Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1853-1862, 1857-07-25

he asAsa ii ans competitor would contend that
Congress has the power to raise money from the
people by taxation and distribute it between the
States? Let this question be answered by Mr. Clay.
In his speech in the Senate in 1851, he said:
'Taers is, then, repeat, pOSosr authority IN
the General Government 10 lay and collect tazeS
der to distribute the proceeds among the States. Such
a financial project, if any administration were
mad enough to adoptit would be FLAGRANT UsUR-
PATTON"
And upon another occasion, at the same session,
he said:
s'For one, however / will again repeat the decla-
ration which l made early in the session, that
unite cordially with those who condemn the sppli-
cation of any principle of distribution among the
several States surplus derived from taxa
ton"
Mr. Webster, in various speeches, distinctly an
nounced the same opinion, and Col. HattOn has ut
terly failed to produce the opinion of any one of
the great lights of either of the old parties in con-
hct with this principle.
Gen. H. said, now if you cannot take the surplus
money from the treasury and distribute IL, upon
what principle you distribute the landS9 you
cannot give away gratuitously the money, how can
you give away the lands, when under the COnstitu-
over each?
But the argument is though you cannot give
away distribute the money that you have raised by
taxation yet the moment you have converted it into
land you may give to or distribute it between the
States. To illustrate the soundness of this argu-
ment of Col Hatton, suppose yesterday you raised,
by taxation ten millions of dollars This you have
power, under the Constitution, to distribute-to
day you convert the money into land-does not the
land represent the money and is it not the same
fund that you raised yesterday by taxation? And
is the power of Congress under the clause of the
Constitution above quoted precisely the same over
the land that it is over the money! Yet, notwith-
standing all this is admitted to be true the srgu-
ment of Col. Hatton is that you distribute the
land
But, said Gen. H., let me give you the opinion of
Mr.. Webster upon this question:
"I look upon the public lands as public fund,
and that we are no more authorized to give them
away gratuitously than to give away gratuitously
the money in the treasury"
90 Now by the Constitution of the country the
TRUST, THE DISPOSITION of thepubic lands was con-
ferred Congress- and ask is it possible that any
man can maintain the proposition that as they were
placed in their hands, as belonging to the whole
people of the U. S, they could transfer the general
disposition Of heu2
1t appears to me- that they might just as well
entertain the proposition to farm out the Custom House
at Ner York certain terms.
''N Nor do know that Congress has any more au-
thority to give away the public lands, than the pro-
ceeds Of the Custom House particular stipulation;
nor they surrender the control Of IL any more than
they assign TO Others the poaOer of collecting the
eHue Of the Custom House IN Boston, elsewhere. I
see, therefore, objections sgsurmo,mtdbLe a0hetheT they
the shape of agrdtujoUs ceSsioa a trust in
either case traHscends the po,rer Of Congress-"
But, said Gen. H., my competitor says that by my
vote for the swamp land act of 1850, l committed
myself to the constitutional power of Congress to
giUe land to the States. deny that theswamp land
gave away an acre of land, but insist that was
a sale, and to the Federal Government, very prof
table sale and so general this opinion, that in
the House of Representatives, composed of go
members, there were only SO votes against the BILL
and in the Senate l find myself sustained by the
vote of Mr.. Bell.
The General Government owned millions of acres
of rich and valuable lands lying the large riv-
ers of the South and West that had been held upon
the market from twenty-five to fifty years without
being able to sell them at any price. Why were |
hey not sold when they possessed the advantages
Of being fertile productive, and near navigable |
streams? They could not be sold, for the reason |
that in their midst were lakes, marshes, and stag
nant pools, generating malaria, disease and death,
and no sane man willing to buy land and settle
himself within the scope Of the influence of null
,ance of this character. The General Government |
lad not been able and in thethen condition of those
ands never would have been able, to realize dol
ar from them 1t is clear that the Government had
he power to use portion of the lands themselves,
or any other property belonging TO the govern
nentO to make these lands habitable, snd thereby
BRING them into market, settlement and cultivation.
The swamp land act simply proposes to grant to
he States in which the swamp lands lie, such lands
IS are swamp and overfowed and rendered unfit for
cultivation upon the express condition, and for the
-sluable consideration that those Satee viii build
eyees upon the rivers to prevent the influx Of
yater upon these lands; and that they will dig
itches so as efectualy to drain and reclaim them,
md abate the nuisance, and thereby make habitable
nd saleabe the dry lands contiguous to them, and
nable the Government to turn them into gold; when
Without thus draining those swsmps and marshes,
-ou could not sell an acre of your rich and dry
ands near them at any price
Gen II. said, to illustrate the principle, suppose