Ypsilanti sentinel. [volume] (Ypsilanti, Washtenaw Co., Mich.) 1843-1900, 1847-01-06

see families leaving their homes, and emigra-
ting to wilderness; we see them clearing a
vast region, most heavily timbered, telling tree
by tree the dense forests, and converting them
into productive farms; we see them combating
with want and disease, for fevers were common
and violent in the early settlement of the coun-
try, and after all this toll, which exceeded in
extent the labors of the greatest armies, we see
that not more than ONE FAMILY IN TEN, has re-
tanned possession of its farm, and reaped the
fruits of its labors
Now suppose that Massachusetts,, instead of
selling these lands for "A cents an acre to a
Merchant Spectator, had reserved them for
actual settlers, for her own sons, and other en-
igrants from New-England, and sold them at
25 cents an acre in cash. Suppose in addition
that two of the measures of the National Re
formers, which are denounced as subveisive and
Revolutionary, had been adopted at that period;
namely, that not more than 100 acres should be
sold to one man, and that he could only sell it
to landless man, so as to prevent monopoly
by non producers; and second, that the home
stead shoslld be inalienable; that is, should not
be sold under mortgage or execution. (The
farm, the home of the family, should be held
next in sacredness TO the human body, which
can no longer be imprisoned for debt.)
Had these measures been put in operation,
their labor have transformed it from wilder
ness into a fertile region, would have owned
their farms, and remained secure in their pos
session; vast sums would not have been drain
ed from the People bya Foreign Company and
sent to Europe; mortgages would not have been
lplastered over the whole region, as they now
are, lying in The Land Offices upon it, and in
the Trust Companies in New-York, and caus
ing thousands of law suits and hundreds of thou
sands of dollars expense in foreclosures; num-
berless farms would not have fallen into the
hands of underbuyers and others who did not
Gle ar them, and of Merchants, Lawyers, Banks,
Spectators and Money Lenders, and hundreds
of poor, Woodworking and disappointed farmers
would not have been driven from their homes,
and, sunk as many did into drtlnkard's grave
their families ruined and dispersed, seeking
a new home in the West-where perhaps some
other Companies are enactlng over the same
scenes-or begging an asylum in the Poor
House.
Such is brief outline of the history of the
sale of the Soil in the Western part of the State
of New-York. 1t is sad history-one of le-
gal Injustice and plumber upon gigantic scale:
of respectable extortion of the most villanous
character, perpetrated upon the poor, the de-
fenceless and unsuspecting Producing Glasses,
who by their patient labor and endurance, have
made this important region all that it is.
In the Territory West of the Genesee River
there are several millions still due for the orgi
nal purchase money, land the entire Indebtedness
on bond and mortgage must amount to at least
ten millions of dollars. This is an immense
weight resting onthe country, draining it of its
resources and impoyerishing it, crushing the
farmers and keeping a considerable portion of
the population under the "harrow'' of anxiety
and the dread of ruin.
And where goes the money drained year af-
ter year from the regIon!-the result of this act
of folly of Massachusetts-of Politicians, so
penny-wise as to sell an immense district of
country for mere trifie.
The money, the fruit OF the industry of the
People of this part of the State, goes in part to
the City of NewYork to augment its extrava
gance, its waste, and its luxury; but the grea-
ter portion goes to England and Holland. The
bonds issued by the Companies that purchased
in 1897 from the original Holland Land Com
pany, have, through the Trust Companies in
Newly York and the United States Bank, found
their way to London and Amsterdam.
What strange result. The subjects ofthe
Crowns of Great Britain and Holland hold at
this moment an absolute Sovereignty orer the
Labor of the agricultural Glasses of an i'm
portant part of the Empire STATE, and an i'm
mense tax is levied annually by them, the pay
ment of which is enforced for them without any
trouble or expense on their part; and the hard
earnings of our People here GO to feed the Vi
ces, the folles, the insane expenditures of that
disgusting and dreary sink of inlquity, London,
and the stupidest of cities, Amsterdam.
And when we are to seek for the original
cause of this complicated mass of error and in
Justice? We are to look for it in the fact that
the People and the Leaders of the People after
our Revolution had not the intelligence to see
the necessity and justice of annulling these
grants Of Territory frcm the British Crown to
the States and declaring them as well as all
Public Lands, the property of the whole People
to be reserved for the real cultivator and impro-
yer, (for cultivation and improvement are the
only true claim to wild lands and the plea on
which we dispossessed the Indians,) and as a
new home for our increasing population, and our
poor and landless citizens-with a bar to land
monopoly or the purchase of land in large guam
titles by individual Spectators or Companies.
who may be fifty denominated-the Vampires
of Horticultural industry. Yours truly,
ONE BORN ON THE SOIL.
SUGAK.-Sir Walter Scott. in Lis history of
Napoleon, ridicules the Emperor's patronage
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