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H. OF R.]

Chickasaw Treaty.

private debts, as well as his debt to Government, and should find himself unable to discharge both, all he would have to do would be to pay his private debts, and then tell the Secretary that he was unable to pay the United States, in which case he would be released. The only guard against this was the discretion of the Secretary, and the interposition of the board of commissioners. But every body knew how easy it was to tell a smooth tale, and support it by plausible evidence. Mr. F. was opposed to empowering any officer of the Government to release the creditors of the United States. That power ought to remain in Congress alone.

Mr. ELLSWORTH replied, and vindicated the bill as not going an inch beyond the true intent and meaning of the former act. The gentleman seemed willing that those creditors should be released who had rich friends or relations to advance a part of the debt, but would leave the poor man, however honest, under a hopeless burden, because he was without such friends.

Mr. McDUFFIE inquired whether the bill went to release debtors who had responsible sureties.

Mr. ELLSWORTH replied in the negative. Mr. McDUFFIE desired that this should appear on the face of the act, and, with a view to that end, moved that the further consideration be postponed till to-morrow. The motion prevailed, and the bill was postponed accordingly.

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 21. CHICKASAW TREATY.

The resolution moved some time since by Mr. EVERETT, on the subject of one of the articles contained in a recent treaty with the Chickasaw Indians, again coming up for consideration,

Mr. EVERETT, referring to a motion made by Mr. WILDE to commit the resolution to a Committee of the Whole on the state of the Union, said that he did not doubt that gentleman had been influenced solely by a wish to bring the debate to a close, an object he was himself equally desirous to attain. He thought the resolution had nothing to do with our Indian affairs, and that, therefore, there was no reason to refer it to the Indian Committee. So far as the inquiry pertained to any of the departments of Government, it belonged rather to that on the public lands. Mr. E. knew that it was not in order at present to enter into the general debate, although some remarks had been indulged in, which seemed to call for a reply from him: reserving to himself the opportunity to reply to them at a suitable time, he should, at present, modify his resolution, so as to send the inquiry to the Committee on Public Lands, that being the standing committee of the House to which it most appropriately belonged. If any thing was to be done in the matter, he was willing to leave it in their hands, and to abstain at present from all debate, as premature. He hoped, under these circumstances, that the gentleman from Georgia [Mr. WILDE] would consent to withdraw the motion he had made, and that the further debate on the resolution be deferred until the committee's report could be received. Mr. E. accordingly modified

his resolution to read as follows:

Resolved, That the Committee on Public Lands be instructed to inquire to whom, and on what conditions, the tract of land reserved by the fourth article of the treaty with the Chickasaw tribe of Indians of October 19, 1818, was leased: whether the said tract has reverted to the United States on the failure of the conditions of the reservation: whether any change has been made, or attempted to be made, in the lease aforesaid, inconsistent with the conditions and object of the reservation; and, if so, when, by whom, in whose favor, and to what effect, said change was made, or attempted to be made: by whom the tract aforesaid is now occupied, possessed, or claimed: what

[FEB. 21, 1832

was its reputed value in 1818, and what is its value, as far as the same can be ascertained: with power to send for persons and papers, and with leave to report what measures (if any) it is proper for this House to adopt in the premises.

Mr. WILDE said that the gentleman had been perfectly correct in supposing that his sole object had been to put an end to the debate. After some observations on the great inconvenience of permitting a protracted debate from morning to morning to usurp the hour allotted for reports and resolutions, he signified his willingness to withdraw the motion he had made, for referring the resolution of Mr. EVERETT to a Committee of the Whole on the state of the Union, and he withdrew it accordingly. Mr. BELL, chairman of the Committee on Indian Affairs, said that it must be obvious no such course would put an end to the debate. He should have been willing to vote for the motion which had just been withdrawn, as he supposed that all the developments had been made which were intended. The present motion of the gentleman from Massachusetts was more exceptionable than any that had yet been made. The reference of the subject to the Committee on Public Lands would not bring the action of the House to a focus, nor would the profession of the gentleman from Massachusetts to regard the subject as connected with the public domain, succeed in diverting the House from the aspect he had previously given it. adopting such a course, the House would only get out of one difficulty into another, for, admitting the question involved to be a question of private right, Congress could not decide it without usurping an authority which did not belong to them. Interests far more vital than those concerned in the trifling proposition which had been made, were involved in this subject. Mr. B. did not stand up in defence of any private individual. It was much higher considerations which brought him in opposition to the motion. He distinctly saw the motives which rendered the mover of the resolution so unwilling that it should go to the Committee on Indian Affairs; as a private individual, he disregarded that; but occupying the situation he did, he must contend for the rights of that committee. The course now proposed he considered as highly improper and reprehensible.

By

If the object intended was to expose the conduct of particular individuals, let it be distinctly avowed, let it appear on the face of the resolution: let it not be screened behind a seeming concern, lest the public lands should be invaded. The object might be a legitimate one, if it were intended to be the basis for future legislation. He had no right to deny that it was so, but he for one should be late in believing it. The question involved was a judicial question; the question whether Currin or Lewis had a right to the land, he insisted, was simply a judicial question. According to his view the title of the land was passed by the treaty of 1818, but who had a right to it, was not for that House to determine; and whether the Senate should ratify the treaty or not, the rights of individuals would remain the same. He should move that the resolution be referred to the Committee on Indian Affairs. He thought the House had had enough of the discussion, and he wished to bring it to an end, not, however, because he feared any further developments.

Mr. JEWETT was about to speak to the resolution, when the chairman reminded him that he could not go into the merits on a mere question of reference.

Mr. DRAYTON contended that the appropriate reference of the resolution would be to the Committee on the Judiciary.

Mr. DAVIS, of South Carolina, thought differently, and was in favor of its reference to the Committee on Public Lands.

Mr. WICKLIFFE, though not seeking to be burdened with this inquiry, promised that, should the subject be

FEB. 23, 1832.]

Bank of the United States.--Patent to Aliens.- -General Land Office.

[H. OF R.

referred to his committee, he would give it the most Hughes, Hunt, Huntington, Ihrie, Irvin, Jarvis, Jenifer, prompt attention, and pledged himself that the facts of Cave Johnson, Kendall, Kennon, A. King, Letcher, the case should be fully presented to the House. He Marshall, Maxwell, McDuffie, McKay, McKennan, Milliregretted that any gentleman should appear unwilling thatgan, Newton, Pearce, Pendleton, Pitcher, Potts, Ranthe facts of this case should be embodied in testimony, dolph, Root, Russel, W. B. Shepard, Smith, Southard, and put in a tangible form. He could not agree with the Stanberry, Storrs, Taylor, F. Thomas, Tompkins, Tracy, gentleman from Tennessee, that the subject belonged to Vance, Verplanck, Washington, Wilkin, Wheeler, E. the Committee on Indian Affairs; as he understood it, the Whittlesey, E. D. White, Wickliffe, Wilde, Williams, title of the Indians was wholly gone, and the only ques-Young.--92. tion remaining was, whether the reservation belonged to

NAYS.--Messrs. Adair, Alexander, Anderson, Angel, the public lands, or was the property of individual citizens Barringer, Beardsley, Bell, Bergen, Bethune, James Blair, of the United States. The question was not between the John Blair, Bouck, Bouldin, J. Brodhead, J. C. BrodUnited States and the Indians at all, and therefore the In-head, Cambreleng, Carr, Carson, Chinn, Clay, Clayton, dian Committee had no jurisdiction of the subject. He Conner, Craig, Crawford, Dayan, Doubleday, Foster, had no objection that it should go to the Judiciary Com- Gaither, Gilmore, Gordon, T. H. Hall, W. Hall, Hawes, mittee; he was desirous that the facts should be fully and Hawkins, Hogan, Holland, Hubbard, Jewett, R. M. Johnspeedily investigated. Let the House first get possession son, Kavanagh, J. King, H. King, Lamar, Lansing, Leaof facts, and then go on to the argument. vitt, Lecompte, Lent, Lewis, Lyon, Mann, Mardis, Mason, McCarty, McCoy, McIntire, T. R. Mitchell, Muhlenberg, Newnan, Nuckolls, Pierson, Polk, E. C. Reed, Rencher, Roane, A. H. Shepperd, Speight, Standifer, Stephens, P. Thomas, Wiley Thompson, John Thomson, Ward, Wardwell, Wayne, Weeks, Campbell P. White, Worthington.-77.

Mr. WILDE now moved to postpone the consideration of this subject to this day fortnight.

On that question Mr. EVERETT demanded the yeas and nays, and they were ordered by the House.

Mr. TAYLOR, of New York, thereupon moved the previous question.

Mr. IRVIN inquired what would be the effect of that motion.

The CHAIR replied that it would cut off the several motions which had been made to change the reference of the resolution, and that the main question would be on Mr. EVERETT's resolution as now modified.

Mr. WILLIAMS moved a call of the House, but the motion was negatived-yeas 63, nays 70.

The House refused to sustain the previous questionyeas 55, nays 71.

The question then recurring on Mr. WILDE's motion for postponement,

Mr. WICKLIFFE commenced to address the House in opposition to it, when the SPEAKER reminded him that the question was not debatable.

Mr. WICKLIFFE insisted that, as the motion was to a day certain, it was debatable.

The CHAIR decided that, inasmuch as it was a question relating to the priority of business, it could not be debated. Mr. WICKLIFFE said that, although he had been a member of that House for nine years, and had never, in the course of that time, appealed from the decision of the Chair, or, so far as he recollected, ever voted in opposition to it, he was constrained at this time to take an appeal. He could not consider this as a question of the priority of business, because there was no other subject which conflicted with that it was proposed to postpone.

The CHAIR, after a moment's reflection, retracted the decision, and admitted the subject to be debatable.

Mr. STANBERRY presumed that the question of postponement opened the merits of the resolution; and was about to address the House on that subject, but the

SPEAKER decided otherwise.

The question was then put on the postponement, and decided by yeas and nays-yeas 73, nays 86.

Mr. TAYLOR now renewed his call for the previous question, and it was sustained by the House-yeas 75, nays 59.

The main question (on the adoption of the resolution) being put, was carried, as follows:

YEAS.-Messrs. Adams, C. Allan, Allison, Appleton, Archer, Armstrong, Babcock, Banks, N. Barber, J. S. Barbour, Barnwell, Barstow, I. C. Bates, Branch, Briggs, Bucher, Bullard, Burges, Cahoon, Chandler, Choate, Claiborne, Collier, S. Condit, B. Cooke, Crane, Creighton, Daniel, Davenport, John Davis, Dearborn, Denny, Dewart, Dickson, Doddridge, Drayton, Duncan, Ellsworth, G. Evans, J. Evans, E. Everett, Felder, Fitzgerald, Ford, Grennell, Griffin, Heister, Hodges, Howard,

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A bill granting letters patent to certain aliens was read a second time, and ordered to be engrossed, and read a third time to-morrow.

Mr. TAYLOR, in explanation of the bill, said the patentee is a native of Massachusetts, who went to Europe a few years ago, and obtained in England, France, and Prussia, patents for several inventions, of which he is the inventor. He there met with certain individuals who had invented a great improvement in the manufacture of ropes out of flax, the merit of which chiefly lay in the fact that the fibres of the flax were laid in the rope longitudinally; the consequence of which was an increase in the strength of the rope, amounting by experiment to twenty-eight per cent. This new manufacture was conducted secretly, but Mr. Abel was admitted to share in the concern on condition that he should obtain a patent for the improvement in the United States. He had accordingly brought out with him models and machinery requisite to set up the manufacture here, should the patent be granted. The committee were of opinion that the improvement was a valuable one, and might with advantage be introduced into the navy yards of the United States, and, although the inventors were foreigners, they considered it expedient that the patent should issue. They had, therefore, reported a bill. The House then went into Committee of the Whole, and took up the general appropriation bill.

GENERAL LAND OFFICE.

The following item having been reported in blank, viz. "For compensation for extra aid during 1832, in the

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General Land Office.

[FEB. 23, 1832.

He deemed it

office of the Commissioner of the General Land Office, in proportion to the extent of the survey. the issuing military land scrip, patents founded on Vir- necessary to make these remarks, in vindication of the ginia military surveys, and on private claims, making in-officer at the head of the Land Office. The country in dexes, and writing and recording patents for land sold, which he lived was deeply concerned in the issuing of dollars." patents, and had suffered very serious injury from the Mr. McDUFFIE stated that the commissioner was de-delay which had occurred. Settlers had paid their money, sirous of an appropriation of $20,000 for these objects; but as the committee had not had an opportunity to investigate the subject, he would, for the present, move to fill the blank with $4,000, being the same sum which had been appropriated for these objects last year.

but could make no transfer of the lands they had purchased, because they could not get their patents for it. If that delay was persevered in, the injury must be still further increased.

Mr. McDUFFIE explained, and said that it had been the Mr. WICKLIFFE inquired whether the committee had intention of the Committee of Ways and Means, either to been informed in what manner the money granted last move the reference of this whole subject to the Committee year had been expended. This was not an ordinary re-on Public Lands, or else to go to the Land Office and inves gular appropriation, but one which had been asked for, in tigate it for themselves. They were asked for $20,000, order to bring up arrears, and the House had then been and could not properly refuse until the subject was extold that the sum would be sufficient for that end. But amined. the individual now at the head of the bureau informed the House that the business behindhand in his office would require fifty-five clerks for twelve months, and an enlargement of the treasury building, but if the building must continue of its present size, he would be willing to put up with fifteen clerks for five years. All this extra labor, it seemed, was necessary in filling up patents for

land.

Mr. WICKLIFFE replied to Mr. InvIN. That gentleman seemed to think it necessary that the House should grant a certain sum to the Commissioner of the Land Office, because that gentleman told them that his office was in need of it. Now, with all his willingness to give due weight to the opinions and recommendations of every Executive, he must take leave to protest against the gentleman's doctrine, that the House was bound to take Now, Mr. W. was willing to admit that there might whatever estimates were sent them, and appropriate achave been a great increase in the patents issued within the cordingly. He held a very different creed; and believed last twelve or eighteen months. He recollected, how-that Congress was blameable in not having looked more ever, that the valuable man who had formerly held the narrowly into the increasing requisitions which from year same situation, and whose services deserved to be most to year were made upon them. The true Committee on highly appreciated by the House, (Mr. Graham,) had Retrenchment was the Committee of Ways and Means. told him when, as chairman of the Retrenchment Com- He presumed that the $20,000 now asked for was founded mittee, he had inquired of him whether there were any on an estimate of seventeen cents for each patent issued. clerks in his office which might be dispensed with; that He was well apprised of the fact that more than sixty there were none, because he had discharged within the words had to be written in a patent for military bounty six months previous; yet, with this diminished force, Mr. land; but he knew also that that branch of business was Graham had been able to get along. Now, however, it rapidly decreasing. Since the year 1830, the Governseemed that there must be a great accumulation of ar-ment had given scrip instead of issuing patents for that rears, and all this was charged upon the arrangement by description of land. Mr. W. had been struck with the which the issuing of the Virginia land scrip had been increase of arrearages since the time of Mr. Graham. thrown into his office. Mr. W. had made an estimate, from They had increased at a rate greatly beyond the increase which it appeared that seventeen cents was allowed for of the business. Mr. Graham had been able to keep up recording one patent. He wanted to know whether all with the course of business till the time of his lamented this extra labor was to be paid for at the same rate. He death; and yet now, in two years, the House was told that did not pretend to know how many patents an active clerk the arrears required fifty-five clerks, and an enlargement might fill up in a day. He presumed, however, that he of the treasury building. Last year the commissioner had might fill up a good many during the time that it would asked for ten clerks, now he asked for fifteen, and next occupy to write one political letter. year he supposed he would want twenty.

Mr. IRVIN, of Ohio, thought that, as to the expendi- Mr. IRVIN said it was indifferent to him whether a suftures in the Land Office, individual members ought not to ficient appropriation to bring up the business of the Land take upon themselves to decide what should be its amount. Office was made in this bill, or in one to be introduced hereThe business in that office was known to be daily increas- after by the committee. It was highly essential that the ing, and each entry required the same labor. If the gen-office be relieved; and he thought he was doing only his tleman from Kentucky had attended to the sums received duty to the West, to move to fill the blank with $20,000. during the last two years for land, he would find that it The question was then taken on this motion, and lost. amounted to nearly three millions of dollars, while a few Mr. CLAY said the predecessor of the present Commisyears since it amounted to but one million. The entries,sioner of the Land Office had been alluded to by the gentherefore, required three times the amount of labor that tleman from Kentucky, [Mr. WICKLIFFE,] as having diswas formerly necessary; and it was still further increased missed six clerks for want of employment. And what by the great number of private land claims which had have been the consequences of this ill-judged attempt at recently been confirmed in Florida and Mississippi. When retrenchment? Sir, the report made to this House fifteen officers of high and honorable standing had been selected months ago, shows that there is more labor to be done to preside over the public offices, it ought certainly to be in that office, than four times its present force could taken for granted that they would not come to that House promptly accomplish. The immense accumulation of and ask for an appropriation that their department did business, under such a state of things, can be readily imanot need. The House had before it the declaration of a gined. The effect of this retrenchment mania seizing sworn officer, and Mr. I. felt bound to take that officer's upon the particular officer to whom the gentleman bad statement in opposition to mere conjectures. The gen-alluded, (Mr. Graham,) has been highly serious to the tleman from Kentucky had said it required but sixty words people of the new States. There are said to be 40,000 to fill up a patent; this might be very true as to the lands patents due to citizens, who cannot obtain them. This cirsurveyed by the United States, and sold at their land cumstance has thrown great difficulties in the way of the offices; but it did not apply to patents for military sur-transaction of business. Until very recently, no sale veys, because there the words to be written increased in whatever could be made, unless the patent had issued.

FEB. 23, 1832.]

Surveys of Public Lands.

[H. OF R.

Purchasers, who had paid their money to the Government Perhaps, on a particular inquiry, the chairman of the Comfor lands, were knocking at your doors for the evidence mittee of Ways and Means might have obtained more inof their title. Will the gentleman [Mr. WICKLIFFE] un- formation on the subject. But there was quite evidence dertake to say that these evidences might be had, had enough, prima facie, that the expenditures of this branch the clerks in the Land Office been diligent and faithful of the public service have greatly increased. As he had It was too obvious to require discussion, that further force no doubt but the estimate upon which the chairman of the was necessary. The head of the department gives this Committee of Ways and Means had founded his motion information to the committee in the usual course of busi- was correct, he should support it, until some shade of ness. He hoped the House would act upon this informa-probability was raised that the appropriation was not netion, that the number of clerks in that office may be cessary. He had intended to have risen upon the other immediately increased, to enable the commissioner to item, to express his belief of the necessity of the additional attend promptly and faithfully to the rights of the pur-force in the Land Office stated by the commissioner. chasers of the public domain. He would not now say When we consider the arrearages that have gradually that $20,000 was necessary; it would be time to consider grown out of the increased sale of lands, together with that question when the bill suggested by the chairman of the current business arising from an annual sale of five or the Committee of Ways and Means comes before the six millions of dollars, contrasted with the former sales of House. The gentleman from Ohio [Mr. IRVIN] had very two or three millions, he did not think the estimate at all pertinently alluded to the increase of business in the office. extravagant. Nearly double the quantity of public land was sold last year, compared with the sale of any former year. Mr. WICKLIFFE disclaimed having made any charge upon the clerks. He would do them the justice to say that he believed none were more industrious. At the same time he hoped the gentleman from Alabama would do him the justice to confess that his views respecting the head of the bureau and the state of business there coin-lation, but had introduced derangement into the adminiscided very much with his own.

Mr. CLAY, in reply, admitted that great difficulty and delay occurred in getting answers to inquiries from the land commissioner.

The question being at length put, the blank was filled with $4,000.

SURVEYS OF PUBLIC LANDS. When the following paragraph was read: "For surveying public lands dollars," Mr. MCDUFFIE moved that the blank be filled with 160,000.

Mr. VINTON inquired the reason of moving this large and unprecedented sum.

Mr. McDUFFIE said that 80,000 were to be appropriated to the ordinary surveys of the public land, and that the additional 80,000 were required to survey the lands recently relinquished to the United States by the Choctaw treaty.

Mr. VINTON, of Ohio, took the ground he had done in former years, in opposing so large an appropriation for this object. He thought one-half the amount was quite sufficient. He insisted warmly on the injurious consequences of going on to survey large amounts of new lands, while so small a proportion of that already in the market was annually sold. This made land a drug, depreciated the value of real estate in States more thickly settled, and led to the selection of the best land and the finest millseats by speculators and squatters.

Mr. ADAMS said he hoped the sum moved by the chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means would be allowed to pass. He had regretted that the motion of the gentleman from Ohio, [Mr. IRVIN,] relative to increasing the appropriation for the Land Office, had not been sustained. It must be obvious to any gentleman that, under a sale of three millions of acres per annum instead of one million, all the labors of every kind, from surveying up to recording patents, cannot be performed at the same expense. He had hoped the cry of "retrenchment" was now past. He had found, in the course of his recent experience, that many gentlemen believed there was less necessity for it in fact than he did. He thought it was very desirable when it was applied to the proper objects. There could be no man in this House who believed that it did not require more labor to bring the proceeds from the sale of public lands to the amount of three millions of acres into the treasury, than to bring in the proceeds of one million.

Mr. VINTON said he had not intended to go into any debate on this subject. He entirely agreed that sufficient appropriations ought to be made to enable Government to go on efficiently in the accomplishment of proper measures. On the subject of additional surveys of public lands, he had an opinion long since formed. Those surveys had not only outstripped the necessities of the poputration of public lands. Surveys, to the excessive amount that has taken place, have deeply affected the value of all the landed property in the West. The present system has been in operation about thirty years. During that period about twenty-three or twenty-four millions of acres have been sold. We have surveyed between two and three hundred millions of acres. Last year between one and two hundred millions were surveyed, of which twenty-five or thirty millions have never been brought to market--an amount greater than our whole sales. What is the effect? Land is like every thing else: if the supply and demand preserve a proper relation, every thing goes on regularly; but throw an immense amount into market beyond the demand, it will become a mere drug, like all other commodities treated in the same manner. The public lands were sold in the place where he resided forty years ago. Thirty years ago unimproved lands, in the hands of individuals, were more valuable than now. improved lands in Ohio are not generally worth so much as they were twenty or thirty years ago. The reason was, the throwing such excessive quantities into the market beyond the demand. At the rates usually paid for surveying, one hundred and sixty thousand dollars ought to survey ten or twelve millions of acres. The annual sales have been about two millions. We have now from one hundred to one hundred and fifty millions in the market. A private individual, by this course, on a small scale, would soon ruin himself. It is certainly enough to survey as fast as we sell, keeping up the stock on hand for sale. By the course pursued, of putting large tracts at once into the market, all the finest lands and best millseats are taken up by speculators at very little if any more than the minimum price. There is a constant anxiety among the frontier settlers to press forward. None are willing to be on the border of population. The settlements are kept in a scattered state. He was willing that the lands be surveyed as fast as they could be sold. With the enormous quantity now on hand, he could see no occasion for it at present. If any surveys were required by the Choctaw treaty, eighty thousand dollars was a sum amply sufficient to make them.

Un

Mr. V. concluded his remarks by moving to fill the blank with eighty thousand dollars.

Mr. CLAY rose, he said, to make a very brief reply to some of the remarks of the gentleman from Ohio, [Mr. VINTON.] As he had frequently heard them before, they had nothing of novelty about them. He would barely suggest, that of the immense amount of surveyed lands now

H. OF R.]

Surveys of Public Lands.

[FEB. 23, 1832.

in the market, according to the statement of the gentle- large quantity of land already surveyed and in the market man, not one-tenth part can ever be sold at any price. In Alabama not one-twentieth part of the residue would be sold. Shall we wait for new surveys, till all the land which is unfit for cultivation is disposed of at Government prices? He hoped the committee would consider our vast accessions of territory within a year or two past. Many other tracts have been acquired, besides the immense territory of the Choctaws. Shall the value of these lands, the very best in the State of Mississippi, be lessened by measures countenancing intruders? That is the effect of neg. lecting to survey desirable lands. Is this true policy? Is it not rather our interest to survey the lands, and add to the receipts of our treasury by its sale, and accommodate thousands who would prefer being freeholders to being intruders without title? Though the private interests of individuals who own large tracts of land which they are anxious to dispose of, may be effected, public policy requires that the surveys be made. Does the gentleman really suppose that the United States will keep all the millseats and finest soil by deferring the survey? If he does, he is less acquainted with those matters than he had given him credit for.

Mr. WILDE said it had been represented, he did not know with how much truth, that the money appropriated for surveys in the Southern country had been badly expended. Large tracts had been surveyed that were not susceptible of settlement. He had understood the rule among surveyors to be to carry on their work where it could be done most easily--where the most money could be made by running their lines at a stipulated price per mile. For the sake of encouraging such surveyors, he was unwilling to support a very large appropriation.

Mr. CLAY said, if the committee refused the appropriation moved by the chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means, it would change the whole policy of the Government. The tracts of good land were discovered by the surveys. It was true that mountains and pine barrens had been surveyed, but tracts of land of excellent quality had been discovered by this means that would more than defray the expense. The practice adopted of surveying the public lands by range and town lines, was demonstrably correct. When the survey was once made, it was perpetual.

Mr. WICKLIFFE said the gentleman from Ohio [Mr. VINTON] had raised the same question last year. The principles of surveying the public lands had been too long settled to be now given up. The land is thus open for purchase. It relieves the House from multifarious applications to grant pre-emption rights. He rose to make a single remark upon the Choctaw treaty. A document showing the several reservations under the treaty had been some weeks before the Committee on Public Lands. The reservation amounts to about six hundred and fifty thousand acres. The Indians, in whose favor they are granted, cannot avail themselves of them, either for sale or settlement, till the United States survey the whole tract, because the treaty expressly stipulates that the reservations shall be bounded by sectional lines. It was, therefore, due to the Indians who could not avail themselves of their rights until the survey was completed, as well as to the State of Mississippi, the fairest portion of whose soil would be kept from settlement by delay, that these surveys be accomplished in the most speedy manner. He hoped the appropriation would be made. As to the remarks of the gentleman from Massachusetts [Mr. ADAMS] respecting the Land Office, he was ready to vote for an appropriation sufficient to ensure prompt and efficacious action on all subjects within the scope of the departments, and held them to strict accountability for the faithful disbursement of the money.

Mr. ROOT said he understood the sum now moved to be greater than any former appropriation. We had a

for sale. Under these circumstances, he should have supposed that the committee would have hesitated, and gone into minute and scrutinizing inquiries before they would consent to an appropriation far exceeding any former one. He should have thought the policy of curtailing the surveys, and keeping a vast surplus out of market, should have been the true one. The excess of any article inevitably reduces its price below its proper relative value, and is directly injurious to the seller. By bringing vast quantities of land into the market at prices continually growing less, we have made land the cheapest article in the market. The consequence is, the strongest possible inducements for emigration to the West. Instead of attending to the duties of civilization, we find many persons strolling about a new country to pick out the best parcels of land. The population which has emigrated from some more densely settled country, revert from the regular habits in which they were educated, not even to the rudest agricultural state, but to the state of hunters. Such a course, which has become but too common, prevents all cultivation of the arts. Where the population is sparsely scattered over the country, and land is made the cheapest article in the market, the people who emigrate, deprived of all the institutions of civilized life, soon become semi-barbarians. Our system has universally reduced the price of lands. People will not give a high price for a farm, when, by the vast facilities of transportation, they can speedily find a better one for almost nothing. This policy is the greatest obstacle in the way of the progress of manufactures and the mechanic arts. In no country can the arts of civilization flourish till it has become densely settled. To countervail the universal propensity for emigration, which this mistaken policy has excited, we are obliged to impose heavy duties on foreign manufactures, in order to induce our people to stay at home. Had not the price of land been thus cheapened, we should not have seen such a universal inclination among our enterprising sons to revert to the hunting state, almost to the degree of sheltering themselves nightly in portable tents, instead of the durable and magnificent structure produced by the arts. If our policy had not invited them to this roving life, we should never have needed the hotbed of the tariff, in which to grow our originally tender manufactures. The system of public lands and the tariff policy, operating together, present the most stupendous monument of folly that ever was exhibited to the world. We are administering tonics of the strongest character, at the same time that we follow depletion to the greatest possible extent. He hoped some means might be adopted better to reconcile our practice to the dictates of common sense.

Mr. DUNCAN said it was the settled policy of the Government to survey the public lands as fast as possible. The enterprising emigrants alluded to by the gentleman from New York, [Mr. RooT,] were continually making farms beyond the surveys. It was good policy to enable them to become freeholders of the soil, and enable them to commence improvements.

Mr. POLK said he would barely call the attention of the House to the terms of the Choctaw treaty. [Mr. P. read the provision that all reservations should adjoin sectional and range lines.] The reservations could not be laid off till the survey takes place. The motion of the chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means keeps up the former appropriation, and adds $80,000 for this special object. When these lands are once surveyed, it is done forever. The only question before the committee is, shall it be done faster, or slower?

Mr. WHITE, of Florida, said if the estimate did not pass, and the whole sum voted should be appropriated to the survey of the Choctaw lands, it would operate with great hardship upon the territory he had the honor to represent. If the gross sum of the estimate was larger

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