended to say, that he had in the cutset disclaimed every idea of calling upon the new Slates to repay the value of the appropriations they had received; but at the same time 1 heard him thus disclaiming every such intention, I could not help but see him advocating the passage of the resolution and amendment before the House, which lead to all the evils I have deprecated. He says be is not for an immediate distribution of these lands,but he wishes thia as a mere preparatory step. If nothing is to be done now, why push the measure? Why arouse the excitement, and all the angry feelings consequent upon it, if nothing is to be done? Why not let it sleep till he thinks the time arrived hen it ought to be awakened? He fays he hears a sentiment propagated by many, very many, which, if it shall ultimately prevail, all their prospects of obtaining a share of the public lands are at an end ; that is, that the lands of right belong to the States in which they lie; wherefore he says, he wishes to be paving the way for a proper disposition of this part of the public domain in time. Sir, I should think the gentleman's precipitancy a conclusive evidence that he was afraid to submit his propoeition to the deliberate cogitations of the People. He i3 fearful that that monstroua sentiment which he has heard in whis pers might assume a more audible tonehe is fearful it may gain upon public opinion. Sir, if it be true, that such a sentiment or opinion be gaining ground, it is one of the strongest reasons under heaven why the question shculd be post poned. Let the people deliberate upon it, and my life for it they will come to a correct conclusion concerning it. Is the gentleman afraid to postpone it till after I the next census? I should think so, frcm his desire to push ihe matter now. Why, sir, drive us into a decision now? Why not let it remain till public opinion has decided upon it? The new Statea are but weak in numerical strength; why cram this measure down their throats, before they shall have acquired the strength which the new census will give them? It thews there is fcomething wroDg about it, and that he is afraid to trust it . to the searching investigation of time. If we must have a scramble for this property, give us a chance with you don't take the advantage of our present representative weakness, when, you know we have a large portion of original physical strength ju&t ready to organize and biing into action. It would not be fair if we must lose our lands, let us at least have ihe benefit of all our strength, before we commence the une qual struggle. Sir, I can say to my !UCh principle as be mentions contended friend from Vermont, 1 have never heard