The daily union. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1845-1857, 1847-01-21

the committee.
| Mr. CORWIN desired to modify his amendment so as
| to make it read follows:
Thot each noncomnissioned officer private enlisted
or TO be enlisted IN the regular army, regularly mustered
in any volunteer company, who has served serve
during the present war with Mexico md who shall receive
.d 10 e or Mh9 sa an, N.Y. been std or
certificate warrant from the War Department for one
hundred and sixty of land which may be located by
The wanan,ee, his heirs, legal representatives, any
land Office in the United States in one body, in Conformity
the egal subdivisions OF the public lands in suc dis
uicts subject to private entry: Prorded, That
the in term or which such person shall have volunteer
three months, then the be for eighty In
ease ct death IN service or after his dscage then the
3D. his fathers 4th his mother; and 9th his brothers and
sisiers,n
Mr.. WEBSTER said that this amendment raised the
question OF dispensing with the limitations and re-
stricons proposed by the original amendment TO be
attached to the bounty land intended to be conferred
upon persons entering into the military service OF the
| United States He thought the question was an
important one, and he trusted it would be wisely de-
cided. So far respected the probable effect OF the
proposition In It's present FORM and the probable effect
or person whom il proposed to enlist, he stated yester
day all that he wished 10 say, except that in adverng
10 the practice of the government and the acts OF Con-
gess during the last with England, he did not state
precisely what was the extent of the means then adopt
ed by Congress for filing the army. He would now
advert to the provisions of the law the subject they
stood at the close of the war There were granted at
that time, he said two-fod boun.ies Congress- till that
time, had raised the proposed bountes till they stood at
these ratesst, money bounty of 1924, $50 of which
was to be paid on the enlistment, 500 Joining the
regiment being mustered into service and the other
$2l upon receiving honorable discharge There
the eight dollars compensation to any commissioned
officer soldier who should procure recruit to be
listed and then there bounty in land to the amount
of half sectonthree hundred and twenty On the
proprlety of attaching any stipulation qualifications
to titles any remembrance whatever to attach to lands
after they should have been severed from the public do
main and passed to private ownership the point OF view
which he desired to present was very much the same
honorable Michigan
/ The constitution of the United States authorized
Congress 10 make all neediu rules and regula-
tions for the dsposing and the regulating OF pub
lie lands belonging 10 the United States; which
| he understood 10 be that Congress might make
all proper provision for disposing OF public lands,
and might make all necessary rules and regulations
speeding them while they belonged to the United States
He thought ii was never contemplated that when lands
had fallen under State ursdicon they should be subject
to any other enures any other legislation than that OF
the State. The titles TO real estate depended upon the
sovereign power within whose limits such real estate
situated He did not know where they would be able to
draw the line if they to say that Congress might at
tach those provisions to this landtha might render it
in this inalienable Tor certain length OF time
might take of the common and attach to
titles such the law of the State did not recognise 1t
appeared TO HIM that the true view OF the matter was tins
the land was theirs 10 SELL They owned sections and
quarter sections of land within the limits OF OF the
States. That land though the property OF the United
States and ought to be- subject to the general
legislation of the State in which it situated in
rythng respecting titles Just much, in his Judgment, as
if their ownership the ownership of single ndyid
ua Now, the authority to pass the restrictions pro
posed he submitted to the gentleman, exactly OF the
character of authority by which they should undertake
to sever the fee simple in grant to ireehoder or Gre
ating a system of entail He knew that by law in some
States lands were exempt from taxes Tor certain length
of time after they had been sold. Such law had been
made he believed IN all cases. with all States, on their
admission into the Union. There was an essential i'm
proprety however, in having it done in any way with
titles of land which had passed from them to private
ownership and which situated in the States where
the public domain was situated It was not long since
the country that the holding OF land by the United States
within the limits OF State was itself an inconsistency
There others that maintained that by the very act
of the admission of any State into the Union, the land
became ipso faco the property of the United States And
strange it might seem, such doctrine maintained
there by less authority than that of eminent
legal geneman--hen senator-now of the Judges OF
the Supreme Court Of the United States He maintained this
position IN very elaborate argument upon constitutional
grounds Other senators did the That was the one
extreme. No one would think of maintaining such a
doctrine now; but, the other hand their object should
be to leave the land freecear from all remembrance
even they looked at the interests of the States them.
selves And there was more propriety-he doubted
whether there was any constitutional authory-tor
them thus to restrict the titles OF lands they proposed to
SELL than for any Of the States to do it. He had always
maintained this opinion and desired 10 present this
occasion, and to add that it against the
efficiency of the whole for securing enlsments, if
passed IN the form recommended by the committee
| Mr.. CRITTENDEN said il seemed to the committee,
upon the best consideration they could give to the sub
ect the time that Congress had power to impose the
restraints proposed He entertained the same opinion
himself now There was nothing in the proposed aena-
ton inconsistent with the laws OF any state but he
thought that Congress could make entament, be-
cause there laws in the several States prohibiting it.
But while Congress held the title, there no doubt
that they could qualify the patent they pleased There
was much doubt, however, about the cxpedIency OF
placing any restraints upon alienation 1t was only the
consideration that necessary TO prevent the boun-
y which was designed for the soldier from falling into
the hands of spectators that would induce HIM to favor
such restraints That mercenary class would, however
inevitably strip the soldier of his bounty, unless re-
strant provided lie wished, therefore, TO give the
soldier title to the land scrip which would not be so
liable to those cncroachments
/ Mr.. DAVIS had but word to say. disposition had
been manifested to attempt to meet what was supposed to
be eyhe idea that the soldiers would be very like
" to lose the benefit OF the bounty TO be conferred upon
them by transfers to spectators. There was much
truth the opinion, that this was serious difficulty
But how could it be prevented Legislation, he appre-
hended would not do it. Did experience teach them that
could not He believed that, by the course OF egsa-
ton proposed far from afordng security to the sol
der, they would increase the to him. They created
great additional risk for the soldier to encounter Let
it be said that their laws made all improvdent contracts
yoid very we'll the speculation would sl 60 on He knew
had been said that those whom land was bestowed at
the close Of The late war were great sufferers In what
way did they suffer- In this way: they knew not what
TO do with their patents. They remote from the
land, and saw way to make of il with profit &c
themselves The expenses of taxes and agencies proved
heavier burden to them than all the land worth
lie believed that the greater freedom they to the sol
der as regarded his title to the land the greater the
cury they afforded him But finally, he did not believe
whatever guards OF the kind proposed they might throw
around tins properythai 1t would be of any advantage
whatever to the soldier.
Mr.. GASS would vote decidedly against restric-