Daily Nashville patriot. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1857-1858, 1857-06-23

TUESDAY, JUNE ss. 1857.
"The Public Domain = Old and New
UAeags,


takes to define the difference between the
doctrines held by Mr.. Clay and the Wing
party, upon this subject, and the measures
by the American party. Tue
Bulletin, after defining the position of the
former, says that Mr.. HArroN, in his
speech at that place, "took ground for d.
riding out the whole of this magnificent in
heritance among the States, and for thus
discharging the Federal Government from
the trust confded to it." Now, without
at all distressing the sincerity of that pa
per, we think it Inexperienced the posi-
ton of Mr.. HArroN. The measure pro-
posed in the last Congress by Mr.. BELL,
contemplated that the States should all be
made equal in the disposition of the pub
lie lands, under the same policy which had
heretofore been practiced. The sales of
the. lands had been checked, and instead
of being sold, and their proceeds going into
the treasury, they had been giUeu away to
some of the new States. Thus violating
the trust under which it is admitted the
general Government holds those lands,
and giving an undue and unequal share to
part of the States to the exclusion of
others. In order to rectify this inequality,
and to execute the purposes Of the trust,
Mr. BELL introduced his measure; and it
is for this only that the American party
contend. 1t differs from the original wing
policy, it is true, but the difference is made
imperative by the altered circumstances Of
the case. Those States which have receiv-
ed land donations, have also received their
proportion of the proceeds of the public
lands, in the general expenditure; and
have thus obtained an undue advantage in
the enjoyment Of fund which was intend
! ed for the common use and benefit"
Now, suppose Mr.. Clay were alive, and
again urging his distribution policy upon
the country, it is hardly to be conceived
that be would make it the means of iDjus-
tice, by continuing an inequality which has
grown up in such huge proportions since
he presented his scheme. He would more
likely, if we appreciate properly his great
craftsmanship and his admiration for true
republicansm, equal laws and equal rights,
under this altered state of the case, stay
his hand towards those States which have
been the recipients of the land bounty, I'M
til those which have been heretofore ne
elected were made equal with them After
this, his scheme could be Justly and pro-
perly executed. We have contended, and
we thirk we have represented the position
of our party correctly, that this is CON-
mon fund in which all the States have an
equal proportional interest; that some of
the States have had adrancements out of it,
aud before any division or distribution,
these advancements should be equalized
among all the States. Our measure pre-
ccdes any general act of distributions"
and in all our discussions of this subject,
we have as much as possible avoided the
the use of the word distribution" substi-
tuting the word Disposition as being better
suited to convey the true idea. We have
said, that when this equalization shall have
been accomplished we can adopt such pol
icy as may then seem best; either to dis
tribute the proceeds, or the lands them.
selves, or to pursue any other course, but
that this is an after consideration.
We think therefore that the Bulletin has
misconceived the position of the American
party and its candidate for Governor. 1t
says, that Mr. HArToN ESTIMATED that by
this policy, (Which he was advocatng)
Tennessee would come into possession of
thirty millions of acres, which she could sell, +"
&c. This shows that Mr.. HATroN was not
advocating the "diridiag out the 10hoLe of
this magnificent inheritance" as stated by our
contemporary. In such case Tennessee
would be entitled to nearly sirty millions of
acres. If all the States were made equal
to Iowa, taking as a basis, the popular
representation in Congress, Tennessee
would get forty-tkree and half millions
acres; and after this had been done with all
the States, there would still remain to the
General Government, about taco hundred
millions of acres of the public domain. Ac-
cording to Mr.. HArToN's claim Of thirty
millions to Tennessee, nearly one half the
public lands would still remain to the
federal government Thus il is plain that
Mr.. HATToN was not contending for an en-
tire parceling ont of the lands among the
States; but was advocating the doctrine of
equalization as we have stated it, and not
even claiming for his own State as much
as she would be actually entitled to under
the principle, for which he was contend
ing
If our friend Of the Bulletin will take
upon himself the trouble to make the cal
culations, he will find that our figures are
substantially correct. We had the pleas
ure of hearing Mr.. HArroS upon this SUBJ
ject, at Fayetteville, and we understood
him TO take the ground, which we have
stated, and which the American party gen.
orally have adopted and held. We have
thus called the attention of the Bulletin to
the misapprehension, with full confidence
that occupying an Independent position in
politics, it eau and will correct the error
into which it has inadvertently fallen. We
do not know that the Bulletin will concur
with US in the justice and expediency, nay,