New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1846-06-25


It by the settlers, yet there is probsbly due
upon it to-day mortgages included than there ever
" as before Already not less than Fifty Thousand
Of our fellow citizens have abandoned Il for the
Western wilds because they bad become hopeless
Of ever paying for their respective purchases
Thousands more are following every year. Unjust
be within the mark TO gay that if this region had
been allotted 10 actual settlers only at charge OF
twice what the spectators paid for it, the Popula
ton Of. our State would by this time have been
greater by tens Of thousands and its wealth by many
millions.
Look a, our great Manors and Patents for
which little or nothing was ever given by the or
goal PATRONS and grantees follow up their subse-
quent history look al them now Lock 10 our great
National Domain, ostensiby sold to settlers in small
tracts a, ten shilings an acre, bat really lnonopo-
liked IN large tracts by spectators and resoid tors
many dollars. l have now in my mind one-a
grea. Reformer in his own way-who owns twelve
hundred acres OF rich Ohio bottom and means to
hold it, in utter uselessness till 1t Will bring Din
Fifty dollars an acre-torty times what the Govern
ment received for it Suppose all the holders OF
wild land, should combine to exact double their
presen, prices-could they no, obtain ~ " nat IS
10 binder theml The Public Lands, 60 you say
Partial barrier as they are. how long will they be
even thai AT this moment, The Ho'hschilds
might buy up every arabic acre the Government has
in market follow close on the heels OF the survey
ors of more and by little concert With the present
holders OF wild land, pei all future settlers 10
pay Them tw to two thousand dollars per acre &C.
,bal
To save the Lands ye, Public from such monopoly
10 make them practically Free 10 actual settlers,
otherwise landless aud to them ony-is The duty of
Congress but there are still duties devolving upon
vou Every husband and father driven by want OF
employment TO in,emperance and vice every daugh'
ter goaded TO infamy suicide by inability 10 earn
a subsis,ence-and DO sun rises without awaking TO
renorse many fresh victims Of want and desPslr-ls
an additional areumeu, for Land Reform. Do not
ask the superficial question: How could land bene'
ST these p As well ask how grain can be OF ser
vice TO one who never sees kernel of it until it has
been transformed into bread. If the lands now lying
utterly unused in State were open 10 settlement
by those who need them thousands wsuld be drawn
away from the cities end villages 10 settle them eav
ing far amper employment and better prospects Tor
others. l must believe that Free Soil would win
away thousands more with them as wives, mothers,
sisters, &C. and thus relieve the awful pressure on
the Labor Market of our crowded cities. When we
have established somewkere The Right of Man 10 the
Soil and thus 10 Labor for himself, We may, with
more ENHANCE OF justice, rebuke and discipline the
drunkards, gamblers, iders profigates, and beggars
who infes, our cities, making night hideous with
T,l XVII
But the Convention cannot take away the lande
Of the Rich to relieve the wants OF the Poor Who
has said i, could l know well that the Rights
Of Property, though originally founded in error
must be respected. But the Convention can forbid
future oggTegations Of great Landed Estates
among us and proride for the gradual breaking
up Of those 7chich norc eriSt in our State. 1t may
provide against any bodys acquiring cay after the
4th of July, 1877 more than 100 or at most 800
acres of the arabic Sell of this State; and if more
shall fall 10 any individual by inheritance, may re-
quire the sale of the excess over the Constitutional
limit within one year after its acquisition under
penalty of forfeiture to the State; or if this be
deemed Objectionable may render it the duty of
some officer sell the in parcels TO the high
est bidder. This would abridge no mans opporu
mites OF acquiring wealth; 1t would immensely In
crease the opportunities Of ninety nine In every
hundred It would encourage every property
holder to enrich, beauty and render fruitful his
proper share of the Soil instead of schemng 10 ac-
quire his neighbours. Its ultimate effect would be
10 render the cultiva,ors of the earth its owners,
and stimulate every one 10 earn BY the facility al
fordod for acquiring homestead, which would be
iuulenabe by voluntary sale TO landless pur-
chaser. Fifty times the present amount OF Labor
might be proftnbly devoted 10 the cultivation OF
this State alone, iusuring corresponding increase
in the demand for fabrics mechanical labor, &c. and
the Land Limitation would tend powerfully 10 pro-
duce such change. VIII you not ponder these
thingsi II.
Laws against aliens holding Roal Estate are cob
webs. Any body evade them.