Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1850-11-09
Land Reform,

Undoubtedly the doctrine Of Land Reform,
to the extent It has been uttered 10y the CEN
tral organization in New-York, and by other
existing organizations elsewhere, is making
rapid progress but il is not making half
such rapid progress as the wholesale dispo-
sal of the public lands in the mean time
What mean, then, is, that by the time the
Land Reform doctrine becomes sufficiently
potent to get its measures carried-and that
time must inevitably come-there will be no
public domain left for it TO act upon. Land
Reform will then have left to il the bootless
task of shutting the stable door after the
horse is stolen. What think you, then Land
Reform will do? Will it sink back to non
entity, content with having chased shadow
until the clouds came over the sun and ei.
faced the object of its pursuit? Not il
understand the character of the men who
are engaged in il, aud the hold they have
upon principles which reach q thousand
miles beyond what they have ever cho-
sen 10 announce as the purpose of their agi-
tation. Land Reform has always appeared
TO me, | confess, as either one of the most
silly of the inanitcs of the day, when preach
cd ms the remedy for the social evils OF work.
| ing humanity, or else MS one of the most
pregnant and significant omens of thor
ougii-going aud radical revolution, for good
j VI tfh Ih bc tAioiiIP 10 lOIilI
opinion which il will prove, l have as a
means, only my Judgment of the men who
are i'll the lead of il, and of those who are
being drawn into sympathy with it. Tho
impression is strong with me that they are
quite in earnest, and that they will not be
baked OF their purpose by clever political
coup dc main, which shall place the public
domain out of their reach Just at the mo-
ment when they have grown to stature
which would enable them to grasp it. 1t is
clear that tile doctrines of Land Reform arc
far more radical than any application which
has hitherto been made of them. Rest as
surcd, then, that if those politicians who are
conducting their motives upon the political
chess-board TO checkmate the Land Reform
ers by hurrying the public lands out of the
possession of the Government, succeed in
that policy, they will find that they have still
another much more desperate game 10 play.
They will not be toff so.
Precisely at the point have designated il,
if am skilled TO read the tendency of revo-
lutonary movements, Land Reform will
transform itself into II modified agrarianisIn,
demanding in the most preemptory tone, tho
application OF It's fundamental principle TO
private possessions of land.
The progress of Land Reform will he like
that of abolitonism, ever rising higher aud
higher in its demands. Ii is undeniably aud
fundamentally true that man is by the essen
tial nature OF the constitution which God
gave him, entitled TO the ownership of hiln-
self. Ii is undeniably and fundamentally
true, that man requires land for his susie
nance as he requires air and water, and that
no government, and no human laws or insti-
tutions have right TO cut him off from this
essential resource and condition of his ex-
| istence. Both the abolitionst and the land
reformer stand therefore upon an immu-
table basis of natural truth. Each is des-
tined 10 raise higher and higher in his de-
! lnands, until tie whole of what he asks il
granted. Ii may be sooner or il may be later.
When ALGERNoN SIDNEY taught the truths
afterwards embodied in the American Dec
laration of Independence as against the
divine right of kings, there seemed lit
tie hope that they would ever be realized
in practice. But the time was not distant
when they were so realized. The period is
far less now which intevenes between the
conception of new truth and its realization.
Events march at the present day in double
, quick time. "Humilty is young Ambitons 6
, ladder" Land Reform talks now only OF
the public domain; but let her be balked OF
that aud the next assertion will be of the ma
ked principle, that land, no matter where, is
"natura wealth" and that all human beings
are alike entitled TO its enjoyment. Land Re-
form will be found IN the end to be no child's
play. So belicve.- S. p. An Y. Irib.
We ARE pleased to hear that the Congre
gational pulpts of Randolph and Edinbury
have spoken out fully, and freely in thei