Du Buque visitor. [volume] (Dubuque, Lead Mines, Wisconsin Territory) 1836-1837, 1836-08-17
THE PUBLIC LANDS.
Reporf Of The Senate Committee.

.rlbute, and you Will never reduce.
Now you have greatly reduced the re-
venue from duties on imports, decrease
The revenue still further, by diminish
Ing the price Of the public lands. and
confirming the sales to actual settlers, and
your dangerous surplus soon yanishes.
Is tins system OF sales to spectators at
the same unvarying, unreduced price
to be perpetuated? IF so, you perpe-
tuate the system Of q surplus revenue.
You drain annually from the people,
large amounts Of unnecessary revenue.
You fix the surplus system as the estab-
lished policy ofthc Government, and
persevere in cnriching the treasury an
npally at the expense Of the people.
The General Government should ne
yer speculate upon the settlers Of the
public domain, nor aid others in SO do
ing. There are two classes Of specu-
lators: one class, comprising many re-
spectacle citizens, who occasionally en-
ter or purchase public lands unoccupi-
ed by any settler. Although no,moral
wrong is committed by these individ-
uals, yet even this species Of purchase
or entry, for speculation, should be ar
rested, as contrary to the policy of the
country, and calculated to retard future
settlements. But there is another and
very numerous class Of spectators up
on the public domain, not only per-
mitted, but encouraged by our existing
laws, and replete with fraud and cxtor-
ton. tits this: Immediately succeed
ing the advertisement oflarge bodies Of
public lands for sale at auction by the
United States, this second class Of spe-
culators explore the, whole country adj
vertised for sale, take the number Of
every quarter section upon which set
tier is established, add the value Of the
Improvement made upon the land, by
the sweat ofthe brow Of the industrious
occupant, to the intrinsic worth Of the
waste land, and thus compel thesettler
to pay either the Spectator, or the Co
vcrnmcnt, not the value of the land on
~, but in addition, the value Of the
Improvement made by the occupant
himself, after years Of toll and labor.
In this way, either the speculator or
the Government receives money for
that which is not its own. 1t receives
money for improvements which it has
not made, and houses which it has not
erected. Itputs, without any compcn-
sation, the money for the labor of the
settler into the public treasury, or cna-
bles the Spectator to put this money
Into his own pocket BY this system,
the Government co-opcrates with the
speculator in depriving the industrious
occupant Of Ill remuneration for his la
Dor; and small indeedisthe profit which
the Government derives from this le-
galized system Of plumber and spoila-
ton. n
The authentic records Of the land Of
flee demonstrate that the Spectator lis
the naonopolist Of nearly all the profit
Of this. immoral, unjust, and oppressive
system; q system which is a stain up
on the honor Of great nation. The
poQrbut industrious occupant generally
asas;,s3s the land sales, having no more
money than 2 sum sufficient to buy the
lAnd he occupies at the minimum price;
i speculator bids 4 few cents over him,
and becomes the purchaser Of the land,
and the owner Of an improved farm,
paying not one cent for the value Of
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