Martinsburg gazette. [volume] (Martinsburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1833-1855, 1838-02-14
From the New Yorker.
THE PUBLIC LANDS.

The time has arrived when the PEG.
pie OF the United States should learn
to appreciate more justly the noble
heritage won by the valor and suffer.
ings of their fathers, and to scrutinize
with jealous watchfulness the pro.
lects on foot to divest them of their
birthright. Even on the floor Of Con.
gress we at times have heard the doc.
trlne openly broached that the Public
| Lands of the Union do not belong TO
the whole people thereof, but to the
small portion OF them who may happen
to reside within certain narrow metes
and bounds---that the act of recogni-
zing a State virtually alienates TO the
Government Of that State (notwi,hstan.
ding an express stipulation to the con.
trary) all the lard which may be inciu.
ded within its boundaries--thus giving
to a citizen of Arkansas ten thousand
acres, and to citizen of New York
none at all, of this common property.
This monstrous pretence is not now so
commonly and openly insisted Ont
lies dormant, while efforts are making
to accomplish the desired object in
more insidious manner but the spirit
is still at work. The points at which
it now aims are q Graduation of the
price of the lands, and the passage of
Presumption Laws. Let it but carry
these points, and the old States are as
effectually dispossessed Of their inter-
est in these lands as though they were
sequestered by the squatters or parcel
led out among its soldiery by some
" Patriot government.
A few words must suffice as to the
value Of the Public Domain. The
amount Of fertile lands within the ter.
ritory of the United States yet unsoId
and unappropriated must considerably
exceed one thousand millions of acres.
More than one hundred millions Of this
have already been surveyed and pre-
pared for sale, and still greater area
has been freed from the Aboriginal IL
tie. Estimating the number Of men in
the Union at two millions, there are
five hundred acres of valuable public
land to each--probably four times as
much as is now under cultivation or
improvement in the country. This
great patrimony has cost the people of
the United States, in the purchase Of
Louisiana and Florida, in the extinc-
ton OF Indian titles, and in the prose-
cution of Indian wars which but for it
would not have been necessary, not
less than one hundred millions Of dol
lars, without taking into account the
War ofthc Revolution in which this do
main was won from the British Crown,
and the precious blood which for sixty
wears has been poured out in its con-
quest and defence. Ii is worth at this
moment three hundred millions anG,
should the old States eventually receive
a moiety Of that sum from its sale, il
can never be truly said that they have
been too generously repaid for their
lavish expenditure Of blood and trca-
sure in acquiring and defending i.
1t needs not that we should enter at
this time upon an elaborate vindication
of the system hitherto pursued in the
survey and sale Of the Public Lands.
ONO is its noblcst eulogy--ISDrANA
lis ample defence. A system under
which fifty millions Of acres have in
SO brief period been sold to actual
settlers, and population ofsix millions
! Of hardy and thrifty freemen been