Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1853-1862, 1857-07-18
LETTER FROM HON. aEo. v. ZONES.

pleasure and general approval and without Wishing
to be understood as Hattering,I think YOU make =
good paper the best out Of Nashville in all this part
The distribution Of the lands among the States.
regard as unconstitutional and utterly Impractical.
Bile Congress has no power 90 authorize one State
10 control and dispose Of lands in another State aud
no state In the Union would submit for a moment
to the exercise Of sovereign and Legislative powers
| within her jurisdiction, by another State This
mode Is absurd and has never been proposed or ed.
Vocated by any person In or out Of Congress that
am aware of until thepresent canvass in Tennessee
The proposition that Congress shall cause scripo
warrants 20 be issued for the public lands and divide
the scrip warrants among the States giving Ten
nessee her share go 600 900 of acres is equally abb
surd and more destructive Of this rich national in.
herisnce. By such policyit Is estimated that some
twelve hundred millions of OF the public lands
would be put Ia ma Il il the fol m of this ,rip By
the States and Territories, each anxious to realize
the money for its share, oil would enter the market
the scrip would go down to nominal price, be
bought up by capitalists Of this country and Europe,
who would locate and hold the lands until settlers
and cultivators should want them and then these
very lands, which now belong to The whole people,
would be sold to the pioneer settler at exorbitant
| prices, and neither the General or State Govern
ments would have any power to regulate or control
| the price or SALE And thus the only men who give
them value by cultivation, extorted upon by the
capitalists, and no one else benefited. No works of
| Internal improvement would be made no school
| houses built or schools supported, no public debts
paid taxes abolished, but the public impov
and the favor few the rich capitalists made richer
h The other proposition is to distribute the proceeds
II of the sales Of the public lands among the States
Hand Territories according to their Senators and
u Representatives in Congress. This | regard as
4 equally unconstitutional with both of the preceding
prop, sitions. Even the great men aul leaders of
/ the Wing party with Henry Clay at their head de-
4 MED the power of Congress to impose and collect
II laws for fha Ofd iStPihufion ha
States or for any other than the legitimate purpose
recognized and authorized by the Constitution The
United States have two modes of getting money into
the Treasury, the by the taxing power, the 9TH
by the sale of the public lands. 1t matters not
L how money gets into the Treasury, whether from
the or the other there the Constitu-
ton knows difference in it, but it is all the money
l of the United States in the Treasury. One of the
painest, simplest, and clear provisions of the Con-
stitutiOn of the United States is that no money
shall be draon from The Treasury except to meet dppro-
| priahonS made By lar" Now is the giving away of
the money a distribution OF it among the States,
such an appropriation as is authorized by the
Constitution? Most clearly not. For if you can
distribute from the Treasury, the money received
for public lands, you with equal authority dis
! tribute the revenue for taxes.
The question of distribution was of the issues
between the Democratic and Wing parties of this
country. As a Wing measure it well defined
and understood. The contest for the Presidency in
1910 resulted in the complete success of the Wing
| party They elected o President and decided ma
ority of both branches of Congress- The first extra
session of the 9th Congress convened in pursuance
| of the Presidents proclamation. One of the prom
inent acts passed at that session of Congress was
&c an act to appropriate the proceeds Of the public
ands and to grant presumption rights" approved
September 4, 1871, which provides in substance, that
there shall first be paid to the several land States
ten per of the amount received for lands sold in
the States respectively in which the lands loca
ted, in addition to the fire per cent allowed such
| States under existing laws. Then after deducting
from the gross amount received from the sale of the
public lands, the ten per cent allowed by that to
the land States and the per cenGdue to the same
| States, and also after ded ,ctng from the gross
amount received for the lands sold in any one year
the salaries and expenses of the General Land Office
| of the Surveyor Generals Office the Surveyors OF
the public lanIs, salaries of Registers and Receiv-
| ers, being the cost and expenses of managing and
disposing of the public lands and the proceeds
Of the sales of the public lands for the year. thus
| certaned, should be distributed among the then
twenty-six States the District of Columbia and the
three Territories, according their respective fed
| eral representative population.
| This was a measure of wise and patriotic
statesmen, and they carefully guarded it, and to
certain extent at least, secured the people against
increase of taxes, to enable the United States
| dispense with the land money. The Tariff had fer
years almost monopozed the attention OF statesmen
and the people, and at one time well nigh brought
| the Union to the brink of ruin. The agitation had
| been Gained, and the dire calamity of dIsunion
| averted by the passage of what was known as the
Compromise Tariff of 1885, advocated alike by MIR
/ Clay and Mr.. Calhoun, the champions of antagOnis
| tic interests. By that act the high and onerous
duties imposed by former Tariffs were to be reduced
at specified periods until 1892 from and after which
| date no Tariff duty on goods imported into the
country should be higher or greater than tCeHy per
ad UGLoTerE, that is, the tax paid for bringing
goods into the United States, should not be more
than trey dollars upon every hundred dollars worth
| of goods imported or brought into the country
The taxes were to be reduced to that standard in
1892 The act for the distribution of the nett pro-
ceeds of the public lands was passed September 4,
1872 and wisely provides, That if any time du
ring the existence of this act, there shall be i'm
position of duties on Imports inconsistent with the
provisions of the act of 1885, entitled mod
ify the act of the 18th OF July, 1889, entitled
to modify the act of the l4h of July, 1882 and
all other acts imposing duties on imports and be-
| yond the rate OF duty fixed by that act, to wit
twenty per cent on the value of such imports, or
any of them then the distribution provided in this
act shall be suspended and shall continue until
the cause of its suspension shall be removed and
when removed, if not prevented by other provisions
of this act, such distribution shall be resumed"
believe that under the provisions Of that act the dis
trbutiOn of the nett proceeds from the land sales
were made for one year, and if mistake not Ten
nessee received her share about St1 $40, which
may be seen reported by the state Comptroller to
the last Legislature. Not sufficient, present pr
ces, to buy iron enough of the best quality, for
mile of Railroad But, why distribution
thus provided, suspended? For the very
good aud sufficient reason, that, the Both day OF
August, 1872, the very same Congress, the same
party, thevery who passed that distribution ac
passed q new Tariff act which did impose duties on
imports inconsistent with the Compromise Tariff of
1888, by increasing the duties imports far above
and beyond the rate of duty oftwenty per cent up
on the value Of such imports. So by the voIes OF
the authors, advocates and friends of the distrbu
ton policy in 184l, the policy suspended in
1912. and has continued from that to the present
time 1t is, however, still the law, and whenever
the duties imports shall be so reduced that none
will be higher than twenty per cent, upon the value
of such imports, this distribution will be resumed
and go on unless there shall be other prevent
ing condition or unless Congress shall otherwise pro-
vide. Will the present advocates of distribution in
Tennessee cordially support such reduction of the
Tariff taxes as that referred to in the of 1871.
This distribution act of l84l, suspended by its /
friends in 1912, ceased TO be issue between the
parties and has been regarded an obsolete ques-
tion until the last session of Congress, when it
introduced in the Senate of the United States and
also into the House of Representatives with the
expectation even hope of its passage, but, more