Litchfield enquirer., 1832-01-12
PUBLIC LANDS,


 Tn the House of Representatives few days since, the following debate took place, on the resolution of Mr. Duncan, proposing to give one third of the proceeds of the sales of pub lie lands, to the states in which the lands are situated. SIc.
 MT. Duncan Of Illinois, rose and said, that he had offered his amendment from a sense of justice to the State and people he had the honor to represent. Gentlemen both in and out of Congress, are greatly mistaken about the real value of the public land in its present condition. He said he had seen published in some of the newspapers the most extravagant calculations of the amount that would fall to certain States, when these lands were sold to the States in which they lie, as suggested by the Secretary of the Treasury in his late re- port. Mir. D. said he was convinced that the new States would never give the price that was likely to be Set upon them. He said there had been meeting called of the Sena- tors and Representatives, to consider the pol icy of submitting proposition 10 meet the views of the Secretary of the Treasury, in which meeting tEere was majority against the policy and except himself, he said that no member present was willing to pledgh his State for more than three cents an acre for all the land. good and bad, within their limits.
 Mr. Duncan remarked that Congress had bargained the new states out of their rights to tax the public lands within their limits that they had gone further, they had even made the new States agree, on their admission in- to the Union. not to tax any land for five years after it was sold by the United States. He said, the right 10 tax the land was an attri- hute of sovereignty universal in all the old States, and was indispensable to the freedom and independence of every country. and could not be denied to the new States, without re- ducing them to 8 state of inferiority and de- pendence, wholly at war with every principle Ofthe Constitution aud the compact. Mir. D. said it might be, and perhaps was, too late to correct this error, bat he hoped it was not too late to do justice. Congress was at lib- erty to use the pubic lands in such way as to satisfy every just expectation of the new States, and to impruye and enlighten the old ones. He said that there had been expended about 7O0.O0O,0OO dollars on the Atlantic sea- board since the commencement of this Gov ernment. and comparatively but little in any of the new States, and that nearly all the re- venue of the government, say 15,OOO, ,0OO a year. must, from the nature of things, be ex- pended on the sea-board. To all this he made no objection. But he thought it noth- ing more than just that portion of the mon- ey paid for lands should be expended in i'm proving the States in which it is paid. He said that the first branch of his proposition was to give one third of the proceeds of the sales of the public lands for works of improvement io tbe States in which they are sold. He said the second branch of his proposition was to appropriate one third of the proceeds arising from the sales of those lands to the construe- ton of roads and canals SO equally through out the Union, as to connect this expansive valley with every seaport on the Atlantic, which. he said, independent Of the great com mercial and military importance to the Gov ernment. would do more to unite and harmo- nlze the States than any thing that had been done since the Revolution. As to the third 1 branch of his proposition, which was to ap- ] prcpriate third of this fund for purposes of education in all the States, he thought il 1 enough to say (as was universally admitted) that the freedom and independence of the Government and the happiness of all depend 1 upon the intelligence and virtue of the people !
 Mir. Root (Gen. Erastus Root of N. VI felt 1t incumbent on him peremptoriIy to de- ny any right in Congress to appropriate the proceeds of the national domain to such 0b- Jects as were specified in the genteman's amendment. To whom did the lands belong. which the gentlemen from Illinois claimed as belonging to the several States where they were situated The manner in which those lands were ceded to the United States, and The causes which led to the cesson, were well known. Early in the Revolution, those States "hose charters covered no unseated lands ad. vanced claim to theis shares in the lands which should be ceded to their confederocv. Some ofthe States maintained that their char. ter hm'ts extended as far west as to the Pa c'nc Ocean. But some ofthe States. among winch were Maryland, New Jersey and R Rhode Island, having no claims of their own to un. settled territory, insisted that the public lands ought to be viewed and treated as the ioint property of all the States that had embark ed m the Revolution. Even prior to the articlos or Confederation, bounties were promised to omcers and soldiers. to be paid out of the lands which were to be acquired from inc States by voluntary cession or bv nur.h,s. ~nere they were not voluntarily surrendered congress = was to dsfray the expense out of Ine pubic treasury. No specific proyis. :on. however, was made upon the sub. Ject; And how did the States thus situated conduct! Maryland withdrew herself from tne Confectionery and both Rhode Island and New-Jersey remonstrated a~.;r anS agaao. Congress, by repeated resolutions. solc1ed. and at length obtained, the cess;"n oi the lands. Nsw-York was the first to 's smr' renuer her unsettled territory, of which she owned vast amount. as common fi,nd. Hor tue express purpose of carrying on the war. ana deiraying the public debt. These wers mace the specific conditions of the grant Ano' at the termination of the war. inc lsnds bks.A I