The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1852-05-31

of opinion in this country as the debate on The
bill to grant lands to the landless which ha,
passed the House of Representatives this SOB
sion. II 10 only about twenty years since RoBER.
OWEN, FANNY WRIGHT, and few other skept
les and atheists began to preach here the doc
trines Of communism in property, of promiscu
ous intercourse between the sexes, and of
general subversion of our domestic, social, poll
teal and religious institutions. They were the
regarded a. the widest of Missionaries, tn
weakest Of sophists, and the most depraved o
moralists and teachers. Now, we have witnes
sed the passage in Congress of II measure which
they were the first to propose-of measure
which cannot be defended for moment except
on the principles of socialism they advanced
Of measure which amounts to a ratification by
this government of their doctrne-of measure
which is subversive, not only of the moral eys
tenn which has heretofore prevailed in this coun
try, but of the political relations created or re
cognized by the Constitution between sections
and classes, and subversive also of the right
and even of the very institution of property it
SELF
The public domain is as yet the joint property
of the States. This bill grants it to the poor
thing which Congress has no right to DO
Congress has no right whatever, even to dscrimi
nate between the rich and poor. The people
consists of both classes, and each has all equal
right to protection. If the common property OF
both can be taken away and given to one, then
the separate individual property of each mar
can be taken for the same purpose. lfCongress
can take the public land and give it to actual
settlers, it may take any land Of private owners
and do the same thing; nay, if an individual
owner cultivates more land than Congress may
deem necessary for his subsistence. it can take
that from him and distribute it. True, Con-
gress has no power under the Constitution to
dispose of private lands as it has of the public
But the power to dispose of the public lands is
a trust to be exercised for the common use ana
benefit of all the States, and if such trust can
be 80 abused as to bestow them on particular
class of people, then any power of Congress
can be equally perverted to similar objects, and
it has ample powers to accomplish, without
greater absurdity, the distribution of private
property. 1t can be done through the taxing
power alone, with more facility and more pausi
biIity than in the manner now proposed of Civ.
ing away the public lands.
The pending bill gives a quarter of section
to man who is landless, and who is mOneyless,
or nearly so. 1t takes the land which has been
paid for by the labor of the Industrious the
money of the frugal, and the blood of the brave,
and which belongs chiefly to them, to class
among whom are the lazy, the cowardly, the
prodigal, the stupid, the vicious. The man who
has been industrious, self-denyjng and frugal
enough to accumulate FIVE hundred dollars Of
property receives no favor from Government
however large his family, and however Deepen.
dent. But he who has always been too lazy to
work, or too incorporate to save-he who May
have squandered thousands in vice or in luxury
is presented with a farm by Government.
At present the public lands are divided into
tracts of forty acres, the price of which is fifty
dollars. We hold that the man who is not ca
pable of accumulating that sum by industry
frugality, energy or talent is not fit to have
farm, and would be miserable incumbrance o.
one--a pest to The neighborhood, and an obsta
Gle to the rightful cutivator. We hold tina
property, as we'll as liberty, belongs only tc
those who are morally capable of their acquisi
ton and maintenance. Even bread itself i
promised only to the children of the righteous
by scripture. The wicked perish. But the
pending bill disregards totally the moral dis
tinctons between men, except that it gives
positive preference to the worthless, and Offers
high bounty to idleness, appetite, indulgence
and vice, at the cost of the actual honesty, labo
and property of the country
The principles of natural right on which thi
claim of land for the landless is founded, will
furnish much better argument for division o
private property than for this bill. If maj
has natural right to land he has natura
right to society-certainly to that of his kind
red. What reason then is there for sendin,
him away into the Western wilds to realiz
this right, and to forsake his brothers, sisters
father, mother neighbors and friends when Their
are at hand many tracts Of thousand acres O
more held by persons in violation of this prin
ciple of natural right? Why not take slice o
one of them If a man has natural right anG
to a. much as will support him, he has righ
to take the nearest land he can find which AM
body holds by different tenure-he has
clear right to take that of rich neighbor wht
holds more than he needs. And if part of
is already cleared, cultivated and planted, VIII
so much the better, the claimant by nature
right will receive some indemnity for havin
been 80 long kept out of possession. This bl
not only discrminates between classes, betwes
the poor, and those who are not, or rather
favor of the idle against the laborious, but b
tween sections. The North is grooming wi
actual and impending pauperism. The South
not. This is scheme to relieve the North |
giving to the most worthless class of her pc,
pie, the common property of the South ar
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