The daily union. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1845-1857, 1846-05-06

able you--in part---to pay that debt But, more
than this you wanted 20 extend your emPire-you
desired 10 carry your Dag the shores 81 the great
lakss-you desired TO plant II IN the backs Of the
distant Mississippi You had stipulaisd, also, and
YOU desired 10 build up new States thsze--State
that should do honor TO those principles of welreg
ulaied freedom, which your people had ssrnggled 30
hard and through blood to establish bat, more
than all, perhaps, you also wished 10 throw up a
barrier against those ferocious sayages Of The north
west, who were won't in congregated masses, TO
bounce upon you with so fearful, with 20 terrific
power Savages. whose incursons 50 Omen brought
terror and dsmay and agony into every heart OF the
Old border States and whose retrea as macy In your
keystone State sill live TO remainder, wss Usually
marked by one stream Of fire and Of blood Sir i0ho
could be persuaded 10 buy your land and selhe Ia such
a country What inducement could you hold out
sufficient to counterbalanoe the pnvations, the suf
ferngs, the hazards Of situation so feAxfaR IL Is
fit we should regard the condition Of thsl country
and of your border States al that TINA II is fit
that we should remember Whai you promised, ,ohy
you promised and ,chat you did. l cannet 60 into
DETAIL but will say generally that, asaarly as
l765, you promised by your public acts that you
would appropriate large amount OF thess Ands for
the purposes Of schools that by the arcss OF COM
pact contained in your ordinance o. sl1s7, you
agreed with all who would consent 10 rDve out and
settle there that theg and their posterity should AZ
rays be protected in the blessings Of free republic
can institutions and government. You enumerated
and all their most effective safeguards and guar
antied them to all such as, taking you al your word,
might be persuaded to seek their homes there.
And among other Of your stpulations you promised
to them that "schools and the means of education
shall forever be encouraged there" And when, a
few years after, you laid the broad foundations OF
your land system, you remembered this your
plighted faith. You published TO the world your
terms OF sale. You pledged your faith to all who
should buy land Of you in any surveyed township,
that one-36th part Of it-yz: section No. l6-shoud
forever afterwards be applied towards the support Of
Gated eco sditions of sale" With every purchaser
orevery elghty-acre lot, and his posery after him,
you entered into solemn covenant TO stand seized"
fOrsper Of that section No. l6 TO the sole and only
use Indicated This usufructory privilege and right
in section 10 consttuted,a part OF every contract Of
sale you ever entered into with every purchaser Of
every acre you have ever sold In any one OF. your
surveyed townships there II was part Of that FOR
which every purchaser paid bis money. And Il was
no more in your power TO make any other disposition
of that lot than it was to take from the purchaser
the very patent he had obtained from you. Ii is
true you afterwards affected to transfer these school
lands to the States but what passed by that transfsE
Nothing, sir, but the naked title only subject a.
ways to the uSej and | am not prepared to admit
the competency Of your doing even that Accord
ing to the principle of the old statute OF uses, the le-
gal title would follow the use and vest where the
use vests But certainly the transfer could have
done no more than to create new trustee-no more
than to constitute OF the State trustee, instead Of
the United States; but to the exclusive benefit always
Of the "eestuy que use"
So much, sir, | had to say concerning these school
lands
But the senator from Connecticut reminds you
that the new States have received some 500, 900
acres each OF your lands under the distribution act.
II is true, dir and some Of them much more. In
diana has received far more. So has Ohio. To
A. l.. -
100000 acres, to which, sir, may be added 1905
acres for public buildings, few sections for salt
springs, and also the 5 per cent upon such sales
as you may be pleased to make Chat 5 per
cent amounted, think, during the last year, to
about 81 ,000) All this, and no more, may be fair
ly set down to the debit of Michigan. And now,
sir, what, at your instance, have we given in ex-
change for what we have rsceivedl 80 M
Sir how can estimate the worth or all we have
at lyour request given ups Can you measure the
pro perity Of q country by arithmetca ruler Can
you thus affx value upon the happiness Of pco.
pie in dollars and cents OF all the rights that ap-
pertain to a sovereign and independent State, know
Of none more indsputabe, nor more vitality impor
tant than that Of uncoverng and making useful the
natural wealth of country; of increasing Its COM
merce Of facilitating the intercourse of It's people,
and Of encouraging its agriculture, by the construc
ton and establishment of roads, canals, and railways
Nor do know Of any political right that draws after
it correlatise duty more imperative! To such ends
all the resources Of every sovereign power must be
holden subservient; to such ends every species Of
property, and every subject Of the government,
through the sovereign power of taxation ought to
be made to contribute in just proportion.
These wise, just, and proper purposes, Michigan
has sought to accomplish. How has the effort re-
sultedi In the exhaustion, alas of our means--in
the prostration Of our hopes-in the humating and
total failure of the undertaking And why this
faurei Because more than three-fourths of the real
estate of the whole country is pithdrmon from the
reach of the tarng po,Der! Because than three
fourths Of that property directly benefited by these
roads and public works of the country is beyond the
reach of fair proporonate and compusivc con,ri-
button! The expense of the iohoie is thrown upon
fourth part, and that fourth part is staggering,
sinking under the pressure And thus il is, SIR that
the most useful and legitimate Of all the powers of
government chained up. Your nterdict is upon
us; and general paralysis threatens to overspread
| our land! ..
1t will be remembered, sir that the point of the
gument of the senator from Connecticut is, that the
States of this Union intended to be coegual in all
things. No, sir, not in all things. One important
ception to the general proposition must think for
the moment, have escaped the vigilant recollection
Of the senator. 1t is I think forty-six years ago,
that you conveyed to the provident and wise State
from which the senator comes some three or four
millions of of land lying within the old north
western territory This large tract of land she re-
ceived either in gross violation of that equality Of the
,oasie, Nnseated cro,on lands, she claimed them
being within her original limits. She claimed them
in virtue of that sovereign po,oer which all the original
States asserted; and which none Of them having any
such crown lands within their limits, failed success
fully to assert But your constitution, SIR while il
sufficiently recognised the plenary power of the orr
gindt States in this regard contains nevertheless,
provision inhibi,ing the exercise of that sovereign
power the part Of the new States, which have
grown up within the old northwestern territory, for
to that effect you have always construed the third
section Of the fourth article of your constitution
And in that construction, desire TO- say, as have
already said, the people of Michigan have aloays
and cheerfully acquiesced In so far therefore, and
especially because all the States, and the whole peo
pie Of the United States have by their constitution
80 decreed, the rep States Of the northwestern
territory cannot be permitted to possess all the same
rights of sovereignty the original States possessed.
In that particular, they not and cannot be deem
ed to have been "admitted into the Union on the same
footing 10Th The original States, in all respects whatso
ever" But in all things else-in all things in which
your constitution has not in the cearest terms, de-
| creed otherwise submit to you that the netp