The Arkansas advocate., 1830-04-07

celyed into the Treasury from the sale
 of the public lands to the West, and then
 looked to the whole amount expended
 by Government, (even including the
 whole amount Of what was laid out for
 the Army y)-the latter must be allowed
 to be very inconsiderable, and Mere must
 6e coastant drai,a of money from tae
 Vest to Pay for the public lands. Itmight lfideed be said that this was no more
 than the rehuencc of capital which had previously gone over the mountains.-
 De It so. Still its practical effect was to produce inconvenience # not distress, 6y absorbing the money of tue people"
 contended that the public lands ought not to be treated merely as < fund fer revenue e1'-tiiiatt they ought not to be boarded as Ca great treasure" On this point the Senator expressed tiimseiithus: "Government, he believed, had received eighteen or twenty millions of dollars from the public lands, and 1t was with the greatest satisfaction he ad- verted to the change which had been introduced in the mode of paying for them: yethe could never think the na- tlonal domain was to be considered as any great source of revenue. The great object of tbe Government in respect to these lands, was not so much the money derived from their sale, asitwas the get ting them settled. What he meant to say. was he did not think they ought to hug that domain AS GREAT TREASURE. aOfsach auas to enrich the Erchequer.'' Now. Mir. President, it will be seen that the very doctrines which the gen. tieman so indignantly abandons were urged by himin 1925; sand if Ihad actu- dfftfy borrowed my sentiments from those which he then avowed, could not have followed more closely in his footsteps. SIT, It only since the gentleman quoted this book, yesterday, that my attention has been turned to the sentiments he ex- pressed n 1925, and, if had remem- bered them, might possibly have been deterred from uttering sentiments here which it might well be supposed, l had borrowed from that gentleman.
 in 1925, the gentleman told the world, that the public lands sought not to be treated as a treasure" He now tells us, |" they must be treated as so much treas ure. What the deliberate opinion of the gentleman on this subject may be, belongsnot to me to determinel but do not think he can, with the shadow of jus tice or propriety, impugn my sentiments. while his own recorded opinions are l. dentical with my own.
 When the gentleman refers tothe con- ditions of the grants under which the United Stateshaye acquired these lands, and insists that, as they are declared tobe 'sfor the common benefit of ali the States they canonly betreated asso much treas ure, think he has applied rule of con- struetion too narrow for the case.
 If, in the deeds of cession, it has been declared, that the grants were intended for ssthe common beneftofall the States it is clear, from other provisions, that they were not intended merely as so much property; for, it is expressly declar- ed, that the subject of the grants is the erection of new States; and the United States, in accepting the trust, bind them- selves to facilitate the foundation of these States, to be admitted into the U- nlon with all the rights and priveleges of the original States. A'his, sir, was the great end to which all parties looked; and it is by the f1lflment ofthis high trust, that ssthe common benefit of all the States is to be best promoted. Sir, let me tell the gentleman that in the part of the country in which l live, we do not measure political benefits by the money standard.
 We consider as more valuable than gold, liberty, principle, and justice. But, sir, if we are bound to act on the narrow principles contended for by the gentleman, am wholly at loss to con- ceive how he can reconcile his principles with his own practice. The lands are, 1t seems, to be treated ssas so much treas ure, and must be applied to the ( com mon benefit of all the States" Now, if this be so, whence does he derive the right to appropriate them for partial and local objects? How can the gen. tleman consent to vote away immense bodies of these lands, for canals in lndi- ana & Illinois, to the Louisville & Pert Per t land canal, to Kenyon College in Ohio, to Schools for the deaf and dumb, and lother objects of a similar description?