Republican vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1857, 1857-05-09

him. And as the necessities of numbers of
men compel them to live, '.from hand to
mouth, many such, with but little or no
visiele estate, may be made to pay Indirect
ly as much or more towards the State debt
than their wealthy neighbors, whose prop
erty has been, perhaps, doubled in value by
the works OF Improvement whose construc-
ton has created that very debt. Are you
willing to see such a state of things as this
brought about? Will you who are wealthy
demand the preparation of such injustice
Would you who are not wealthy submit to
itf If not, beware how you sanction pol
icy whose natural consequence it is.
But proceed, said MIR. S., to another
ground of objection. Our fathers who were
jealous of their liberties, made the Congress,
under the Confederation, dependent upon
the States for its supplies; the cupidity of
some of their descendants would reverse that
relation and -make the States dependent for
theirs on the General Government. This
thing of distribution is but another name for
the payment of the expenses of the State
governments out of the Federal Treasury.
1t is proposed now to conine the dstribu-
ton to the land fund; but innovation has a
tendency to expansion 1t is a downward
stream whose channel is ever widening as it
descends. The distinction between the
distribution of the land fund and any other
money in the federal treasury is SO thin,
that the transition from one to the other
would be both easy and natural Admit
that the expenses Of the State governments
may be paid out of the Federal treasury,
and the majority of Congress will fix the
measure of the distribution as they please,
or ,as the necessities of the States, having a
majority of representatives, may seem to re-
quire. If such States, then, are largely in
debted the scale of distribution must be
made large to meet their wants; and in
that event, the proportion falling to the
States unindebted will be much greater than
their expenditures demand. Thus they will
be subjected not only to corrupting surplus
es in their Treasures, of which we hear so
much nowadays, but their people will be
oppressed by federal taxes. only that what
is taken from them may be returned again,
diminished by the costs of collection and dis
tribution. Such are some of the evils likely
to result from violation of the Constitu-
ton. The panegyric pronounced by Lord
Coke upon the PROJECTIONS Of the Common
Law, is not less applicable to our system of
government. He says, somewhere in effect,
that such is the wisdom of the common law.
that although there were customs and max
inns, the reasons for which had been forgot
ten, yet that wherever they were departed
FROM the mischief which ensued, soon made
manifest the wisdom in which they were es-
tablished. So with our system of govern
ment; its harmony & beauty may be lost sight
of for while, but every departure, actual
or proposed, from lis true theory, serves but
to unfold its PROJECTIONS for our admiration
Our fathers intended that the necessities of
the States should be met by their own Lees-
latures, by taxes imposed upon thcirow peo-
pie, and that the federal government should
engage itself exclusively about those exter-
nal and internal concerns, which were ex-
pressly committed to its management and
keeping. Any departure from this plan
will most surely be. attended with infinite
disaster.
But not only, said Mr.. s, does this poll
cy of distribution operate injustice to indi-
siduals and une9ually as between classes,
but also, unequally among the States. The
lands now belonging to the United States
were, almost all, purchased out Of the COM
mon Treasury. Tits certainly fair to assert
that the revenues, by which they were pur-
chased, were contributed by the States in
proportion to their whole population, (the
/ fact is that the South has contributed much
more than this proportion) and yet the
proceeds of the public lands are proposed to
be distributed among the non- slaveholding
States in proportion to their whole popula-
ton, while among the slayeholdng States,
Virginia inclusive, they are proposed to be
distributed, not in proportion to their whole
population, but in proportion to thcir popu-
lation, after -deducting t'co,tfths of their
slaves. This works a most glaring and Sc
rious injustice, which he had not time now
to unfold He simply referred to i. by way
of replication to the plea, that distribution
was necessary in order to produce equality
among the States,
! But let us imagine if we can, said Mr..
S, that under the impulse of judicial
madness the public domain has been distri-
buted among the States, as now proposed.
And then let us suppose the country in
yolyed in war with powerful enemy-a
superstition the more probable, since the
rapid growth of our commercial relations
renders such casualty every day more
likely. Your coasts are blockaded by pow
erful fleets, your revenue from imports is
cut off, and you must resort to loans to the
extent of hundreds of millions to prosecute
the war with vigor Where ask will be
the basis of your public credit ? Heretofore
you have pledged your public domain But
that is gone, squandercd among the States,
and appropriated by them to petty local OBJ
jccts, while the government of the Union has
been reduced to nionthatwould disgrace
German prince, and degraded to repu-
tation for prodigality for which we find no
parallel in parable. Such will be the natu-
raj consequences of the policy of those who
claim to be ardent lovers of the Union,
and baptize themselves, as my opponent has
done, by the name of National
Your true policy (said Mr.. s. } with re-
gard to the proceeds of the public lands is.
as l have already intimated, to require that
they shall be applied towards the support of
the general government, and that the tariff
on imports shall be reduced to such stan
dard that, aided by these proceeds, it shall
furnish no more than will suffice for an eco
nonical administration of your national con-