Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1868-02-12
.yia$tatysmHt'
RmNGARK0 OF
Hon. VIM. Mungen,
On Soathern Land Grants.

The 6llesing skseIIent ken mintss'
~ ecI llade5y Hon. w. MuNGEN,
in 5hsFe dsRl 30 81 Of Representatives,
ka6f6Ary a., % the bills in relation to-
Southern Land Grants:
Mr.. MUNGEN. Mr.. Speaker, the
bill under consideration. is one Of vast
Importance to the people of this country
as q 41sstion of lfihciPle, and in its bear
ings very important upon our material
interests and future destiny. This bill,
so carefully gotten up, is but the enter
ing wedge to general confscation of the
lands of Southern men, 1t is not the
few acres of land remaining unsold or
|undisposed of in the grants to those
Southern States which the gentlemen on
the other side of the House care for, but
.it is the ,precedept which the. passage of
'thls Win wilp estAblish under 4l{s peeious
pretext of Glands for the landless and
homes for the homeless" that is sought
for. This bill once passed, the way is.
clear for general distribution of the es-
tates of the South among the "loyal y
men, the smeri and brothers," the !" in
telligent contrabands, of that portion
of our country. 81
Why, sir. to have listened to the pic
ture drawn by the honorable gentleman
from Pennsylvanis Mr.. sKELLEYlhereto-
fore in regard to the loyal negroes of the
South who own. not a square inch of
!" Sod Is footstool," was enough to cause
a man of tender sensibilities to sell all
that he has and give it to the poor yes,
to cause him to turn his own wife and
children out on the cold charities of the
world and give deeds for his property in
fee simple to the negroes in Dixie.
How many of the ygentleman's con-
stituents in the city Of Philadelphia own
any portion of .God's footstool," as he
terms it? How many of them own land
enough to bury them? How many thou
sands of them are crammed into tene-
ment houses andS other, perhaps, more
miserable hovels2 How many of them
are naked and cold and hungry and dy-
ing of starvation even now2
Mr.. KELLEY. Will the, gentleman
permit me to answer those questionsl
Mr.. MUNGEN. 1t is not worth
while. The gentleman does not know
how many, and he would not be able to
answer.
Ar.gKELLEY. aInvthe city of Phila-
dxlphia, with its eight hundred thou
sand people, there is not tenement
house
Mr.. MUNGEN. I have but ten min
utes. and cannot yield.
s9Mf. KElLEY. sThe gentleman should
not not ask me Questions if he does not wish
to have them answered.
Mr.. MUNGEN-The gentleman has
no care, no thought, no word for those
near home. 4tis said that distance lends
encbahtment to- the view and perhaps
the hundreds of miles intervening be-
tween this Capitol and the city of Mobile
casts halo of beauty and glory over the
spires and turrets of that city which the
gentleman failed to discover or, discover
ing, failed to appreciate when he was
there some time since. Why not pass:a
bill making the State Of Pennsylvania
tgive back to Congress the immepse sums
4 VoHgress has a ZEN her BY way Of tariffs
and Pfotsctfon On herslabor and capital
in order that the "landless and homeless
poor of that State may be provided for
When the iron mongers of that State
raise their periodical howl for an increas.
ed tariff we will have chapter on the
woes and miseries of workmen out of EN-.
ployment, furnaces standing idle, and all
the concomitantsr belonging to such af
fairs. The cry win then be, like that Of
the horse-leech and other things spoken
of in the Scriptures, give give! give
But the "homeless and landless will
not be the recipients. It will be the
wealthy capitalist. 1T will not be the
white laborer Of that State, who has toll
ed all his life for mere subsistence. lfol
enough to keep body and soul together
who will reap the benefits.
This argument of gentlemen who ia
vor the PASSAGE oftbe bill that it il
to open up the lands to actual settle
ment has been fully met by others.
will only say that if there were n,
other public lands on which to settle til,
argument might amount to something
| We find by the statement of the Com
missioner of the General Land Ofic.
that, exclusive Of the lands sought to b.
confscated,if 4 may use thsstsrm. ther,
Hara some thirty-seven million five hun
I drsd aild5 twenty odd acres of Govern
ment land. There is nothing in our pre-
emption laws forbidding negroes an,
more than whites from settling on thos
lands. The assertion made that thi
public land is mostly worthless is mer
nonsense. When the gentleman frou
Pennsylvania Mr.. Kelley. was usin,
some such argument yesterday he wa
in9sprpted by the gentleman fror
Maine, Mr.. Blaine, and he thereupo
struck off in strains very denunciator
of Florida; calling it the great Amer
can Desert of Sahara or sandbap
or something to that effect, an
} gave US quite an amount of info
nation about clay and sand, &c
which, for thes' agricultural ointerest
of the country, I am glad to see in th
Globe of a few days ago. When, b
his courtesy, L was permitted to as
him question touching the unkindne,
and barbarity of General Howard, WI
had proposed, as, the head Of the Free,
thshs .Bdlesu, @ give hands and shom.
q to the freedmen who would settle thereo
in Florida, the honorable gentlema
said that General Howard had not pr
posed to settle them on the poor land
E but on lands about St. Augustine ar
other choice parts of that State. S
much the worse for his argumeu
Every one who has ever been at S
RI Augustine viii admit that there is q I
more healthy place nor better and mo-
|. delightful climate to be found on Il