Alabama state intelligencer., 1831-06-18
From the Tu,cumbia Adyertiser.


 this part of the State, that the purchasers o the University Lands at seventeen dollars per acre and upwards, have for more than tive years past, been asking, both of the board oi trustees and legislature, some relief All other classes of land debtors within this State have in some way or other been relieved, and when the very relief granted to others; had operated as an additional depression to the price of their lands, they believe, that as citi- zens of the same State, they were entitled to equal rights, and equal protection from their govenment:-that government being instltut- ed for the protection of the whole, proscrip- tion extended to the few, because they were few, was at variance with the first principles of our institutions.
 When the people of this State were involv- ed in A debt to the General Government, that would have ruined almost every enterprizing man within the State, when they awoke from their delrium and was sensible to their real situation, what was their alternative !- Why they cast their eyes towards the Go vernmcnt, their creditor, for relef-and that relief was not sought in vain, although they asked it of Congress collected from Geor- gia to Maine, men who were strangers to their State, so far as related to the real value of those lands they petitioned the government to take off their hands, and save them from
 
 lantic States urging as a reason, that those lands had been 8acrediysset apart to pay the debt incurred during our revolutionary strug- gle;-No! this has been reserved for the press of Tuscaloosa, and the s'Intelligencer" in particular, to attack the unfortunate individu- als who had involved themselves past their means. with the State Government for Uni versty lands.
 These individuals have often in the most respectful manner, petitioned the Board of Trustees, and once the legislature ofthe State, setting forth their situation, and showing the reasons why they were entitled to relief No Editor in Tuscaloosa has ever deigned to notice one of these papers, but so soon as some demagogue wished to mount the popu- lar hobby, and to get his name before the public as the guardian and protector of the poor and distressed orphan, and chooses to write protest,we have seen you, MT Wiley, take up those incomparable State papers, re- cord them in your independent press, and publish them with your own recommenda- tions, take just such extracts from other pa pers as suited your purpose, and entirely sup press others. You commenced your warfare upon us, during the sitting of the last Legisla- ture by inserting in your paper, while our pc tition was under discussion, and on the very day it was set for the third reading in the IL. the fathers of the "North- h-Western Blast, without giving the arguments which had been brought forward in support of the measure. You published all the speeches of the oppo- ncnts of relief, and selected only such as you thought proper, of those who opposed us.-l You have since then, either yourself or some poor scrbler in your paper under the title ot "Alabama," branded us as a Northern fac tion, calling on the people of this State to si- lence those two factions, the enc in the North the other in the South, who were aiming deadly blows at the University of the State. We deny the epithet of fsctious, we believe we arc as orderly and neral, pay cur taxes, and debts when we are able, as well as you great people of the Capitol.
 We have here specified as you request in your paper of tie 25th May, your resort to artifices and tho dirty work of publishing but one side of question You appear to be ignorant of any Tuscaloosa town lots given to the State, and say the matter is new; that is more than probable, as we understood the papers were LOST, make enquiry of some of your townsmen, who can give you every in formation on that subject that could be had from your "North- Western acquaintance, as you please to call us.
 The ruinous ordinance passed by the board of trustees, ill April last, has now had fair trial, it was limited to the first of June, and instead of the two hundred thousand dollars which you trumpeted forth that the Univer- sity would lose you can inform your friends, that five quarter sections, and five only, have been effected by this great destroyer of Uni versty fnnds none of those five quarter sec tions, had the state any further security for, but the lands, and these lands not worth the half that was due on them, and some of the debtors and all their property without the United States. Now. Mir Wiley do publish this, and also insert, that most of those to whom this ordinance for relief was offered, spurned it with contempt, considering it as placing them in worse situation.
 As we intend in the next Tuscumbia Ad- vertser to answer your protesting friends, we shall drop you with single remark. You call the author of the piece we published un- der the title of Ca North Western Bast,' madman; you appear to have some concern who this madman can be, but again conclude he is a friend to the editor of the Inquirer, and as such cares but little about the name. Had you chosen to have taken the sense of the reading you would have seen that 1t was the production of the University Land Debtors of Franklin county-those nineteen your friend held up last winter with such contempt, as being so few in number, that it mattcred not about their destruction--look to the petition presented by us to the lastlegislature, and take any name, any part, or the whole, and then you have the author of the 'sNorth-Western Blast" and of this also.
 UNIVERSITY DEBTORS.
 .1nti-1faSon,y- John Quincy Adams