The Congressional Globe, Volume 14: Twenty-Eighth Congress, Second Session Page: 71

CONGRESSIONAL GLOBE.
stimulate emigration and enterprise, and had before
maintained that it would too much increase the ag-
gregate of our agricultural products, while the gen-
tleman from Ohio had said over and over some half
dozen times that the bill would not and could not
do any such thing. And yet, strange to say, the
same gentleman, in another part of his speech,
urged it as an objection to the bill that it would do
all this! While he maintained that no legislation of
Congress could assist or accelerate the settlement of
the West, the gentleman and all the party to which
he belonged held that the manufacturing interest of
the East, that the price of labor and the price, of
goods, might all be raised or lowered by the action
of this House. The argument was an absurdity,
and a contradiction in terms. How a man who, for
one quarter of a century, had breathed the pure air
of the West, and drunk deep into the feelings of her
haPP.y sons, could still be adverse to the improve-
ment of her soil, and the consequent increase of
her- strength and prosperity, Mr. P. knew not,
and could not understand. He held that it be-
came all who acted in a public capacity, as
representatives and law-makers, to look not
merely at the passing hour, but at the" final condi-
tion, at the future glory, strength, happiness, and
peace, of their country. It was theirs to look down
th«-vista of time, and to see what line of policy
would produce the greatest amount of good to the
people who intrusted them with legislation. The
man who legislated merely for the hour made but a
poor return for the confidence of his countrymen.
Now, if the House would act on this great princi-
ple, they would favor every measure] the tendency
of which was to increase the population of the Uni-
ted States. This had been a favorite object in all
wise governments, even as far back as the holy the-
ocracy among the Jews. There never had been a
good government on earth that did not seek to mul-
tiply its people, to ameliorate their condition, and to
increase the general means of comfortable subsist-
ence. But the gentleman from Ohio maintained
that, while government could accelerate the growth
of manufactures and advance the interests of the
manufacturing States, it could do nothing to accele-
rate the population and advance the settlement of
the West.
The gentleman held that we had too many agri-
culturists and not enough manufacturers; but Mr.
P. would invite him to compare the condition of the
two. Did he prefer the foetid smells and oily fumes
of a factory to the fragrance of clover-fields and the
perfume of new-mown hay? Which produced the
highest delightin an unsophisticated human bosom?
And then go to individual cases: look at an entire
family, father and mother and all the children, bow-
ing over the loom or tending the spinning-jenney,
and driven to their work as a southern planter drives
his slaves, working, with scarce time for their meals,
from before daylight till long after dark, week in and
week out, with scarce enough hours of rest to re-
cruit their weary frames. Extend this lot to hun-
dreds upon, hundreds, and remember that it was all
for the profit of a few: what inducement could there
be to an increase of population under such circum-
stances? Who would become a husband, or wish
to become a father, only to entail endless deg-
radation and toil upon his offspring, from
infancy down to old age? Here was a con-
dition without individuality, without independ-
ence, and with no prospeet of improvement. Then
take, by way of contrast, the condition of a western
cottager, Who was and felt himself to be lord of his
own soil—ay, of his own heart and head, too.
Would a gentleman, by the operation of a protect-
ive tariff, lead this western farmer to exchange his
happy lot for that of the operative in a factory?—
part with his cheerful hearth and his humble roof
for a lot of slavery?—part with the noble feelings of
.a freeman and a freeholder of the West, to become an
eastern serf, the slave of a manufacturing overseer?
But, apart from considerations of interest, he would
ask gentlemen whether they really desired to con-
vert our western agriculturists into such manufac-
turers as were found in the East.' Could such a
wish be found in any mind? What would be the
sentiment of one who, in his infancy, had seen his
parents in full health, and amidst peace and plenty,
breathing the pure ail', and cultivating the rich soil
of the West, after he had been translated to one of
those sinks of avarice and ceaseless toil in the eas-
tern States? The recollection of his youth and of
his^ happy western home would remain indelibly
engraven on his heart. After some thirty years, af-
ter his aged parentis had passed away, should he
visit the scenes of his nativity, supposing to meet
there the same happy and beloved objects to which
fancy's eye turned back, and on which memory
dwelt with mingled delight and regret, how differ-
ent a scene would meet his eyes ! His happy bark-
roofed cottage, from which the blue smoke once so
cracefully curled, gone; the simple manners and
moderate wishes of an agricultural society vanished;
and in their place the hissing of steam and the hea-
vy black smoke of those huge palaces of manufac-
turing toil where wretched operatives wore out
their lives to augment the wealth of seme heartless
proprietor ! Such might be the policy which some
gentlemen desired should prevail in relation to the
agricultural population of the western States; but
Mr. P. was not one of that class.
And now, to look at the subject in a different
view, in its bearing on the strength, the durability,
and power, of the government itself, and the love of
the people for their free institutions. Would the
time ever come when a country filled with hardy
agriculturists would be subdued by a foreign foe?
No, never. No government whose policy it had
been to foster agriculture", and make every citizen an
owner of the soil, had ever been overthrown. It
never could be. An army of landholders and their
sons were the most invincible force that ever took
the field. So defended, we had nothing to fear.
These were the men that would fight to the last
drop of their blood for their home and hearth-stone.
Mr. P. would ask gentlemen whose plan it was to
make goods cheaper by compelling-people to pay
more for them, whether they would not have some
little fellow-feeling for the interests of western
farmers. He would ask gentlemen who were so
fond of preventing'the population of the East from
passing over the mountains, where they would look
for defenders in case a war should arise, and we
should be threatened with invasion. Whither
would the recruiting sergeant first think of directing
his steps? Would it be to the window of some
eastern factory, in the hope of filling his ranks from
the host of operatives? He might long call in vain;
the sound ef his drum would awake no response in
that quarter. But lethim raise his flag ontheheights
of the Alleghanies—let the roll of his drum wake up
the echoes of the western wilderness,—and from all
the teeming valleys of that happy land would pour
forth in multitudes the farmers and their sons, emu-
lating each other in rallying at their country's call.
If a man would make his country great and happy,
and fill it with people blithe and contented, bold and
independent, let him fill it with tillers of the soil.
Mr. P. had intended to say something in reference
to the particulars of the present bill, but he need not
dwell on its details. It provided for a graduation as
well as a reduction in the prices of the public lands.
The gentleman from Ohio [Mr. Vinton] had ex-
pressed his regret that the price had ever been re-
duced; he thought it a great mistake that it was not
suffered to remain at two dollars the acrc. Now,
Mr. P. could not undertake to say whether the gen-
tleman had bought his own kinds before the reduc-
tion or since. If he had bought them since the
price was brought down to a dollar and a quarter, it
was not very unnatural that he should wish to see
it raised to two dollars: if he bought it before the
reduction, he might perhaps regret that others got it
so much cheaper; and for aught Mr. P. knew, that
might be the true motive of the gentleman's opposi-
tion. He was at a loss to put any ene consistent
construction upon the gentleman's argument, be-
cause its several parts were devoid of all connection,
and contradicted each other. He would read an-
other extract from the gentleman's speech. In the
passage he was going to read the gentleman contra-
dicted himself. Mr. P. had before shown that he
had contradicted .the gentleman from Maryland,
[Mr. Causin,] and the gentleman from Maryland
had contradicted him; now the gentleman contra-
dicted himself.
[Here Mr. P. read from that part of Mr. Vinton's
remarks in which he adverted to the vast amount
of the sales of the public lands in 1836, '37, and '38,
the consequent increase of agricultural productions
and their present reduced price.]
The gentleman had just before insisted that no
action of that House could possibly stimulate West-
ern agriculture: how then did it happen that the
great sales of 1836 operated to reduce the prices of
produce? And yet the gentleman dwelt on the pro-
digious decrease in the value of western products,
and attributed it to the fact that the class of agricul-
turists was too large. Yes, the gentleman's doctrine
■was that we had too great a number of agricultu-
rists—a doctrine which Mr. P. held, and ever should.*1
hold, in utter abhorrence and detestation. Good Heav-
en! The gentleman might as well tell him that there
was too much happiness, too much contentment, to«
much equality, too much independence, among our"
people. Let him compare, in this respect, the farm-
ing population with that of any other portion of th©
community. Could a table be constructed in which,
happiness, independence, contentment, were the sta-
tistics to be recorded, the balance would be found to>
be five to one in favor of the agricultural interests.
If human happiness was to be found on earth, it
was found among them. He did not mean such,
airy and fanciful happiness as poets described—he
did not mean Arcadian felicity—but that true, solidr
substantial happiness which arose from the undis-
turbed and undisputed possession of peace and
plenty. Assuming the agricultural population to
amount to four millions, Mr. P. went into a calcula-
tion to show that their comparative enjoyment was
as twenty-five to one. AVait but the course of na-
ture, cried the gentleman from Ohio—wait but the
course of nature and of time, and all the public
lands would sell at government price. When that •
gentleman and his party invoked the action of this
government to stimulate the interests of manufac-
tures, Mr. P. should remember these words, and
reply to him, Wait but the course of nature and of
time, and in due season all the water powerand all
the steam power that the country possessed or'could
raise would at length be fully occupied. The gen-
tleman's doctrine on this subject reminded him of
an account he had read of an attempt by the Span-
ish government to improve the navigation of a cer-
tain river in that country. The King sent forth
commissioners, who were to make a thorough ex-
amination, and report to him on the propriety of the
scheme. The commissioners, with salaries in pro-
portion to their dignity, went forth to the task, andr
having examined the river very thoroughly, return-
ed, and made report that it would be inexpedient to
engage in the undertaking at present: the river was
just as the Almighty had made it, and if he wanted,
it otherwise, he -would no doubt clear out the ob-
structions. [A laugh.]
The gentleman from Ohio thought it had been a
great mistake to reduce the price of the lands below
two dellars. This was quite in keeping with the fa-
vorite doctrine of the gentleman's party, who
thotight it in all cases better to spend two dollars
than a dollar and a quarter: and hence they were in
favor of a protective tariff; for their greatest fear
was that the people would be able to buy cotton
cloth, and lands, and hats, and boots, too cheap, and
that the democracy woald thus be enabled to buy
shoes to come to the elections when they should be
held in the winter time. [A laugh.] This wasthe
freafc egg which had been hatched and brooded over
y that party during so long an incubation, viz: to
prevent goods and lands being bought too cheap,
and a state of society arising that would prove too
advantageous to mankind. [Mr. P. here again
quoted the speech of Mr. Vinton, in which he
stated it as a fact that the same amount of lands
were taken up at two dollars as had since been
taken at one and a quarter.] This was the doctrine
in one part of the speech; but immediately after, the
gentleman dwelt on the rapid improvement of th&
whole western slope of the Alleghanies. [Mr. P-
here quoted again.] Thus the gentleman contra-
dicted his own position. The commencement and
the eonelusion of his speech agreed well together^
they both advanced the same doctrine: but in the
middle the gentleman's argument took every possi-
ble direction. The great object of dread with him
and his party seemed to be that there shotrld be to
great an amount of agricultural produce, lest by pos-
sibility one straw, or one potatoe or onion, should
go to decay, and so return to remanure the soil.
This was a result most fearful indeed; but the over-
stimulation of manufacturing labor was quite a harm-
less matter. The over-production of manufactured
goods excited no fears at all in that quarter. The
gentleman would rather see the operatives in the.fac-
tories chained down to the loam, ground down in
wages, and actually starved to death, by wealthy-
proprietors, than to have them pass over the moun-
tains and breathe the free air of the West, standing
on their own estates,. and surrounded by all that
could make human beings happy and contented.
Mr. McCLERNAND next took the floor, and
proceeded to reply to the arguments of all the |^r.-
tlemen in succession who had spoken in opposition
to the provisions of the bill. In reply to those who
contended for uniformity in the land system, he>