The Congressional Globe, Volume 14: Twenty-Eighth Congress, Second Session Page: 83
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CONGRESSIONAL GLOBE.
m
dant population. Such an argument, he was sure,
woula not be listened to in the West. If, however,
gentlemen enteitnined the idea that the friends of
this bill were anxious to promote emigration to the
West, they were mistaken. In the West their
population was abundant; and though there were
many poor men .amongst them, yet all were bettered
in their circumstances by removing to it.
He entreated the House to do this act of justice,
aild intimated that if this had been done long ago, it
would have been better for the country. If the
lands had been long since graduated, he believed the
West would have been prosperous and happy. He
could not believe that speculators would turn their
money into public lands for the purpose of holding
them until there was a demand at an advanced price
in the market; and he contended that they should
be sold at graduated prices to the farmers and labor-
ing men who were their actual cultivators.
He then replied to an articlo which lie had read
in a recent publication, which expressed the opinion
that the poor shrewd man would not avail himself
of the provisions of this bill. He said he believed
the poor shrewd man would purchase under the
operation of this bill just in proportion to his means.
He replied to other objections which lmd been made
to this bill, and concluded by earnestly entreating
the House to pass it, and thereby do an act of jus-
tice.
Mr. R. CHAPMAN said it was a rare thing for
him to attempt to get the floor; and the circum-
stances under which he had now succeeded, ] e-
minded him forcibly of the fable of the boy who
falsely cried "wolf, wolf," so often that he was not
believed when he told the truth. He felt a deep in-
terest in this bill, and was desirous to express his
views upon it; and, with that intention, he had
come daily prepared with books and documents to
enforce the views he entertained, but he had not suc-
ceeded in catching the Chairman's eyes; but to-day
he had got the floor, but he had not brought his pa-
pers. [Laughter.] He would, however, proceed
without them. He came from a State which, per-
haps, more than any other, felt the evil conse-
quences of the present land system, which, how-
ever, one gentleman from Ohio [Mr. Vinton] pre-
ferred to any that could be substituted; and if he sat
still while such a bil passed through the House, he
should very soon lose the character which he bore,
of being attentive to the best interests of his con-
stituents.
Appeals had been made to them by gentlemen
from the old States to proceed cautiously in this
matter, and they had spoken of peculiar anxiety
felt by the representatives of the old States. Now,
he thought timt those who saw the evil effects of
the present system were emphatically entitled to ex-
press their anxiety heie, and to speak of the inter-
ests and the necessities of the people residing in
those portions of the country from which they
came, and whom they represented. But a gentle-
mail from Maryland had said that the public land
was acquired by the blood of their revolutionary
fathers, and he wished to know what interest the
new States had in this treasure, so acquired. He
(Mr. C.) would ask that gentleman what better
right the gentleman from Maryland had to this
trust fund, as he termed it, than he (Mr. C.) had.
The blood of his forefathers had been shed for its
acquisition, and not alone the blood of the fore-
fathers of any gentleman from an old State.
Mr. CAUSIN informed the gentleman from Ala-
bama that his remarks had been misapprehended;
and he made some explanation, which was inaudi-
ble at the reporters' desk.
Mr. CHAPMAN, after some other observations,
went on to inquire what the policy of the gentle-
men who were opposed to this bill was. Did they
wish to sell tile public land? If a man desired to
sell a horse, he did not say he did not desiie to do
ho; otherwise, any inquiry about price and terms of
contract would be useless. He did not say that the
provisions of this bill met his entire approbation;
but on this occasion he should not go into an exam-
ination of its details: he held that a change of the
present system was demanded by the exigencies of
the country, if not by the state of the treasury; and
if gentlemen would take the trouble to go through
the reports which had been made on this subject,
they would see that necessity too. He would par-
ticularly call their attention to a report made by
Mr. Norvell, late senator from Michigan, in which
that gentleman went into a minute history of the
land question.
The gentleman lV>m Maryland admitted that the
plan of this bill was not so bad as that to which he
had referred, which was contained in the report to
which he had called the attention of the members of
this House; because this did not propose to give the
land away,_as that did. But he (Mr. Chapman-)
would ask that gentleman to examine the-data, to be
found in that report, and he would find how much
he had misapprehended its tenor. Much had been
said in debates 011 this floor 011 the protective policy
and other prominent topics; but in most of them
gentlemen urged that an ounce of practice wag
worth a pound of theory. Free trade, moderate
rates.of duties, and other kindled measures, were
all brought to the test of experience; but on the
subject of a reduction of the price of the public
lands, and a graduation thereof, whereby the lauds
would be brought down to their real value, the gen-
tleman abandoned the test which, in other cases, they,
set up. Now he called upon them, on this subject,
to listen to those whose experience made them ca-
pable to impart instruction.
He here called tho.attention of the House to the
eleventh article of the Chickasaw treaty, which was
read by the Clerk at the honorable gentleman's request,
to show that the system which he advocated had
been resorted to; and he also caused to be read a
letter from Mr. Blake, the commissioner of public
lands, to show the beneficial effects of the system.
He then went 011 to argue that the graduated price,
if long since established, would have been more
profitable to this government in a financial point of
view, than the system which had been pursued; for
the graduated price, with compound interest thereon,
would have been more than equal to the sum which
had been realized. Looking at it, then, in a fiscal
point of view, he contended that it it was the policy
of this government to pass this bill. But the ad-
vantages to be derived by the people were addition-
al arguments in its favor. In the Chickasaw coun-
try the advantages were plain and palpable; while in
the State of Alabama, from which he came, in which
the land was admittedly of excellent quality, there
was a very large proportion of the public lands
still unsold.
The gentleman referred to the land district of Tus-
caloosa as evidence that the value of these lands, as
estimated by the receivers and registers under tho
resolution of the Senate some years ago, was alto-
gether fallacious; and that the actual sales greatly
exceeded the estimates. The reason was obvious.
The tract called the "Great Cane-brake," when it
was brought into market under the impression that
it was not healthy, and that it was liable to be over-
flowed, was not taken; but since it had been found
both healthy and most fertile, and had been taken.
Mr. C. would call the attention of gentlemen
back to first principles. For what object had these
lands been conveyed by the old States—by his moth-
er State, Virginia, particularly? They had been trans-
ferred, according to the deed of cession, "to be dis-
posed of for settlement." He agreed with the gen-
teman from Maryland [Mr. Cacsin] that there was
a trust; but were there no other parties to this cov-
enant but the government? For what consideration
did the new States agree to forbear taxing the
public lands? In all contracts there was a
consideration for the values transferred. What was
the consideration? He was not disposed to threaten,
but he would tell the gentleman from Maryland, and
othergentlemen, that they had not seen the extent,
the ultimatum of the consequences to which this
system would lead. If persisted in, it would extend
the jurisdiction of this government, over two-thirds
of his State, (Alabama,) and there would be a cor-
responding system adopted there. He did not say
that they would take the public lands; but when an
evil became so momentous &s to call for action—for
remedial action 011 the pan of the oppressed.—we
might look for such action. Already had it been
discussed in their legislature, if the general govern-
ment persisted in holding on with an iron hand upon
the public lands, whether they could not tax them;
whether those lands, which were sold some years
since, and then been relinquished by purchasers in
payment for other lands, did not come without that
provision which restricted the States from taxing the
public lands within their borders. If they had a
right to hold the land above the prices at which it
would sell, they had a right still to increase it, and
say they would adopt the policy not to sell at all. If
he was right, the quantity of public lands unsold
in Alabama, was twenty millions of acres;
which gentlemen coming from the indebted States,
as he did, would feel to be 110 inconsiderable sum,
when they saw that it amounted to $200,000 per
year which Alabama paid for withholding the exer-
cise of that right—a primary right of "all sover-
eigns—to tax the property within their territory.
Although his State had long borne this e\il, it had
become too important, to be overlooked. They
wete immensely in debt; they had been accused of
repudiating their debt. And while 011 this subject,
he wished to notice an article that appeared in the
Intelligencer of the 2"th of August, lc44. He sent
to the Clerk, by whom it was read, the article refer-
red to, in which, among other things, it was said
"the Texas flag waves over Alabama in triumph.
Unable to pay their own debt, tliey go for assuming
an immense foreign debt," &c. He had felt it due
to himself and to his State to notice this imputation
upon her. He should not have expected that the
Intelligencer, without a knowledge of the fact,
would ha-* e come out, and sent out, not only to this
country, but to other countries where it was circu-
lated, the slander that Alabama had repudiated
her debts. He would leave to the editors of
- that paper to remedy the evils they had in-
flicted upon the credit of that State—God knew
to what extent—by this article and by other
articles which he might not have seen; to return
some measure of justice to that State by publishing
an extract from the message of the governor to the
late session of the legislature. Mr. C. caused to be
read the extract referred to, (which we have npt in
our possession.) He left it to the committee wheth-
ei theie could beany sentiment more commendable
to a State which had thus far maintained her fdith,
even by the sacrifice of the interests of her people
by burdensome taxation, fie would also refer the
editors of that paper to the resolutions of the legis-
lature of that State responsive to the resolutions of
the legislatuie of Connecticut and Massachusetts,
accordant to the sentiments expressed by her gov-
ernor, that those who hesitated to pay the just debts
of tlieir government were as liable to the charge of
want of patriotism as those who, in their country's
extremity, hesitated to take up arms in her defence.
Mr. C. apologized for this seeming digression
from the subject under consideration, but remarked
that it was, m reality, directly pertinent thereto, in-
asmuch as their withholding their power of taxation
of the lands rendered them less able to discharge
their obligations of indebtedness. His friend before
him [Mr. Thomas Smith] had so completely answer-
ed the objections to the bill of the gentleman from Ver-
mont [Mr. Collamer] and from Ohio, [Mr. Vinton,]
that Mr. C. deemed it unnecessary to refer to them.
The arguments used against this bill were cut-throat
arguments; while 011 one side it was said it would
encourage speculations, on the other it was said it
would prevent further sales for the present, or until
the requisite time for the proposed reduction of price
had taken place. He left it for the opponents of this
bill to reconcile these conflicting views. Mr. C.
concluded, in opposition to Mr Collasier, that this
system would benefit the poor man, and he men-
tioned, as an argument for the bill, that it would pre-
vent the loss to the country of an untold amount of
productive industry which now took place among
the squatters on the public lands, who barely ex-
erted themselves to raise therefrom sufficient for
their subsistence—the remainder of their time being
unemployed, as they had no inducements to make
improvements to conduce ultimately to the benefit of
speculators who might take those lands. He
urged that if the price of the public lands had been
right in former years 01 inflated paper currency,
and of excessive prosperity, with the reduction
of prices of cotton and other articles it ought
clearly to be reduced at present. The manu-
facturers of the North—whose representatives were
generally opposed to this bill—ought to be satisfied
with making them pay to them bounties, in the
shape of duties, of 40, 50,100, or 200 per cent, on
the necessaries of life, without also insisting upon
the increase of the price of their lands.
Mr C'. referred to the remarks of Mr. Cavsix,
who, he said, had thrown out a new idea that it was
the policy of the old States to keep up the prices of
the public lands, lest their inhabitants should all run
away. Was this the condition on which the States
had ceded their lands to the general government5
Had it not been expressly for the purpose of having
the territory settled and brought into the Union?
Mr. CAUSIN (Mr. C. yielding the floor) ex-
plained that the gentleman from Alabama had fallen
into an error with reference to the position he had
taken. He had not said, as an argument against
this bill, that it would make the inhabitants run
from the old into the new States; he was not op?
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United States. Congress. The Congressional Globe, Volume 14: Twenty-Eighth Congress, Second Session, legislative document, 1845; Washington D.C.. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth2366/m1/99/?rotate=90: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.