The miners' express. (Dubuque, Iowa) 1849-1854, 1852-12-01
vERETAs.
Our State Railroad Policy.
THE VOICE From TIE SOUTH.

and the true interests of the State, is at work,
quietly and plausibly, but more dangerously
than ever. Agents to manufacture public sem
timent, are straining every nerve and applying
every recourse, and gaining ground rapidly
We must not permit them to mislead US.
The established policy of the Slate is the true
one-A Railroad east and west from Daven- |
port to Council Bluffs-and another, north and
south, from Keokuk to Dubuque, penetrating
the nteriar at Fort Des Moines, Oskaoosa or
elsewhere compromise can be made by
which Musca,ine and Burlington shall unite
with them-forming grand system from The
principal towns upon the river To the centre OF
the State, and thence westward. These two
great roads-so often resolved upon by the
State, IN its legislature and conventions, would
have been secured long ago, had It not been tor
the selfish and tratorous opposition OF few
factional male ontcnts, who introduced new and
rival projects and fought against the State in
the halls of Congress Let not forget
them
We are called upon to abandon this pol cy
| aud to advocate the project of three or fvs p1r
allel cross roads across the State from the NJ
s,ssippi 10 the Missouri To this but one ans
wer can be o ven and that is, NO! This great
centre and south of the State respond to the
north by every consideration OF prime. pie, 0
exped;ency and of policy,-NO! THIS State
| will not vascillate-frst, because the very act
Of such vasclllaiion would be virtual self defeat
secondly, because the old policy has been fully
and rep teadly endorsed, and will satisfy the
"a lroad wants of the State-thirdiy, because it
has gained strength in Congress, and will pass
tina, body, if any Iowa railroads at all shlli be
Q -anted, upon their meri's The Davenport and
| Council Bluffs, and Kaokuk and Dubuque rail-
roads will be had next winter, we believe, II
this sectional opposition is withdrawn from
them. Let no one be persuaded by neutral fac
iionists, or their abettor in Illinois, Mr.. Camp
bell who has lately been exposed in his true
colors by our Representative, MIR. Henn,) that
| the Iowa Land Bill is dead Nothing could be
more false. 1t is only ruse, to withdraw our
efforts and State claims, so that a solitary rail
way may be got, the more easily, from Burlng-
ton to the Missouri river. No man supposes
that Congress will give to Iowa three or five
railways running parallel from east to west, and
this after the State shall have confessed imbec-
lily Of judgment as to her real wants-shifing
from one policy to another. The two segments
of national road, north and south and east and
west, linked together, and SD lolg fought for to
gether, will be granted If any. Abandon them,
and we let 90 substance to grasp at a shadow.
j The great Davenport route and others will go
by the board together; the Burlington road alone
will pass, and the conspirainus against the State
will snap the finger Of derision at the catspaws
who had been duped INTO disgracetrl retreat
and compromise by which they lost everything
and gained nothing. Let Davenport, Keokuk
and Dubuque look to il
SO nue.: for the 'sbacking out policy in it
self and in relation to schemes Of raj rolds
upon their merits. We are gravey approached,
in another mode, still more absurd and insulting
We are told that Benefits Bill, giving the
i State 5000 900 acres to be scrambled for in the
legislature, will pass Congress. Agents and
iobbers are at work, to manufacture opinion and
fix routes for the eastern spectators who have
concocted this new wing land distribution
scheme. Let US suppose then that the bill will
pass Is there any advantage in laying plans in
advance Is there any need to abandon our
State policy, or If there were, should we make
reality of the possibility of its passage and give
up our old prospects and hopes for mere song ?
But the BILL we believe, will not pass. Instead
of it we shall have the Homestead Bill and rail
roads upon their merits
What is this Benefits Land Bill? 1t pro-
poses to distribute the public lands proportion
ally among all the States. 1t gives 100000
acres of land t. western State for railroads.
and 6,0nO,000 acres to New York or an old State
New York or the seaboard State 10 own twice
as much property in Iowa as Iowa herself
This property is to be represented by SCRIP of
course, and so all over the Union. About fifty
eight millions Of scrip will result from this, to
be added to the sixty millions, bounty land war
rants &c, now in circulation, held by specu'a-
tors, &c making one hundred aud eighteen
Million At the present rate of land sales il
would require thirty years to exhaust this scrip,
which meanwhile would be the basis Of a fedtr
al and rotten policy of which we have not seen
the parallel This is, the whole public domain
is to be sauandered and the west swlndled by
one half, and made the thoroughfare and lease
plot of The eas.-for the sake of stimulating to
r. he hi RI # unnatural and
healthy excitement of overtrading, speculation
and swindling which threatens the most terrible
disaster to the financial solvency, political secu
i riy and all the democratic, rights OF the States
b nnett's Bill We believe, will not pass Con
gress. To our own knowledge, Douglass and
! Shields and many other western democrats, as
well as our own Senators, will oppose the pirat
icai measure to the utmost of their power. Let
us have even the old wing measure of distrlbu
ton of the money itself, rather than such
scheme as this!
The friends of this bill should in Justice,
vouch safe to tell us, also, by what sort It mag
nIficent stock scheme, the lands, which would
be deprecated in value from 8 % to perhaps
! ~ cents per acre by the immense amount in
market, would be made more available than
they are now, for the construction of railroad
| Let us not be blind folded and led to the
slaughter by these hired agents and jobbers Of
/ DTedR neck D. ttlCIdUS uuu edSleIu idtioHS
Tear off the mask and look them in the face =
Cajolllng us by the plea Of necessity, they
would drag the west into system of general
! improvement, which would cap It's native and in
dustria wealth by the unequal competition of
eastern companies, and States, and the general
government. Close upon this, certain as that
night follows day, would be the unlimited pledge
of State credit and issue Of State stocks, the
marrow Of monster banks, owned and contrnll-
ed here or abroad Let not our Legislators thus
squanJer the public domain, to bring about our
political and commercial slavery! Let US not
swallow any such sugar coated nostrums! Let
us, above all, not abandon settled policy and
cast our stability to the winds, for the sake, or
upon the faith Of efecting such result. The
whole unnatural and headlong system will tum
BILE TO pieces within a few years. A true dem
ocratic administration will hasten the catastro.
phe.
We say to the people Of Iowa. that the man
who ask US to break up our State railroad policy
! the two o-ordinates'-are either the agents
for these schemes, or the runners for special east
ern railroads, to suppress our just claims, and
establish the or two routes from Chicago to
the Missouri, sacrificing the great interests of
the State. They will be busy in the halls and
| lobby Of our next legislature
| These men are firm, of two branches-one
branch, the Bennett and monopoly agents, with
Interior objects, and who care not a straw for
| politics-thc other, neutral men disorganzers,
rotten democrats, tho tools Of managing wings,
seeking to ride over and PROSTATE democrats and
democratic integrity, by local hobbies and con-
cealed Notwithstanding wings to The legis-
lature-prining neutrality for wings, and
coctng and prosecuting these plans in their easy
chairs, while the true men of the State have bat
tied manfully for principle and for the perina-
nent political and commercial veal of the
State.
All democrats will oppose these wolves in
Sleeps clothing. The Des Moines Valley will
oppose them, for the very men Dubuque and Big
Sioux men ard such like) are they who are most
bitter against the improvement of the Des Moines
river. The whole State, which burlington ex
eepted) compromised upon the old routs, viii re-
slst tn, consprators who have labored to sacrifice
US. Let us stand frm, and let the neutral and
monopolist coaitionist find their level.
We cannot expect in one article to expose
this matter but we trust that we shall lead 9TH
ers to probe it to the bottom.
What then is to be done about railroads. We
answer-Aid our delegation in congress (they
will not waver) by new petitions and instruc-
tons for the old roads-leo wing it to the Legis-
IL oEcxy and