SENATE.] Public Lands. [MAY 16, 1826. One Such, Mr. President, are the fruits of this system! hundred and thirty-six millions of dollars paid in interest! Twenty-six millions received from the sales of public land! The debt increased instead of diminished for it was seventy-six millions at the end of the Revolution, and it is eighty millions now! And the lands which were to rise in ten years to four and eight dollars an acre, are remaining unsold at one dollar twenty-five cents! But even the amount of interest paid, or the greater part of it, had to be collected from other sources. Look to the table. In no one year was more than half enough received from the sales of land to meet the interest of that their certificates-certificates which had been got for a song from the People-to be converted into national debt, at twenty shillings in the pound, and six per cent. interest. Having done this, their next object was, to make the debt perpetual, by limiting the sales of lands to as much as would pay the annual interest. To accomplish this purpose, the price of land was raised to two dollars per acre, in gold and siver; the law which permitted evidences of the debt to be taken in payment of land, was repealed altogether; the nett proceeds of the lands were pledged, by themselves, to themselves; and the People were unblushingly told, that a national debt was a national blessing, because it would create a powerful moneyed in-year; seldom more than one-fourth; at present not oneterest, to support the Government. Such are the facts, Mr. President, relative to the origin of the present system of selling public lands. Such were the actors, such their motives, and such their merits, in the establishment of this system. Having displayed these, let us next look to the fruits of the system-let us see what the People of these States have gained by paying interest upon the debt, and waiting for the rise in the price of their lands. I hold those fruits in my hand, (show-accomplishing the object for which they were ceded to ing a paper,) and I will present them to the Senate. Here Mr. BENTON presented the following table, which he informed the Senate, had been procured by him from the Register of the Treasury:] STATEMENT of the amount of money annually received from the sales of Public Lands from the year 1789, to 1825, and of the amount annually paid for interest on the Public Debt, during the same period. fifth; and the amount annually decreasing; and still we years. would extinguish the debt in eight years, if its whole amount could be applied to the principal; but about one half is absorbed in the payment of interest. Let the interest, then, be raised from the lands, while the duties on imports furnish ten millions for the sinking fund. The lands amount to two hundred and forty millions of acres, and if so disposed of as to raise the interest of the debt for eight years, the sinking fund would extinguish the principal in that time. The amount to be raised, supposing ten millions of the principal to be annually extinguished, would not exceed twenty millions, and surely the sales could be so managed as to raise that sum in that number of years. Here, then, is a paradox. I maintain that it is better economy to sell the lands, or the best of them, in eight years, for twenty millions, than to sell them in the progress of ages and centuries for three hundred millions. One would enable us to get rid of the debt; the other would not. The lands were ceded to the Federal Government to pay the debt. In fifty years they have paid no part of it, not even the one-fifth part of the interest. In fifty years to come they can do no better if administered in the same way; but in eight years they will extinguish a debt of eighty millions if the present ruinous system is abandoned, and a new and judicious one adopted. I propose, then, to accelerate the sales, and to raise twenty millions in eight years. How is this to be done? By letting the land go for what it is worth-by selling for the present value-instead of waiting for a future, distant, and uncertain rise. There are several ways to accomplish this object. One of these would be to abolish the minimum price, and sell all the lands off hand for what they would bring. This mode is not recommended for reasons too obvious to need enumeration. Another would be, to class and appraise the lands, reserving the two first classes 725 MAY 16, 1826.] Public Lands. The for sale, and surrendering the third to the States. third mode would consist in letting the lands class themselves, as proposed by the bill now under consideration. This bill proposes successive annual reductions of twenty-five cents per acre, until the price is reduced to twenty-five cents, when the refuse would be subject to gratuitous donation. Its operation would be to quicken the sales, to infuse new life and animation into them, and to sell more in five years than would be sold, under the preA district would be sold sent system, in as many ages. out in five years. Each tract would find a bidder, as it fell from one price to another, until it got to its true value. The fear of losing it by the purchase of another person, [SENATE. and Territories, and see how slowly the system proceeds. DISTRICTS. and the idea of being given away as a donation, would Marietta, rate. No man will give one dollar twenty-five cents for a quarter section that has but one half, one quarter, or one tenth part of it fit for cultivation; or which is only desirable for the timber upon it, or for a spring, or a a place for building, or which might be quarry, or wanted for the mere purpose of keeping off too close a neighbor. People will not buy such inferior tracts at one dollar twenty-five cents; for that would bring the little good land which it contains, to eight or ten dollars an acre. They will not buy, because they know that nobody else will, and that they can buy it ten or twenty years hence, and, in the mean time, have the use of it I say, have the use of it; and this without paying taxes. refers to the timber it may bear: for it is notorious that the public timber is used as common property, and that no blame or censure attaches to the practice. Statutory enactments are unavailing when unsupported by the moral sense of the community for which they are intended. The Federal Government has its statutes upon this subject; but they are no protection to the land-they are nothing but instruments of revenge in the hands of neighbors, who fall out and quarrel with one another, and commence the "unprofitable contest of trying which can do the other the most harm." But, in general, there are none to inform, or to bear witness. Cincinnati, to a more convenient season. What will be the fruit, Mr. President, of continuing this system? Sir, I will tell you what it will be. First, one third of what is received for the lands, will be sunk in the expenses of collection, and the most meritorious The public debt will continue officers will be driven from the public service for want of adequate compensation. to accumulate, and the lands intended to pay it will be dribbled away upon the interest, and dissipated upon a thousand unknown and unknowable objects. The public debt will be saddled upon us forever: for unless it is paid quickly, paid in this season of peace and prosperity, it will be fastened on us to eternity. I say the debt must be paid now, or never; and my meaning is, that, if it stands until another war intervenes, it will receive an increase which will put payment forever out of the question. This is the progress of all national debts. It has been the progress, especially, of the debt of that great nation from which we sprung, and whose institutions, whether good or bad, we copy from instinct and fatality. The British debt, like our own, grew out of their Revolution. Like our own, it was considered a trifle, which could be paid Whole neighbor-off at any time. Like ourselves, the British thought it bet hoods are in the same predicament. By common consentter to pay the annual interest, and postpone the principal they go and take timber from the public land, and let their own stand for a future occasion. In the level countries they often go five miles; and on the banks of the great rivers, immense numbers make a regular business of cutting large rafts, and floating them off to market, even to New Orleans, at a distance of five hundred or a thousand miles. Thus, those who please have the bencfit of the land, without the payment of tax or purchase money. Thus the inducement to purchase is destroyed. Thus is accounted for the notorious fact, that the sales are declining; that we are receiving less and less every year, and that the Registers and Receivers, in most of the Districts, do not receive as much for their commissions as would compensate them for the loss of their time; and yet the system costs the Government upwards of 33 per The salaries, commiscent. on the amount collected. sions, surveys, contingencies, &c. are upwards of $300,000 | per annum; the receipts into the Treasury are only about nine hundred thousand; and thus is presented the anomalous fact, that, in the operation of the most enormously expensive system of revenue that ever was heard of, the principal officers who administer it cannot live upon their compensation. Look to the document which has been See Registers and Receivers, laid upon your tables. whose commissions are, in many instances, less than one hundred dollars per annum, and very few exceeding twice or thrice that sum. Look, also, to the table of lands sold, and remaining unsold, in the different States But wars came on to increase it. The balance of power in Europe added some hundred millions; the American war add d an hundred more; the wars of the French Revolution put it up to a thousand millions of pounds sterling: the annual interest is now near two hundred millions of dollars, a sum greater than the whole debt was when the fatal policy was adopted, of paying interest, and postponing the payment of the prin cipal. Shall we act upon the same principles, until overAnd that we shall be so overwhelmed, is beyond whelmed, like Great Britain, by the magnitude of our debt? all doubt, unless we pay it off in this season of peace and prosperity. Nothing is easier than to pay it within the The Congress which shall accomplish eight or ten succeeding years, and nothing more honorable than to do so. that object will be entitled to the glorious appellation of "The publ c debt is paid." What a subject for blessed. A nation without a national a circular letter! What a noble letter would that little sentence alone compose ! debt would, indeed, be a rare and sublime spectacle; but, rare as it is, our nation must soon exhibit it, unless our affairs be grossly, and, I might say, criminally mismanaged. Thus far, Mr. President, I have considered the bill before you in a mere financial point of view. I have discussed it as a revenue measure, and, under that aspect, which is not the most favorable which it wears, I have demonstrated the advantage of adopting its principles. But should be false to myself, and to the place in which I I ་ "What constitutes a State?' [MAY 16, 1826. "Not high rais'd battlements, nor labored mound, "Thick wall, or moated gate; "Not cities proud, with spires and turrets crown'd, Nor starr'd and spangled courts, 66 "Where low-born baseness wafts perfume to pride: "But MEN! high-minded men, "Who their duties know, but know their RIGHTS, stand-I should be false to the character of Senator, with give, without price, to those who are not able to pay; and which I am clothed, and which should include the char- that which is so given, I consider as sold for the best of acter of statesman-if I should suffer the bill to go off un- prices; for a price above gold and silver; a price which der this limited and contracted point of view. Far from cannot be carried away by delinquent officers, nor lost in it. A wider horizon opens before me. Consequences failing banks, nor stolen by thieves, nor squandered by far superior to the accumulation of dollars in the Trea- an improvident and extravagant adın nistration. It brings sury; consequences even superior to the honor and advan a price above rubies-a race of virtuous and independent tage of paying off the public debt, present themselves to farmers, the true supporters of their country, and the my vision. I see, in the adoption of this great measure, stock from which its best defenders must be drawn. consequences which connect themselves with the durability and prosperity of this Republic-the number of tenants diminished; the class of freeholders increased; the multiplication of that class of population which is to pay taxes, bear arms, defend the country against foreign and domestic enemies, and to furnish the future statesmen and warriors of this Republic. These are the grand advan tages which are to result from a distribution of the soil among the children of the country: and, happily, I speak to those who understand and anticipate me. I speak to statesmen, and not to compting clerks; to Senators, and What made these States? What constitutes their power? not to Quæstors of provinces; to an assembly of legisla- What brought them to their present height of power and tors, and not to a keeper of the King's forests. I speak freedom? What made them, as they now are, the pride to Senators who know this to be a Republic, not a Mo-and admiration of the universe, and the sole depository of narchy; who know that the public lands belong to the human liberty? What produced these great results, but People, and not to the Federal Government; who know the operation of the system, which, with so much more that the lands are to be "disposed of' for the common zeal than ability, I now recommend to the Senate good of all, and not kept for the service of a few; and system of cheap and ready distribution of the soil among knowing that I speak to such enlightened men, I feel my the People, by the combined action of sales and donalabor abridged, and my task anticipated. The American tions; sales upon easy terms to those who are able to pay, Senate is not the place for the illustration of truisms. Se-and gratuitous gifts to those who are not. These Atlantic nators who have passed their lives in the administration of States were donations from the British crown; and the the public affairs, whose minds are trained to the induc-great proprietors distributed out their possessions with a tion of truth, need no elaborate discussion of great princi- free and generous hand. A few shillings for an hundred ples. It is sufficient to state them, and the practical con-acres, a nominal quit rent, and gifts of an hundred, five sequences are forthwith comprehended. And, knowing, dare maintain them." hundred, and a thousand acres, to actual settlers: Such I state a proposition, then, of received and universal were the terms on which they dealt out the soil which is truth, when I say that the power of a Republic is in its now covered by a nation of freemen. Provinces, which population; that the basis of population is agriculture; now form sovereign States, were sold from hand to hand, and that the agriculture which combines wealth and pop- for a less sum than the Federal Government now demands ulation, is that of the freecholder. Quotations in support for an area of two miles square. I could name instances. of a truth so plain would be out of place in the Senate; I could name the State of Maine; a name, for more reabut there is one which I flatter myself they would be sons than one, familiar and agreeable to Missouri; and willing to hear, one to which it would listen with pleasure, which was sold by Sir Ferdinando Gorges to the proprie. whether it be for the justness of the sentiments, the sim-tors of the Massachusetts Bay, for twelve hundred pounds, plicity and beauty of the language, or for the eminent authority from which it comes. I speak of General Hamilton's report in favor of manufactures, and in the front of which he places the following just and noble encomium upon the agricultural interest: The Quotation. provincial money. And well it was for Maine that she was so sold; well it was for her that the modern policy of waiting for the rise, and sticking at a minimum of $1.25, was not then in vogue; or else Maine would have been a desert now. Instead of a numerous, intelligent, and virtuous population, we should have had trees and wild "It ought readily to be conceded, that the cultivation beasts. My respectable friend, the Senator from that of the earth, as the primary and most certain source of State, (Gen. CHANDLER,) would not have been here to national supply-as the immediate and chief source of watch so steadily the interest of the public, and to opsubsistence to man-as the principal source of those ma-pose the bills which I bring in for the relief of the land terials which constitute the nutriment of other kinds of claimants. And I mention this to have an opportunity to labor-as including a state most favorable to the freedom do justice to the integrity of his heart and to the soundand independence of the human mind-one, perhaps, ness of his understanding-qualities in which he is excelmost conducive to the multiplication of the human spe-led by no Senator-and to express my belief that we will cies-has, intrinsically, a strong claim to PRE-EMINENCE come together upon the final passage of this bill for the over every other kind of industry." cardinal points in our policy are the same-economy in the public expenditures, and the prempt extinction of the public debt. I say, well it was for Maine that she was sold for the Federal price of four sections of Alabama pine, Louisiana swamp, or Missouri prairie. Well it was for every State in this Union, that their soil was sold for a song, or given as a gift to whomsoever would take it. Happy for them, and for the liberty of the human race, that the Kings of England and the "Lords Proprietors," did not conceive the luminous idea of waiting for the rise, and sticking to a minimum of $1.25 per acre. Happy for Kentucky, Tennessee, and Ohio, that they were settled under States, and not under the Federal Government. To this happy exemption they owe their present greatness Tenantry is unfavorable to freedom. It lays the foundation for separate orders in society, annihilates the love of country, and weakens the spirit of independence. The tenant has, in fact, no country, no hearth, no domestic altar, no household god. The freeholder, on the contrary, is the natural supporter of a free government, and it should be the policy of republics to multiply their freeholders, as it is the policy of monarchies to multiply tenants. We are a republic, and we wish to continue so: then multiply the class of freeholders; pass the public lands cheaply and easily into the hands of the People; sell, for a reasonable price, to those who are able to pay; and give, without price, to those who are not. I say : MAY 16, 1826.] Public Lands. [SENATE. The and prosperity. When they were settled, the State laws hands of the people, is beginning to be admitted. prevailed in the acquisition of lands; and donations, pre- bill which I have introduced, embraces two principlesemptions, and settlement rights, and sales at two cents sales upon fair terms, and donations to actual settlers. the acre, were the order of the day. I include Ohio, and They are intended to accomplish the double purpose of I do it with a knowledge of what I say for ten millions paying off the public debt, and increasing the population of her soil, that which now constitutes her chief wealth and wealth of the country. The approbation of these and strength, were settled upon the liberal principles principles, though rapidly advancing upon the public which I mention. The Federal system only fell upon mind, is not yet universal; some objections are heard; fifteen millions of her soil; and, of that quantity, the one and the view which I proposed to take of my subject, half now hes waste and useless, paying no tax to the would be incomplete if these objections were not stated State, yielding nothing to agriculture, desert spots in the and overthrown. I will state and overthrow them. The midst of a smiling garden, "waiting for the rise," and | task is easy; for the most of them are the same which exhibiting, in high and bold relief, the miserable folly of were brought forward by the funding system men, about prescribing an arbitrary minimum upon that article which half a century ago, and which were condemned by the is the gift of God to man, and which no parental Govern-voice of reason then, and blasted by the touch of experiment has ever attempted to convert into a source of reve-ence since. The are, nue and an article of merchandise. 1. That the Atlantic States will be depopulated. 2. That speculators will be encouraged. 3. That monopolies will be created. 4. That former purchasers will be injured. 6. That the lands are pledged to the public creditors. To each of these objections, I will give a brief and candid answer: FIRST-The depopulation of the old States. But it is not to the wealth and population of the States alone, that the fatal effects of this Federal dominion over their soil is extended. It reaches and affects a still higher object-the sovereign character of the States themselves. The new States are not equal in sovereignty to the old ones. The points of difference are numerous, striking, and highly material. The old States have a right to make primary disposition of the soil within their limits; the new ones have not. The old States have the right of taxation; the new ones have not. The old States possess the I lay it down as a general proposition, Mr. President, right of eminent domain; the new ones have it not. The that a country which is fit for the propagation of the huFederal Government has no jurisdiction over the soil, tim- man species, cannot be depopulated, nor even sensibly ber, grass, and water, of the old States; they assert and affected in the amount of its population, by any process exercise jurisdiction over all those in the new States; de- of emigration to which it can be subjected. No matter nouncing penalties of fine and imprisonment against the how many go off, the vacuum will be immediately filled. citizens of the new States who may cut a stick, dig a For the truth of this proposition I refer, among European hole, tread down grass upon the public land, or boil the countries, to Ireland, a little hive, which has been sending salt water of the great Federal landlord; and her Federal forth its swarms, for ages and centuries, to every corner courts are authorized to punish these offences, and her of the globe, (Scotland excepted-I never heard of an military force is armed with power to expel with the bay-Irishman in Scotland)—and which is still one of the most onet, whomsoever her agents may choose to consider as populous districts in Europe, and most rapidly increasing intruders upon any ground that they may please to sup-in numbers. I refer also, among ourselves, to the State pose belongs to the great Power before which all must of Connecticut; a State which sends out more emigrants, bend. This condition of inequality I hold to be inconsis-in proportion to its size, than any other in the Union, and tent with the terms and spirit of the Constitution; incon- whose population, to the square mile, is still among the sistent with the terms and spirit of the cession acts, by most populous districts in the Union. On the other hand, which the Northwestern and Southwestern Territories a country which is unfit for the propagation of the human were ceded to the Federal Government; inconsistent species, cannot be peopled by the arbitrary regulations with the terms and spirit of the treaties by which Louis- of man. For the truth of this position, I refer to Africa, iana and Florida were ceded to the United States; and a region stigmatized, for two thousand years, as the "mowholly incompatible with the independence of the States ther of monsters," and in which all attempts to increase, or themselves. To remove this inequality, and all its conse- to tame, its population, have been found to be vain and quent evil; to avoid, especially, the conflict of laws, of idle. Even the English, with their peculiar power, and jurisdiction, and, perhaps, of arms, to which it is to give means, of vanquishing the obstacles of nature, after exrise-immediate steps should be taken to surrender the pending two millions sterling upon the project of a settlepublic lands to the States within which they le. The billment at Sierra Leone, are forced to admit the impossibility, before you does not contemplate this measure; but the consideration of this bill has turned the minds of eminent statesmen in that direction, and I shall expect to see the proposition distinctly brought before the Senate from a quarter as distinguished for political wisdom, as for the disinterestedness of its action.* I have thus demonstrated, Mr. President, the truth of the two propositions, with which I sat out. I have shown that, whether we act as mere Treasury officers, raising revenue, or, as Statesmen, improving their country, we ought to adopt the principles of the bill which is under discussion; and I am cheered and flattered by the belief that they will be adopted. A great change is going on in the public mind. The injustice and folly of attempting to make revenue out of lands, is becoming manifest; the necessity and advantage of passing them easily into the of succeeding. To seduce people to emigrate to a country not fit for the propagation of the human species, is to commit a crime against God and Nature; and to compel them, by arbitrary regulations, to remain in a country where they cannot “increase and multiply," is another offence against God and Nature, aggravated by an open violation of a Divine command. I look upon it as the height of cruelty and injustice to seduce the ignorant to go from America to Africa; and but little less cruel and unjust to compel the poor to remain in some parts of the Atlantic States. I refer particularly to the tide water region, and to the class of cultivators, whether tenants or freeholders, who inhabit the pine woods, and work in the sand. My position is a plain one, and I repeat it, because I defy contradiction. I say, then, that it is an offence against God and Virginia. Mr. Randolph and Mr. Tazewell had each informed me that they would bring forward this proposition The former being absent, the latter did it. [MAY 16, 1826. Nature, to compel people to remain in a country, where, say that population will be drained off from the Atlantic instead of increasing, they are decreasing; instead of mul- States; that these States will lose their political weight; tiplying, they are subtracting; instead of replenishing the landlords will lose their tenants; day laborers will become earth, they are diminishing and disappearing from its scarce; white servants will disappear; and, to prevent face; for that decrease, subtraction, and diminution, be- all these consequences, so terrible in their eyes, they prosides being a breach of the Divine command, implies a pose that the Federal Government, with respect to the STINT of food, with all its consequent train of bodily suf- public lands, shall act the odious part of the "dog in the fering and disease, intellectual and moral degradation, manger.' But I answer, that the objections are untrue loss of physical strength, animal courage, and the spirit of in some respects, and unjust in others. The States will independence. This I affirm to be the case in the tide not lose their population, except in places where they water region of the Atlantic States; commercial cities, ought to lose it. No vacuum will be created in a place and particular districts, of course, excepted. I know it fit for the habitation of man. The place of the emigrant to be the fact that, in this region, the human animal is will be filled up immediately, as the place of an old house scarcer, and the beasts of the forest more plenty, than burnt up in the conflagration of a city, is immediately fill their respective species were before the war of the Revo ed by a new one, frequently larger and more beautiful. lution. I know it from books, from conversations with Experience proves this. For forty years, population has aged men, and from personal observation. Throughout been passing off from the Atlantic to the Western States, this extensive region, the progress of man upon earth is and, all the while, the Atlantic States, (with the exception reversed. Every thing is going backwards and down- of particular districts) are rapidly increasing in numbers, wards. Houses dilapidated and deserted, fences gone; advancing in wealth, and flourishing in improvements. fields grown up in broom-grass and pine saplings; peo-Thus, it is untrue, in point of fact, that increased emigraple grown scarcer; wild animals more plenty; and the tion to the West is to depopulate the East. Many will cultivator of the earth reduced, I would say, to the mini- doubtless go the West, but their places will be filled up. mum and the pessimum of human subsistence, if I had The earth, which is fit for the propagation of man, cannot not heard the description, or rather, if I had not seen the be depopulated, neither by emigration, nor by wars, no picture which the Senator from Virginia, Mr. RANDOLPH, more than the sea can be exhausted of the finny tribe, by has drawn you of the misery and degradation of the South the operation of the fisherman; or the air can be deprived of Ireland. Hopeless and deplorable, indeed, is the con- of its plumed inhabitants, by the guns and nets of the dition of the tenant and cultivator in this region of pine fowler. The other objections to emigration are of a nature and sand. In vain does he solicit grit, and gravel, and too selfish and anti-republican, to need particular refutaheartless clay, to send up the corn and oats which man tion. We live in a free country, and any man has a right to and beast demand for the support of life. Even vegeta- better his condition, by moving to the right or left, accordble manure is not to be had. The watery element is re-ing to his will and pleasure. With us no citizen has a right sorted to for a substitute, and, at a certain season, affords to the person of another; nor any legal or equitable claim it. I have just witnessed an example of the fact. In a to detain him in any place, from motives of personal or polishort excursion, which I made into the country a few tical aggrandisement. Nor is such a motive of any exten weeks ago, I became an eye-witness of the fact, of which sive prevalence. More just and generous feelings prevail. I had before heard, but, until then, had not seen an in- The venerable Senator from North Carolina, (Mr. Macon,) stance. It was not twenty miles from this city--the me- speaks the sentiments of a great majority of the Atlantic tropolis of four-and-twenty States-it was not very far from People, when he says that he never sees a man moving to Mount Vernon, the renowned seat of Washington. I was the West, but he wishes him a good journey, hoping that travelling the high road between this city and Fredericks- he will improve his own condition, and certain that he will burg, when I heard a clinking among the stones on the improve the condition of those left behind, by giving them side of a hill, stopped my horse, looked up, and saw la- more " elbow room.' As for the march of power, that is borers engaged, apparently burying something in the a thing not to be arrested by the puny efforts of man. ground, at regular intervals. I inquired what they were goes from East to West; from the rising to the setting doing and a voice replied, that they were planting corn. Sun. It marches in the rear of the Sun; it follows the I asked, what are you burying with it?"Herring heads." God of Day. What for? To make the corn come up." How many heads do you put to a grain ?" Two, Sir." How high does your corn grow?" So high," (measuring upon the leg.) How do you gather it?" In baskets."-I stopped the dialogue, and continued my journey, ruminating upon the scene which I had witnessed, and growing stronger in my conviction that the country, truly rich, truly independent, truly fitted for the production of republicans, is the country in which provisions are produced in the greatest abundance, a country in which, as in the vast and magnificent valley of the Mississippi, there is neither count, nor weight, nor measure, for any thing that is given to man or beast to eat. In such a country, the ani mal spirits run high. Master, slave, and beast, live at their ease. Each knows the virtue of cribs and smokehouses, crammed to bursting. "Westward the Star of Empire wings its way." It the man that handles iron, will be the master of him that SECOND OBJECTION.-Encouragement to Speculators. There is neither truth nor reason, Mr. President, in this objection. Speculators will not buy small and dispersed tracts of inferior land, and they could get no other at a low price, under the operations of this bill. The land would be four or five times picked over before the price could fall to twenty-five or fifty cents per acre; all the choice spots would be taken up, and nothing but the refuse left. Speculators do not want such. They want large bodies of good land, compactly situated, and well |