Indiana Palladium, Volume 6, Number 9, Lawrenceburg, Dearborn County, 6 March 1830 — Page 2

(n Missouri, and I know something 0f it. The Surveyor General, Col. McKee, in paint of ft lelitv to his trust, belongs to the school of Nathaniel Macon: in point of . science and inteligence, he belongs lo to the first order of men that Europe or America contains. He and the clerks carry labour and drudgery to the ultimate point of human exertion, and still fall short of tbe task before them; and this is an office which it i3 proposed to abolish under the notion of a sinecure, as an ofiicewiih revenue, and without employment. The abolition of these offices would involve the necessity of removing all their records, and thus depriving the country of all the evidences of the foundations of all the land titles. This would be sweeping woik; but the gentleman's plan would be incomplete without including the General Land Of-

firp in fhi f!i!v. thft nrinrinal business of - r 1 which is to superintend the five Surveyor Lr 2ner als' Offices, and for which there could be but. little use after they were abolished. These are the practical effects of the resolution. Emigration to the new Slates checked their settlement limited a large portion of their surface delivered up to the dominion of beasts the law records removed. Such are the injuries lo be inflicted upon the new States, and we, the Senators from those States, called upon to vote in favor of the resolution which proposes to inquire into the expediency of committing all these enormities! I, for one, will not do it. I will vote for no such inquiry. I would as soon vote for inquiries into the expediency of conflagrating cities, of devastating provinces, and of submerging fruitful lands under the waves of the ocean. f take my stand upon a great moral principle that it is never righlio inquire into the expediency of doing rvrong. The proposed inquiry is to do wrong, to inflict unmixed, unmitigated evil upon the new States and Territories. Such inquiries are not to be tolerated. Courts of law will not sustain actions which have immoral foundations; legislative bodies should not sustain inquiries which have iniquitous conclusions. Courts of law make it an object to give public satisfaction in the administration of justice; legislative bodies should consult the public tranquility in the prosecution of their measures. They should not alarm and agitate the country ;yet this inquiry, if it goes on, will give the greatest dissatisfaction to the new States in the West &l South. It will alarm and agitate them and ought to do it. It will connect itself with other inquiries going on to make the new State a source of revenue to the old ones, to deliver them up to a new set of masters, to throw them as grapes into the wine press, to be trod & squeezed as Jong as one drop of juice could be pressed from their hulls. These measures will go together, and if that resolution passes, and this one passes, the transition Will be easy and natural from dividing the money after the lands are sold, to dividing the money before they are sold, and then to eating the land and drawing an annual income, instead of selling it for a price in hand. The signs are portenlious; the crisis alarming! It is time for the New States to wake up to their danger, and to prepare for a struggle which carries ruin and disgrace to them if the issue is against them. Mr. 13. alluded to the coaxing argumentof some gentleman, who endeavoured to carry this resolution through, by promising the Senate that the Committee of Puolic Ltnds, to whom it was to be referred, would report against it. lie ridiculed this species of argument. Such an inquiry would become nugatory and idle. Why send a resolution of in'iivi ll'i quiry to be returned non est inventus!'.. it tijr ccnu juur ouckc'i iu Hit: uuuuui vi a dry well? Why this perseverance for three weelis to get inquiry before a Com

,.,u a -m c i - .cast, wnu vuic 10 uu ureveniea irom r ; 1 ',Z, their conditio b7 re.ova,

gome purpose; and that purpose may be to gain a foot hold, to get jurisdiction, to get the subject agoing, and the refer it to another Committee that would report favorably. He then took notice of the terrifying argument which was used to get the resolution through. It was said it would excite suspicion against us, if we did not agree to it. Suspicion of what? Prejudice of what? Explain these terms. Name the thing, foul or hidden, which the new States have to avoid in this inquiry. There is none. None can be named. It is an attempt to terrify little chilJien and aged women, prejudice indeed! The way to avoid if, and command respect, is to shew a knowledge of your iie;hts,and a determination to defend them. ' He next adverted to the class of arguments which undertook to smuggle Ihis resolution through, as cue of the harmless or beneficial inquiries which daily passed as a matter of course. This was puUing the t-i.emy, into a covered wagon, but he would pull off the cover, and show the character of the cargo. Heanim;ulverled upon the suggestion, that a rejection of the resolution, was a suppression of inquiry. H thought the attempt to send it off to a committee room was more like suppressing debate.

But lie had no notion of letting it escape under a flash aid a smoke. He would wait till the atmosphere cleared up, and then call gentlemen back to the character of the resolution, and urge them to meet him on the perniciousness of that character. He discriminated between resolutions for good and for evil; the former passed, of course, the latter should

may be alarmed, agitated, and enraged, oe resisieu. it """' .wuwnj with mischievous inquiries: me soutn about its slaves and Indians, the West Toll !!; lands; ,he North East on the ubiect of its fisheries, its navigation, and sts manufactories. What would be the sts manu icondition of the Union, what the chance for the preservation of harmony, if each part struck at the Other in a system of pernicious and alarming inquiries? And yet, unless the discrimination is made which I propose all this maybe done, The argument used by the Senator from; Alabama, (Mr McKinley,) and the Sena tor from Connecticut, (Mr. Foot,).& others, would carry through every species of inauirv. even the most fatal to the interest, the most msuliinb to the pride, and most destructive to the harmony of the States. But this resolution is not only unjust lo the new States, but it is partial and unequal. It bears hard upon some, and not at all upon others. It would lock up twenty five millions of acres from sale settlement, in the State of Louisiana, and not one acre in Ohio; it would desolate Florida, and do comparatively but little mischief in Michigan. Jt is not sufficient to reject such a resolution the sentiments in which it ori gioated must be eradicated. We must" convince gentlemen that it is wrong to entertain such sentiments that it will be wrong to act upon them in the progress of any of our land bills. This whole idea of checking emigration to the West, must be shown to be erroneous. It is an old idea and lately brought forwa rd with great openness of manner and distinctness of purpose. Mr. Rush's Tieasury Report of 1327, placed it before Congress and the people. Since then, there has been no ambiguity abcut it. The doctrine has taken a decided turn. The present resolution is, in lft ct, a part of the same system, and a most efficient part. The public micd has laid hold of this doctrine, and subjected it to the ordeal of reason and discussion. Professor Dew in the College ot William & Mary, in his able lectures, has spoken my sentiments on this point, 1 will avail myself of his language to convey them to the Senate. Mr. B. then read as follows, from Mr. Dew'ri Lecture, page 43. "In the second plate, these Tariff measures injure the South and West by preventing ihat emigration which would otherwise take place. Now, this is an injustice committed upon those States, towards which the tide of emigration, sets. If there was a bounty upon emigration, then those States would have no right to complain of the adoption of any measure which might counteract the ellectsof the bounty; but this is not the case. It is true, the Secretary of the Treasury, in his annual report in December, 1027. thinks the low price at which the public lands arc sold, operates as a bounty; but I doubt much whether government price is too low; were this the case, would not enterprising individuals, with large capitals, quickly buy Government out, in order that they might speculate on the lands, and thus raise them to their proper value? One thing is certain, that the prevention of emigration to the Western Country, is injurious to the West." 'Mr. B. agreed with the Virginia pro.i ..I r r u . lniury to that quarter of the Union. He said, farther, it was aniniurv to the ueonle of thn Nnrth t" .t. 4 u i r and that it was.an injury to the whole human race to undertake to preserve the vast and magnificent valley of the Mississippi for the haunt of beasts and sav ages, instead of making it the abode of liberty and civilization, and the asylum of the oppressed of all Stales and na tions, tie inveighed against the horrid policy of making paupers by law, against the cruel legislation which would contir.e poor people in the North East to work as journeymen in the man ufactories, instead of letting them go off to new countries, acquire land, become independent freeholders, and lay the foundation of comfort and independence for their children. Manufactories are now realizing what was said by Dr. Franklin forty five years ago, "that they need great numbers of poor people to do the work for small wages, that these poor are easily got in Europe, where there was no land for them, but that they could not be got in America till the lands were taken up." These are the words of that wise man near half a century ago. The experience of the present day in veryfving them. The manufactories want poor people to do the work for small wages; those poor people wish to go to the West and get land, to have flocks and herds, to have their own field, orchards, gardens and

meadows, their ottn cribs, barns and dairies, and to start their children on a theatre where they can contend with

equal chances with other people's children for the honors and dignities of the country. This is what the poor people wish to da. How to prevent it, how to keep them from straying eff in this manner, is the question. The late Secretary of the Treasmv could discov;er no better mode than in the idea of a j .

county upon non-enngia.iui., . me.uoy.

of protection to domestic manutactures ! A "most complex scheme of i.juslicc, j which taxes the South to injure the West, to deprive the poor of the North East of the chance of bettering their condition! All this is bad enough, but it is a trifle, a lame, weak and impotent contrivance compared to the scheme which is now on the table. This resolution which we are now considering, is the true measure for supplying the poor people which the manufactories need. It takes away the inducement to emigration. It takes all the fresh lands out of market. It stops the surveys, abolishes the ofhees of the Surveyors Genera!, confines the settlements. limits the sules to tlic refuse of in- . 7 - numerable pickings; and thus annihilates the very object of attraction, breaks nnrl r1pstrnvs ihp i-r.aynst whirh rawing the people of the North East j - to the blooming regions of the West. ' Mr. B. sa d. that he felt himse f com - pelled,by these persevering measures,to s?(op emigration to the west, to recur to the early history of the confederation, to show the origin and policy of these measures, and do justice to the patriots by whom they were then defeated. The first of these measures that he would bring to the notice of the Senate, was the famous attempt about the year 178G, to surrender the navigation of the Mississippi, to the King of Spain, for a period of twenty-five or thirty years. Seven states voted for the surrender; six, begiauing at Maryland and going south, voted against it. 1 he articles of confederation required the consent of nine states to make a treaty, and therefore, the surrender was not accomplished. The Spanish negotiator, Dun Gardoqui, in his communications to his court, said (hat the object of this surrender was to prevent the growth of the "West. But it is not necessary to have recourse to foreign testimony; we have that of our own countrymen who were aciors in the scene. The seal which covered all these doings in the old Congress, has since been broken; their Journals are published; and besides the evidence of the Journals, we have the testimony of me v lrginia delegation, afterwards given in the Convention of that Stale, which ratified the Constitution of the United States. The Convention required them to report what they had witnessed on this subject, and they did so under all the responsibilities of so great and serious an occasion. Mr. B. then read from Mr. Monroe's statement several passages, which showed that Spain viewed with jealousy our settlements in the Western country, and wished them checked, and had made communications to that effect ; that the surrender of the navigation of the Mississippi to Spain, for twenty-live or thirty years, would have that effect; that this surrender was resisted by the southern States, because it would depress the growth of the West, and advocated by the north-eastern States; that the pursuit of this object was animated, and met with a warm opposition from the southern members; that he believed the Mississippi safer under the articles of confederation, than under the new constitution; ai.d that, as mankind in general, and States in particular, were governed by interest, the northern States would not fail of availing themselves of the opportunity given them by the Con stitution of relinquishing that river, in iOrdnr to dnrrp.ss Wpefr-rn nimf.. i ..v... i,,Uii P-e,H the southern interest frora preponderating. Mr. B. also read, in support of Mr. Monroe's statement, as to the jealousy of bpain, the tollowing various passages from the select Journal of Congress for the year 1780; contained in a communication from the Spanish couFt. "It is the idea of the Cabinet of Madrid, that the United States exiend to the westward no farther than settlements were permitted by the royal (British) proclamation ot the bth ot October 1763."t "That the lands lying on the cat side of the Mississippi, whereon settlements were prohibited hv ihn l - J aforesaid proclamation, are possessions of the crown of Great Britain, and pro per objects against which the arms of bpain may be employed for the'purpose of making, a permanent conquest for the Crown of Spain. That such conquest ieiv Jersey vas one of the seveo, but tbe Legislature of that State, on beariog what their Delegates bad done, recalled them, b virtue of the salutary power reserved to the States under the articles of confederation, and which tbe best patriots of '89 endeavoured to preserve over Senators under the new Con stiiution. t This proclamation of George the third, forbid the settlements of the EnKlish Colonies to extend further Vsf. fho iK i r .i rivers wfcich Gcwcd i:;to the Atlantic Ocean.

may be protabiy made durirg the present war. That therefore, it would be

advisable to restrain the eouthcrn States from making any settlements or conquests in those territories.'' Vol. A, p. 310. TTnvin'r rPTlfl tllCSC extracts, Mr. B. remarked, that here was the germ of that policy, which, thirty years afterwaids, ended in dismembering the val ley of the Mississippi, amputating two

noblest" rivers, and surrendcring'the public lands which has si.:ce been

T " rn i iwo nunurtu uious. uu . ... finest territory to the Crown of Spain, uiv ni-iri rpH i i i t: iu uhhl sages from Mr. Grayson's statement: "Secrecy was required on this subject. I told Congress that imposing secrecy on such a great occasion was unwarrantable. Seven States were disposed to yield the navigation of the Mississippi. I speak not of any particular characters. I have the charily to sup pose that all mankind act on the bcsl motives. Suffice it for me to tell plain and correct facts, and leave the conclu - Linn w;d thu hnnnr.-ihlp IToircn. Thrv i-onnern o I , . 1 "NT .1 C" . L 1 - I I L i 1. I

interests oi naiions. i neir language,.... t""

has been: "Le us prevent atw nr Slates from raising in the western zcorld, or they will out vote us ice zcili lose our minor , , , . iunce ana 0CCGme as fining in me sunt oj naHons. ij tee ao noiprc.em u ow coun ty mm 7VUl rtmuve iv ct4, umtuu vj going to sea, and tvc will recent no part ic ular tribute or advantage Jrom them. This, sir, has been the language and spirit of their policy, and 1 suppose ever will. When the act of Congress passed respecting the settlement of the Western country, and estailisting a Stat-. t there, il passed in a lucky moment. 1 was told that that State (Massachusetts) was extremely uneasy about it, and in order to retain her inhabitants, lands in the province of Maine were lowered to one dollar per acre." Mr. B. here remarked that since the introduction of his Graduation Bill in Congress, the price of land in Maine had been still further lowered. That he had seen advertisements olfering fresh lands, the first time they were offered at a minimum price of 25 cents per acre, and alsoat 20 cents per acre;oi ha3 been told that these minimums had been as low as was above the average of the auction sales. Mr. B. also read the following extracts from a letter contained iu the 4th vol. of the secret Journals of Congress, written from tho Falls cf Ohio, Dec. 4th 1780, and addressed to a gentleman in New England, and which thewed the alarm which was created in the Wfest at at the news of what was going on in Congress. "Politics, which a few months ago were scarcely thought of, are now sounded aloud in this part of the woiid. The late trealy with Spain shutting up, as it is said, the navigation of the Mississippi forthe term of twenty-five years, has given this western country a universal shock, and struck its inhalritanls with amazement. Our founndation isaffected t it is therefore necessary that every individual apply himself to find a remt dy. To sell us and make us vassals to the merciless Spaniards, is a grievance . . I- 1 Inot te be borne. The narlimeniarv arf. which occasioned our revolt from Greal Biiiaio were not so barefaced and intolerable. What benefit can you on tht Atlantic shores, receive from this act? Though this country has been settling but six years, and thai in the midst of an inveterate enemy , and most of the first adventurers fallen a nrey to the savages, and although the emigration to this country is so very rapid that the internal market is very greal, yet the quantities of produce now on hand are immense. Do you think to prevent emigration from a barren country, loaded with taxes, and impoverished with debts, to the most luxuriant and fertile soil in the world. Vain is the thought, and presumptuous the supposition. You may as well endeavour to prevent the fiihes from gathering on a bank in the sea which aIK"rdd them plenty of nourishment. Shall the best and largest part of the United Slates be uncultivated, a nest for savages and beasts of prey? Certainly not. Providence has designed il for some nobler purpose." Mr. B. said that he had now given one great instance of the attempts to prevent the growth and settlement of the West. It was a diplomatic instance. lie would now give, another instance of the same policy from the legislative department of the Government from the Congress of 1785, which he must be permitted to consider as the origin and prototype of all succeeding measures for cramping, crip pling, and stilling the West. It is in th It is in thej ordinance for the t-ale and disposition of the W estern Lands ;the hrstone that passed after the states had surrendered their claims to that territory for the payment of the public debt. This ordinance was reported by a committee of twelve mem bers,eightof them from the north side of the Potomac. They were: Messrs. Lang, of New Hampshire. King ofMassachusettt; Howell, of Rhode Island. All these itulicised passages urr so ia original. TKtfi lucky;

Messrs. Johnson, cf Connecticut. R. R. Livingston, of New York, Stewart, of New Jeisey. Garaner, of Pennsylvania. Henry, of Maryland. Grayson, of Virginia. "Williamson, ofN; Carolina. Bull, of S. Carolina. Houston, of Geci gia. The ordinance reported by the Com

mittee contained the plan of surviving I Ii honied the scientific prm- ........ . - c .p.e o n, ; www-, v. w w ft v. - ? beneficial iu a variety ol ways to the country. The ranges began on the Pennsylvania line and proceeded West to the Mississippi ; and since the acquisition of Louisiana, the) have proceeded West of that river; the townships began upon the O hio river and proceeded North to thu lakes. The townships weiv divided into sections of a mile square, CAO acres each, '' the minim-Urn price was iixed at one dallar ner acre, and not less than a seclinn , ,1 I rTi I l t I' I IlK IS llll O II L ,r.T. " . .7 t.. I ..,. veys,and with the modifications it has n ceived,and may receive, the plan is ex cellent. But a principle was incorporated in the ordinance of the ust fatal character. uus that each township shall be sold out complete hf-Fcre arty land could be offered in the next one! This was tantamount to a law that the lands should not be soldthat the country should not be settled for it is certain that every township, or almost every one would contain land unlit for cultivation, and for which no person would give six hundred and forty dollars for six hundre d and forty acree The effect of such a provision may be judged by the fact that above one hun dred thousand acres remain to this day unsold in the first Land District the District of Steubenville in Ohio, which included the first range and first township. If that provision had remained in the ordinance the settlements would not yet have got out of sight of the Pennsylvania line. It was a wicked and preposterous provision. It u quired the people to take the country clean before them buy all as they went mountain?, hills and swamps; rocks, glens and prairies. They were to make clean work? as the giant Pol) phemus did when he eat up the companions of Ulysses "Abr entrails, blood, nor solid bone remainest" Nothing could be more iniquitous than such a provision in the ordinance. It was like icquiring your guet to eat all the bones on his plate before he should have more meat. To say that Township No. 1 should he sold out complete before To-wnship No. 2, should be offered for sale, was like requiring the bones of the first lui key to be eat up, before the second one shculd be touched. Yet such was the, provision contained in the first ordinunce for the sale of the puplic lauds, reported by a Committee nf twelve, of which eight were from the north and four from the south side of the Potomac. How invincible must have been the determination of soc.m: politicians to prevent Ihe settlement of the West, when thev would thus counter- . .. . . ...... act the sales of the lands which had just oeen obtained, alter years of lmportuni 'y, for the payment of the public debt ! When this ordinance was put upon il passage in Congress, two Virginians, whose names for that act alone would deserve the lasting gratitude of Ihe West, levelled their blows against the obnoxious provision. Mr. Grayson moved to strike it out,, and Mr. Monroe seconde d him;&, after an animated & ardent contest, they succeeded. The whole South supported them; not one dissenting voictj from the South: many scattering members from the North also voted with the South, and in favour of ihe infant West ; proving then, as nov:, and as it always has been, that the West has true supporlers of her rights and interests un.happily not enough of them in that quarter of the Union from which the measures have oiginated that several times threatened to be fatal to her. Mr. B. here adverted to a statemei t made by Mr. Grayson, in the Virginia Convention, and which he had read just before, declaring that the language of some northern members had Um,iut they wanted no Slates in the Wett, Jcc, and ventured the assertion of the belief, lhat it was in the Committee that n ported the ordinance, tbalj that language was used. The occasion was a natui;,! one to produce such language, ai.d there was a gentleman upon that Committee, of a spirit too proud and lolly to uisj-emoie nis sentiment--. The was one which involved the direct ques ftf r:uir,;i tion, whether there should be m-w Stales in the West. The provisuou which required all the land in one township to be sold cut, before the next was offered, was tantamount Jo saving me ihe land should not he m.M L " should not be settled that new S'afs should not be formed. The part acle 1 by Mr. Grayson, in the Home int.v r,nui..g thi-. obnoxious provision, 'ihoiiz. - s the belief that Hp u.,,,V ...

tkeiin Lie Committee, and took the natural -round that il would prevent the forna'imn of new Stales in the West, 'ihe.