Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1857-10-19
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SPEECH OF
HON. N. r. BANKS,
FANEUIL HALL, BOSTON,
Thursday Evening", Oct. 15th, 1857.


the measures and incidents connected with
the administration of your government in
the last four, five or six years. There are
others, and / refer to them only because thew
are more or less identified with our present
condition, and because, in one form or another,
they fill the mind of every man here and
everywhere throughout the land. Among
these is the new policy adopted in regard to
the disposition of the public lands
You hear much said in these times of
panic with regard to the consequences of the
land grants by the last Congress TO States and
Territories for the purpose of developing the
Railway interests OF the western portions of
our country. Of that policy, OF its wisdom,
or its want of wisdom, | have nothing to say,
but speak of it in another view, showing its
origin and its effect, and leading us to a right
conclusion as to the principles upon which it
has been established, and as to the effect it
has had upon the industrial interests of the
country.
The disposition Of the public lands has
been a serious question for many years.
Chiefly upon the Atlantic coast and in the
older States, they advocated an equal divis-
ion between the new States and the old.
But that plan failed. The policy most re-
Gently advocated since the explosion of the
distribution plan, has been that of granting
the States in which they were, for the pur-
pose of drainage and defraying the expenses
of internal Improvements. BY the statutes
of lS4S, 49, 80, there have been donated to
five States, 3l,000,000 acres of swamp lands,
some of them the best lands of the South
western States, at this time. Of these 81
100000, 22,000,0O0 have been given to
South western Slave States and 5000, 900
only to the North western Frees That
is all 1t has no political significance except
as showing which way the wind blows, and
which way the lands are going. daughter
and applause.)
Then there was another principle with re-
gard to the swamp lands introduced into the
history of this country, which was that of
land grants to railroad companies for the pur-
pose of enabling them to build their roads,
and thus increase the value of the other lands
of the United States, and develop the mate
rial resources of that section of the country,
This policy began in September 1904 lit.
tie while after the passage of the Compromise
Measures Of 1850. Six or eight millions of
acres were granted up to 1858, the whole of
which with one single exception, was given
to the South western slave land States. To
Illinois, Alabama, Arkansas, Missouri and
Mississippi the whole of these six or eight
millions OF land grants were made up to the
year 1853.
For what purposes 1t has not only an
| economical significance, as showing which
way the lands were going, but it has politi-
cal significance as well. The grant of a mil.
lion Of acres to the ambitious and schemine
men of new State, was an appeal to them
to sustain the policy of the administration.
The compromise measures had been adopted
as the policy of the administration in 1850,
and after those meas ures had been established
the land grant system to railway companies
was devised, and for the purpose, as think
may be safely said, OF sitting the conscience
of the people in regard to this great question
of the interference of slave labor with free
labor.
The policy did not originate in the North.
1t came from different quarter. But l do
not charge upon any party the responsibility
of these grants. The truth is, that the prinei-
pie once established; no party and no public
man could refuse to grant to other States the
same advantage that had been granted to the
Southwestern States, in this particular This
policy, in this way, became general. The
distinguished statesman, who is now Govern
or of Kanzas, stated in 1854, in Washington,
that he himself had satisfied Mr. Calhoun OF
the propriety of these land grants for railway
purposes.
What his policy has been. and is, you I'M
derstand perfectly WELL and it is an indisput-
able fact, that when he went to Kanzas as
Governor of that Territory, the first thing he
did was to suggest the feasibility of large
land grants by the government, to establish
monster railroad companies, as an offset for
the disturbances of that territory upon the
question of slavery. Wherever this policy
has been adopted and carried out, it has had
the effect, more or less distinctly or generally,
cf silencing and sitting the conseiences of the
people Of the States, in regard to the policy of
the administration, in regard to free labor and
slave labor
OF this policy, as have said before, of the
principle of the policy itself, L have nothing
to say and no objection TO make l only speak
of its origin--of its character--of its effect
and call the attention of the people of this
country to its political influence in this regard.
go a step further-I will speak of the ex-
penditures of the country. A great deal is
said in our time of the extravaganza of the
psople- Of the extravaganza of institutions
Of communities and States. l speak of the
extravaganza of the general government.
The general governmant is, or should be,
power. 1t represents thirty millions of PEG.
pie. In its way and for its time, it is des-
potic power. 1t moulds the customs of COM
gives form and character to public opinion, it
controls the press. and it has crowds and
troops of followers wherever it goes. And
against the policy to which 1t directs its in
Auence, seen and unseen, it is almost impos-
sible to array successfully individuals.
Now in regard to the expenditures Of the
government, l have to say that they have a
material and direct effect upon the character
Of the people, as well as upon the character
of the government. If remember correctly,
the average expenses Of the administration
for each of the four years preceding lS52,was
less than fifty millions of dollars. The aver
age expenditures for the four years last past
was S72, 900, 900. In some years it has rang
ed as high as $4,000, 600. Now this expen-
dlture in time of peace is wholly unwar-
ranted, and it proceeds from one cause, and
from one cause alone. In these three years,
when the expenditures have ranged from six
ty-four to seyenty-fve millions annuity, the
country has been rent with discussions on the
slave question and when man in congress
or out of congress stakes his individual or DO.
litical existence upon an affirmative or neg
alive vote on the question of slavery, he has
no power to make an issue with the adminis-
tration upon question of expenditure or
economy.
The government, the people, and the coun.
try, have been blind. deaf, and dead in these
four years to all considerations Of expendi-
lures OF economy; and it is thus that our ex.
penditures have reached the enormous amount
of $40, 7S, and $75,OOO,O 600 a year, in the
heat Of a discussion on this Nebraska matter
- L - -. Is