Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1852-07-10

means TO procure shoes furniture hats nails groceries
taxes schooling and the thousand other o
life not grown on the farm. The win him
against actual starvation But that evil not known
or feared In this country Poverty and starvation
the evil to be relieved against VIII his poverty be
relieved Will his labor yield him more in value
answer no. The labor Of the renter yields him the
product of the land which it is bestowed less the rent
Under the new system, land having price will COM
mand no rent and its productions will by inevitable
law OF trade, be worth less than they now by The
amount OF the rent The price of common labor like that
every thing else is regulated by the community
ed, and Kept OF an equilibrium When common labor on
farm becomes profitable than in other departments
Of common labor rush from those departments to he
tfaFm vii redassit bssk - the esmnon ,svsl when Il
A1tbelow the common standard the farm win be for
s1s 4 sssE Il s s
interest and MISREPRESENTATION which prompts the whsle
Icommunity Of common laborers, each for himself
ssany 10 seek that department where labor will yield the
most not in amount in necessares Of ife but in
value The great mass Of common laborers-much the
class OF socieare free to choose and to change
their departments Of labor at pleasure Enough of them
art constantly IN notion leaving the lower and seeking
the higher departments keep the price Of com
mon labor, as near practicable the same in each de-
partment Suppose the present price of common labor
OF any kind in given community to be fifty cents per
day, and the price of bushel of twenty-five CENTS
and that one days labor farm will produce three
bushels OF corn-the laborer pays, rent bushe
and has left for his labor two bushels worth the price Of
days aborffty While this state of things con-
tinues, labor farm will be worth the it is in
other departments Now suppose you give the land free
Of the aborer will receive seventy cents per day.
while labor IN other departments is only worth fifty cents
How long would this inequality be suffered to continue
before there would be rush from the other departments
of labor to that of farming which would reduce the value
OF the three bushels of corn from seventye cents down
fifty cents that is from cents down to six
teen cents Only long enough for the aborng
community to learn the fact that seventy FIVE per day
could be earned To suppose the contrary is suppose
that ah0rsg Will work for fifty GENTS when he get
seventy cents per day. The aDo.~- .. imam ma
free farm will receive more in value for his years la
Dor than the present aborer upon rented farm His
new position will greatly nure the present Of
farms, without benefng himself His poverty will not
be relieved True the land will furnish him of the
bare necessares OF life But the air. the water and the
light also necessares of life and yet they have
value. They do not relieve poverty. You propose to
make land and its products like the air. useful and
sary, but OF value that is all. You relieve
but the absolutely starvnga class not to be found In
this country You leave the poer poor man STILL
while you make paupers Of many who now indepen
dent You " do evil, but not that good may come"
doubt ALSO Mr. Speaker, whether it will add to the
number of freeholders Any who has the courage
for trequres the wilderness and hew out
home there, can do The pre-emption laws and
the willingness and anxiety Of private owners to sell
credit abundanty enable every such to obtain pos
session, and sufficient time make and the pay
ments they required and when paid for, his land
Is worth more, at least by the amount paid is money
sss .eSa u
gvesony to some though-the night Of possession Tor
five years, and At the end Of that time title to land
worth only its improvements The present system gives
all the right Of long enough to pay, and in
the end title to land, valuable land and worth at
least the price paid than the improvements Under
the system he also has other advantages he
sell when he peases buy when, where and as much as
he peases and that too without any afdavs, deciara
tions, restrictions He buys freeman, owns
freeman and sells as freeman, and not as pensoner
and slave the Government But make OF
a Il e.
emption provisions which have indicated With these
every who desires be householder and every
| one who deserves il can be a freeholder
Sir, the settlement of the public lands cannot be, and
ought not TO be- forced by any such hobed system 1t
is already rapid enough for normal and healthy cond
ton and growth Of the business Of the country and
had better let well enough alone, you desire health
fully and safely to promote their settlement build roads,
great thoroughfares leading from the door Of the poor
man in your large cities, and by the doors Of all other
poor men, to the public lands, thereby making the lands
bargains ut VI % per and taking away the princ
pal obstacle their setement-the cost Of emigrating
to the West While you do this, you will at the same
time open up distant market for the settlements, and
the means and hold out the Inducements for trans
portation of the and machinery which shall estab
lish market in their midst These roads will do
TO promote the settlement" Of the public lands than all
the free land bills you pass, and abundantly
for the settlements; whe instead Of depreciang they
viii greatly add the value Of lands every where. They
win in countless other ways add to the value, import
ance and prosperity Of this country. They win fac
tate commerce. open markets. build up cities,
demand and price for labor harmonic conflicting in
terests and strengthen the Union Of the States They
viii have potency than ten thousand Of your plat
forms and your compromises" and win bind us to-
gther as band Of brothers. not only by literal bands of
iron, but also by the stronger ties of interest
and common prosperity. What need is the old and
tried American system roads and canals improve
ments OF rivers and lakes and the protection Of labor
you wish to country settled under free land sys-
tenn, look at Mexico Canada, any other countries
where such anti american systems prevail and you viii
find that while there is present most Of the evils which
predict from this b the settlement Of the lands Of the
country have been tardy in the extreme In no country
earth has the settlement Of the public domain been so
rapid in the United States where alone almost alone
the system Of putting the price upon the lands prevails
Let ms never forsake IL cannot now be done without
bringing ruin upon the country
Mr. Speaker this Is experiment. 1t is one Of the many
isms" Of the day 1t is agrarian in the worst sense
it levels downwsrds instead Of upwards IL creates anew
and thrfess class Of dependant farmers who IN the end
win degrade all Others down their own level II is an
entering wedge TO system Of Governmental largesses
buying and political corruption Ii Is the first step
in equal distribution Of all property. The next step
will be- more than hundred and sixty any
the next an equal division Of all real estate and the last
equal division Of all property II is part and parcel
of Gerret Smiths national reform platform hun
ed and szy acres 10 erey oAe s0a hundred
and sirfv acres 10 ann he land Ike the air free 10 ALL 1t
plausible in theory but viii stand the test of
practice It viii do for politicians, but for the peo-
Pile II is European Socialism, and not American Re-
pubcanism is exotic fourishing only in the hot
houses Of theory and demagogism TRANSPLANT It to the
wither and die 1t is peculiarly Western 1t is anti
land anti-farmer anttarf anti-internal improvement
and in short, anti-American.
Sir, the people not asking you for any such law