The daily union. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1845-1857, 1846-05-08

buy them, that the general Golfers would have been
filed TO repletion, Instead Of broad and fertile
plains unforrowed by the pillow, and the forest viii
derness yielding no products for the sustenance Of
man, or for Market 10 swell by their ayss the re-
cepts of customs, there would have been seen al
this day, high cultivation, dense, hardy, and in-
dastrious population, possessed of all the means Of
enjoyment, contented and happy, and contributing
by their numbers and power TO the grandeur and
stability of our political and social system. Such
disposal of the lands, with such benefits to follow
II, none can deny, would have been proper exc
cution Of the trust.
IL the CONGRESS of 1857, instead ofiuiposing upsn
the disbanded officers Of the revolutionary army,
who formed the "ohio Company"--promptet alike
by their patriotism and their poverty TO seek new
and distant theatre for their enterprise the banks
of the Ohio and Muskngum, surrounded by saya-
ges and remote from all ciyilization-such onerous
terms, and a price so high for such lands as they
selected, had made Of them pure donations, and
perssysred in the policy 10 all subsequent settlers on
every part Of the domain. or required only that the
sxpsnsss attending their scquisation should be paid,
the great financial genius Of that age few years
afsrwsrds recommended, who can doubt that all the
ssssntir -n 40 sss and national strengfh
would have been gFc..iy niatpiied, and the bono
fits to the aggregated States vastly augmented In
the partial adoption Of this policy by Congress, it is
easy to be seen that the common benefit Of all the
States has been greatly promoted In the ordinance
Of 1887 for the government OF the territory north
west of the river Ohio II is declared that "region,
morality, and knowledge being necessary TO good
government and the happiness of mankind, schools,
and the means of education shall forever be en-
Ia making the sale TO the "Oho Com
pany," and to John Cleyes Symmes subsequently,
in the same year, one section in each township,
within the boundaries Of their respective tracts
reserved by the United States, to be granted for re-
ligious purposes. In 1888, grant was made Of
10000 acres to the society OF the United Brethren
- IL Il M
for his benevolence TO American seamen, Of one en-.
tire township; in 1876, of "a 900 the French
inhabitants Of Gaiopolis, on condition Of actual set
Element in FIVE years; TO Ebenezer Zane in the same
year, of three miles square, for opening a road and
constructing bridges and ferries upon 1t from Wheel
ing to Limestone, passing through the unsettled
lands of the United States; and pure donations, in
different quantities, TO various pioneers into that
then untrodden wilderness Of the west
All these were acts of the early Congresses, and
according to their views Of their powers under the
trust They tended to open TO the view of the world
the richness and capabilities Of the lands the Uni
ted States had acquired, and prepared them for SALE
settlement and cultivation, by purchasers who, from
various motives, might be attracted to them. All
the legislation Of Congress, from that time TO the
present, has proceeded from motives of pecuniary
gain to the United States to result from grants made
to the States for public purposes. Thus the grant
of the sixteenth section in each township of six
habitants thereof for schools involved the necessity
Of purchasing the other thirtyfve sections OF the
United States by the inhabitants before the granted
section could be useful or available. This grant Of
one section contributed most materially to sell the
remaining thirty-fve, great inducement being pre-
scented thereby TO the emigrants from the old States
to the new to settle upon them. Without such an
inducement lands in Ohio and other western States,
now densely settled and highly cultivated, might
have remained to this day comparatively wilder
ness.
This trust fund being thus managed by the early
ting Ohio into the Union as State, gave further and
more distinct and unequivocal indications of their
idea of the powers under the trust, by granting to
her one-twenteth part or five per cent. of the nett
proceeds of the sales of all such lands should BE-
sold within her limits from and after the thrtieth
day of June Of that year, TO be applied to the laying
out and making public roads, leading from the nav
gable waters emptying into the Atlantic to the Ohio
river, and to the State Of Ohio, and through the
ssme. This, il - srse, was upon a contract with
Ohio for certain exemptions beneficial to the United
States; yet who can doubt that the most powerful
motive operating with Congress was the same, on
larger scale, az that which controlled il in making
the grant to Zane for his blazed three-noched
road, Il was to sell the lands In that year Ohio
did not contain much over $4,000 inhabitants; and,
Swing the lands sold to the Ohio Company and to
John Cleves Symmes, the sales had not exceeded
100000 acres
In March, 1906, under the administration of Mr.
Jefferson an act was passed carry this design
by Congress. 1t is entitled "An act to regulate the
LAYING out and making road from Cumberland, in
the State of Maryland, to the State of Ohio" Be-
fore it was finished to Wheeling, emigrants made
their way to the West, to purchase government
lands, by the rivers and lakes in boats and other
craft; and they were few in number, and surround
cd by dangers of every description IL the land
route was of necessity pursued, the led packhorse
was the vehicle for transporting baggage and house
hold goods; then the slow-moving wagon preceded
by axemen, to cut out the road. Opening good
road, by the United States, increased the stimulus
to emigration population TO the State, and
money to the national treasury, to such a degree,
that at the second census in 1920, ian act having,
in the mean time, been passed to extend this road
through that State, Indiana, and 1llinos the popu-
lation of Ohio had increased to 5Sl ,434, and the
sales of public lands to S14, 1856 81. Similar ben
ofcia results followed the grants to that State for
turnpikes and canals so that now, nearly all the
land within it is sod--having produced to the treas
ury grand total of S23, 239, 1893 SO. How has the
management of this trust in Indiana and Illinois
operated Equally beneficial as in Ohio, the
facts show.
to open road in the Territory Of Illinois, from the
Ohio river to Kaskaskia, then the seat of govern
ment. Its whole course was through the public
lands, with here and there setter--the population
of the whole Territory not exceeding 10000, and
the sales Of land amounting in that year to no more
after deducting future accomplishments, than 500,
900.
In 1918 there were 10000 inhabitants, and ir
1920, 55,2ll the sales Of land having amounted UP
to that time, to $1,l00,539 So.
In 1890, on the 18th of May Congress passed
law to continue the Cumberland road through the
States of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, distinctly an
nouncing its design in the preamble to the act, tina
"the lands of the United States may become more
valuable" The money to survey and mark thil
road from Wheeling west, through the government
lands, was not to be reimbursed out of the pei
cent accrung to those Staes respectively, from tn,
nett proceeds of the sales, but was payable out o
any unappropriated moneys in the Treasury. En-
HANGING the value OF the public lands was the objec
the means to be used, the ordinary revenues o
the nation; thus establishing the principle, that, be
| ing the great land owner of the age, and Of thu
world, in trust for the States the general mo neys
the cestm que trust could be legally used to maxi
the lands valuable. Congress considered, doubt
less, if the United States could rigbtfuly own al
the lands in those States they had correspondent!
right to make them saleable for the common ben
eft, by improvements upon them in the nature o