Baltimore commercial journal, and Lyford's price-current. [volume] (Baltimore, Md) 1840-1849, 1849-07-21
LAND SPECTT.ATTON


From the Greenfield American Republic Of June p.
VIM. b. Maclay member of the last Congress
from New York, in conneXiOn with two three
brothers, a whole County in Illinois.
The land is said to be of the best quality. 1t had
been warranted to discharged soldiers who served in
Mexico, but the warrants covering it have been
purchased by the specializing Messrs. Macays, who
now expect to reap large fortunes from the opera
tion If, as is said, some of the land is worth $40
an acre, their expectations will doubtless be realized
as theywill make money at both ends OF the bargain
having bought the certificates at discount and will
sell the land at a large advance from the Govern
ment price.
This is only one of many speculations made on
soldiers land-Warrants-a compensation for service,
the most useless to the soldier as a general thing,
and the most advantageous to spectators, OF any
which could be made. 1t is in reality bounty on
shaving-a bait to the greedy to prey the neces-
sites or the Inconvenience of men. man perlls
life a soldier. This grateful Government pays
him &c cents mills and twO-thirds per day for such
service, feeds him pork and beans, and then, to
show the excess of its gratitude, when he is dis
missed he is given warrant for 50 acres OF land,
and virtually told to be thankful for present OF
500, when the donor knows perfectly we'll that to
occupy the land would probably be 500 or $1,000
damage to him, and that he will be obliged to sell
his script to some schemng Spectator for half
two-thrds of its estimated value 1t is much like
man paying off his debts i'll deprecated paper, and
THEN Claiming TO nave palu III lull, WIen ne mas
counted out poor dollars enough to equal in tale his
debts. 1t is a species of cheating. But in of
the land-warrants, it is cheating in feeble cir
cumstances, with the full knowledge that every
nominal dollar awarded is at least % to 80 cents in
the pocket of some rich Shylock, awaiting his OPP
portunity, like vulture lowering over battlefield
to gorge his hungry stomach Better for the soldier,
and more honorable and more honest too, for Govern
ment to pay the bounty in cash. Then the thing is
done with, and Government does not perform the
exalted function Of acting pander to morbid covetous-
in others.
This operation of the Messrs Maclays exhibits
strikingly the Importance of of the articles OF
the Buffalo platform-that Of encouraging settlement
by grants of land to actual settlers, and limiting the
quantity conveyed Many, bred in the exclusive,
tghtsted, heart-crsted school of selishness, repel
the idea of giving away land, while they i'm
propriety in allowing men to speculate in land war
rants at half their value, and to lay imperial
domain for their own purposes. Yet in this opera
ton the Government actually gives half the land,
not to the soldier but to the Spectator, who will
do no good with it, but turn the most pennies pos
sible into his pocket out of the pockets of the
Woodworking, money straitened settler who may
be compelled to buy lease of the princely land
lord.
If it be right to pamper the wealthy money holder
by such indirect government bountes, it surely
not be very wrong to encourage the poor in the way
to competence by allowing him to use little of the
he has a fair right. To all he has none. All men
have equal claims and for to grasp at the whole
improveable earth would be for him to usurp the
rights of the eight hundred millions of other human
beings who exist; and if he sezes half, he deprves
half of their rights If he takes less, his acts are
still entertainments on Others, so long he takes
more than he needs use, although he does not
rob so many But what right has he to rob any
What right to accree to himself the land of nation,
and speculate by of it out of the necessities OF
his fellows
We know that the doctrine of limiting the land
ed possessions of men is not a favorite one. For
centuries have been instructed that it right
for each one, not only to create all he could but to
seize that created by others, and by the Great
Creator himself Certain forms have been prescribed
and whoever succeeds under them in alternating his
neighbours rights, is deemed to have nfringed no
principle of equity morals while he who does it
without due form, by force rather than by cunning,
is an outlaw. He should be- But why allow one,
under himsey preteXts without pretexts, to shut
up in his bureau the common and Divine rights of
his race and dole them out-the free gifts of Cod
at so much for dollar
The evils of immense landed speculations are
vividly shown in England and ireland, where the
whole soil is in the hands of thirty forty thousand
persons, and not of the other thirty millions can
strike spade into the ground tread on it
without leave of the landlord. That leave only
be obtained at high price. In this country have
a similar example a similar SCALE in the manorial
lands in New York, and very extensive tracts in
several of the counties held by individuals. From
these flow Anti-rent troubles and if continued will
plant ineradcably deep the seeds of class hostility,
so fruitful of difficulty and contention and so i'm
portant to be avoided in a Republic.
1t is to be hoped that the public sentiment on
this point will long become changed that Con-
gress will find it necessary to obstruc the immense
accumulation of lands in a single person, and pre-
serve the plentiful inheritance have, for the
of those who need them, and not for the increase
of gain to those who already have more than
enough.