Washington sentinel. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1853-1855, 1854-08-04

| drawal, all sales Of lands have been stopped !;
| the lumberman must either shut down his gates
and discharge his workmen, or go upon the
public lands for his logs; and if he does the
latter, your timber agent seizes the fruit
of his enterprise and toll. have now
in my hands letter desiring me to apply
] to your office for permission to purchase
| some of these very reserved lands, which
| the applicant needs to keep his mills running.
| And this man is not only man Of limited
means, but an actual settler. Will you per-
NIT him to purchase Who knows better than
| yourself, if you do not wifully shut your lips,
that before an acre Of agricultural land was
sold on the upper Mississippi river, thousands
upon thousands of pine lands had been en-
tered, and an immense lumber trade had grown
up in spite of the blighting policy of the gov
ernDent in attempting 10 cripple that import
ant branch of industry. These pine lands were
purchased by men of limited means, and bona
fde settlers; and their enterprise has opened
the country to the agriculturist until hardly a
portion of the Union affords more striking
example of the prosperity of both the producer
and consumer than there is found throughout
almost the whole of northern Wisconsin. Will
you say, sir, that this would have been so if the
lands there had been withheld from market, so
that none could been purchased or occupied
except by presumption, or would there have
been the rotting of crops on the stalks which
you speak Of?
Much is said about land monopoly, and land
spectators, by persons whose only knowledge
on the subject is theory. There may be cases
in which the interests Of a particular locality
may be detrimentally effected by reason of
large quantities Of land being held by specula.
tors but my. observation has convinced me
tbot ftoa md
temporary that sooner or later spectators
make the least out of their investment, and
that it is far better for the State that the lands
be owned by individuals than by the United
States, for in the one case the land is taxed
for the support of the State government, while
in the latter case it yields neither produce or
taxes.
Does it not strike you even as little singu-
lar, that so great change can come over your
opinions on this subject, when you look at the
report furnished by you to the Secretary of the
Interior in December last? You there say :
in Arkansas the lands along the supposed
route of the road, for which grant was made
by the act of February 8, 1850, were withdrawn
from market for six months, but no progress
has yet been made in this adjustment of the
grant, for the reason that the route of that
road has not been determined. Application
was made by the governor of Arkansas to con-
tinue this reservation to December, 1854, when
the legislature would meet. This, however, it
was thought could not be done, Uith due re-
gard to the settlement Of the lands and the IN
terests Of the government" You did reserve
this land until March, 1854 with a condition
which the law secured-and which you could
notvary or change--that it should not "interfere
10Th the rights of actual settlers" Here, you
did not see fit to restrict the sale to those per-
sons whom you could not deny the right of pur
chasing under presumption claims, but you per-
mitted all actual settlers to purchase. If"spec-
ulators would enter all of them of any value"
= if kept open to entry" and there would be
none left for the construction Of the road" as
you say in your letter, why was it not for the
interest Of the government" observing "a due
regard for the rights of actual settlers" to con-
tinue the withdrawal, as asked for by the Gov
ernor of Arkansas? Were you not as good and
as ardent a friend of the west then as now, or
is your zeal new born one? But perhaps you
were not sincere in the opinions then expressed;
perhaps you pretended only to think so to con-
form to the views of your "sensitirely tastidi-
ous" superior; for he says in his annual report,
that the true policy is TO bring the lands into
market, and By all legitimate means dispose Of
them as speedily as possible; justice TO those
,cho hare been induced TO settle IN the aep States
and Territories, and the interests of the govern
ment alike demand it." "Bring them into
market" "dispose Of them as speedily as pos
sible, nssays the Secretary Of the Interior in his
annual report "a due regard to the settlement
of the lands and the interests of this govern
ment demand it." responds the accommodating
Commissioner Of the Land Office, when no out
side pressure bore upon them. But now new
light has dawned upon your benighte1 vision,
and one is sensitively fastidious," when the
rights of his own State are involved; and be.
hold the commissioner steps in to relieve his
qualmishness, and suddenly becomes "friend
to the west;" and he withdraws from sale
three millions and a half acres of land in Wis.
consin at the solicitation of members from out
of the State, for the construction Of railroads,
the bills for which have not yet been intro
duced.
have little else to say. Having protested
to you against the withdrawal Of the lands, ]
did, before / addressed you the communication,
propose bill, which is now in the hands Of
one Of the committees Of the House Of Repre-.
sentatives, providing against the repetition Of
an act so arbitrary and so palpably against the
law.
You appear to affect great indifference to
the signature" Of gentlemen, members Of
Congress, and yet you have seen the time when
they were not only thought Of importance, but
Solicited" with avidity. And permit me to
say that, SO long as you content yourself with
attending to the discharge of the legitimate du.
ties Of your office, you will succeed far better
in pleasing your true friends than in turning
the panegyrist or monitor of any man.
In conclusion, l repeat, you have Withdrawn
from sale certain lands in my district. Against
this withdrawal | protest, as being unlawful,
unnecessary, and impolitic, and, in the name
Of my constituents, demand that the order of
withdrawal may be rescinded.
Respectfully, your obedient servant,