The daily union., 1846-05-01
coNGRE ssIoNAL.
REMARKS OF MR.. BREEsE,
on ILIINOIs.


ward the completion of works efinernal improve
ment in the State OF Michigan, and for other pur-
poses.
Mr.. BREESE said he in favor Of the princi-
pie Of the ball. and particular objection 70 lie
details. He had intended TO offer some general re.
marks IN It's support but the senator from Michigan
who had just spoken, Mr.. CAss,l had anticipated
him. and covered the ground he had designed 10 oc-
cupy, and In more satisfactory manner. There
were, however, (said MIR. b } some considerations
bearing on the subject which he had omitted, and
which Mr. B. said he would endeayor TO supply
Mr. B. said he would first advert TO the principle OF
justice involved In the case; II was the duty as
well as desire Of Congress to do JUSTICE and TO act
with impartality towards all the new States, IN the
disposal Of the public domain within them.
The first State (Mr. b. said) formed out of ceded
territory in which the United States was the great
proprietor of all the lands within H. is Ohio; and to
her Congress had been liberal in granting lands for
canals, turnPikes, and for other useful and be-
nefeent purposes, not for the benefit Of Ohio
alone, but as a means Of improving their own
lands and making them saleabe. That State con-
tanned something twenty-five millions Of acres
and to aid in selling them, Congress had granted to
her for internal Improvements alone l60, 1872 acres,
and TO the State Of Indiana, with about 23j millions
OF acres, there had been granted for the same pur-
Pose COS 404 acres whilst to the State Of Michi-
gan, with more than 80 millions of acres, there had
been granted for such purpose but SOC, 900 acres
The grants proposed by the bill (Mr b. said
amount to a fraction over one million Of acres,
which, with what she has received, will make the
extent Of her grants but trhe greater than those 10
Indiana Mr. B. said il the dimensions Of the States
afforded any correct basis for the extent Of these
grants-and seemed TO him proper that they should
because they marked the extent Of the interest
which the United States had in the lands to be hen
Gifted by the grants-the State of Michigan would be
entitled TO more than two millions Of acres. On the
principle, then, Of fair and impartial justice
iMr. b. said } Michigan could claim a much larger
grant than that contemplated by the ball nov under
consideration. Mr.. b. said, far grants Of this
kind were concerned, they had ne YER been regarded
by any statesman as bearing upon, or being connect
ed with, internal improvements by Congress, in the
States with the moneys raised by taxes, duties, i'm
posts and excuses, for purposes specified in the
stitutiOn. They were foreign from them altogether
and rested upon principle wholly different, which
was adverted to by the senator from South Carolina
lMr. CALHoUS,l that Of propretorship Of the lands
and an application OF the power under the consttu
ton to dispose Of them Such grants (said Mr.. B }
were coeyal with our ownership Of the lands and
were made by the early Congresses in repeated in
stances the design being to make the reserved lands
saleable and 10 open the domain 10 settlement The
consttus snal objection, though advered TO, as the
senator from Connecticut Mr.. NILEs has done
had never prevailed; and statesmen the most stric
in their construction Of the constitution had given
bills for such purposes their unqualified sanction.
Mr.. B. said he regretted very much to hear objec-
tions made to such grants by senators from the
original States who had derived TO themselves ex-
cusiyely all the benefits Of the domain within their
limits. The old Congress Of ITS declared in con.
sderins the objections Of Rhode Island MARYLAND
and New Jersey TO the articles Of confederation,
that the States individually, by the successful issue
Of the revolution would be the propretors OF all the
nnsold lands within them, and not the United States
and this in virtue of their individual sovereignty and
independence From this fund, thus placed at their
own disposal MIR. b. said they had been enabled
TO endoV colleges, establish schools, construct pub
lie works-and yet the new States admitted into the
Union with the same rights Of sovereignty and in
dependence as the original States, were obliged to
apply to Congress for the right Of way over the
public lands before they could construct a railroad
turnpike or canal; and, according TO the argument
of the sell tor, Mr.. NILES must encounter all the
expense of such works. the inevitable effect Of which
are to make the lands of the United States access
BILE and saleable, and bring money into the public
treasury, and not take it the senator from
Alabama Mr. BAGBYl supposes. The old States
(Mr. B. said) had used their public domain they
pleased, they deriving all the benefit from it, He
thought, then. that objections to such grants as
thcse came with very i'll grace from that quarter,
and savored of injustice. Mr. b. said he thought ii
was very unsenerous that any objections should be
urged 10 these grants from such quarter.
The old States Mr.. b. ssid) were indirectly ben
Gifted by the Improvement of the new States,
which has been, and will be- brought about by such
works of internal improvement as this bill designs
10 aid, and the national treasury also. The new
States are the producers for the old they furnish
reciprocal markets for the productions of each and
ours will be cheapened to them by increasing the
facilities Of transportation; and if this can be done
constitutionally, as he believed 1t could be- why
these objections? Mr.. B. said he did not believe
any constitutional objections such grants could
be sustained by fair argument The whole history
of our legislation upon the subject of the public
lands was in favor of the principle of this bill.
Mr. B. said the United States stood in the rela-
ton of proprietor of the public lands, they had
no right to make donations Of them of this kind in
that character he would ask the senator from Con-
necticut [Mr. NrLEsl by what constitutional author
ity did the United States own these lands Certain
ly, (said Mr. B., if they can own them, they can
dispose Of them under the grant of power in the
constitution dispose Of and make all needu rules
and regulations respecting the territory, or other
property of the United States and in subjection to
the condition upon which they were ceded and ac-
eepted that they should be disposed of for the COM
mon benefit No can doubt, (said Mr.. B., in
looking TO the Improvement Of the West in less than
one generation, hastened by such grants as these,
that the common benefit has been promoted by
them. The United States owning the lands, (Mr
Il sad \ il was a question of expediency simply for
Congress- to determine whether these lands could be
made ssleabe, and produce money to the treasury
by making a road through them, or not IL the
had right TO grant land to make the road or to
make it by its own action for State right is in
fringed il the United States own the lands in the
States Mr.. B. said that the governing principle
in Mr. Jeiferson's time, when he projected the Cum
berland road, to extend through Ohio. and it gov
erned the grants of the sixteenth sections and Of the
free donations to the early pioneers, to open the I'M
mense mass OF public lands to sale and settlement
Congress, in 1920, in extending this road through
the States of Indiana and Illinois TO Missouri, avow
ed in the preamble of the act, that il was to make
the public lands more valuable; and actually paid
for the survey of the road out Of the general reve
nues of the country, arising from imports and other
sources thereby sanctionng the principle much
more extensively than is now contended for, that in
order to enhance the value Of the public lands, as
held in trust by the United States for the benefit of
all the States, the meneys Of the public treasury
might be used to pay the expenses of survey
of road through them. As far back as 1896 (Mr.
B. saidY Congress granted to Ebenezer Zane three
miles square of the public land to open road from
Wheeling to Limestone, in Kentucky, the whole
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