The Kansas herald of freedom. [volume] (Wakarusa, Kan. Territory) 1854-1860, 1857-06-06
LAWRENCE, KANSAS, SATURDAY, JUNE 6, 1857.

who may seek in this country to improve their
condition and enjoy the blessings of civil and
religious liberty.
Our American railroads, now exceeding
| twenty-f0ur thousand miles completed,
have greatly advanced the power, pros
perity and progress of the country, while
linking it together in bonds of ever in
creasing commerce and intercourse, and
tending by these results to soften or ex-
tinguish sectional passions and prejudice,
and thus perpetuate the Union of the
States. This system, it is clearly the in
terest of the whole country, shall progress
until the States west of the Mississippi
shall he, like those east of that river, in-
tersected by network of railroads, un-
til the whole, at various points, shall reach
the shores of the Pacific.
The policy of such grants by Con-
gress is now clearly established, and
whatever doubts may have prevailed in
the minds of few persons as to the con-
stitutionality of such grants, when based
only upon the transfer of portion of the
public domain, in the language of the
President, g for the improvement Of the re-
m,ainder," vet when they are made, as
now proposed in the ordinance a6compa-
ing our Constitution, in consideration OF
our relinquishing the right to tax the pub
lie lands, such grants become, in fact,
sales for ample equivalents, and their
constitutionality is placed beyond all doubt
or controversy. For this reason, also, and
in order that these grants may he made
for ample equivalents, and upon grounds
of clear, constitutional authority, it is
most wise that they should be included in
our ordinance, and take effect by compact
when the State is admitted into the Union,
If my will could have prevailed, as re-
CARDS the public lands, as indicated in nv
public career, and especially in the bill
presented by me, as Chairman of the
Committee of Public Lands, to the Sen
ate of the United States, which passed
that body, but failed in the House, would
authorize no sales of these lands except
for settlement and cultivation, reserving
not merely pre-emption, but home
stead OF quarter section of land in favor
Of every actual settler, whether coming
from other States or emigrating from Eu-
rope. Great and populous States would
| thus rapidly be added to the cOnfederacv,
until we should soon have one unbroken
| line of States from the Atlantic to the
Pacific, giving immense additional power
and security to the Union, and facilitating
intercourse between all its parts. This
would be alike beneficial to the old and
to the new States. To the working men
of the old States, as well as of the new,
it would be of incalculable advantage
not merely by afOrding them a home in
the West, but by maintaining the wages
of labor, by enabling the working classes
to emigrate and become eultivators of the
soil, when the rewards of dailytoil should
sink below a fair remuneration. Every new
State, besides, adds to the customers OF
the old States, consuming their mannfac-
lures, employing their merchants, giving
business to their vessels and canals, their
railroads and cities, and powerful i'm
pulse to their industry and prosperity
! Indeed, it is the growth of the mighty
West which has added, more than all 9TH
| or causes combined, to the power and
prosperity of the whole country; while al
the same time, through the channels oi
Z
ing up immense cities in the Eastern, At
/ lantic and Middle States, and replenishing
the Federal Treasury with large payments
from the settlers upon the public lands
rendered of real value only by their labor
and thus, from increased exports, bring
ing back augmented imports. and soor
I largely increasing the revenue of the Gov
ernment from that source also.
Without asking anything new from
/ Congress, if Kansas can receive, on com.
ing into the Union, all the usual grants
and use them judiciously, she can no
only speedily cover herself with net.
work of railroads, but, by devoting all tn,
rest to purposes of education, she would
soon have complete system of Common
Schools, with Normal Schools, free Acad
emies, and great University, in all o
which tuition should be free to all on
people. In that University the mechani
arts, with model workshops, and all tn
sciences should be taught, and especial,
agriculture in connection with mode
farm.
i Although YOU ask nothing more in you
ordinance than has been already grantet
to the other new States; yet in view of tn
sacrifice of life and property incurred b,
J the people of Kansas, in establishing her
the great principles of State and popula
sovereignty, and thus perpetuating tn
Union, Congress doubtless will regard wit
!, indulgent favor the new State of kansa:
and will welcome her into the Union wit
: joyful congratulations and most libera
, policy as to the public domain.
/ The full benefit of that great measure
the graduation and reduction of the pric
of the public lands in favor only of set
! tiers and eIlltivators, so often urged b
me in the Senate and in the Treasur
: department, and finally adopted by Cor
: gress, should also be secured in our ordi
, nance. Having witnessed in new State
z the deep injury inflicted upon them b
e large bodies of their most fertile land be
, ing monopolized by spectators, L sus
D gest, in accordance with the public po
: lev, ever advocated by me, that our entil
r land tax, under the Constitution, for tf
e next twenty wears should be confined e1
clusively to unoccupied land-whetht
e owned bv residents or non-residents-.
n one of the best means of guarding asain
a monopoly of our choice lands by spccl
e lators. / desire, in fact, to see our Coz
yention exercise the whole constitution
: power of State, to guard our rights an
e interests, and especially to protect the Sc
h tiers and cnlivators against the monopo
J, of our public domain by spectators.
As regards the school lands of the nc
= States, the following views win be four
: in my reports of the Sth of Decembe
e 1S47, and 9Th of December, 184S, as Sc
I retary of the Treasury of the Unite
d! States
l. "fhe recommendation contained in my last /
Is port for the establishment of ports of entry
: Oregon, and the extension there of our reyen
: laws is again Eespec ifaiiy presented to the co
/. sideration Of Congress, together With denatio
of farms TO settlers and euisrautS. and the era
J, of quarter OF q section in the centre Of eve
n quarter of township. wAich would bring {
!, school house within point aos exceeding m
3 and a half in distance from the most remote i
habitant of such quarter township"
n And AGAIN.
: s.My last report recommended the grant Of o
io seetienof land fof school. IN eyesa quarter so
nf ship IN OregOn: NO1sress,
- = some extent, adopted this Recommendation,
a. granting two school sections lE each toEnsh
= sTlsteed of one for education in Oregon but il
= the grant Is still Inadequate IN amount, VIII
- la.a