The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1850-06-29

lney PUNISH crime, lmpr1SOn ior ioiohy N'~y
regulate the tenure Of lands; they exercise mu-
nicipal sovereignty over every thing within their
territories.
If, then, this power over the public domain were
TO 90 to the government that possesses the sover-
eighty by implication, to which government
would il belong' Why, clearly, to this Govern
ment. and not to the government of the State.
But, sir, the question does not, in my judgment,
come up upon any such point Let me remark
that this question is not a new one. met II here
the first session that took my seat in the Senate.
These notions, some of them, run in a periodical
orbit. They come back upon US every fifteen
or twenty years. This notion that the sover-
eighty OF the State necessarily carries with il the
ownership Of public lands within its limits, fifteen
or twenty wears ago was brought forward. IL
was discussed; it exploded, went of, and was
forgotten Ii is now here, back again, exactly
with the same aspect in all respects, that attended
il then.
Sir, in the year 1923 or 1929, the legislature of
Indiana took up this subject, and passed resou-
tons, and instructed her members of Congress To
support them by argument. The resolutions
were as follows: So.
Resolved, &c., That this State, being sovereign,
free and independent St,tc, has the exclusive
right to the soil and eminent domain Of all the
appropriated lands within her acknowledged boun-
daries; which right was reserved for her by the
State Of Virginia, in the deed of cesson OF the
Northwestern Territory to the United States, be-
ing confirmed and established by the articles of
confederacy and the Constitution Of the United
States.
That our senators i'm Congress be instructed,
and our representatives requested, TO use every
exertion in their power, by reason and argument,
to induce the United States to acknowledge this
vested right Of the State, and to place her upon
an equal footing with the original States, in
every respect whatsoever, as well in fact in
name.
They did so. One of the gentlemen who rep
resented Indiana at that time in the Senate, recent
" deceased, was Mr. Hendrick, who presented
the resolutions and took the position, stated in
the following extract from report Of the pro-
ceedngs of the Senate:
Mr.. Hendricks, in presenting these resolutions.
said it had become his duty to present to the
Senate resolutions of the general assembly Of the
State OF Indiana, on the subject of the public
lands within the limits Of that State. These rcso-
lutions (said he) similar in character to those
of the State of louisiana, a few days ago pre-
scented by senator from that State. They are
also, in some degree, similar to the spirit Of me-
mortal of the State Of Illinois, recently presented
to the Senate by senator from that State. In
these resolutions, the Legislature of Indiana has
soemnly declared that the State, being sovereign,
free, and independent, has the exclusive right to
the soil and eminent domain of all the unappro-
priated lands within her acknowledged boundaries
and that this right was reserved TO her by the
State of Virginia in the deed Of cession Of the
Northwestern Territory to the United States
grounds which, if tenable, as verify believe they
are, strongly appeal to the justice and to the pride
of the senators and representatives Of that mag
unanimous State.
''lt is believed that the compact not to interfere
with the primary dispose of the soil, and not TO
tax the lands for specified period, cannot confer
power on the Federal Government to hold the
soil of that State for any other purposes than
those pointed out by the Constitution even if
that compact had emanated from authority I'M
questionably competent to make il, and had been
based on policy as unquestionabe. There is no
disposition to interfere with this compact so long
il has the form Of existence in the statute-book
Put its validity is questioned, having been made
by the people Of the territory before the State
was admitted into the Union; and its irrevocable
character, well the perpetual obligation
which it attempts to impose the people Of the
State, is believed to be II derelicton Of a funda-
mental principle of our institutions, which as
ser,s the right Of every free people to change
their constitutions and laws from time to time,
as their wisdom and experience may direct. Nor
does 1t TO strengthen the pretension Of right,
to assert that the General Government may hold
the soil of the State individual may hold !;
for it is by no means in that character she does
hold She holds as n sovereign, and subjects the
soil of the State to the uncomfortable action of
her Legislative power"
Mr.. Hendricks reformed the duty imposed
upon him by the Legislature, and brought forward
as section to some one Of the graduation bills
introduced by the honorable Senator from Mis-
souri, n resolution to TINT effect. Proceeding upon
the ground that this land was the property of the
State, he proposed to acknowledge that fact by
the insertion Of the following section in the grad
uation bill then pending before the Senate:
SIC. 6. find be IL further enacted, That the
public and unappropriated lands within the limits
of the new States shall be- and the same are here
by, ceded and relinqushed in full property to the
several States in which the same may lie, on con-
ditiOn that such States shall not, at my time here
after, put such lands into market ut u lower
minimum price than shall be established by law
for the sale Of public lands in the Territories; and
on condition that the Indian title TO lands within
the limits OF any State, shall hereafter be extin.
guisled ut the expense of such State.
| On that occasion the Senate was addressed
much at length in support Of the same PROPOSE
ton by gentleman now holding an eminent pO-
sition upon the bench Of his country, then mem.
her Of Congress from Alabama. He maintained
the same general idea. He said .....a ..
have long entertained the opinion that the
Knitted States cannot hold land in any State Of
the Union, except for the purpose enumera-
ted in the Constitution and whatever right
they had to the soil, while the country remained
under territorial governments, passed to the
States formed over the same territory on their adj
inisslOn mo Inc UnlOn on an equal roofing with
the old States.
So the honorable Senator from Louisiana [Mr.
SoULE is following precedent. His argument,
so far rs can understand it, is ingenious, able,
and learned, but founded upon the same general
idea. Both the gentlemen upon that occasion,
and the honorable Senator from Louisiana upon
the present, have based their views upon some
maxims Of national and public law. One Of those
gentlemen, [Mr. HENDRicxs,] for example, quo
ted this from Vattel-exacty what the honorable
Senator from Louisiana quotes:
The general domain of the nation ovor the
lands it inhabis is naturally connected with the
empire; for, establishing itself in vacant coun-
try, the nation certainly did not pretend to have
the least dependence there on any other power:
and how should an independent nation avoid
having authority ut home; How should it gov
itself at its pleasure in the country inabi,s,
if it cannot truly and absolutely dispose it, And
how should il have the full and absolute domain of
the place in which it has no commrnd Another
sovereignty, and the right it comprehends, must
take away its freedom Of disposal.
Sir, nothing is more true, nothing is more just,
than this doctrine Of Vattel for a nation which
has settled in n country without an ownership