The States and Union. [volume] (Ashland, Ohio) 1868-1872, 1870-05-18

The grant makes Il belt of one hun
drcd and twenty miles wide by over
thousand five huu,lre,l miles
long. This is supposed the company
to content itself with Il point Of diver
gcncc, say five or six hurdre,l cat of
its terminus; surprising it TO refrain
fro l. shifting that point still further
IT, the cast, and of course giving to
itself that much moIe land. Now
what is twenty-five hundred miles
long by il hundred and twenty miles
wide? 1t is 4 tract of country con
tanning three hundred thousand square
miles. In all New England there are
not sixty thousand square miles, and
this belt oG country, five times rs cx
tensivc wraps up IL future which may
well be, in its moral aspects, at least
Is great as that of New England, and
which in all its material aspects,
must he very far superior. 1t is one
halflarger than the collected area
o: the great states of New York,
Pennsylvania, Virginia and North
Carolina. 1t exceeds by sixty thou
sand square miles the entire territory
of Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois
an Wisconsin. Senators who favor
this bill nave sail m lch to us about
railroads. OF course they are devrl-
opening the country. Nobody here de
mics that. Nebo ly here or elsewhere
is opposed to them. But suppose for
the lastiifty years TINT great north
western tcrrit Try hal b,en wrapped
up in VI railroad Company, surrcn-
dcrc to railroads by broad belts of
Ian | crossing it in every direction
AMI covering nearly all it's lands,
what wonll have been the result? II
the railroads hive made the country
rich AL p%opuiols, as is said, it has
been by their competition, not by
their having anywhere Il m ,no2o!y
over Il vast district.
TIE POLICY OF TIE LAST LAND
GRANTS.
Tho policy Of vcsting the public
lands i'll great bodies in priva c cor
poralipnS, which has bccr very often
thrown il our faces as the "policy
of the country" took its rise in 1850
bltit owes its present enormous de-
vclopment to the last eight years.
As so developed it is not the Ameri-
policy in ~reftrcnc, to public Ian Is
established an | adm niSterul for
SO many yclrs before 1879. That
poicy, rs su:tiinad and advocated by
II greatest men. WAS generally and
with no s%eripIs change before 1850
4 policy WAS loo!ic.l to v%esting the
lands in the ownership of the indivil-
uaI citizens in Quantities limited to
his wants. 1t WAS Il wise policy and
Il grand one, and It's wis lom and
grandeur have been signal!y vindira,
&c | by its results. Nearly century
ago that wonle full nun, 1E'lmunl
Bmke, OF whom his c~oIntryman,
might have slid more truly
than he said of Chatham, that "lh"'
of his mind WAS in!initc'-look-
ing above the mi>tS ST the crror and
ignorance of his time INTO the far flu
turc, pointed out the principle after
applied in our land system us the true
one for England in reference to her
lands. lie secuted the ilca OF
selling them TO the highest bidder, or
in any way of treating them as Il
source of from salcs. lie
WAS for granting them TO the people
fast ~ they could take item, and
upon their own terms with all his
great power he illustrated the insig-
nilirance of revenue from sales COM
pared with the immense material re
to say nothing of the great
moral forces certain to accrue to Il
country from Il large, independent pop
%ulation Of frceho!dcrs. His leading
idea was that aftcrwarI applied to our
land system anil maintained anil de-
velopcd by orr statesmen, especially
those Of the west, And when l
speak Of the west | do not forget that
and illu>trious statesman of the cast
became il the maturity Of his powers,
whatever they may have previously
been, one of the firmcst friends of the
I speak now of Mr.. Web
ster, Il c'eIr and honorable name in
our annals. In the good cause Of
the public lands open TO the
under all circumstances he
went rs far as any N has gone on
our side of this chamber. In Il speech
L well remember, although l
now state when and where it
was delivered, he spoke earnestly in
favor of granting the publ C lands
rs free homestcads. He referred tn
The argument Of those who contend
ed that this policy was bad faith to
those who held warrants and scrip is
sued by the government. Mr.. Web
stcr utterly repealed that idea and de-
his object always to be to pre-,
rent speculations in the public lands.
This was on the just and clear ground
he imprcgnablc ground, that all per
SONS who take such securities hold
hem with Il full understanding that
the power Of the United States is pie
narrower the subject, and that the faith
IF the United States Is pledged to
nothing except to The execution of its
for the best interests of the
people. Such, sir, was the
great trust Of our public land system
organized in our laws, administered
y Jul SO'SlhlilcIi', ulNN SuSt'tlllco ny
our greatest and best men for so many
years.
What right, senators, have you to
put that trust upon any others
Have you any right, least of all, to
Indicate it i'll favor Of railroad corpora
ions, which you know will reverse the
and system of the country and will be
controlled in their dealings with their
.ands by their notions of their own in
.erests without the slightest regard to
he interests of your people?-Not only
10 you know that, but you refuse. us