Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1867-04-03
confiscation ofsouthern Public Lands.

Confscation of Southern Public Lands.
The Philadelphia North american, which
now appears as the most rabid advocate for
confscation, says:
However Republicans may disagree res
Meeting Mr.. Stevens's Confscation Bill, there
Is one point in it upon which they ought all
20 be able 70 agree We allude to the first
section. wherein it is provided that the lands
of ten Rebelious States shall be confiscated.
This ia matter that has hitherto escaped the
a,tcntion of all public men except Mr.. Ste
yeps. and we doubt not that many who read
his speech will feel surprised that no one has
anticipated him in this capital method OF
making the Gulf States pay US to some ex-
tent for the injuries they inflicted upon us
durine the 4r. In the case of Texas. to
which he calls especial attention, there should
be no delay whatever in aVailing ourselves OF
the Opportunity to condscate the remainder
of that public domain which she reserved to
herself at the time Of her annexation as a
guarantee for the payment of her debt-that
very debt that was subsequently forced upon
II, as national burden by the compromise
of 1850.
"Ofal the States concerned in the late
rebellion, Texa; escaped with the least punish
mcnt. All the attempts made 10 carry the
war into her Territory proved aboftiYe, and
ihe long aud desperate struggles in the South
west were mainly sustained upon resources
derived from her. The contraband trade WIFI
Europe through Mexico wrs carried on oy
bcr. The droyes of beeves upon which the
rebel armies fed were furnished BY her. And
81 the close of the war, after all the rebe! ar
m;cs elsewhere had surrendered, the Texas
rebellion was still intact. These people, haT-
ing felt little or nothing Of the horrors OF the
wor. have remained incorrigibly disloyal and
defiant, and although we have all recognized
that some punishment ought to be used to
hiring them to their senses, none that was
Gs,sible could be thought of.
at was asserted by those who profess 70
know. that Texas has proRted BY the war to
ench an extent that her population is now
double what it was in the year 1860. Thith-
er have gone the very worst rebels from other
States. snd especially from Missouri, Tennes'
zee and Arkansas"
1.-The State had large loyal population
when the war broke out. especially among
tho Germans of Western Texas, but fright
rnl reign of terror was established to crush
out Unionisu, and numberiess patriotic cltl-
zens fell victims to it"
at would, therefore, be nothing more than
ripbt that we should punish this State for
her treason by coniscating her public lands,
and the more so, because then these lanas
would be opened to actual settlers frce OF cost
nnder the operations Of the homestead law,
rb;,b cannot otherwise be the case. BY the
snnnlement to that law, enacted by tue late
Congress all the public lands owned by the
National Government in the Gulf States were
tbroWn open to actual settlers under the Act:
Il is now proper to resume possession OF all
lands held by the rebel States, in order TO
extend to eli such the same provisions, SO
i!,at we may encourage the increase OF that
independent class of small landholders winch
has been made the crying need OF the arlS-
tocracy-ridden South. g
..Mr. Stevens estimates the amount OF
lands Tint will fail into the hands OF the Ma
tional Government by this provision at two
hundred millions of acres, an item decidedly
worth considering in these times, and sufi-
c;ent to enable US to create great element
in the South aDtagonistic to- the plantation
aristocracy. We cannot refrain from express
inr our regret that this first section OF the
nendinq Bill cannot be made into separate
Act, and passed at once upopits own merits" :"