The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1852-11-24
The Public Lands-The Government md
the West.


Mr.. BENTON does not stand alone in do
handing immediate and immense concessions
to the West. Western journals opposed to
him In ordinary politics unite with him upon
this question; and not few of them seem pre-
pared to GO further than he has yet gone in the
crusade against the General Government for its
management of the public lands. The s..
Louis Euening .Ne,cs, wel-conduc,ed Wbig
journal, Is amongst the number 1t arraiqns
the Government for passing bills ''robbing the
new States of the public lands to give them
as gratuitles to people who have no equitable
claim upon the overnmen,"-alludinp, we
presume, 10 the issues of land warrants as re-
wards for services rendered in the couDtry's
wars; and then it pours forth its indignation in
this style:
The lands north Of the Ohio river were coded
10 'ne GENERAL Government upon the condition
that they ehould be disposed of to the people a,
their just value and their proceeds Appropriated
to the common benefit u the whole Confederacv
The territory OF Louisana-a!l the territory be-
tween the forty ninth parallel and Texas and the
Mississippl river and the Rocky Mountaine-wos
purchased ior the sum OF fifteen millions of dol.
'afs' instead OF adopting n system Of admins.
"a'soh which would build up our communities
ara add more States to the Confedcracy, syste,n
mas been acted upon Calculated and designed Co
check me progress OF the West, and to retain the
sceptre OF power in the hands of the nennle of tho
seaboard. by throwing obstacles in the no,b of
western progress. The Geneia al Government h
not been content to dispose of the lands at their
real ho'ura' Vane-it has inEisted upon first making
US pay q jar price for TEEN, and then charging us
"t'n ne additional rafue impaired to them by our
'dooTs. more gross, palpablc and unjust systern
could not have been adopted. II has converted the
western States into tributary provinces of the
East, and ground them down with ta.e. rno,o M
PrcselVc than Rome ever permitted her auestors
TO levy in the worst days of the empire
"Thc time has arrived for US to demand the alb
solutc crsslon OF the public lands to the States inv
which they lie. The time has arrived for insistino
that the proceeds Of those lands in the territories
shall be appropriated TO the development of those
territories. Louisiana originally cost but fifteen
m'lIions-the General Government has already re.
alizsd from land sales five tirnes the amount. She
has, therefore, robbed of sixty millions. and
gwen 1t as gratuity TO the spectators " no are
preying upon us to enable them to continue their
depredations
we have not at hand the means of ascer
tanning the precise cost of lands acquired by
The Government or the receipts derived from
the public sales; but Of this we are confident.
that the aggregate receipts bear but a small
proportion to the aggregate expenditure and
that the Government has therefore a large lien
upon the unsold lands as security for the liqui-
da'ion Of debt incurred by acts incident to their
acquisition. The cost of war-the payments
made and yet to be made under treates-the
expenses of the lrdian Department and Of the
General Land Office-are all to be provided for
out of the public domain, which can be neither
coded nor distributed until the expenses thus
arising have been fully paid. The public debt
is an insuperable obstacle to the application of
the doctrine Of cession as now expounded.
The original cession Of unappropriated lands
held by New York, Virginia, Massachusetts,
Connecticut, South Carolina, and Georgia,
was with view TO the establishment of "a
: common fund, for the use and benefit Of the
United States, and for no other use or pur-
pose whatever" Mr.. CLAWS argument,
founded upon this fact, was, that the General
Government has no more power rightfully to
cede the lands thus acquired TO one of the new
States, without fair equivalent, than it would
have to retrucede them TO the State or States |
from which they were originally obtained. IT