Southern standard. [volume] (Columbus, Miss.) 1851-1856, 1853-04-16

euS ShAll again De SUBJECT 10 right OF pfe-empuon
for twelve months as before, and so on from time
to time, as reductions take place: Provided, That.
nothing in this act shall be so construed to in
tcrfere with any right which has or may accrue by
virtue of any act granting presumption TO actual
settlers upon public lands.
SEC. 10. Ind be 1t further enacted, That any
person applying to enter any of The aforesaid lands
under the provisions Of the eighth and ninth Sec
tions of this act shall be required to make afida-
Wit before the register or receiver of the proper
land Office that he or she enters the same for his
or her use, and for the purpose of actual set
tiement and cultivation, or for the OF an adj
loiuiu2 farm or plantation, owned or occupied by
him or herself aud together with said entry, he or
she has not acquired from the United States,
der the provisions of this act, more than three
hundred and twenty acres according to the estab-
lished surveys and if any person or persons tax
king such oath or affidavit shall swear falsely in
the premises, he or she shall be subject to all the
pains aud penalties of perjury: Propided, That
any person entitled to presumption shall be au
thorized to enter forty of the public land, to
include the dwelling house, at ten cents per acre..
Mr. President in the amendment which shall
propose have preserved the principle set forth
in General Jackson's message. lift possesses any
merit it is due to his memory, not to me- The
graduation proposed will certainly reimburse the
Treasury. l think it will rather exceed it. But it
is impossible to arrive at any certainty either as
to the amount of the expenditures or the receipts
under graduation system, such as propose
We know however, that the receipts into tina Treas
ury from the sales of the public domain amounted
to upw ards of one hundred and thirty millions
of dollars in 847 and now amounts to near one
hundred and forty millions. We know, too, that
the sales of the lands ceded by the Chickasaws.
where alone the graduation principle has been test
ed, and the price of the land reduced to twelve
nd-a-half cents per acre. has resulted in bringing
into the Treasury larger sum than the sales in
the same extent of territory anywhere else has
done. Sir, the practical operations Of the gradu-
ton system in the Chickasaw cession has often
been the subject of discussion in both ends of this
Capitol, and until the system becomes general,
and its benifcent influence is made to spread over
your whole public domain, it will continue to be
adduced as triumphant proof that it is the true
principle for the disposition of the public lands It'll
is owing to this system that the Chickasaw coun-
ties in Mississippi have become so densely popu-
lated. Thousands of men, poor, no doubt, but
happy, conented, and prosperous, are now scat
tered over those counties, whose homestead have
cost them but tVenty dollars. For that sum of
money they have been enabled to purchase one
hundred and sixty acres Of land-not rich land, it
is true-but having ten twenty of fair cul-
tivated soil, on which they are now supporting
their families Search the habitable globe, and |
defy you to find country where man is in the
enjoyment of civil and religious liberty, that opens
such facilities to your citizens for becoming free
holders as the Chickasaw counties have for many
years presented in consequence of the systsm of
graduation in the price of those lands
Sir, think my proposition has many advanta-
ges over the House bill. In the first place, it
does no injustice to any State or individual in the
United States. In the next, it does full justice to
a meritorious class of our citizens, and believe,
if the sense of those who are intended to be bene
fitted by the act were taken upon the subject,
large majority of them would prefer my amend
ment to the original bill. The bill gives to the
man who has no land one hundred and sixty acres,
while his neighbor, who by his industry may have
secured tract of forty acres, is excluded from its
benefits because he is not a landless man in the
common parlance of the day, and must pay 81 so
to increase his tract to the size of that of his
fortunate neighbor. 1t is only necessary to state
the objection for every one to see its full force
Again: the bill requires the party to reside on the
land for five consecutive years before he can be-
come entitled to his patent. This feature of the
bill is very Objectionable to many persons. While
perhaps every man who settles tract of new
land, fully expects to occupy it continuously for
FIVE years, yet is very repugnan to him to take it
clogged with such a condition He wishes to be
at liberty to sell out and settle new place. should
his location prove unhealthy or the neighborhood
not be agreeable to him, or for any other cause
that suits his fancy. He would greatly prefer pay
ing the price propose, with the privilege of sell
ling at pleasure, rather than have his land given
to him embarrassed with the restrictions of the
bill. And more especially is this true, when his
homestead can only be obtained by the oath of
insolvency. have always had an unconquerable
aversion to the insolvent debtors oath. Its gal
ling enough to the just pride of an unfortunate
to be compelled to admit his poverty to credi-
tors, and those who are yet more keenly to suffer
by it-wife and children but 1t is cruel to con-
pei or require him to go before officer of the
law and swear to it. Many proud-spirited men
who would be entitled to the provisions of this act
would refuse it on such terms.
The graduation principle was recommended by
President Polk, advocated by Mr.. Calhoun and
Mr.. Walker passed at different times by this body,
and has been sustained by such unanswerable ar
guments in this and the other branch of Congress,
to say nothing of his practical advantages where
it has been tested, that deem it useless to con-
sumo the time of the Senate in offering further
arguments of my own, or in repeating those of
others, in its support. Every Senator is aware of
the fact, that when new country is surveyed and
brought into market, every tract worth the gov
FIVE years. and the sales after that test of its value
are owing to the Improvements of the pioneer set
tier. By which an enhanced value is impaired to
the contiguous lands In vast number of instan-
ces. these contiguous lands become necessary to
enlarge the farms of the settlers for stock ranges
&C., in fact, the lands not worth, intrnscally,
the money paid for them.
In this way, and for these reasons, the Govern