Jeffersonian Republican. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1840-1853, 1842-08-24

gress at the extra session! If there was no af-
fnity between the parties, why did he join them
together! Ii the Union was illegitlmate, who
was the administering priest Of the unhallowed
rites! Ii is objected TO this bill that it is both
a revenue and an appropriation bill. What
lhen! Is not the act OF September a, ls4l, ap-
proved and signed by the President himself
both revenue and an appropriation bill!
Does il not enact that in the event of an Insui-
ficiency of impost duties not exceeding 70 per
cent ad valorem, TO defray the current expenses
of the Government, the proceeds of the sales
of the lands shall be levied as part OF the same
revenue, and appropriated TO the same purposes!
The appropriation Of the proceeds oil Inc safes
of the public lands to delray the ordinary expen-
diturcs of the Government is believed 10 be a
system of fiscal management unwlse, lmpolltlc,
improvideni, and unjust; and it is precisely Tor
that reason that the bill now before The House
provides that they shall not be so appropriated.
The public lands are the noble and inapprecia-
BILE inheritance of the whole nation. The sale
ofihem 10 individuals is not lax upon the pur-
chaser, but an exchange Of equivalents scarcely
more burdensome TO the grantee than If he
should receive it as gratuitous donation. 10
appropriate the proceeds of the sales to defray
The ordinary expenses of the Government is to
waste and destroy the property. This proper
iy is held by Congress in trust MIR. Tyler
speaks Of The distribution as if 1t was giUing
array The property. 1t is precisely the reverse
1t is restoring it to the owner. To appropriate
4he proceeds TO defray the current expenditures
is TO give it up 10 dilapidation and waste is
in political economy precisely the same as II an
individual landholder should sell of, year after
wear parcels of his estate, and consume lis pro-
ceeds in payment of his household expenses
The first principle of political economy neces-
sarv for nation is TO raise by taxation within
the wear the whole sum required for the expen-
ditures of that year. Every departure from this
principle is step in the path of national bank
ruptcy and ruin The daily demands of the
Treasury must be supplied by the income de-
rived from taxation by the year, and not by the
dissipation of the common property.
The second reason of the President for OBJ
ieciing TO the passage of this bill is not more
ponderous than the first. Ii is the destitute and
embarrassed slate of the Treasury, and the i'm
policy, If not unconstitu,ionaity, of giuing aDay
fruitful source of revenue, which II retained
NAV be seized by the Government and applied
20 meet lis daily wants. But the President had
Just told US that this fruitful source Of revenue
was subject wholly dissimilar in its character
from that of revenue raised by duties of mpost
so dissimiar that the union of them formed
in his mind an insurmountable objection to the
passage of the bill 81 most respectfully SUBJ
NIT (says the message) whether this is time
10 give a,cay the proceeds of the land sales.
when the public lands constitute fund which
OF all others may be made most useful in sus-
tanning the public credit" And how could il
be made thus useful! Precisely by giving them
apay. By giving them away forever. For if
the principle be once established that the pro-
ceeds Of the sales of the public lands shall be
substituted in the place of revenue by taxation
10 defray the ordinary annual expenses of the
National Government, never more will the peo-
ple of any State in this Union have the benefit
of one dollar from this richest of mines of mex
haustible wealth, bestowed upon them by their
bounliiul Creator for the improvement of their
own condition. But giUen atoay-yes, TO the
last cent gipen dU0y, forever, 10 pamper the
reckless exlravagance Of Government forever
preaching reirenchment and economy, and for
ever heaping million upon million of annual ex-
pendiures "io suckle armies and dry nurse the
lard"
The committee submit TO the House their un.
hesilating opinion that the appropriation OF any
part of the proceeds of the sales of public lands
10 the ordinary annual expenditures would be the
only ef1ectuaI and irrelrieyable giving auOay OF
that great and ineslimable inheritance OF the
American People. That, If once that growing
and inexhaustbe fund shall be doomed 10 form
The whole or any part of the rays and means for
The annual estimates of the receipts and expen-
difurcs of the National Government, the People
may bid farewell, a long farewell, 10 every hope
of ever receiving dollars useful improvement
from that gift of God 10 them, thus cruelty and
perfdiously wrested from their hands.
Nineteen of the States of this Union, in the
ardent, perhaps, in some cases, inconsiderately
ardeni pursuit Of this improvement of their own
condition, have become involved, some of them
heavily involved, In debt. The greatest portion
Of this debt has been contracted for the accom-
plishment of stupendous works TO expedite and
facilitate the intercourse Of travel and of trade
between the remotest extremes ofthis great Re-
public, swarming, from year TO year, with re-