Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1853-1862, 1858-05-14
1Ftom the Philadslnbia Arpn..1
DISPOSAL OF THE PUBLIC LAND,

DISPOSAL OF THE PUBLIC LANDS.
There is an important principle that has been
long, and, in our opinion, great deal too long,
overlooked by the people Of this republic. The
principle Of mans physical relation TO the SOIL and
the right which that relationship gives him to Guilt
vate n suitable portion of that soil for living.
We may, to be sure, be mistaken; other and wiser
men have been; bus we do firmly believe that this
principle Of mans natural and neFeFto be lost right
10 use portion Of the earth sufficient for his wants
is Of practical Importance to the people at
large than any other political or social principle
that was ever brought up for their consideration
Believing atlbery has no solid basis to rest upon
but the soil believing that the best way to retain
man free and independent is to furnish his freedom
and Independent with something TO eat and drink;
and finally, believing that the people are amusing
themselves in settling the details Of government, be-
fore they have established its first, its very founda
ton principle; believing all this in cur deepest
viclions, every candid will admit that it is our
duty to bring the subject before the people.
Governor johnson, Senator from Tennessee, has
already introduced BILL Securing homes actual
settlers) which we were immeasurably delighted to
hear him say, day or two ago, he believed would
pass the United States Senate similar bill passed
the House a session two ago. This is almost too
good news be true. If Congress could be brought
pass the bill it would atone for innumerable sins
of omission and commission, of which the members
>
but for several years past. We can scarcely hope
that there is public virtue enough among our national
lawmakers to adopt measure SO eminentfy calcula
ted to confer great amount Of national hGppi-
ness and individual prosperity.
The struggle of the Revolution in 1776, says an
able writer, was, undoubtedly, the most just, and
its termination the most glorious Of any record
ed in the annals Of history; but notwithstanding all
this, there remains much to be done. While we
conquered Kings, Parliaments, and hereditary
blty, we failed to make conquests Of ourselves.
Instead of describing the maxims and customs Of
hereditary governments, land instituting ones
formed alike with the genius of our republican sys
tem,l we blindly imbibed them. Customs that have
no more to do with republican institutions than the
burning sands of the African desert with the snowy
cliffs Of Alpine mountain, we're retained. But
British precedents, British naxims, aud British
customs, establish and sustain the representative
governments on one side of the Atlantic, as they had
established and sustained hereditary monarchy on
the other Land Monopoly, Standing Armies, Char
tered Privileges, Tariffs and Banking, are much
loved maXims and customs of England. They were
born with monarcy, and only serve as an engine
to Cypress man and rob labor of its just reward
These are the plants that grow out of a corrupt
government, and, with others, have hourished to
great extent on British soil-and are this day nour
shed by the miseries, and Watered by the tears of
millions of people.
1t is unfortunate for US that the founders of our
when they framed our Constitution, and thus have
guarded against them. But instead of this being
the case the very institutions that were created and
adopted by the founders Of hereditary governments
Ito perpetuate its existence and thus rob of his
rights they blindly and credulOusly adopted into
the American system to perpetuate liberty.
The rights of man are not regarded capital has
become the basis Of egislstion-in short, money is
the god of the nation. 1t holds the uppermost seat
not only in the legislative halls but even in the very
temples dedicated to the Almighty.
Land monopoly and all the evils that arise from
it, have long since eaten out the substance, and
sucked the lfes blood from the veins of the indus
trious classes of Europe. And the very same max
inns and institutions are this day blasting the pros
poets and Gripping the energies of the ls0orng
millions of America Land monopoly is the founda-
ton, the chief cornerstone, the head and front of
the miseries that have afflicted mankind since the
formation of our social system. 1t is only by de-
prving individual Of his right to the earth that
you make him dependent on these other institutions
for employment. Laws must then be passed to in
corporate this and that branch of mandatory, and
tariff levied for its protection at the expense of
the rest of the community.
Give every man his fair share of Gods own green
earth, that He has made and given to the whole hui
man family, and he will then be in situation that
he needs no protection-and in doing this you des-
troy paupersm, dethrone speculation, and cut down
at once the great tree of Oppression-and in doing
maXims and customs, as founded on oppression, for
Democratic measures, as founded on Republican
Liberty, and the laws Of equal rights. We have
history to prove the effects of English laws, and
English maTims, the laboring population of that
country for the last two hundred years. and little or
nothing is found there but misery increasing yearly
until at last it has become intOerable Look at the
appalling condition Of the laboring classes in that
country.
Two millions of human beings came to their death
there by famine in one year, few years ago
think of 1t The present population Of one of our
large States would just fill up the vacancy. This
certainly caps the climRx-iE is the greatest des-
truction Of human life recorded in the annals of
history. Aye, it is ten times worse than the wars
Of the Persians, who, in their expeditions into
Greece, only lost two hundred thousand men. It is
twenty-five times the number that were DESTROYED in
the bloody battle between Hannibal and Emillus,
that was fought at Apulis which place the former
slew forty thousand Romans. The most bloody
battle recorded in the pages Of history, the great
battle Of ChslOns, at which place one hundred and
sixty thousand human beings slain, sinks into
insigni6cance when compared with this number
tOo millions Of people! More than was slain by the
Crusaders in their hundred years war, which has
BEEN termed the bloody century. 1t is useless to
cite the fields Of Waterloo or our Revolution or the
war Of 1872, or the with Mexico, for when they
are all summed up together they make but drop
compared with the awful destruction Of human life
that Land Monopoly and British customs have pro-
duced in Europe within one year.
The Queen in her speech to Parliament that year
said 1.-THE great competition for the occupancy of
land has been the fruitful source of all the misery
that has afflicted the Irish people," England got
her laws from the Roman Land Pirates and Amer
leans copied theirs from England. English instiu-
tons and maXims will produce disastrous effects
in America as Roman laws and customs have, and
are, this day, producing in England. We must
abolish British maxims and British customs or they
will ere long abolish American liberty.