Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1846-08-29


session Of the general and substantial merits Of the
thing; and, if SO, what excuse is there for Pre-
sident Of the United States, SO much less ac-
quainted than others with what he is to act ON,
making that want Of information his reason for
stranging what the Legislature has understanding
iy done H ii ,FEf G H
= Does he touch the origin, the foundation, the
principle. the history, any more than he has done
the details Of the claims? He does; but only
enough to evade any statement any examination.
For he next takes up and dismisses all that, as he
had done the /" details" Of the bill, by saying
"The limited time allowed me- before your adjournment
makes impossible to reterae the facts and arguments by
which, in preceding Congresses these claims have been sue
cessfully resisted"
An arbitrary line alone, casual date, separates
these claims from subsequent body Of French spo-
liations. These later ones were paid twelve years
ago. Accruing under a less outrageous Govern
ment, were the cases like to be better founded
Just the contrary. Were we not on the eve Of al
war about them! Certainly. Yet were not they,
too, some thirty years old Dates say so. But
had Congress repeatedly had favorable reports on
them? 1t had never looked into them. Were we
under any special pledge of faith to the claimants
Not the least Had the President examined int
all their details :" The President was General
JACKSON, whose turn for laborous investigation was
not remarkable. But, at any event. why did the
claim which he then set up and would have fought
for, stop eractiy at this dae Of September 3Ofh,
1900! VIGOROUSLY and avowedly because the
United States had already received complete com
pensaton, in the acquisition of Louisiana, for all
claims before 1900. Have we made this clear!
The next reasons run as follows
The present period particularly unfa,orabe for the
satisfaction of claims of large amount and to say the
least Of hem doubtful character Thers no surplus
in the Treasury public debt of several millions has been
created within the last few years We engaged in for
eign war; uncertain to its DURATION and involving heavy
expenditures to prosecute which Congress has, its
present session. authorized further loan So hat in effect
the Government, should this bill become law would have
to borrow money and increase the public debt to pay these
claims"
"A particularly unfavorable period" quotha
How is that! A period when the fowishng reve-
nue. system of the country can be prudntly upset
period when a fresh hard money experiment can
be ventlred on, is surely period when we might
pay debt SO old, SO wrongfully withheld. The
measures Of the Administration are bad, indeed, i'll
they forbid our paying debts as sacred as this.
What nextl Alas /! series of arguments whose
shalowness and inconsistency intimate only the
dearth of any deeper or more cohereni ones
" il is true" says the Message that By the provisions
of the BILL payment is directed be made in land scrip
stead of money! but the effect upon the Treasury will be
The public lands constitute of the Of pub
lie revenue, and if these claims be paid in land scrip WILL
from the date Of the ISSUE great extent off from
Treasury the annual income from the sale OF public lands
because for the lands sold by the
be expected to be made in scrip until is all redeemed ri
those claims be just they ought TO be paid money! and
thing less valuable The provides that they shall be paid
in land scrip whcsby they in effect mortgage
upon the public lands in the Stacs-a mortgage too
held in great part not wholly, by presidents Of the
States In which the lands lie who may these to
the amount Of several millions Of acres and demand for
them exobant prices from the citizens of other States who
may desire purchase them for settlement or they NAV keep
them out of the Market and thus the prosperity and
growth of the States in which they situated WHY this
unusual mode of satisfying claimants upon the Treasury has
been resoed to- does not appear 1t consistent with
sound public policy II il be done in this case, may be
done in all others II will form precedent for the sasac-
ton of all other stale and questionable claims and would un
doubleday be resoed by all claimants who after successive
money by Congress"
Did any one evershear Of such reasons as these
for not paying debt! As if well aware that the
previous ones can have convinced nobody that the
debt ought not to be satisfied the Message now pro-
ceeds to quarrel with the mode of payment which.
Congress has devised as that which is easiest for
the Government, and will slowly, and, not without
a loss, eventually reimburse the claimants. The
Government--we need not say why-cannot pay in
cash; loan for the purpose the President has de-
clared himself opposed to; and its properfy--its
lands, of which il has SO great dearth-he does
not choose TO part with; for it occurs to him that
they might sell and the money not go into the pub
lie pocket Now, is not here foe to the Credit
System, patron of Hard Money, that is an exam
pie to all debtors OF sudden, il strikes him that
the claims are perhaps just; and so, not having
any money, he is shocked at the thought of paying
them in any thing but ,ohat is not TO be had !!
Now, really, if the claimants, so long misused, are
at last content to take land scrip, we cannot see
why the President should object, unless meaning to
give them something better. Such talk is cruel
mockery. As to all the rest, about their becoming
nonresident landholders in the, States,' "asking
exorbitant prices for them," and retardng settle
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