Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1860-04-12


the interest ON two hundred dollars equal six per
cent, to twelve dollars per year .
But as the revenue of the General Government
with the exception of the sales of the ands) is de-
rived almost wholly from duties on imported art-
cles consumed in the country, the amount collect
cd depends upon the quantity consumed. On an
average, cacr individual consumes OF imported ar
tcles about eleven dollars worth per year; and call
ing seven the average number OF family, then
each family consume annually seventy-five dollars
worth of imported articles, upon which a duty OF
not le s thon twenty dollars was paid.
So the Government would be the g,iner Of eight
dollars per year each quarter section, by giving
ii away to settler in preference to selling 1t with
out settlement In addition, you cheaper the
icessaries and comforts Of life, or increase mems
means to pay for them, you increase their con-
sumpton and in the same proportion as you IN
crease the pay for them, you increase their
consumption of home products and manufactures;
so that the settlement Of the wilderness by thri-
wing population is as much the interest Of the old
States as of the new. The amount now received
by the Government of the settler, for the land,
would enable him TO furnish himself with the ne
cessary stock and Implements to commence Its cul-
tivaton.
For the purposes Of education building railroads,
opening all the avenues Of trade, and Of subdung the
Wilderness the best disposition to be made OF these
lands is to grant them in limited quantities to the
he would have the means to surround himself with
comfort and make his tircsidc happy; to erect the
school house, the church, and all the ornaments OF
a higher civilization, and his children educa-
ted and respected members ofsociety. This policy
will not only add to the revenues OF the General
Government and the taxable property OF the new
States, but will increase the productive industry
and commerce of the whole country, while strength
cnng 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 all the ruins that strew the the path
way of civilization. When the worlds unwritten
history shall be correctly deciphcrcd the record OF
the rise, progress and fall of empires will be but
the history of the rise, development, and decline
of agriculture. Hooke, in describing the condi-
ton of agriculture among the Romans more than
two thousand years ago. the process OF absorption
Of the lands by the rich, and their consequent culti
vation by slaves, furnishes the student OF history
with the secret causes that undermined the empire
and destroyed its liberties. read from book six,
chapter seven, of his History of Rome, volume two
page 500:
"From the earliest times Of Rome, it had been
the custom of the Romans, when they subducd any
of the nations in ITALY, to deprive them of part OF
their territory. portion of these lands was sod,
and the rest given to the poorer ctizens on condi
tions, says Appan of their paying annually tenth
Il
sides 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 themselvesof lands ofheir
poor neighbors. At first they held these acquisi-
tions under borrowed names; afterwards openly IN
their own. To cultivate the farms, they employed
foreign slaves; that Haly was in danger of To-
sing its inhabitants of free condition, (who had no
encouragement to marry no means to educate chill
drcn,) and being ovcrrun with slaves and barbara
ans, that had neither affection for the Republic nor
interest in her preservation.
| 'IYberims Gracious, now Tribune of the peo
pie. undertook to remedy these disorders"
"Ncver, says Plufarch, was proposed law more
mild and gentle against iniquity and oppression;
yet the rich made great clamor about the hard
ship of being strp Of their houses their lands, their
nhcrtances, the burial places of their ancestors"
= "The poor, on the other hand, complained
of the extreme iudgencc to which they were re.
duced, and of their ability to bring up children.
They enumerated the many battles they had fought
in defence Of the Republic, notwithstanding which,
''they we're allowed no share of the public lands;
nav the usurpers, to cultivate them, choose rather
| to employ foreigners and slaves than citizens of
Rome. Gracchus'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 and welfare OF fialy depcnded. The in
surrection and war ofsaves in Sicily who were not
quclled, furnished him with sufficient argument for
cSpatiating on the danger Of filling Italy with
slayeso
"He asked the rich whether they preferred a
| slave to a citizen; man unqualified to serve in
war to soldier; an alien member of the Repub-
lie; and which they thought would be more jealous
for its Interest," Then, as to the misery of the
poor: "The wild beasts Of Italy have and dens
| to shelter them; but the people, who expose their
lives for the defence 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 Our generals mock the SOL
dcrs when, i'm battle, they exhort them fight for
their sepuchres and household gols; for, amongst
all that great number of Romans, there is not one
wto has either domestic altar scpuichre oi
his ancestors. They fight and die solely to main
tain the riches and luxury of Others; and styled
the lords of the universe, while they have no. a
single foot of ground in their possession"
Smith, in the second volume, page 29l, of his
Greek and Roman Biographical Dictionary, speak
ing of Tbcrius Gracious. and the reasons for his
proposed legislation, says:
"IIis brother Caius related, In some of his works
that Tiberus, on his march to Spain, in (B c. 1877
as he was passing through Etrura, observed with
grief and indignation the deserted state OF that fer
tile country, thousands of foreign slaves in chains
were employed in cultivating the land and tending
the hocks upon the immense estates Of the wealthy,
while the poorer class of Roman citizens, who were
thus thrown out Of employment, had scarcely their
daily bread, or a cod of earth to call their own.-
He is said TO have been reused through that circum
stance to exert himselfn endeavoring to remedy
this evil"
Had the policy advocated by Gracious, Of dis
tributing the public lands among the handles. ti-
zens of the nation been adopted, the Roaan fields
would have been cultivated by free men instead of
slaves, and there would have been a race ofmcn to
stay the ravages Of the barbarian. The Eternal
CITY would not then have fallen easy prey to the
Goth ard the Vandal; but the star Of her empire
might have waved in triumph long after the ivy
twned her broken columns.
! With homes and fresides to defend, the arms and
hearts of an independent yeomanry are a surer and
more impregnabe defence than battlement, wall,
| or tower. While the population of country are
/ the propretors of the land which they till, they
| have am interest to surround their fresides with
comfort, and make their homes happy-the great
incentive to industry, frugaty and sobriety. 1t is
| such habits alone that give security to Govern
ment, and form the real elements Of national great
ness and power.
| National disasters arc not the growth of day,
but the fruit flong years of injustice and wrong.
The seeds planted by false, perncious legislation,
often require ages TO germinate and ripen into
harvest of ruin and death. The most pcrnicious of
all the baleful seeds of national existence is poll
cy that degrades its labor. Whenever agricultural
| labor becomes dishonorable, it will, of course be
confined to those who have no interest in the soil
they till; and when the laborer ceases to have any
interest in the land he catvaes, he ceases to have
a stake in the advancement and good order of So
ciety for he has nothing to lose nothing to Defend
horo ho <,<xvx.