Edwardsville spectator. [volume] (Edwardsville, Ill.) 1819-1826, 1821-03-27

oenate, tnat, as Inc PUBIC JANUS WcrC
required by law TO be sold in tracts not
exceeding quarter section, in any case,
and half quarter section in some cases,
the sale OF each quarter or half quarter
section, as the case may have been, Is TO
be considered as a distinct contract, and
therefore the practical effects OF the in
diligence asked for would be little, il any
thing more than to enable those unlortu-
nate and distressed public debtors to get
rid of so many separate and distinct con-
tracts with the government as they are
unable to comply with, and admits ofno
arbitrary selections, contrary TO the sub
divisions which Congress itself has
created
And, besides the inutility and folly of
requiring men to perform impossibilities,
the government, in granting this indul-
gence, will still be in as good situation
as if those improvident contracts had
never been made for, if it does not get
the money most impruden,ly contracted
to be paid for its land, it gets back the
land ITSELF without any deterioration,
while the purchasers cannot get single
acre Tor which they will not have paid
the government full equivalent; and
thus the evils which have their origin in
an excess of those contracts will be most
naturally corrected by diminishing their
number, upon such terms as will leave
both parties in as good a situation as
they would have been in if such excess
had never existed.
This measures greatly to be preferred
to any plan of indulgence, whose object
is mere extension of the times of pay
ment; for, embarrassed as those debtors
now are, in common with the rest of
their fellow citizens, by other engage
ments, and deprived of all resource in
the sale of their. lands, by the conduct
OF the government in reducing the price
Fits own; the entire change in our COM
mercial relations, and the permanent
loss of foreign markets for all, or nearly
all, the great staples of our country,
leave no ground to hope that they will
be able at any future time, whatever in
diligence may be granted to them, to
pay the amount which they now owe the
government.
But, even if they should be able TO
pay, it is not reasonable to suppose that
they will do SO, since Congress has made
1t the interest ola great majority of them
to forfeit all that they have already paid,
rather than to pay the balance that is
due. This is particularly the case with
all those who have paid one instalment
only; for, surprising them to have
purchased at the minimum price, they
still have to pay one dollar and fifty
cents an acre, with interest, while they
can purchase as good or better land of
the government, az one dollar and twen-
ty-five cents an acre, without interest
at which price they will be able to re-
purchase the very lands that may be
forfeited, when they shall be again Offer
ed for sale.
Therefore, taking it for granted that
the government would not wish, under
the circumstances that have been men
toned, like ruthless, heariless sharper,
to take advantage of forfeitures which its
own conduct has rendered it the interest
of a large and meritorious class of its
citizens to subject themselves to, and
seeing that those contracts neither can
nor will be complied with, there seems
to be no reasonable motive to refuse,
and the strongest inducements to grant,
to those debtors, the privilege Of relin-
gushing part of their lands, upon the
terms proposed, whereby the debt would
be diminished. The lands would I'M
mediately revert to the government, and
could be disposed of for its benefit, to
pers ms who would improve them. The
debtors would be relieved from debt
which, pressing upon them like an in
cudus, paralyzes all their energies, and
destroys their enterprise and the pros
perity of the states in which they reside
would be greatly promoted-for it can
not be disguised, that almost all the citi- |
zens in some of those states have pur-
chased more land than they can pay for
and, while the fear of losing their lands
prevents many from improving them,
the desire of others to save as much of
the money which they have already ad-
vanced as possible, induces them to lay
up every cent that they can command,
for that purpose, and prevents other i'm
provements that would greatly enhance
the value of the public lands, and are
absolutely necessary to those states.
Strongly as these considerations re-
commend and enjoin the adoption ofthe
measure now under consideration, as
one Of necessary and just reliefto those
debtors, and of wise and correct policy
in relation to the Union, there is an adj
ditional view of the subject, that exhibits
claims to relief, which no court Of