Washington sentinel. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1853-1855, 1854-09-14

hands Of spectators, to that precise extent
will the regular sales by the government be
diminished in the long run. BY no human
device can you sell more lands in the long run
than are necessary mean a long period of
time, not in this year or in the next year, but
in, say fifteen or twenty years-no more land
can be sold than is necessary to supply the de-
mand for occupation and cultivation and that
depends upon the increase of population And
il, by any stimulant, you drive the purchaser
into any one particular locality, by that inexo.
rable law to which ! have referred will you
withdraw an equal amount of sales from some
other locality.
therefore say that all these statements that
are made here with so much plausibility, that
by such and such course you will increase
the sales of the public lands, are utterly falla-
cious than which nothing can be more falla-
cious; and, but for the high respect which I
entertain for some of those making them, l
should be compelled to say that they were
downright charlatanry. AS far as the dispo-
siton of the public lands is concerned, / be-
heve that the whole purpose of the Virginia
delegation and the whole southern delegation
in Congress has been to preserve them for the
purposes for which they are held in trust. ii
any body can show a single instance in which
thCJ hdfC HOL UctIl ulopOoCu VI W Iulul Ludt
trust faithfully, desire that it shall be men
toned. The very reproach Of the gentleman
from Ohio, that we have been very liberal
on some occasions where it is very certain we
had no personal interest, vindicates us. He
has reproached us for voting to surrender the
useless swamp lands, not only useless to u.s.
but injurious to the States in which they lie
lie could not have produced an instance that
would have gone more completely to vindicate
the truthfulness and integrity with which we
have acted on this question; for what interest
could we have had but to do our duty as trus.
tees?
The gentleman from Ohio, in referring to
the case of Illinois, said that Illinois was pros
trate; that her credit was gone; that she was
on the eve Of reputation; but that we by oul
muni6cent grants to her, had raised up hel
credit, had put her upon her feet, and had ena
bled her to look the world in the face, so faI
as her credit was concerned. Has it come tc
this, sir, that the States of this Union are to
come here to this government to ask for sue
cor? Are we to be the great almoner of the
States2 If there be anything in this govern
ment in which / take pride, it is the indie
pendence of the States
Mr.. CAMPBELL, Gnterrupting.) l desire
the gentleman to quote me correctly. l said
further, that the general government had lost
nothing; and went on to prove, by the repor,
of the Commissioner of the General Land OF
fee, that the sales had been largely increased
and the government had not lost, and would
not lose, a dollar.
Mr.. BAYLY. have already answered thai
point, think, although not in detail. But
do say that whenever the States of this Union
shall turn their eyes to this government as the
source from which their relief from pecuniary
embarrassment is to come, or to look to this
government for any other protection than grows
out of our foreign relations the relations Of the
parties will be changed and the government
practically subverted.