New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1853-01-04

- ,aT,mon fun fske l. AZ AMI thea cal their sss0
i,,- thieves and robbers would be Just a. honest snd
No more u,pu5eut than j. for part OF the states TO
- cousEniiy taking the public lands, (which are the
common prupeTcy) ing any snare 20 tne otner
S,sies ard the time CT ns our alnst tacni a.
LIONEL Bentou makes the old States &c, by this bill
5sc0OnO sores az = only 2,OOOO,O scre-tL AMI he
u1skc- II worth s72oooOOO. being s-O1Vpo aooa'
S;cye---ort price And then says the grants 70 the
NV - sre an insulting cheat dcprying them Of
re- per cent ard sizkis7 ttrr laaas and railrpG5
sraris doru tcrztSrs ard giy esnts pz acre It ~
Eases the Ilce 30 far Is the lind granted 10 the old
@tstes and decreases il (amost % nO.hRz) far
yrruted 20 new Ststes What enormous and
cneOnnf1bie piece OF iniquIfy.
MY bill only takes 60OCOOo acres 20 make the states
an equai ard leaves $40 100000 acres usdspOse Of
II does not therefore interfere with the Homestead bill
or any other plan for the disposition Of the great bulk Of
the public lands, with our general land system
The whole letter is pretty nearly as good
as these extracts; but when you have knock
ed a man down, We don't approve of jumping
and stamping on him.
We rather like Old Bullion. There is
considerable good in him. in bis rough, wilful
way, and We hope there is some yet to come
out of him but his GOODNESS is suggestive of
ague. His later fulminations abound with de.
nunciations of "plsnderers," spectators"
SC, who impOrtune Congress for grants of
Public Land, or Money to build Railroads, &c,
here or there while in the next breath he
goes his full length for the Pacific Railroad, to
be built as a National work. at a cost Of some
Sixty Millions Now zee 90 for thar Railroad
as heartily as he can; but really, though modesty
is not generally deemed any more an Editorial
than Senatorial defect We could not advocate
SO magnificent project as that, and at the
same time denounce every kindred scheme as
impelled by rapacity and selfshness.
Again The Steamship Interest receives the
Colonels most unsparing maledictiOns and
we, too, believe it is drawing rather too much
money from the Treasury. This is not all
"plunder," however; our Mail Steamers have
played very important part in the rapid and
mighty development of our Pacific empire, and
in the general extension of our Trade. But
decidedly the most fragrant job ever heard Of
in the Foreign Mail line was one that Col. Ben.
ton introduced to the Senate, proposing TO give
the Panama Railroad Company $3.50, 900 syear
for carrying the L. s. Mails and Public Stores
across the Isthmus-some sixty or seventy
miles Now the Panama Railroad is a noble
enterprise-the men who devised and have very
nearly constructed it deserve not merely fair,
but generous return on their Investment,
which We trust they will receive. We trust
our Government will pay them literally for the
conveyance of Mails, &c-but not quite the
whole cost of running their Road Yet the
Colonel stood the godfather of their Mail
Contract bantling in the Senate until the
enormous disproportion betweenits age and It's
appetite caused it to be quietly elected as
monster. And now be is (erocious on all man
ner Of Foreign Mail Contracts Us corrupt aud
plundering
One word on the general subject Of Public
Lands as connected with the construction of
Railroads, whether in the Old or the New
States. We have said that We consider Mr..
Benefits much the iairest and least excep-
tionable of all the projects for converting the
Public Lands into pabuIum for Railroads and
kindred works And yet we hold the simple,
easy course of granting small tract free Of
COS, to each actual settler and denying 10 any one
the pririiege Of acquiring moro than 500 acres
at any price would do more for Internal I'm
provements than any direct devotion Of Land
Proceeds to Railroad making ever can DO.
Proclaim that every man (or woman) settling
independently on a quarter-sectiOn of Public
Lands may have 40 Cor S0) acres of il absolute
ly without charge, with ten years ia which TO
buy the balance of the quarter-section at a
dollar al acre, with legal interest, and that no
man shall henceforth be permitted to buy
Public Lands except for his own immediate
use, and then only to limited tent,--aad
We can make Railroads fast enough, East or
West There is no need of hiring or bribing
capitalists to construct Railroads where they
will pay dividends of ten TO twenty per cent.
as they niA do (at reasonable distances) through
all the Great Valley, provided il be settled aud
cultivated II is Speculation that creates the
Saharas Of monOpolized Wilderness or Prairie
which block the wheels of the rail-car and put
out the fires of the locomotive. Eiiace these
by Graduating their cause, and the West will
be iron shod with abundant rapidly; while the
East will be enabled TO double the number or
the profits of its Railroads through the i'm.
mensely extended and still extending inter-
change of products between her Artisans and
the Farmers Of the West.
DEBILITY OF CONGRESS-.
We are led 10 appreheud very great marital