Crawfordsville Record, Volume 4, Number 36, Crawfordsville, Montgomery County, 6 February 1836 — Page 1

RECORD.

CIA FORD "liberty and union now and forever, one and inseparable."

W

Volume IV, Number 30.

PUBLISHED WEEKLY, BY I. F. WADE, At two dollars per annum--payable in advance, or within three months after the time of subscribing; two dollars and fifty cents within the year; or three dollars after the year expires. No paper will be discontinued--unless at our option--without special notice and payment of all arrearages. Advertisements, not exceeding twelve lines in length, will be inserted three times for one dollar; and twenty five cents for each subsequent insertion. Advertisements, tor a limited time, or from a dis- tance, must be paid for in advance; other- wise they will be continued at the expense of the advertiser. Letters on business must be post-paid. TWENTY-FOURTH CONGRESS. IN SENATE. December 28. Petitions having been presented--Mr. Crittenden gave notice, on behalf of Mr. Clay, (who was temporarily absent), that he designed to ask leave to introduce his bill for the distribution of the avails of the public lands tomorrow. December 29. After some other busi-ness--Mr. Clay rose, and addressed the chair. Although (said he) I find myself borne down by the severest afflictions with which Providence has ever been pleased to visit me, I have thought that my private griefs ought not longer to prevent me from attempting, ill as I feel qualified, to discharge my public duties. And I now rise, in pursuance of the notice which has been given, to ask leave to ...reduce a bill to appropriate, for a limited time, the proceeds of the sales of the public lands of the United States, and for granting land to certain states. I feel it incumbent

on me to make a brief explanation of the) as the constitution requires, but highly important measure which I have thej wag relaine;j hy him after the expihonor to propose . the bill which I desire , . . . . , 1 .. to introduce provides for the distribution ofj ration of his ofkcial term, and until the proceed of the public lands in the years i the next session of congress, which

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four states of the union, and confoms sub-, lnd lood d beiovcd lhat jnibeen opened? What industry stantially to that which passed in 1NJ3. It . . . . ' , i . i i . i i i h is therefore ofa temporary character; but i,i anticipation of the passage of the stimulated, what labor rewarded it shall be found to have salutary operation it j bill, the president had prepared ob- How many youthful minds might willbein the power of a future congress to j jections to it, which he had intend- have received the blessings of edugive it an indefinite continuance,- and, ifo- ed iQ wilh nosraiive; but cation and knowledge, and been thenvise, it will expire by its own terms, in I , ... .... . , . ! i e the event of war unfortunately breaking he did not. !l the bill had been j rescued from ignorance, vice, and out with any foreign power, the" bill is to j returned, there is reason to believe j ruin ? How many descendants cease, and the fund which it distributes is to', th;;t it would havo passed, nniwiih-1 of Africa might have been transaPP.tohe1Prfecution tf,,;.e.war-;!standit thos3 abjections. In the ported from a country where they I he bill directs that ten per cent, o! the net' fe. . . . J ... I i- i i proceedsof tbe public lands, old within the home, it hrd been carried by a j never can enjoy political or social limits of the seven new states, shall be first ! maioritv of moro than two-thirds, equality, to the native land of their

set apart for them, in addition to the five per cent, reserved by their several compacts with the United States; and that the residue of the proceeds, whether from sales made in the states or territories shall be divided among the twenty-four states, in proportion to their respective federal population. In this respect the bill conforms to that which was in troduced in 1832. For one I should have been willing to have allowed the new states 12 1/2 instead of ten per cent: but as that was objected to by the president, in his veto message, and has been opposed in other quarters, I thought it best to restrict the allowance to the more moderate sum. The bill also contains large and liberal grants of lands to several of the new states, to place them upon an equality with others to which the bounty of congress has been heretofore extended, and provides that, when other new states shall be admitted into the union, they shall receive their share of the common fund . The net amount of the sales of the public lands in the year I833 was tin sum of $3, 967,682 55, in the year 1834 was $4,857,600 69, and in the year 1835, according to actual receipts in the first three quarters, and an estimate of the fourth, is $12,222,121 15 -making an aggregate for the three years of $21,047,404 39. This aggregate is what the bill proposes to distribute and pay to the twenty four states on the first day of May, 1836, upon the principles which I have stated. The difference between the estimate made by the secretary of the treasury and that which I have offered of the product of the last quarter of this year, arises from my having taken, as the probable sum, one-third of the total amount of the three first quarters, and he some other conjectural sum. Deducting from the .$21,057,404 39 the fifteen per cent, to which the seven new states, according to the bill, will be first entitled, amounting to $2,612,250 18, there will remain for distribution, among the twenty-four states of the union, the sum of $18,436,054 21. Of this sum the proportion of Kentucky will be $960,047 41 ; of Virginia, the sum ot $1,581,669 39; of North Carolina, $988,632 42; and of Pennsylvania, $2,083,233 32.--The proportion of Indiana, including the fifteen per cent will be $855,588 23; of Ohio, $1,677,110 84; and of Mississippi, $948,945 42. And the proportions of all the twenty-four states are indicated in a table which I hold in my hand, prepared at my instance in the office of tho secretary of the senate, and to which any senator may have access, The grounds on which

CR AWFOKDSVILLE, INDIANA, FEBRUARY C, 1836.

the extra allowance is made to the new states are, first, their com - plaint that all lands sold by the federal government are five year ex- empted from state taxation; secondly, that it is to be applied in such a manner as will augment the value of the unsold public lands within them ; and, lastly, their recent settlement. It may be recollected that a bill passed both houses of congress, in the session which terminated on the 3d of March, 1833, for the dis- tribution of tho amount received from the public lands, upon the principles of that now offered. The president, in his message at the commencement of the previous session, had specially invited the attention of congress to the subject of the public lands; had adverted to their liberation from the pledge for the payment of the public debt; and had intimated his readiness to concur in any disposal of them which might appear to congress most conducive to the quiet, harmony, and general interest of the American people. After such a message, the president's disapprobation of the bill could not have been anticipated. It was presented to him on the 2d of March, 1833. It was not returned had no power to act upon it. It Was And, in the senate, although there was not the majority on its passage, it was supposed that, in consequence of the passage of the compromise bill, some of the senators who had voted against the land bill had changed their views, and would have voted for it upon its return, and others had left the senate. There are those who believe that the bill was unconstitutionally retained by the president, and is now the law of the land. But whether it be so or not, the general government holds the public domain in trust for the common benefit of all the states; and it is, therefore, competent to provide by law that the trustee shall make distribution of the proceeds of the three past years, as well as future years, among those entitled to the beneficial interest. The bill makes such a provision. And it is very remarkable, that the sum which it proposes lo distribute is about the gross surplus, or balance, estimated in the treasury on the 1st of January, 1836. When the returns of the last quarter of the year come in, it will probably be found that the surplus is larger than the sum which the bill distributes. But if it should not be, there will remain the seven millions held in the bank of the U. States, applicable, as far as it may be received, to the service of the ensuing year. It would be premature now to enter into a consideration of the probable revenue of future years; but, at the proper time, 1 think it will not be difficult to show that, exclusive of what may be received from the public lands, it will be abundantlv sufficient for all the economical purposes of government, in a time of peace. And the bill, as I have already stated, provides for seasons of war. I wish to guard against all misconception by repeating what I have heretofore several times said, that this bill is not foun-

ded upon any notion of a power in

congress to lay and collect taxes and distriibute tho amount among the several stales, I think congress possesses no such power, and has no right to exercise it until some such amendment as that proposed by the senator from South Carolina, (Mr. Calhoun) shall be adopted.--But the bill rests on the basis of a clear and comprehensive grant of power to congress over the terri- tories and property of the United States in the constitution, and upon express stipulations in the deeds of cession. Mr. president, I have ever regarded, with feelings of the profoundest regret, the decision which the president of the United States felt himself induced to make on the bill of 1833. If it had been his pleasure to approve it, the heads of department would not now be taxing their ingenuity to find out useless objects of expenditures, or objects which may be well postponed to a more distant day. If the bill had passed, about twenty millions of dollars would have been, during the last three years, in the hands of the several states, applicable by them to the beneficent purposes of internal improvement, education, or colonization. What immense benefits might not have been diffused throughout the land by the active employment of that large sum?--What new channels of commerce and communication might not have lathers, where no impediment exists to their attainment of the highest degree of elevation, intellectual, social, and political? Where they might have been successful instruments, in the hands of God, to spread the religion of his Son, and to lay the foundations of civil liberty! And, sir, when we institute a comparison between what might have been effected, and what has been in fact done, with that large amount of national treasure, our sensations of regret, on account of the fate of the bill of 1833, are still keener. Instead of its being dedicated to the beneficent uses of the whole people, and our entire country, it has been an object of scrambling amongst local corporations, and locked up in the vaults, or loaned out by the directors of a few of them, who are not under the slightest responsibility to the government or people of the United Slates. Instead of liberal, enlightened and national purposes, it has been partially applied to local, limited and selfish uses. Applied lo increase the semiannual dividends of favorite stockholders in favorite banks? Twenty millions of the national treasure are scattered in parcels among petty corporations; and whilst they are growling over the fragments, and greedy for more, the secretaries are brooding on schemes for squandering the whole. But, although we have lost three precious years, the secretary of the treasury tells us that the principal is yet safe, and much good may be still achieved with it. The general government, by an extraordinary exercise of executive power, no longer affords aid to any new works of internal improvement. Altho it sprung from the union, and cannot survive the union, it no longer engages in any public improvement to perpetuate the existence of the union. It is but justice to acknowledge that, with the cooperation of

the public-spirited state of Mary-

land, it effected one national road having that tendency. But the spirit of improvement pervades the land, in every variety of form, active, vigorous and enterprising, wanting pecuniary aid as well as intelligent direction. The states have undertaken what the general government is prevented from accomplishing. They are strengthening the union by various lines of communication thrown across and through the mountains. New York has completed one great chain. Pennsylvania another, bolder in conception and far more arduous in the execution. Virginia has a similar work in progress, worthy of all her enterprise and energy. A fourth farther south, where the parts of the union are too loosely connected, has been projected, and it can certainly be executed with the supplies which this bill affords, and perhaps not without them. This bill passed, and these and other similar undertakings completed, we may indulge the patriotic hope that our union will be bound by ties and interests that render it indissoluble. As the general government withholds all direct agency from these truly national works, and from all new objects of internal improvement, ought it not to yield to the states, what is their own, the amount received from the public lands? It would thus but execute faithfully a trust expressly created by the original deeds of cession, or resulting from the treaties of acquisition. With this ample resource, every desirable object of improvement, in every part of our extensive country, may, in due lime, be accomplished.--Placing this exhaustless fund in the hands of the several members of the confederacy, their common federal head may address them in the glowing language of the British bard, and Bid harbors open, public ways extend, Bid temples worthier of the God ascend, Bid the broad arch the dangerous flood contain. The mole projecting break the roaring main. Back to his bound their subject sea command, And roll obedient rivers through the land. The affairs of the public lands was forced upon me. In the session of 1831-2 a motion, from a quarter politically unfriendly to me, was made to refer it lo the committee of manufactures, of which I was a member. I strenuously opposed the reference. I remonstrated, I protested, I entreated, I implored. It was in vain that I insisted that the committee on the public lands was the regular standing committee to which the reference should be made. It was in vain that I contended that the public lands and domestic manufactures were subjects absolutely incongruous. The unnatural alliance was ordered by the vote of a majority of the senate. I felt that a personal embarrassment was intended me. I felt that the design was to place in my hands a many-edged instrument, which I could not touch without being wounded. Nevertheless I subdued all my repugnance, and I engaged assiduously in the task which had been so unkindly assigned me. This, or a similar bill, was the offspring of my deliberations. When reported, the report accompanying it was referred by the same majority of the senate to the very committee on the public lands to which I had unsuccessfully sought to have the subject originally assigned, for the avowed purpose of obtaining a counteracting report. But, in spite of all opposition, it passed the senate at that session. At the next, both houses of congress. I confess I feel anxious for the fate of this measure, lesson on account of any agency I have had in proposing it--as I hope and believe--

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than from a firm, sincere, and thorough conviction, that no one measure ever presented to the councils of the nation was fraught with so much unmixed good, and could exert such powerful and enduring influence in the preservation of the union itself, and upon some of its highest interests. If I can be instrumental, in any degree, in the adoption of it, I shall enjoy, in that retirement into which l hope shortly lo enter, a heart-feeling satisfaction and a lasting consolation. I shall carry there no regrets, no complaints, no reproaches on my own account. When I look back upon my humble origin, left an orphan too young to have been conscious of a father's smiles and caresses, with a widowed mother, surrounded by a numerous offspring, in the midst of pecuniary embarrassments, without a regular education, without fortune, without friends, without patrons, I have reason to be satisfied with my public career. I ought to be thankful for the high places and honors to which I have been called by the favor and partiality of my countrymen,--and I am thankful and grateful. And I shall take with me the pleasing consciousness that, in whatever station I have been placed, I have earnestly and honestly labored to justify their confidence by a faithful, fearless, and zealous discharge of my public duties. Pardon these personal allusions. I make the motion of which notice has been given. Leave was then granted, and the bill was introduced, read twice, referred to the committee on the public lands, and ordered to be printed. From the Indiana Journal. SONG. When Freedom first her flag unfurl'd. When Freedom first her flag unfurled Wide o'er the earth and sea, She bade this lost and struggling world Exutitngly be free. And as she rear'd her beauteous form, And bared her arm to save, She cried amid the gathering storm, 'Tis glory for the brave!' Amid that dark and awful night Which our forefathers knew, She marked the Victor of the fight, And bore him safely through. True to her charge our hearts have raised A temple to his fame; And on the pinnacle has blazed The immortal Hero's name. When next Oppression round our land Drove his terrific car, She seized in haste the avenging brand, And rush'd amidst the war--By virtue led our gallant youth, She sent them eager forth; Bade Jackson save the affrighted south, And Harrison the north. The listening nations stood aghast At Freedom's battle cry; Her shriek was on the driving blast, Her thunders in the sky. And see! that soul-enslaving crew Which held us shackled down, They shrunk from our disdainful view, And earth's indignant frown. High swells the voice of Freedom now, With songs of triumph graced; 'While round the illustrious Jackson's brow 'The civic wreath is placed, 'Shall love and honor be denied 'The noble and the brave, 'And all a nation's power and pride 'Be heaped upon a slave?' The west has caught the enlivening sound Through her reechoing sky; Her gallant hearts are gathering round, Her waving banners fly; And you, ye tyrants, ye who boast To rule with hate and scorn; We dare defy your raging host, And gird our armor on. 'Tis vain to strive, you cannot crush The hopes of freemen now; Sooner shall life's last red drops gush, Than we will shrink or bow. There's Truth upon our polished shield; There's Justice on our sword; And a shout to ring in the battle-field--And Harrison 's the word. IMPORTANT FROM TEXAS, The Louisville Journal of the I3th instant, says that the southern mail of Sunday (Jan. 10) brought this endorsement on a waybill--"Gen. Gos has been killed, and every armed Mexican driven out of Texas."