New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1844-02-24
Assumption and Distribution.
We recently asked the Herald, in as respec

it had repeatedly made the deliberate, unqualified
assertion that the Wings of Maryland had fought
their late battle in support OF an Assumption Of
the Debts Of the States by the Federal Govern
ment. That paper answers us in half a column
of-Heraldism, Of which the following is all that
is material to the issue
1.-The real practical question involved mode Of ap
propratns the accuiag from the public lands by
which the States OF the Union,
tia reputation insolvency could be raised from hst
don and be enabled b the distribution other mode
of disposal OF these 10 pay hsIr debts
their One mode OF reaching that point has been
BY the dec OF d proceeds OF the land sales to
debts OF these States By the General Government ISSUING
ceeds of these lands directly the payment t- interest
Practically any comnon-sense point OF view, both
alike ASSUMPTION is merely indirect distribution;
aud distribution merely indirect assumption The great
object aimed by both provide the OF
paying the annual interest ai the States which DIS
charge their Obligations We cannot perceive Inference
therefore between these measures and call them ndfrren
assumption or distribution"
We shall proceed to answer this as though it
were honest and earnest, though we can only sup
pose this at the expense Of the Herald's intelli-
gence. All men acquainted with the Political
history of our country must know that the Wings
took ground in favor of Distribution of the Pro-
cceds of the Public Lands long before there WERE
any State Debts Of consequence. Mr.. Clay's
Report in favor Of the Distribution Substantially
following and improving upon the suggestions Of
Jefferson in 1906 and Jackson in 1880 was
made to the Senate in 1882, when not onc-fourth
the present amount of State Debts existed and
nobody was troubled about them. The Assump-
ton of State Debts was never dreamed of in any
quarter till several years aftcrward.
And now as to the asserted identity of Distri-
button with Assumption who can perceive it !?
Distributor proposes to accord each State Of the
Union. alike to the indebted and the free from
debt, its fair and equal proportion the Proceeds
OF the Public Lands. New Hampshire, Vermont,
Rhode Island, Connecticut, New-Jersey, Della.
ware and North Carolina, which owe nothing,
will receive as much as Maryland, Indiana, Hi
nois, Mississippi and Louisiana, which together
owe Sixty-odd Millions. Allowing the nett re-
cepts from Public Lands to be Two Millions a
year, these latter States with Pennsylvania will
receive, as their fair proportion, about Half Mil
lion; while the interest on their aggregate debts
is about -Four Millions. In what possible sense,
those latter States have been assumed by the Fe-
deral Government? Wherein is the Assumption
but in the logic ofthe Herald -? Let US suppose a
father has twenty.six children, and during his
life distributes 81 900 TO each of them. Some
are thrifty and out of debt; others owe, $4,000,
$4,000, and even $4,000: Would it not be
absurd and false to contend that this father had
by this act assumed the debts of his children
Yet this is precisely the Herald's position.
II, as the Herald asserts the practical effect Of
such Distribution as the Wings support will be
to encourage and aid the Defaulting and Repu-
dating States to become honest and solvent
again, we certainly consider that strong recon-
mendation of the plan. For our own part, we
do most earnestly desire the payment of those
State Debts; we would rather share the burden
of paying them than the shame Of leaving them
unpaid. But that is different question from
Distribution, which aids the thrifty and insolvent
alike and does not cast the burthcns of one class
on the other. The Herald can hardly be ignor-
ant that while in the last Congress there were
over One Hundredand Seventy Wing supporters
of Distribution, there could be rallied but seuen
advocates of even modified and circumstantial
Assumption, and that of these seven but one or
or two is returned to this Congress- What can
be the motive of the Herald in thus misrepresent-
ing and maligning the Wings? Has it not fair
y earued the application to itself of the language
which in the same paper which complains of our
plain speaking, it thus uses with regard to ano-
ther viz:
"a more wickedand malicious sehood than this
never ed by any one now rusticatlns the State
Prison The very PERSONS who coin and also know
The Herald complains Of such epithets from
others, but is ready in their Assumption and pro-
fuse Distribution by itself. Can any now believe
in view of its pcttlfoggiEg defence, that its false
charges of Assumption upon the Wings were the
result Of honest ignorance
% The Western State Journal SO states the
Postage question as TO give its readers the i'm
preston that we are in favor of maintaining the
present system of charging Newspapers as much
when carried three miles as three hundred. Would
it be more than single justice to state what we do
profess We will submit the case without argu-
ment.
u The ASHLAND TEXT Book, compendium
of Mr.. Clay's Speeches on several most impor-
tant public questions, has just been published in
Baltimore by N. Hickman, and is for sale by
Saxton & Miles, 2O5 Broadway. The matter is
of course good, but the cover is dis6gured by a
more horrible caricature Of Mr.. Clay than any
we ever published.
u" THE BEETHOVEN COLLECTION OF SACRED
Music; Comprising Themes now first arranged
from the instrumental Compositions of Beetho-