Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1852-04-24

Improvement Oh our country In husban0ry, hortcul-
ture, and mechanical science.
There are other matters over which Congress may,
IN certain circumstances, exercise salutary infu-
ence for the general welfare although can have
no coerclve power. Mtepperaace, for example, is
a great social evil and causes much human misery ;
yet the General Government cannot repress it by
any penal enactments, unless in the army and
navy 1t is possible, however, that an appropria-
ton OF the public money might sometimes aid the
efforts Of private benevolenee or State legislation in
freeing the country from this desolating scourge
II 50, we think it might properly be made
Having thus noticed some Of the objects that may
DC within the contemplation Of Congress when it is
about ito dispose Of the territory or other property
belonging to the United States" we beg leave to
make few remarks in reference to the particular
measures now pending, that look to distributions.
final and irrevocable, of the Public Lands and first
The Homestead Bill"
The history Of this project is not little curious.
When first suggested, few years ago, the idea of
9srmg array the National Domain received but little
favor 1t seized however, the attention Of very
numerous class, and became therefore popular A
number Of prominent statesmen in the last Congress
took up the subject, with some little competition as
to paternity. Resolutions were offered by several
distinguished Members of both Houses of Congress,
varying in some degree in their phraseoogy, but all
contemplating at last the entire dissipation Of this
great fund.
Some Of the principles asserted by the advocates
of the measure are little startling to those who
have always regarded acquisition as the just fruit Of
industry and property the fair reward Of toll and
prudent forecast Mr.. JOHNSON, of Tennessee in
a speech delivered on the 18th july 1850, " CON
tended that the Government had no authority, ne-
ther under the Constitution nor in compliance with
the four great elementary principles indispensable
to the existence of man, to withhold the usufruct
of the soil from its citizens" We do not know to
what the gentleman referred, unless it was to the
dogma of Ocellus Lucanus, adopted by Aristotle and
the Perpatetcs, that all things composed of four
element" viz fire, AR, acater, and earth. If this
were his meaning, may doubt the stability of his
for later chemists compound all matter of
three ingredients only-salt, sulphur, and mercury;
and perhaps, if some late discoveries are right the
whole mundane system may be resolved into gas
and leave not wreck behind" This, however
is fight of fancy. The substance of his pro-
position is contained in few words, which we
quote: Man cannot live without the use of the
soil and Government cannot, in compliance with
first principles, withhold the essentials of life from
the people" And again: Hence we see that
the withholding the use of the soil from the actual
cutivator is vioative of of those principles es
sential to human existence" &c.
The principle fairly deducible from the premises
thus laid down is, that the Government owns and
holds by grant and the payment of the peoples
money fourteen hundred millions of acres Of land,
which it offers at prices that thousands of persons
have cheerfully given; yet if a man be landless
and has no money from the acquisitions of his
labor to buy with, he has a just claim to have
farm gratuitousy bestowed because the "use of the
soil is one Of I" the essentials of life.'
The doctrines thus asserted are of great import
ance, not only relates to the present and imme-
date object, but in the influence they may here
after have upon the general welfare" and the adj
vance of our country in wealth, refinement and the
arts that sweeten and embcllish life We should
rejoice to see every citizen the owner of comfort
able homestead" and should be unwilling to OPP
pose measure strongly addressed to our good feel
ngs, if it could be obtained consistently with "the
general welfare" of the whole Nation. We doubt,
however, whether donation of one hundred and
sixty acres Of land to every man who subsists by
his labor, thus tempting him to quit his former
handicraft and artisan pursuits to become Gan in
dependent cultivator" Of the SOIL would add to his
individual happiness, or promote the common int
rests Of the country. Mr.. JULIAN, of Indiana, in
a remarkable speech delivered in the House of Re-
representatives. on the 29th January, 1851, advocated
this policy on the broad ground Of natural right
He held it 70 be rrong for Governments TO make
merchandise Of the earth" alt was as free to all
: its inhabitants the sunlight and the air and
every man has, by nature, perfect right to a
reasonable portion of upon which to subsist as he
has to initiate his lungs with the atmosphere which
surrounds it, or to drink of the waters which pass
: over its surface" Again, he says Man has
{ natural right life. What are we to understand
by this2 Surely it will not be contended that it
must be construed strictly as mere right to
breathe, looking further, and keeping out of
view the great purposes Of existence. The right
to life implies what the law-books call right Of
way to its enjoyment 1t carries necessarily with
it the right to the Of hiring, including not
only the elements of light, air, fire, and water but
land Also Here we have, according to Mr.. Ju-