SENATE.] Pension Laws. [APRIL 29, 1830. representatives of a portion of the country oppressed and when he acts in the double capacity of consumer and maafflicted by unequal contributions and unequal expendi- nufacturer, under a system of laws which, at the same tures, to expose the true character of the system, and to time that it taxes him on his consumption, enables him to strive against it to the uttermost. Sir, I would, if I could, re-charge the amount of the tax in the price of his manurouse the whole country to a due sense of its enormity. I factures, (which his customers are compelled to buy at would invoke gentlemen to put down that gross inequali- the enhanced cost,) it is obvious that he may relieve himty in the benefits and burthens of this Government, which, self entirely from the tax, by throwing it upon others. If, if not corrected, will, in the end, impair the attachment under a law which taxes a man one dollar, he receives of the people in the Union itself. I allude to this subject two, it is clear that, instead of being burthened with a tax, now, not for the purpose of spreading discontent, but to he would receive a bounty. Under the actual operation strike at the root of evil, by pointing out its enormity, of the American System, I do not think there would be and calling upon honorable gentlemen, as they love their any material difference between a tax upon exports or country, to apply the remedy. upon imports. I believe they would both fall substantialIf the revenues of the United States were collected by ly upon the producers of the articles exported, these bedirect taxation, or even by assessment upon the States, ing the only medium of exchange for our imports. That we should have some security against extravagant expen- the tariff States, as such, under the operation of the tariff ditures. If every portion of the country contributed its laws, are fully indemnified for the duties paid by them on equal share to the national Treasury, we should not hear of foreign goods, is conclusively proved by the fact that they so many propositions to squander millions upon local ob- zealously support the "American System,” and are perjects; we should not find gentlemen disposed to vote away petually crying out for more taxes. But how are the the money of their constituents with as much indifference Northern States to relieve themselves from the operation as if it could be created by a mere act of volition, and of this system? There are no persons to whom they can was not the fruit of the labor of their hands. It is the transfer the amount of dutics imposed upon them. They fact (well known and understood, at least in one quarter have no protection in foreign markets for their cotton, and of the country) that the Southern States pay by far the are compelled to receive either the taxed or the protectgreater portion of the taxes, while they receive hardly ed article at the enhanced price secured to them by the any part of the expenditures, which leads to that lavish tariff laws. The system, therefore, operates exclusively distribution of the public treasure, which, we are told, to the disadvantage of the exporting States, while the mahas now become "the established policy of this country."nufacturing States are indemnified for their burthens, by The parents of the American System are unequal taxa- reaping all the benefits of the system. tion and unequal appropriations; to them it owes its being; and without their sustaining influence it would be destined, after dragging out a brief and precarious existence, to "perish miserably.' But, as unequal as this system of taxation must be, the distribution of the money, after it is collected, is still more unequal. I have supposed that the plantation States pay nearly two-thirds of the taxes, (sixteen millions of dollars,) I am sensible that this is not the appropriate occasion and the tariff States only one-third, (eight millions of dolto enter at large into this deeply interesting question. Ilars.) Of this amount of twenty-four millions of dollars, must reserve that task for another and more suitable op- I am unable to discover that more than two or three milportunity. I must be permitted, however, to say, that I lions go South, including every object of expenditure, believe it to be susceptible of the clearest proof, that the pensions, fortifications, internal improvements, civil list, plantation or anti-tariff States, containing, in round num-national debt, and every thing else to which the public bers, four millions of inhabitants, (only one-third of the money is applied, leaving upwards of twenty millions of whole population of the United States,) contribute, di- dollars for distribution in the tariff States. The operation rectly or indirectly, about two-thirds of the revenue, while of the American System, therefore, in both of its branches, the tariff States (containing eight millions of inhabitants) is plainly this, to impose an enormous burthen almost expay about one-third of the taxes. Sir, this opinion is clusively upon one portion of the community, and to exfounded chiefly upon the fact, that the Southern States pend the money drawn from their industry on a different furnish two-thirds of the whole amount of the domestic portion of the community; in one word, to tax the South exports of the United States, thereby furnishing the arti- sixteen millions of dollars a year, in order to distribute cles of exchange for two-thirds of all the importations from twelve millions of dollars among our brethren; to lay our foreign countries. Nearly the whole revenue of the coun- industry under contribution to an amount little short of try, equal, in round numbers, to twenty-four millions of dol- the whole profits of our labor, in order to make profitlars per annum, is levied in duties on these foreign goods. able the pursuits of others. But, sir, I will not press this Now, if we consume the goods received in exchange for unpleasant topic farther. Before I leave it entirely, howour cotton, rice, and tobacco, no one would deny that we ever, I must be suffered to remark, that, though the sysmust pay two-thirds of the taxes; and if we do not con- tem of indirect taxation must, under all circumstances, sume them, then, I would ask, how does it happen that operate unequally and most injuriously upon the exportour Northern brethren are enabled to consume the fruits ing States, still the South has never objected to that sysof our labor and capital? Two-thirds of these foreign goods tem, while it was confined to the legitimate purpose of of right belong to us; and if we get, as is alleged, but raising revenue for the necessary expenses of Governone-third, and our Northern brethren obtain the remain- ment, whether in peace or in war. They will conder, surely we must be entitled to some remuneration. tribute to their last farthing, when the honor of the coun"Well, [say gentlemen] we pay you for these goods in try is to be defended. They have not complained of the Northern manufactures." True, sir; and it is the very liberal appropriations for fortifications, for the army or burthen of our complaints, that we are compelled to re- navy, for the civil list, or for foreign intercourse. On all ceive, in return for our cotton, rice, and tobacco, shipped objects confessedly national, they are willing that the pubto Europe, either foreign goods, burthened with duties lic money shall be expended any where; and they have neof from forty to a hundred per cent., or domestic manu- ver been found among those who would cramp the ener factures protected by these duties, and charged with a gies of any of our national establishments by an envious or price sufficient to indemnify the Northern manufacturers illiberal parsimony. But they do object, in the strongest for all the duties paid on the articles of their consumption. terms, to this system of indirect taxation, when converted However true, therefore, it may be in general, that "the into the means of levying contributions upon them for the consumer pays the duty," it is only true when a man is benefit of others. They solemnly protest against the imconsidered simply in his character as a consumer; but position of taxes for objects not properly belonging to APRIL 29, 1830.] Pension Laws. [SENATE. the jurisdiction of the Federal Government, for the pro-direct tendency to involve, nay, which must inevitably inmotion of manufactures, of internal improvements; or the volve, the administration in the most serious embarrassdistribution of money either among individuals or States.ments, and possibly deprive them of public confidence. Believing firmly and conscientiously that we contribute General Jackson came into power as the advocate of more than our fair proportion of the taxes, and knowing economy, retrenchment, and reform. The people were that we receive hardly any part of the immense amounts taught to believe that he would not only rectify all the annually expended by the Federal Government, we feel abuses of the Government, but that he would bring back that it is our right and our duty to be on the watch to detect the administration to the simplicity of the days of Thomas and expose every scheme calculated to extend unnecessarily Jefferson; that he would pay the public debt, reduce the the national expenditures. This pension bill, as it is one of taxes, and diminish the expenditures; and no one who the most imposing in its character, is certainly one of the knows the President can doubt for a moment that such most dangerous of all the schemes ever devised to per- were his views, and such are now his intentions. And petuate this system. I have asked for a statement of yet, sir, with a decided administration majority in both the annual charge upon the treasury which it will create. Houses of Congress, we find his friends lending their supI have received no answer, except having my attention port to a system of appropriations more extravagant than called to the letter from the officer at the head of the has ever before been witnessed under this Government. Pension Office, in which he says that a thousand persons I have taken some pains in looking into this matter, and will probably be added to the pension roll under the first now assert, that appropriations to a greater amount bave section of the bill; about five hundred under the last sec- already been made by the present than by any former tion; and as to the third section, (by far the most compre- Congress; and if the measures now before both Houses, hensive of the whole,) he has no data by which to make with every prospect of success, shall prevail, the exany estimate. Here, then, we have one thousand five penditures of the present year will exceed, by two or hundred pensioners, with an annual charge of one hundred three millions, those of any year since the war. The and fifty thousand dollars. In another letter from the same Senator from Maine [Mr. HOLMES] tells us, "the people officer, (quoted by the Senator from Maryland,) he speaks will not judge of General Jackson's administration by such of two thousand as the probable number; which would a test," and adds, "that General Jackson ought not to be swell the amount to two hundred thousand dollars. But held responsible for expenditures made under acts of Conunder the third section, which we are told cannot be es- gress." But, sir, will the opposition out of the House timated, we may be assured that the amount will be at hold this language? or shall we not find their presses, from least equal to both of the other classes; and this would one end of the Union to the other, holding up in strong enlarge the amount to near half a million. But these are contrast the promise and the performance of the party, estimates merely. Now, in 1818, it was estimated that one whose watchwords have been "economy and reform?" hundred and sixty thousand dollars would cover all the Let gentlemen say what they will, my life upon it, the pensions to be granted under that law; yet they were people will never be satisfied with any excuses that can be found to amount to between two and three millions of dol-offered for expenditures during the first year of General lars. Who can tell whether the result may not be the Jackson's administration exceeding any year of his presame on the present occasion? At all events, it is certain decessor's; and if such a state of things shall be brought that we are now about to commence a new system, which about by the friends of the administration in Congress, on will not, and which cannot, stop short of creating a per- them will rest the responsibility for the consequences. manent charge of many millions upon the treasury. The Let me tell gentlemen that, if this administration shall. introduction of the State troops will prepare the way for not fulfil, in some degree, the high expectations of the the militia. The abolition of the restrictions which have people in this respect, it cannot retain public confidence; hitherto confined the pension system to "indigent circum- and I will add, that it is as certain as the progress of time stances,” and “a fixed term of continuous service under itself, that the course pursued here, in relation to internal one enlistment," will, and necessarily must, extend the sys-improvements, rivers, harbors, lighthouses, and pensions, tem to all who served at any time during the Revolution. if not arrested, will inevitably prostrate any administra. Civil pensions will follow next; and he must be wilfully blind who does not perceive that this system is capable of being easily enlarged, so as to create, in the course of the ensuing four years, a charge upon the treasury of from ten to twelve millions annually; of which amount, (judging from past experience,) nine or ten millions will go to the North, and two or three to the South and West. In such a scheme, the first step is all; once taken, it can never be Mr. TYLER said that he would very briefly state to the retraced: and if it be taken now, by the passage of this Senate his objections to the bill. Little was left for him bill, I shall give up the hope of living to see the day when to say after the able argument which had been urged any material reduction shall take place in the enormous against the measure, by his friend from South Carolina, amount of indirect taxation with which the people of the [Mr. HAYNE.] Every act of legislation should stand upon United States are now burthened, and under the weight some general principle, and should embrace all who fell of which the whole South is fast sinking into ruin. It will justly within that principle. This had been the case with be in vain that the national debt shall be paid, (if, indeed, most of the pension laws which had heretofore been passed. gentlemen intend to suffer it to be paid:) its extinguish- The invalid pension law extended to those who had susment will bring no relief from our calamities. We must tained injury in the public service, which had contributed go on for ever in the same course which we have been pur- to incapacitate them from labor. This principle was just, suing for several years past, making vain efforts, by in- since it applied as well to the man who had lost a leg, as creased exertion and a more rigorous economy, to meet to the one who had lost an arm. So with other pension the constantly increasing demands of those who will bills. No one had proper cause to complain of the operanever be satisfied while their gains shall be unequal to tion of the law, since the moment misfortune placed him their desires, or we shall have any thing left to give. One within its influence, he felt its benefits. The revolutionary other suggestion, [said Mr. H.] and I shall leave this bill pension act of 1818 was, to a certain extent, founded in to its fate. I take the liberty of asking gentlemen known justice. The principle then was, inability on the part of to be friendly to the present administration, how they the soldier to support himself without the assistance of the can consent to lend their aid to measures which have a country. Each applicant for the governmental bounty, tion that stands charged with measures that must inevitably delay the payment of the debt, and establish charges upon the treasury, which will greatly aggravate the burthens of the people, and leave us without a hope for the future. Mr. CHAMBERS and Mr. HOLMES replied in support of the bill. SENATE.] Law Department. was called on to make oath to his inability. All who were thus incapacitated to earn their daily bread, fell under its provisions, with a limitation which he had considered unjust--to the nine months continental troops. Thus excluding from its benefits all the State troops and militia, without regard to the fact that they too had, in many instances, served for a longer period than nine months, and that their services had been as truly valuable as the services of the continentals. Here justice had halted, not to say that injustice had commenced. The gallant corps of Marion and of Sumpter, to mention none others, had great cause to complain. They had stood forth for the country, in its hour of greatest peril and deepest gloom. Strangers to every comfort, their tent was the canopy of heaven, and their encampment the morass. Theirs was a pure and unalloyed patriotism, stimulated by no prospect of reward either in land or money. Their idol was their country-their only wish, its emancipation. But still the principle of the law was well ascertained and easily to be understood. That principle was necessity--great penury on the part of the soldier. It rested upon charity. He was unable to see any just principle in the bill before the Senate. What was the condition on which the claim to the pension was proposed to be placed? The possession of property not exceeding one thousand dollars in value. Now where was the justice of this limitation? Why not extend it further? If a man have but so much over the one thousand dollars as would turn the scale in a degree however slight, he was to be excluded. This served to show that the bill was placed on improper ground. It was proposed to let go the principle of charity on which for mer laws had rested, and to assume an arbitrary landmark. Apply it to real life, and how would it work? One man, worth property amounting in value to one thousand dollars, is much more independent than another with a property of one thousand five hundred dollars. One might have no family, while the other might be surrounded with a numerous offspring. He had said that the bill proposed to give up the principle of charity in the Government, and necessity in the soldier. Could any Senator doubt it Look throughout the Unien, and this doubt would be dispelled. It might well be questioned whether more than half the citizens of the United States possessed estates of greater value than one thousand dollars; and yet they were independent; they had their fifty acres of land, and were surrounded by comforts. We were then to manifest our munificence, not our charity. Why then stop at the limits marked out by the bill? Why not embrace all who send in the resolution, without regard to their condition in life? He desired not to be misunderstood. He should not advocate the bill if it was thus modified. He was showing the unjust operation of that now before the Senate. The Government had no right to be munificent at the expense of the people, nor was there any proper occasion for it. [APRIL 30, 1830. means of living in comfort, yet Congress tells you otherwise, and you must, therefore, swear, in direct opposition to your own honest conviction." Was there ever beld out to men a greater temptation to perjury? We actually offer a bounty for false swearing! But the gentleman from Maine [Mr. HOLMES] informs us that this measure is recommended by the President; and expresses surprise that he should be found enlisted in its support, while the Senator from South Carolina stands in his behalf opposed to the administration. Mr. T. in the first place, denied that the odium of this measure rested with the President. True, he had recommended some further provision for the Revolutionary soldier, in his message; but had the committee of either House consulted him as to the provisions of this bill? How then could this be called a measure of the administration? Whilst he did not recognise the finger of the President in this particular measure, he would say to the Senator from Maine, that he had but one light to guide his footsteps, and that was the light of his own judgment. He was alone responsible to those whom he represented here, and to none other; and while he was prepared to give to the administration a fair support, yet, when he believed it in error, his duty to the country would require of him a candid expression of his opinions. Mr. CHASE followed in support of the bill; when, about four o'clock, The Senate adjourned. FRIDAY, APRIL 30, 1830. LAW DEPARTMENT. On motion by Mr. ROWAN, the bill to re-organize the establishment of the Attorney General, and erect it into an Executive Department, was resumed in Committee of the Whole, with the amendment reported to it by the Judiciary Committee, which provides For the establishment of an Executive Department, to be called the Law Department, and the Attorney General, for the time being, to be its chief officer, at a salary of six thousand dollars; For the transfer thereto of the duties required by law from the "Agent of the Treasury," &c. Mr. FORSYTH moved an amendment, excluding the Attorney General from the exercise of private practice; which was rejected. A long debate took place on the proposed substitute of the Judiciary Committee, in which Messrs. ROWAN, HAYNE, JOHNSTON, SANFORD, and FRELINGHUYSEN, advocated it, and Messrs. BELL, FOOT, CHAMBERS, WEBSTER, and WOODBURY, opposed it and the original bill. On the question to agree to the amendment of the committee, Mr. HOLMES asked for a division, and the question was accordingly taken on striking out of the original bill all after the enacting clause, and decided in the affirmative. The ques ion was then taken on inserting the substitute reported by the Judiciary Committee, and decided in the affirmative by yess and nays, 24 to 22. Mr. FOOT then moved the following as an additional section: He had another objection to the bill, which was with him all-controlling. He took a view of it, which he was satisfied had not been taken by the committee. He was satisfied that the committee would recommend no measure which they believed to be corrupting in its tendency. And yet he considered this bill as obnoxious to that objection. By the acts of 1818 and 1820, the applicant was required And be it further enacted, That the offices of Second to swear that he was in indigent circumstances, and re- Comptroller and Second Auditor be, and are hereby, aboquired the assistance of his country for his support. Here.lished, and the duties now performed by the Second Comp tofore, many who were, fortunately for them, in possession of property much less in value than one thousand dollars, had abstained from taking this oath. They could not reconcile the oath to their consciences. Now, what are we called on to do? We are required to say to these men, y aside your scruples--swear that you stand in nced of the assistance of your country for support, whatevermay be your opinion upon that subject, and although, in truth, all your neighbors know that you possess the troller shall be performed by the First Comptroller, and the duties now required by law to be performed by the Sccord Auditor shall be transferred to the Third Auditor. Mr. WEBSTER then moved that the bill and proposed amendment be laid upon the table; which was decided in the affirmative by yeas and nays, 29 to 17. Mr. W. then gave notice that he would on Monday next ask leave to bring in a bill to establish the office of Soci tor of the Treasury. Mar 3, 1830.] PENSION LAWS. price of the public lands, to make provision for actual setThe Senate then resumed the unfinished business of tlers, and to cede the refuse, upon equitable terms and for yesterday on the bill from the House of Representatives, meritorious objects, to the States in which they lie. "declaratory of the several acts to provide for certain Mr. BENTON requested that the Secretary of the Sepersons engaged in the land and naval service of the Unit-nate should read the memorial of the General Assembly of ed States in the Revolutionary war," with the amendment Missouri, praying its passage; which was done. reported thereto by the Committee on Pensions. Mr. FORSYTH moved that the bill and amendment be indefinitely postponed; which was decided in the affirmative, by yeas and nays, 25 to 20, as follows: YEAS-Messrs. Adams, Barton, Benton, Bibb, Brown, Burnet, Clayton, Ellis, Forsyth, Grundy, Hayne, Iredell, Johnston, Kane, King, Livingston, McKinley, McLean, Noble, Rowan, Smith, of South Carolina, Tazewell, Troup, Tyler, White-25. NAYS-Messrs. Barnard, Chambers, Chase, Dickerson, Dudley, Foot, Frelinghuysen, Hendricks, Knight, Marks, Naudain, Robbins, Ruggles, Sanford, Seymour, Silsbee, Sprague, Webster, Willey, Woodbury-20. MONDAY, MAY 3, 1830. Mr. B. then explained the different sections of the bill. He said that the bill applied, not to the mass or whole body of the public lands, but to that part only which had been offered at one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre, and could not find a purchaser at that price. The quantity of these unsold and refuse lands he stated at about seventy millions of acres, and read extracts from the reports of the registers and receivers of the land offices, to show their quality and average value, and the length of time which they had been in market. These reports showed a large proportion of these unsold lands to be unfit for cultivation, and fixed their average prices at twelve or fifteen cents per acre in some districts, and in others as high as sixty or seventy cents. They showed that most of these lands had been a long time in market, many of them fifteen, twenty, or thirty years under the laws of the United States; and, in the countries acquired by the Louisiana and Florida treaties, they had been picked and culled for half a century, and, in some instances, a whole century, before they came into the hands of the A message having been received from the House of Re- United States. This was the character and value of the presentatives, notifying that they had appointed Mr. Bu- land to which the bill applied; and the idea was altogeCHANAN, of Pennsylvania, Mr. STORRs, of New York, Mr.ther erroneous which gave it a wider scope, and made it MCDUFFIE, of South Carolina, Mr. SPENCER, of New York, applicable to the whole body of the public lands. The and Mr. WICKLIFFE, of Kentucky, managers to conduct the impeachment of James H. Peck, Judge of the District Court of the United States for the District of Missouri, On motion by Mr. TAZEWELL, it was Resolved, That, at twelve o'clock to-morrow, the Senate will resolve itself into a Court of Impeachment, at which time the following oath or affirmation shall be administered by the Secretary to the President of the Senate, and by him to each member of the Senate, viz. Mr. WEBSTER, on leave, brought in a bill to provide for the appointment of a Solicitor of the Treasury; which was read, passed to a second reading, and ordered to be printed. JUDGE PECK. "I solemnly swear (or affirm, as the case may be) that, in all things appertaining to the trial of the impeachment of James H. Peck, Judge of the District Court of the United States for the District of Missouri, I will do impartial justice, according to law." terms on which the bill proposed to dispose of this unsold and refuse parcel of land, was the next point to be considered; and on this head, [Mr. B. said,] there were two sets of provisions contained in two different sections, and applicable to two descriptions of purchasers. The first set of provisions was open to all purchasers, and offered the lands at annual periodical reductions of price, beginning at one dollar per acre, and falling twenty-five cents in the acre, at the end of each year, until the price fell to twenty-five cents. The second set of provisions, contained in the second section, was intended for the benefit of actual settlers, and gave them a preference over general purchasers. The preference was secured by of fering to the actual settler the privilege of buying the Which Court of Impeachment being thus formed, will, land at twenty-five cents less in the acre, at each succesat the time aforesaid, receive the managers appointed by sive graduation of price. Thus, when the price to the the House of Representatives, to exhibit articles of im- general purchaser was one dollar per acre, it would be peachment, in the name of themselves and of all the peo-seventy-five cents to the settler; when seventy-five to the ple of the United States, against James H. Peck, Judge of former, it would be fifty to the latter; when fifty to one, it the District Court of the United States for the District of would be twenty-five to the other; and when twenty-five Missouri, pursuant to notice given to the Senate this day cents to the general purchaser, it was only five cents to the by the House of Representatives, that they had appointed actual settler; a provision which was intended to operate managers for the purposes aforesaid; and that the Secre- as a donation in favor of poor people. There were two tary of the Senate lay this resolution before the House of other sections which might be considered as subsidiary to Representatives. the others, and merely intended to give more full and Resolved, That after the Managers of the Impeachment complete effect to their intention; one of them contained a shall be introduced to the bar of the Senate, and shall have provision for gratuitous donations in favor of poor famisignified that they are ready to exhibit articles of impeach-lies, without the payment of any price; the other was inment against James H. Peck, the President of the Senate tended to secure those who had taken permits as tenants shall direct the Sergeant-at-Arms to make proclamation, at will to the United States, under the act of 1807, or who who shall, after making proclamation, repeat the following might not take such permits, a preference over all other words: "All persons are commanded to keep silence, on settlers or occupants, in purchasing the land on which pain of imprisonment, while the grand inquest of the nation is exhibiting to the Senate of the United States articles of impeachment against James H. Peck, Judge of the District Court of the United States for the District of Missouri." After which, the articles shall be exhibited, and the President of the Senate shall inform the managers that the Senate will take proper order on the subject of the impeachment, of which due notice shall be given to the House of Representatives. On motion by Mr. BENTON, the Senate resumed, as in Committee of the Whole, the amended bill to graduate the they were settled. Having stated the principles and provisions of the bill, Mr. B. went on to show that the prices fixed in the different sections were just and reasonable; that they were calculated to accelerate the sales, and to obtain a fair and full price for the land. He said that the two sections established a competition between purchasers, which would prevent any one from waiting for the land to fall below its just value. When it was at one dollar, the general purchaser could not wait for it to fall to seventy-five cents or fifty cents per acre, because the actual settler would have the preference at twenty-five cents less in the SENATE.] Judge Peck. [MAY 3, 1830. DANIEL ROSE, Land Agent. Augusta, July 21, 1828. acre at each reduction, and would intercept the purchase.good sureties, payable in three equal annual instalments The competition would be keen and decisive throughout, with interest annually. the settler always having the advantage, both in point of price and of time. With the settlers themselves, who had made improvements, and considered the land as their Having read the advertisement, Mr. B. commented upon home, they would be glad to take the land at its fair value, the advantage which the State of Maine had over the other whenever it fell to it, and would be more apt to buy it at new States, in being the mistress and sole disposer of her a rate above than below its value, in order to save their own public lands. Her own Legislature fixed the terms, labor and their home. There was one point of view, and fixed them equitably; and put it into the power of [Mr. B. said,] which ought to be decisive in favor of these every citizen to become a freeholder. Missouri would reductions of price; it was this: that every tract to which be glad to do the same, but her public lands were at the this bill was applicable, was a tract of inferior value, con- disposal of Congress, and he could only quote the example sisting of a few acres only fit for cultivation, the rest worth of Maine as one worthy for Congress to follow. But he less and sterile; and if one dollar twenty-five cents all said the advertisement he had read was only one out of round is for ever demanded for these broken spots, where thousands which had been put forth; that he had been the bad land is five or ten times greater in quantity than told of others which fixed the minimum prices as low as the good, it would bring the good land to five or ten ten and five cents an acre; and that Massachusetts, who dollars an acre, instead of the mininum price, which is now owned half the public lands in Maine, also sold them at demanded. He illustrated this idea, by saying that all the the same low and easy terms. Mr. B. said that he would surveys were run out at right angles; that the lines paid no quote Maine for another purpose-for the purpose of showrespect to the quality of the soil; that a quarter section ing the groundless folly of being alarmed about speculawould sometimes have a patch of twenty or thirty acres tors. There were no speculators in Maine; he had heard of good land in one corner, and the rest good for nothing, of but one large purchaser there, and he was injured by or it would lie across a creek, or a branch, where there the purchase. It was a Mr. Bingham, who had bought would be a narrow bottom of rich ground, and the ends of two and a half millions of acres from Massachusetts, at ten the quarter section stretching into sterile hills and ridges. cents an acre, and, from all reports, would rejoice to get Mr. B. adverted to the price of lands in the State of rid of his bargain, (or rather his heirs would,) and get back Maine, where the Legislature of the State fixed the prices, the principal without interest, or interest without princiand adapted the price to the quality, and made that price, pal. Nothing in the graduation bill descended so low as even at its highest minimum, as low as the lowest, and these prices in Maine, yet the Maine lands were all fresh sometimes lower than the last minimum which the gradua- and unpicked, and sold upon a credit of one, two, and tion bill proposed. To show this, he read the following three years. Such were the advantages which the State advertisement for the sale of lands in Maine, in the year of Maine derived from the prudence of Massachusetts, in 1828. THE ADVERTISEMENT. withholding her public lands from the Federal Government. But justice was justice. Equity was the same Timber Lands.-The minimum prices at which the fol- the example of Maine and Massachusetts, in selling their under a federal or the State Government; and, therefore, lowing townships and tracts of land may be sold, having, lands at prices adapted to their quality, and on terms so under the advice and direction of the Governor and Coun- moderate as to put it into the power of every citizen to cil, been fixed and determined upon, they will be offered become a freeholder, might well be quoted in this chamfor sale at public auction, at a price per acre not less than ber, and held up as presenting an example which the that set against each township or tract, on the terms and Congress ought to follow. conditions provided by the sixth and seventh sections of the act entitled "An act to promote the sale and settle-cessary to enlighten the decision of the Senate, which he Mr. B. said, there was another piece of information, nement of Public Lands," as follows: had taken pains to procure, and to procure in an authentic Township No. 1, range 1, Titcomb's survey, contain- and unquestionable form, that the great fact which it preing 22,900 acres, 20 cents per acre. Township No. 7, range 2, Titcomb's survey, contain- of certain and undeniable truth; it was the great number sented might come before the Senate with the full weight ing 30,000 acres, 20 cents per acrc. His Township No. 3, range 4, Norris and McMillan's sur-travels and personal observation had convinced him that vey, containing 23,1634 acres, 20 cents per acre. Township No. 4, range 5, Norris's survey, containing 23,040 acres, 25 cents per acre. of non-freeholders in the new States and Territories. this number was great, incredibly great, and that nothing but an accurate and official statement could produce a conviction of the fact. He had, therefore, taken measures to obtain this accurate statement; he had moved a resolution Township No. 3, range 14, Norris's survey, containing the new States and Territories a return of the number of in the Senate two years ago, to obtain from the marshals in 19,787 acres, 25 cents per acre. Township No. 2, range 9, Norris's survey, containing 23,040 acres, 25 cents per acre. the free taxable inhabitants who are not frecholders, as Tract A 2, in ranges 13 and 14, Norris's survey, contain- exhibited by the tax lists; the return had been made to the ing 17,920 acres, 25 cents per acre. Tract X, range 14, Norris's survey, containing 5,778 acres, 25 cents per acre. Department of State, and communicated to the Senate, printed by its order, and forms a document in the session of 1828-29. He would read the table of recapitulation, which showed the number of these non-freeholders. THE TABLE. These lands are considered to be valuable for timber, and will be reconnoitered, and divided into parts of townships and tracts. No larger tract than a township of six Abstracts from the returns of free taxable inhabitants, miles square, nor a less quantity than would be contained who are not freeholders; made to the Department of State, in one mile square, can be sold to one individual or com- by the Marshals of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Alapany. When a township or tract may be divided and sold bama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Florida, and Michigan, in in separate lots, the minimum price of each part will be compliance with the resolution of the Senate of the Unit regulated according to its relative value to the whole town- cd States, of April 25th, 1828. ship or tract. The terms of payment required by law, are one-fourth part of the purchase money at the time of sale, and the residue to be secured by notes of the purchaser, with 1. Ohio, 2. Indiana 56,286 13,485 9,220 10,118 |