Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1848-04-14

culous in itself, more absurd, and more az.
fronlive to all sober judgment, than the
cry that we are getting indemnify. lndem-
nifty by the acquisition OF New Mexico and
California hold them not 10 be worth
dollar, and we pay for them vas, sum Of
money. We have expended, as everybody
knows, large treasures in the prosecution Of
the war, and now what is there TO constitute
indemnify What do gentlemen mean by
it! Let us see how this matter stands
We got country. We got country in
the first instance, either by cession or ac-
acknowledgement Of treaty. care not which
way you state 1.-THE country between the
Neuces and the Rio Grande. What this
country is appears from publication Of an
honorable gentleman in the other house, in
which he quotes an account given by Major
Gaines. He says that the country is worth
nothing, that be would not hazard the life
of a single individual for every foot Of land
from San Paificio to the valley Of the Rio
Grande. This gentleman has been there
lately, and is well acquainted with the con-
dition OF the country. So far then as that
part Of our acquisition is concerned, take
it for granted il is not worth dollar.
Now, Of New Mexico. OF that, forty
nine fitieths at least, lis mere barren waste
Of desert plain or mountain. There is no
wood, no timber, little faggots 10 light a
FIRE carried thirty or forty miles on mules.
There is no natural fall Of rain as 10 tenn
perate climates. The place and scene are
Asi1tic-enormously high mountains, run
ming up some to the height Of ten thousand
feet, with very narrow vallies at their bases,
through which streams sometimes uickle
along-a garter winds along, through the
thread Of which, runs the Rio Grande from
afar in the Rocky mountains down 10 the
latitude Of about thirty-three degrees, some
three or four hundred miles. There these
GU, 600 persons are. In the mountains, on
the right and the left are streams whose
natural tendencies would be as lateral
sreams 10 flow into the Rio Grande, and in
certain seasons of the wear. when the rains
have been abundant ia the mountains, some
Of them do actually reach the Rio Grande,
but the greater part Of them, always-and
all them for greater part Of the year, new
er reach an outlet to the sea. They are
absorbed in the sandy and desert plains Of
the country. There is no culture anywhere,
save tina, which can be obtained by artificial
watering or irrigation. You caR have this
along the narrow valley OF the Rio Grande,
in the gorges Of the mountains, where the
streams are but you canno, have il down
along the course Of those streams that lose
themselves in the sands.
Now, sir. there is no public domain in
New Mexico. There is not lnol Of land
TO be sold by the government. There is
not an acre that will become ours when the
country becomes ours-not an acre. But:
more than this, the country is full of people,
such as they are. There is not the least
thing in il TO invite the settlement, OF our
planters or farmers. There will 20, dare
say, spectators, traders, some Of them adj
yenturers, tired OF the good country in the
valley of the Mississippi. who desire. to
wander; but undertake TO say there will
not be two hundred farmers or planters from
the United States in New Mexico in the
next fifty years They cannot live there
Do you suppose they are going to cultivate
lands which cannot be made productive in
the slightest degree without irrigation p
The people that are there produce little