The miners' express. (Dubuque, Iowa) 1849-1854, 1850-01-30

in for an equal share of the benefits. The gov
ernment owns immense tracts of fertile land in
the interior of the State, which is, and never can
be of value little more than nominal without ia
cilities for transportation and markets: with such
facilities they will be eagerly sought and COM
mand greatly increased prices. Should the gov
crnmcnt set down these thousands of acres as
they are, to be worth ,25 per acre, does not
every one know that with the advantage of rail
road transportation in their midst, they would
moro readily command twice that amount. A
gain, we will suppose that these lands are sought
and cultivated to a limited extent, with no in
duccmcnts except such as nature holds out, it
would be but sheer injustice in the government
to suffer those settlers, few and weak, to make
those improvements, unaided and alone, where
by the government might reap immense advan-
tages from money and labor, no part of which
she had contributed. 1t is then as a great land
holder in common with the citizens that we ask
her to come in and do her share of the common
improvement. Here is no colonial dependence,
no taking shelter under the wing of a great gov
crnmcnt, nothing derogatory to State indepen-
eence, nothing which impairs any constitutional
principle.
| know it has been said that the public lands
are a common fund for the benefit of all the
States alike true, but docs this fact impair the
righ1ulness Of the contributions If with the
improvement contemplated, one half of a given
quantity Of land is worth as much, perhaps moro
than the whole, in the present condition ofthngs,
no member of the family would be injured, while
some would be incidentally benefited. no.
ticcd that a provision was Incorporated in bill
for the benefit of Minnesota and Iowa introduce
ed by Senator Donglass, that the minimum price
of that portion remaining to the government
should be $3.50 per acre-so that it seems we
are not alone in our views this part Of the
subject and no one doubts that such provis-
ion would be etfectual to secure the government
against the loss of single dollar, looking at the
subject in the light merely Of profit and loss. Be
sides, however strong may have been the con-
stitutional objections in the minds of many to
projects of internal improvement by the govern
ment, there have been none of which am a.
ware to the making of donations to the States
for laudablc purposes, and common benefits.
OF this character are all the magnificent dona-
tions for Schools, Univcrrties and Assyums, to
say nothing of the large appropriations for the
improvement of rivers in many of the States
have said thus much for the purpose of remov-
ing such difficulties as might lingcr in the minds
of any: for in a work of this kind it is impor-
tant to obviate all obstacles touching the right
fulness Of the power involved in the action which
we desire. 1t may be that here have fought a
man of straw: bnt know that powerful oppo-
sition has been put forth in the shape of const-
tutional scruples to such appropriations we
ask. l confess that the difficulty once existed
in my own mind, but it is removed, and am
left to act with freedom, an energy, a satisfac-
ton which should not once have felt.
There is another idea connected with this sub
ject of rather a general character, though not
the less weighty OH that account it is that the
present citizens of Iowa are not alone interested
in their own improvements. Our people are not
of another race-they did not spring out the
ground they occupy, neither were they rained
down from the clouds above them. They came
from one half the older States, and thousands
more are to come from the same quarters. Our
borders are not our own heritage alone, but they
are to be the dwelling place of multitudes, look
ing with anxious eyes from the east, the middle
and the south, to our soil, truly unsurpassed in
fertility, our beautiful waterfalls, our healthful
climate This fact imparts fellowship Of feel
ing and interest, and will go far towards secur-
ing our object: for those who in other portions
of The country are looking hithcrward to estab-
lish themselves and their posterity, will not feel
indifferent to our prosperity.
Again; the public mind of the entire West is
deeply alive to the subject which to-day occu-
pies the attention of this vast assemblagc, and in
this fact we find matter of encouragement it is
always to be found in the combination of extern
svc influences 10 effect common object and
believe it will become part ofthe settled pol
icy ofthe government, to set apart portion of
its public domain in those States where it is to
be found for the purpose of internal improvement
in those States. believe all the States west of
the Ohio demand it, and surely the voice of five
millions Of people cannot fail of being heard
1 know that the niggardly and narrow views of
occasionally here and there representative
from the old States, are opposed to this policy,
claiming that it is partial to the new and un Just
to the old States. But independent of the view
which have taken of the question of profit and
loss as to the lands themselves, is it nothing to
the old States that the population of the new
will increase their commerce, supply them with
an abundance of bread and take from them theii
thousand articles Of manufacture Is it moth.
ing to the old States that their prosperity in all
its countless ramifcations, is inseparably inter
woven with the prosperity of the new? The
new States can better do without the manufac.
lures of the old, than the old do without the
produce Of the new. The rocky soil Of New
England will not produce bread-but the wom
en- of the west can "guide the spindle and drec'
the loom, and the soil too will produce the ma
terial. But we do not set up in our independ
ence. God has made men and communities de-