The Whig standard. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1843-1844, 1844-11-13
W A s HIN G I @ N.
WEDNESDAY EVENING, Nov'R IS, 1874.
THE PUBLIC LANDS.

The most unmitigated evil which is likely to
flow from the election of Locofoco President
will be the appropriation of the proceeds of the
sales of the public lands to the ordinary demands
of the Treasury. Nineteen States of this Union
owe, in the aggregate, two hundred millions of
dollars, which they have borrowed for the pur-
pose of making railroads, canals, and other i'm
resources, add to its physical strength, and &C.
ment the bonds Of union. Stripped Of the privi-
lege of laying mpost duties upon goods intro
duced from abroad, and having surrendered to the
Federal Government their respective shares of
the public lands, these States have no other
means of paying their debts, with the accumu.
lating interest, than by levying direct tax upon
property or persons. The utter impracticability
of raising so much money by direct taxes may be
understood by any one who has witnessed the
distaste which the people OF the States manifest
when called upon to pay the comparatively traing
tax necessary for ordinary State purposes. The
public works which have been constructed in most
of the new or sparsey populated States yield lit
tie more income than is necessary to defray the
cost of management; and the consequence is,
that the indebted States have to raise, if it is
raised at all, the interest of nearly two hundred
millions of dollars from direct taxes.
The expense of the State Government of Penn
sylvania, independent Of her public debt, would,
perhaps, not exceed two hundred thousand dol
lara. This tax, together with the county tax, was
doubtless felt and complained of by the people
before the State debt was incurred and the in
terest upon that debt, which exceeds thirty mil
lions, is perhaps million and half the greater
part Of which must be raised by direct taxes.
d Every one acquainted with the temper of the
people must see the futity of the expectation
that the amount will be raised to pay the interest,
far less the principal.
The younger and less populous States are in a
yet worse condition. Their Indebtedness is
greater in proportion to their wealth and popula-
ton, and their receipts from the public works is
less, and indeed, generally nothing. There re-
mains no hope then, that the public faith of the
States can ever be redeemed while they have no
resource but direct taxation. 10 view of their
almost unlimited Improvement and increase of
population, hope might be INDUCED that they
will eventually be able to pay their debts, if it
were not for the constantly accumulating inter-
est, which, being every year or two compounded
swells the principal as fast or faster than the
wealth and energy Of the State increases.
1.-the distribution of the public lands, therefore,
is demanded by every consideration of justice to
the people Of the States who are ground to the
earth by taxation. They surrendered the public
lands to the Federal Government lat least the
old States surrendered it) for the special object
of paying the debt incurred in the maintenance
of the Revolutionary war and that end being
subserved, justice and duty demand that the land
or it's proceeds should be restored to the States.
But if it were otherwse-f the lands had never
belonged to the States, the circumstances OF the
case would impose an imperious duty upon the
Federal Government to invest them with fund
which the finger of Providence would seem to
point to as means of internal improvement, and
of extending the blessings of education to the
poor.
Had Mr. Clay been elected, this legitimate and
benefcent disposition of the public lands would
in all probability have taken place. The people
of the indebted States would have been relieved,
to great extent, from the burden of taxation );
and at the same time, the foul stigma Of repudia-
ton would have been removed from our national
escutcheon. This great good might have been
effected, too, without doing the slightest injustice
to the non-indebted States on the contrary, they
would have been put in possession of a fund for
which they might have found ample employment
in the establishment of common schools, the con-
struction Of roads, canals, and other improve
ments.
The election of Mr.. Polk, we can, therefore,
consider In no other light than that of great ma
tional calamity. the consequences of which may