Spirit of Jefferson. [volume] (Charles Town, Va. [W. Va.]) 1844-1948, 1857-05-05
good quarrelto draw emulcus factions, and bleed to

For whether the people, in their wisdom deter
mine tnat one candidate may put il into already
oioa1ea end bursting treasury, or the other may
give u 70 the railroad eompanieSit is bnt cts
q head per annum-and for such sum they part
with their lands, for them and their heirs forever
as one OF you, as unit of the thirty millions of
people. who now own this vast estate, enter my
protest against this enormous and wicked sacrifice
OF It 4 am not willing to sell my own interest and
Inas OF my children, and of postefity in the public
lands, for1o cts a head per annum. Let the IauIls
a4one-they can't run away-and they will be as
safe In our own hands as in those of s1ecuIators-
" hen our children grow pSand they grow up, If
.ney mink proper TO take their portion our wild
lands, let them go to them, let hirsshare be as
signed to them, and let them settle and cultivate
tnem; IT We hold ON to the land, ii is rich and
priceless inheritance for children If seIlit
II becomes the property of spectators, and in
hertanee for their children The inheritance of our
children gone in that case and if they ever get
par OF IT they get 1t as purchasers, and for just
MnaI the sreculator or his posterity may put it
snail be told that children, for years to come
may buy public land at Las per acre2 Vain de-
fusion! If the whole land is not absorbed, nothing
will be left but refuse lands; and for these, they
must still pay the same price, for which few spec
ulators got the pick and choice ofthose landsl
1t may be proper, here, and before proceeding to
comment ON other great evils growing directly out
of the policy of selling the pubic lands, instead Of
dividing and apportioning them to actual settlers
to give statement of the sums of money realizedN
from the sales of the public lands: l quote from
Benton's Thirty Years in the q. S. Seuate:
"The whole annual receipts from land sales NJ this
time l1oOUl are ABOUT Two nluOnS OF dollars the
annual receipts from customs, founded almost en-
trey upon the direct indirect productions of the
earth, exceed fifty millions of dollars. have look
ed into the respective amounts of federal revenue
received into the treasury from these two sources
since the establishment of the federal government /;
and find the customs TO have yielded in that time,
fraction thousand millions of dollars net
the lands to have yielded less than one hundred and
thirty millions gross not forty millions clear AFTER
paying all expenses of surveys, sales and manage
ment1 Vol. ], page l03.
= Get hall
ali was based upon the necessity of raisias fund
to nav the war debt of the revolution. And yet,
from The statemeAt just quoted, so far from paying
that debt and after they had been put to sale for
period OF sixty-three yeSFs-trom the foundation OF
the government to lS5o-oniS forty millions OF dol
lars net had been realized from tEefcI How then,
and when, was the debt of the revolution paid on
If we look to Gen. Jackson's message of Dec1 1851,
we shall find that these public lands far coded
by the States coded for the purposes of gem
eral harmony and as fund to meet the general ex-
penses of the war" Statesman's Manual, vol. p.
1877: And further, that, "as the lands may now be
for which they ceded having been accomplish
ed it in the discretion of Congress TO dispose of
them in such way as may best conduce to the quiet.
harmony and general interest of the American peo-
pie" Same page. Again, how was the debt paid
Off and who paid it2 Manifestly it was moi paid by
the sales of the public lands For in 1882 accord
ing to Mr.. Benton, the revenue arising from the
public lands has not been sufficient to meet the gen.
eral charges the treasury, which have grown out
i, p.
lands then, up to 1882, had been sacrificed TO no
purpose, and the war debt of the revolution had
been paid Off not by the lands, but by the customs
where the people pay not according TO their wealth.
as in direct taxes bnt according to their consump-
ton of dutiable articles and by numbers: The peO-
pie who owned the lands, paid off the war debt OF
the revolution with which they were charged, and
STILL under the pretext of that debt, the lands con-
tinued to be sacrificed and sold ont of the hands of
the nation, into the hands of speCulatorsI A moro
bareiaCed gratutous and wicked robbery has never
cd In hn 10 nf ~
to pay debt but to enable capitalists aud the ric
under the pretext of debt, to plunder aud appro-
pirate to themselves, and to their posterity, the
common Inheritance of the common owners: Well
might Gen Jackson say as he did in the same mes
sage, p. 1856, 1t seems to to be true policy
that the public lands shall cease, soon as practi-
cable to be source of revenue, and that they shall
be sold to settlers in limited parcels"
agree fully in the opinion that they should
"cease 10 be source of revenue" and will amend
the balance OF the opinion by saying that instead
of ling them in limited parcels" they should be
apportioned in limited parcels" to actual settlers.
To continue to sell them, when the debt is extin-
guished with which they were charged, and the rev.
enue so much above the wants OF the government,
that the surplus mnst be deposited with the States
is monstrous in the extreme. 1t is to continue to
sell the lands of nation, simply that they may be-
come the private property of few landgrabbers and
Spectators.
1t is true, that, under our forms of government
theee lands cannot be perpetuated in the families of
the few who are engrossing them. Our laws and
opinions against entails and primogeniture prevent
that But tho best lands will be absorbed By a few
persons they VII be betd cultivn
tortionate prices, the wrong or individuals, and
to the detriment of the country and besides, other
great aud threatening evils will continue 10 flow
from the sales and speculations in those lands.
The slavery agitation and all the ruin it portends
may be traced directly, to the policy of selling the
public lands. Northern capitalists-(and most of
The monied capital of the country is owned in the
North)-have become, individually, and in joint
stock companies dealing in lands, and in railroad
companies, and other interpretations largely, the
Of he hest ic1
They understand very well the value, to them of
the W hole world Hscompetng bidders and purchasers
for their investments in lands. They know that
Shareholders, requiring large tracts of land, would
not afford the same number of bidders, aud amount
of competition, arising from the non-saveholders,
foreign and domestic; and hence their hostility to
Shareholders, and desire TO exclude them from the
of their operations 1t is not love Of liberty
religion, philanthropy, but avarice, that lies
at the foundation of taid-societies and ap-
preparations by northern legislatures to the Of
Kansas, and of all their hostility southern people
Again, the pecuniary embarrassment and pressure
now grinding the old states, flow from the same
source speculation in the public lands. Is it, at
all wonderful, that, when the vast landed property
of thirty millions of people is forced into market and
put to auction, that those who possess the monies
capital CT the country should be tempted quit all
regular and legitimate occupations, and rush that
great gaming table, where the national empire is
the stake and thirty millions OF people victims
Abandon, at once, the policy of selling the public
lands and proclaim their apportionment in just and
Limited parcels" to actual settlers aud you will
dispose ofthese lands for the " common benefit" Of
the common owners restore the settlement of the
public lands to their natural progression and chan
nell and avoid all those evils that must continue to
flow from wild and reckless speculation in them.
OBSERVER
sUaun Po1ET, May ], 1857 -
The Cumberland Civilian states that
the business on the Baltimore and Ohio Rail-
road at that point, is now greater than over
heretofore. Train after train Is almost CON-