The Richmond palladium. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1855-1875, 1860-03-22

as you cheaper the necessarles ard comforts
OF life. or increase mems means to pay for
them, you increase their consumption; and
IN the same proportion rs you increase the
means to pay for imports, YOU increase the
consumption OF home products and manufac-
lures. that the settlement of the wilderness
by thriving population. is rs much the in
terest of the old States "a the new. The
amount now received by the Government of
the settler for the land. would enable him
to furnish himself with the necessary stock
and implements TO commence its cultivation.
For the purposes Of education. building
railroads. opening all the avenues Of trade.
and of subduing the wilderness, the best dis
position to be made of these lands is to grant
them in limited quantities to the settler. and
thus secure him in his earnings, By which he
would have the means to surround hi self
with comfort and make his hreside happy:
TO erect the school house, the church, aud all
the other ornaments of a higher civilization.
and rear his children educated and respected
members of society. This policy will not
only add to the revenues of the General Gov
ernment and the taxable property of the new
States. but will increase the productive in
dustry of the whole country, while strength
enlng all the elements of national greatness.
The first step in the decline of empires is
the neglect of their agricultural interest. and
with its decay crumbles national power. Il
is the great fact stamped on all the ruins that
strew the pathway of civilization. When the
worlds unwritten history shall be correctly
deeiphered, the record of the rise, progress
aud fall of empires will be but the history OF
the rise, development, and decline of asricul-
ture. Hooke, in describing the condition of
agriculture among the Romans more than two
thousand years ago, the process OF absorp-
ton of the lands by the rich, and their con
sequent cultivation by slaves. furnishes the
student OF history with the secret causes that
undermined the empire aud destroyed lis lib
critics | read from book six chapter seven
of his History of Rome, volume two. page
o2e:
From the earliest time of Rome. il had
been the custom Of the Romans. when they
subdued any of the nations in Haiy. to de-
prive the m Of a part Of :heir territory.
portion Of these lands was sold, and the res.
given to the poorer citizens: on conditions,
says ipp,a., of their paying annually
tenth of the corn AMI fifth of the fruits OF
trees, besides a certain number of great and
small cattle. In process of time. the rich,
by various means, got possession of the lands
destined for the subsistence of the poor"
The rich and the mighty contrived to
possess themselves of the lands of their poor
neighbors. At first they held these acquisi-
tons under borrowed names; afterwards open
ly in their owa. To cultivate the farms they
employed foreign slaves; SO that Italy was
in danger of losing its inhabitants of free
condition, (who had no encouragement to
marry. no means to educate children,) and
-, Ill IL L..
that had neither affection for the Republic
nor interest in her preservation.
! "itbertus Gracious. now Tribune OF
the people. undertook to remedy these disor-
Never, says Piutarch. was proposed a law
more mild and gentle against ,niqnity and op-
preston; yet the rich made a mighty clamor
! about the hardship of being stript Of their
houses. their lands, their inheritances. the bu-
rial places of their ancestors"
1.-The poor. on the
other hand. complained of the extreme indi-
gence to which they were reduced, and of
their inability TO bring up children. They
enumerated the many battles where they had
fought in defense Of the Republic; notwith-
standing which they were allowed no share
in the public lands. nay. the usurpers. to cul-
| tivate them. chose rather to employ foreign
ers and slaves than citizens Of Rome.' Grac-
chus's view was not to make poor men rich.
but to strengthen the Republic. by an in
crease Of useful members, upon which he
thought the safety aud welfare Of hdly de-
pended. The insurrection and war of the
slaves in Sicily. who were not yet quelled,
furnished him with sufficient argument for
expatiating upon the danger of filling ha!y
with slaves
He asked the rich whether they preferred
a slave to a citizen; a man unqualified 10 war
TO soldier alien to q member of the Re-
public; and which they thought would be
more Jealous for its interest? Then. as to the
misery of the poor: The wild beasts Of IL
ally have caves and ders to shelter them; but
the people who expose their lives for the de.
Tense of Italy. are allowed nothing but the
| light and air; they wander up and down with
their wives and children, without house and
without habitation. Oar generals mock the
soldiers; when. in battle. they exhor, them
TO ght for their sepulchres an their house
hold gods; for. amongst all that great mum
/ Der of Romans there is not one who has moi
either a domestic altar, or a sepulcher Of hi.
ancestors. They 6ght and die, solely tc
maintain the riches and luxury Of others
and are styled the lords Of the universe. while
they have not a single foot Of land in theii
possession.
Smith in his second volume. page x9i, ol
his Greek and Roman Biographical Diction
ary. speaking of Tiberius Gracious. and the
reasons for the proposed legi-lation. says:
His brother Caus related, in some ot
his works, that Tiberius, on his march &c
Spain. in { B. CO. 1877. as he was passing
through Etruria, observed with grief and in
diynaion the deserted state of that fertile
country; thousands of foreign slaves in
chains were employed in culiivating the
land and tending the focks upon the immense
estates of the wealthy. while the poorer clas.
of Roman citizens, who were thus ihrowr
out of employment, had scarcely their daily
bread. or clod Of earth TO call their own
He is said TO have been reused by this cir
cums,ance to exert himself 10 endeavoring tc
remedy this evil
Had the policy advocated by Gracchus. o
L A.