The Kalida venture. [volume] (Kalida, Ohio) 1841-1865, 1848-09-05
Land Spstnlatipn.

repuuHC, especially Wehitn invested IN large
tracts Of land, ought never to receive any
fapor from government. Yet our govern
ment have long persisted in system Of dis
posing Of the Public Lands, prolific Of abuse,
and which, in the madness Of speculation
which Il has excited, has once at least,
threatened government with dissolution.
Every man has natural right to so much
unoccuped land as may bs necessary 10 fur
Inish his subsistence, and when this right is
yielded to the discretion Of settled govern
ment, Il is an abuse OF the discretion with
(which government is clothed, TO make mer-
chandize Of individual rights, and by SO do
ing lay the foundation of social system in
which bloated wealth and squalid poverty
must ultimately prevail. Yet this is precise
| ly what government has hitherto done, and
still insist on doing. Congress refusing 10
make any change.
The effect, in tile old world, Of the accu-
mutation Of large tracts Of land in the pos
session Of the few, is found, as in Great
Britain TO be the creation of cruel and ir.
on.hearted arisiocracy, who trample upon
the masses, and rob them by high and fam.
inc-rate rents Of the whole produce Of their
labor beyond the coar sest and scanicst sub
sistence; and, as in Ireland, leave them 10
starvation and pestilence, whenever crop
fails, or scarcity becomes general. Nor is
this the only evil "a slavery, mental aud mo-
raj, accompanies this physical degradation,
which too frequently makes the people, the
abject creatures Of lords, who regard the hu-
man beings around them, brutalized by want
and excessive toll, with far less care than
they regard their cattle. 3H
These evils have not yet reached this
country, and TO their full extent probably
never can reach it. Yet in its giant yout b.
the excessive snferings which mark the age
anil decrepitude of nations il is not familiar
with. But even here, the monopoly OF the
soil proves, as elsewhere, curse. The gp-
vernmcnt dealing with the public domain,
not as the inheritance of It's people, bul as
matter Of merchandise and profit, have sold
large tracts of land in every part Of the Un-
ion, not TO actual settlers, but to a class of
specl)ators-men whose profits are coined
from the blood and sweat, toll and priya,on
Of the pioneer population. These specula-
tors scour the opening country, and buy the
best lands, and hold them for years uncul,-
vated, until tho labor Of the pioneer has sur.
rounded them with cultivation, and opened
roads from them 10 The nearest markets, and
enhanced their value from ton to fifty times
the original cost. There are few residents
in the Northwest, where the folly of the
State Legislature and the avarice of individ-
uals have combined to preserve the wilder.
ness from improvement, but fully realize the
magnitude Of the abuse Of being forced be-
yond society, in the rear of speculators' un-
settled lands, for lifetime 10 struggle with
the diseases incident TO new countrios, nd
knowing them prolonged by the system which,
while it retards speedy sel,l ement, prevents
education, enlarges taxes, and swells the
catalogue Of frontier privations we'll nigh
their highest limit.
| In New York, where long settlement has
nearly obIiterated the snfferings Of frontier
life, the difficulties relative 10 the Holland
Land Purchase, and the resistance and vo-
lencc Of Auti-Rentism, show THAT govern
ment cannot endow the few with Il right
ful Inheritance of the many without produc-
ing an unhealthy and dangerous state of So
ciety, at war with general happiness and
good government.
| The following resolution was adopted al
our late representative convention, and one
precisely similar in principle was also adopt
ed at the Congressional Convention, 1t in.
dicates a remedy for the evil:
! Resolped, That we are in favor Of such a
reduction in the price of public lands to ac-
= se',lers as will barely defraY the exneps-