The Cass County Republican. [volume] (Dowagiac, Mich.) 18??-1880, 1858-08-19

The Swamp Land Fizzle.
The public sale is now through.
Some l &, 900 acres have been sold, and
about $40, 900 realized. Commissioner
Treadwen viii visit different places
to accommodate pre-emptors after their
lands have been offered to spectators.
As'yet not enough money has been OBJ
tanned to pay expenses. The way the
printing Job was managed is fair
specimen of the whole thing. The law
provides that the list of lands to be
sold. shall be published,in every county
where q paperfhas been published six
months. Treadwell hires Hosmer and
Fitch to print enough for all the papers !;
then he agrees with publishers to take
them and send them round as supple
ments to their papers, giving them for
it sum certain, and as much more as
the board of Auditors will allow. Then
the publishers deposit them in various
places, and ask their subscribers to go
and get them. This farce is called adj
vertising the Swamp lands. Publish
ers who partake of this sop enjoy beati-
fic visions in which Treadwell APP
pears to them as good genius dispens-
ing riches. The sale comes off. Not
an acre in Cass county is sold because
the advertisement has never been sent
out. The Board may not pay for such
advertising, and then Treadwell will
become great old scamp. About
that time the slavocrats who gave us
the land will be thought worthy of no.
tice.
! The above, which we copy from the
Cassapolis Democrat, will show the
means resorted to by the slaveocratic
press for the manufacture of political
capital. The principal defect in the
above paragraph is its entire want of
truth. So far as regards the first state
ment in the extract which says, g some
10000 acres have been sold, and about
$4,000 realized" the editor cannot
plead ignorance, as the same No. of
the Democrat contains a letter from
Mr.. Treadwell, which states, that since
the passage of the Swamp Land Act,
over Is, 900 acres have been sold, and
that during the eight days sale at
Lansing, 24,93s $4,000 acres were sold,
amounting to the sum of S3l ,515.39
of which S24,312.39 has been paid
into the treasury. The next statement
which says that not enough money has
been obtained to pay expenses is equal
ly devoid of truth, as the figures quoted
above will plainly show. The total
appropriation made by the Legislature
for advertising these lands was $l5, 700
only some 81, 900 of which has been
expended, which taken from the amount
paid into the treasury from the days
sale even, will leave quite nice little
sum, as balance. $3.50
Again, the De,aQeset states ttb that
g . frreadwell hires Hosmer & Fitch to
print" &c. Now, in the first place
that statement is simply absurd. The
editor is well aware that there is not a
country paper in the State that could
set up the lists alone, and comply with
the requirements Of the law in its dis
tribution, except at an actual pecuniary
loss. In the next place, instead of Mr.
Treadwell's hiring it done, the publish
ers throughout the State employed
Messrs. Hosmer & Fitch to do the work
which was but mere business transac
ton between themselves private
matter with which Mr.. Treadwell hat
nothing to do, and which we opine i
none of the Democrats business.
The charge that the supplements il
this county were not distributed, SC ia
as this paper is concerned, is who'll.
untrue. We sent them to every sub
scriber in the county, paying thereby
at the rate of $500 per hundred) ant
to every County Treasurer in the State
for four successive weeks, prepaid
which can be proved if necessary.
But we do not deem it necessary t.
say more in reply to charge so utterl.
void of truth as is contained in the
article quoted. The slaveocrats. have
resorted to every means within then
power to prevent carrying out thu
intent of this act, and to prevent, i
possible, the sale of these lands. II
their door can be laid the charge O
being the cause of not more of these
lands being sold during the eight day.
sale at Lansing. The Grand Rapids
Enquirer started the yarn thatoan ~,
junction had been served on the Com
missioner before the sale, and that thu
sale would not take place as advertised
i This statement was heralded over thu
State by its locofoco contemporaries
when they knew it was false, and the.
allowed it to 60 uncontroverted, so tina
the honest farmers who depended upol
! their County paper for such news, ano
who only take one of these dirty loco
Al L II. .>f 10