The Arkansas advocate., 1833-09-11

imported rt " lew H9f'Fs fbf5i19 ultimately paid by the consumers of tIle goods throuoh- out the Union. It being impossible toas- certain the ssisllal proportion of the general charge upon each State,n it is consequently impossible to fix on the ratio preseribesa! F the compacts according to which eael State IS to share in the common benefits oi the iand sales, and impossible to make the necessary apportionment preparatory to paying over to each State it's due share in money. How tben is each to receive itz proportion of the benoft2 By paying the proceeds of the land sales into tho common Treasury, and using them for tho usual paT,s poses of the government. By this disposi- ton they lessen the amount to be collected from the people of each State, in inc exact proportion of the general charge upon them, be 1t little or great, thus complying win the compacts of cession to tke lettef.
 The cession of North Carolina, in which this rule of distribution is laid down, was executed in l790, after the Constitution had become the supreme law of the land. IL will not be denied, that when d compact stpulates that q particular result shall be produced and there is but one possible mode of producing ii, that mode must as necessa- rily be resorted 10 as f t had been express y pointed out in tue compact itself. It is,. therefore, as much a part of the compact between the State of North Carolina on tlle one side, and the United StsA, a.---.-s, f sssf that make tiiee dest6yTii6' t 6 Tii6 otRer,
 mang.oceeds man. of the land ceded by that state shall shall De paid iito le common irea- sury and applied to the usual purposes of the government, as if 1t had been in express terms one of the conditions of the cession It is the only way in which the several States can receive their share of the eoia1- mon benefit "according to their respective and usual proportion in the general charge and expenditure"
 Here then are three points n which Mf. Ciay's bill IS palpable violation of the compacts of cession by which the United States acquired all the public lands out of Florida and east of the Mississippi, viz:
 l. II gives enezeighih of the proceeds of the public lands to a few States, when the compacts declare they shall be shared by all.
 ?. It preselibes the ''federaI representa- lve populauOn as the plmciple or disu4Du= ton, when the compacts prescribe the pro portion of each State in "the general charge and expenditure"
 3. It directs one-eighth of the net pro- ceeds of the sales, to be paidina few States. and the remaining seven-eighths to be paid to the whole twenty-four, when 1t was the understandingof all parties to the compacts, their obvious meaning and the practice un- der them from the time of their formation to this day, that the proceeds of the public land sales sball be paid into the Treasury and applied to lessen the taxes levied upon the several States and their citizens for the general purposes of the Union.
 Mr. Clay's bill, therefore, as polpable breach of the public faitt, s,tbgerSige ojf 6 .fundamental la,u of Re Republic, and, if passed, would, in Court of Equity, be pronounced null and void, unless the United States have power to absolve themselves from their own invited and voluntary con tracts, and deprive the States of their re- served and conventional riehts whenever ! may suit the views of policy or ambition entertained by the general government.
 We shall hereafter proceed to show that the disposition of the Public Lands, pro- posed by MT. Clay's bill, will be injurious both to the old States and the new.