Bloomington herald. [volume] (Bloomington, I. T. [Iowa]) 1840-1849, 1844-06-14


charge of piracy! And what else is man
who commits an over-act Of piracy, such as
the Senator [Mr. Clay] has described, but
pirate? He did not say that they were rob-
bers ; but he did characterize them as robbers,
assimilating their supposed offences to se'z-
ure of the public forts and arsenals--to plum
dering of the public Treasury; and what il
this but robbery, or larceny. according to the
Of force or no force, in despoil-
ing the government of its property!
App. Cong. Globe, Page IS, 1889.
BY the National lntelligencer and the ex-
PLANTATION of Senator Young, therefore, 1t is
conclusively proved that Mr.. Clay character
lied the settlers on the public lands
As LAWLESS RABBLE.
As set Of PIRATES.
As gang of THIEVES.
AS band of ROBBERS.
If he did not call them by these names, he
gave them these characters, and he proudly
said, he would not be deferred from doing his
duty in resisting their claims by menaces or
by any considerations personal to himself
He moved, as we have seen, az amendment
requiring Mr.. Van Buren, to have the settlers
removed thereafter. To show how far he
would have gone, we copy from the National
Intelligencer of the 5th February, 1898, part
Of discussion which took place between him
and the lamented Senator Linn of Missouri,
on the 9th day of January 1888.
Mr.. Linn said, that it was utterly vain and
idle to suppose you could by legal enactments
or military force arrest the onward course OF
our free and restless population. Onward, on
ward it has rolled and onward it would con-
tinue to roll, until it reached the borders Of the
great Pacific Ocean where its accumulated
masses would sit down and weep that there
were no more worlds to settle. The American
population have and ever will, consider The
wilderness as their property, their Inheritance.
Who could or would or dare say to our people,
thus far shalt thou go and no farther! No
man worthy to be President of the United
States, no man can be President of this great
republic who would be tyradt enough to order
by military violence, these people to be driven
off the lands they had reclaimed from the will
derness which they owned in common with
the people of the United States
Mr.. Clay Of Kentucky, said can it be pos
sible that this Government cannot protect the
property Of the people Of the United States
Can these settlers hold possession against the
whole force of this Government, the regular
army, the militia, under the command Of the
President? If the case is 80 with the public
domain, how soon will it be the same with all
the public property Sir, hope it is not true {!
trust the people will be able to protect their
property
Will rot the people of the Western States
generally agree with Senator Linn, that no
man worthy TO be President, would be tyrant
enough to order the regular army into the
new settlements to dispossess the occupants
of the land at the point Of the bayonet! Say,
pre-emptioners, shall such a tyrant be Presi.
dent! If so give your votes for Henry Clay.
But this man would have you believe that
he only concurred with Mr.. Van Buren, on this
point: Hear what the equivocating candidate
for the Presidency said on the 9th January
1888, as reported in his favorite 1ntelligencer,
Wis:
'Sir,' said Mr.. Clay, when had gone thus
far in reading Mr.. Van Buren's Message ] l
thought our chief magistrate would take care
OF the property of the people of the Union
But when had followed him little further
and perceived that he had adopted all the wild
invention Of pre-emption and graduation, and
all the new tangled notions of which we have
heard SO much in years past, almostt despair
of him.
His attack upon Mr.. Van Buren, for being
in favor Of the presumption law, was much
more violent than is here reported /; but here is
enough TO show, that so far from concurring
on this point they were directly at issue.
But Mr.. Clay says. he was not opposed to
the grant of prescriptions upon final settle
ment of the land question, and as evidence,
points TO his vote for a proposition offered by
Mr.. Crittenden in 1910, uniting presumption
system with scheme for giving 10 the States
the moneys arising from the sales of the pub
lie lands, and to his distribution act of the ex-
ira session in 1s4l. What! Henry Clay sane
tioning what he had so long and so vehement
ly denounced as scheme plumber, piracy, and
robbery! Henry Clay approving of the Sci
zure Of the public arsenals, the public ships,
and Of the money in the Treasury!! 1t is
even Soft he is to DE believed.
But let us see when Mr.. Clay became viii.
ling to join the thieves, robbers and pirates,
as he substantially called the settlers on the
public lands. These denunciations of the
'squatters' and of the whole principal of pre-
emptions, were at the December session of
Congress in 1898. Prior to that time, Mr..
Clay had five times reported in the Senate his
plan for giving away the proceeds of the lands,
viz: on the 1lth December 1882, December
18th 1888, December 10th 1884, December
Goth 1885, and December 10Th 1886. In not
one Of these bills was there a pre-empton
clause, or any provision for the protection of
actual settlers! He then considered them but
robbers and pirates, unworthy of protection.
But Mr.. Clay had been for years vainly stri.
wing to seize on the money in the treasury him
self, to aid inImaking him President through
plan to throw it into the hands of little arts.
tocracy in each State; and in hope of getting
the aid of the frontier people in his scheme Of
plumber he turns around and attemps to buv
up the settlers with promise Of pre-emptions |!
Yes the man who in 1888 denounced them
as 'lawless rabble,' no better than thieves.