Kansas weekly herald., 1854-09-29
The Right Of Pre-esn,ssaoss.

The Right Of Pre- -easslsza0ss. =
1t has since 1S4I been the practice of the
Federal Government to grant to actual set
tiers upon the public lands the privilege of
buying at the minimum government price
the places occupied and improved by them,
not exceeding one hundred and sixty
acres. This policy4 has been regarded
as matter of justice to the settler and of
profit to the government. The men who
are in the van of civilization, who take
their lives in their hands and foregoF' the
comforts of civilized life, who have the reso-
luton to dare danger and death, to fare hard
and endure the thousand privations incident
to frontier life are their country's benelac-
tors and richly deserve at the hands Of their
Government a free gift of the homes they
select. These men prepare the way for the
| population Of territories and states, they Gre
ate the settlements from which those COM
ing after them must draw their supplies and
rear up the fabric of civil government for
the security of the great mass of future oc-
cupants Of the soil. They must cut out
roads and build bridges; they must create in
the midst Of the severest hardships and pri-
vationsa thousand appliances without which
the great mass of mankind cannot subsist.
All this while they are laboring to make the
public domain merchantable commodity
When they have accomplished their task,
the great tide of immigration begins, then
government land is rapidly taken up and
the treasury receives interest a thousand
fold for the poor pittance conceded to the
pioneer. Can any government be so blind
to its own interest and so dead to every
prompting of Justice as to prefer the land
shark and speculator to such a purchaser !?
Is it the policy of our government to favor
the accumulation of large bodies of the pub
lie domain into the hands of single individ-
uals to lie unimproved for years until its
value shall be increased tenfold by the la
bors, public and private, Of actual settlers?
Yet, such has been and still is to some ex-
tent the tendency Of Federal Legislation. Is
it strange that in sech contingency fragrant
injustice Oh the one hand should be met by
stern defiance and open resistance on the
other? We would not be understood as
counselling force on the part of the settlers,
but would caution our law-givers to take
counsel of their own knowledge of human
nature and to deal justly by class of men
who have often and patiently suffered
wrong. The greatest injury the Federal
Government can infict upon a young Ter
ritory is to deprive its people of the right Of
pre-emption. The wrong is in the ratio of
the amount and desirableness of the lands
over which such disability is extended. 1t
is but a poor display Of justice to grant pre-
emptions on the remote outskirts and infe-
rior lands Of a territory and reserve the
most accessible and choicest portion for. the
speculator and the savage. 1t is the object
of every Territory to become State as soon
as its population will warrant its admission
into the confederacy. AS the boy is impa-
uent Ol pateT1ldl IeSlIdlnl dllu lo1SS loi tIie
hour when he can assume the franchises |
and responsibilities of manhood, SO the Ter
ritory is eager to take its place as a Sover-
eign State without question from any quar-
ter of the propricty and legitimacy of its
action. AS the youth needs all his energies
in the contest of life, SO the other will re-
quire all its resouces to support a govern
ment, to foster education and to construct
public works. These it cannot have
if the pa rent government in its infan-
cy fosters land speculation, and establish
curse the permanent abode of the
red man.