Southern shield., 1852-05-29
MO-. 8.

| the dIgnlt1ed title Ot statesman.
 But how is the money to be obtained .C
 accomplish work from which we antici-
 pate so many benefits? Weknow full well
 that this question must be answered to the
 satisfaction of prudent and welI-iudging
 men before they will even give the project their serious consideration.
 It appears from the Report of the Con- missioner of the General Land Office, made in lS49, that the Government of the Uni ted States owned at that time 29,436,942 acres of land in the State of Missouri, and 27 ,464, ,6O3 acres in the State of Arkansas. amounting to more than two-thrds of the area of the former, and 10 more than four ffths of the latter. And in no part of these States, perhaps, has a less proportion of the public land been purchased than in the re- zion through which the proposed route will pass.
 The effects produced on the price of real estate by the construction of railways is so we'll understood at the present day, that it would be useless to enter into an argument to prove that the money value of the public lands would be more than doubled, for the distance of ten miles on each side of rail- way through this region. Then why, we ask, should Congress refuse to give one-half of this land to individuals who would make the road The principle involved in such a grant was recognized by the act donating lands in aid of the central railroad of IIIi- nois, and the Mobile and Ohio railroad; and we may safely challenge any member of the present Congress to offer one sound and statesman-like reason against extending the same liberal and just policy to the States of Missouri and Arkansas. Indeed, we hold that the arguments are much stronger in favor of our road there is a much larger quantity O. public land in Mis- sour and Arkansas; and, consequently, as a landholder, the Government would be greater galner by the operation; the faciIi- ties of transportation are more limited here than east of the Mississippi, and it would be an act of favoritism and gross injustice on the part of the Government to bestow q bounty on the strong and deny similar tavors to the weak.
 The policy of the Government in respect to the public lands. inthe new States, has heen that of heartlesS, grinding speculation '. Owning from trro thirds fUur-flthS, and in some States even a greater proportion of the land, free from taxation, it refuses to sell the poorest tract for less than the price put on the richest. Thus holding on to its property, waiting for those who settle in the country to improve it's value by clear ing the forest, making roads, and establish ing schools, under hardshps and prvations calculated to retard the improvement of their mental and social condition. findi- viduals who pursue such a course are re- garded with feelings bordering on hatred by every community in which they are found, why should the Government be excused from censure :? The real estate of the in divlduaI is subject to the payment of taxes for the support of government, schools and public improvements, and, may even bel taken, just compensation being allowed, forI public purposes; the Government, as a land holder, is subject to none of these burthens, while it receives its full proportion of all the benefits accruing from every improvement made by the people. From these conside- rations we are fully warranted in looking to the public lands as a source from which Il at least a portion of the means necessary toI construct railway from St. Louis to He lena should be derived. We would not ask the Government to make the road, or to donate a sufficient quantity ot land to de- fray the entire cost of its construction.
 Nor would we even ask that it should contribute it's just proportion according to the amount of land it holds in the State through which the route lies. We onlyI claim thatit should make an appropriation sufficient to authorize individuals to embark their capital in the enterprise. We ask mol more. Letit not be objected that there are now too many applications of this nature before Congress wherever the Government owns land which would be enhanced in value by the construction of a railroad through or near it, there it ought, in justice, to appro- prate an amount equal 10 the benefit which
 it would derive from the jndivd ual labor and capital invested in tie work. And so long as this principle is kept in view, and not violated, the number of applications for grants of land in aid of public improve ments constitutes no rational ground for objection to the action of Congress in their behalf.
 Nor should it be objected that district of country is too new, or, that its resources are not sufficiently developed to authorize the commencement of public works: such districts, more than any other, claim the hel ping hand of liberal government. Why wait until the generation who broke the wilderness, and suffered all the privations incident to the settlement of new countries shall have passed away? In national point of view no class of American citizens is more mertorious than the pioneers who open the wilderness, and prepare the way for civilization to advance. They are men of stout hearts and strong arms, ever faith. ful to their country, and ready 10 fight its La Il lnc VI, kar 1,nll.l Irl.nl