The Conservative. (M'connelsville, Ohio) 1866-1871, 1870-04-22

IOn StioGId give n forty aero lot
nan jus: the sBme right toget forty
acres that is gwen To the one huns
ared and sixty acre-lOt man to get
one hundred and sixty acres; aid
30 with the eighty acre lOs man.
Therefore l consider it of the great
est Importance, if we arc to lequ re
the lands to be sold To actual sot-
tiers, that we shall give them the
absolute right 10 compel this cons
pany to ioll them in tracts of either
forty eighty, or one hundred and
sixty acres. Otherwise the COM
pahy may keep any man from buy.
ing q forty-acre lot whenever in
its whIm, It's caprice, or It's interest
it sees fit to do so:
The fourth condition IS:
All SAID lands for salo to act i
settlers ms aforesaid. that shall not
be 50 sold by said company within
fifteen years from tho passage Of
this joint resolution shall revert 20
the United States.
This provISor is absolutely noccs
sary in order to enforce tue other
provisions. 1t will not do to leave
these lands in the hands of this
company all ndefnente ptr'oG of
time, even if you provide that they
shall be sOldto actual settlers. You
must fix some time when, if they
shall not have been thus sold. those
unsnld shall revert 10 tho Unite |
States [ think fifteen years Is a
liberal period; l should say quite
liberal; perhaps too liberal; but
[ am willing that they shall have
tie sale, and if they Ee not sold in
that time then they ehsll not 10
held by the company, but shall res
vert to the United States.
SOMETHING FOR TIP PEOPLE TO coysIDEE.
Later in the day, during the discns-
sion of the grant, Senator Thurman
was drawn INTO the debate, and exposed
in still more convincing language the
lavish hprodigality of government do
nations to these great railroad corpo-
rations. lie said:
l wish that every senator had before
him a map of the United States with
a broad belt dawn upon it one hun
dred and twenty miles wide, which
his resolution proposes shall be the
monopoly of this company-a breadth
of one hundred and twenty miles. in
which this company is to have forty
sections to the mi e, and out of which
it is to keep out every other railroad
company, and to keep out the actual
settlers of the country, for more than
two thousand miles across the country
Think of o belt one hundred and TWEEN
ty miles wide and reaching two thou
sand miles in extent, sufficient .ofitself
to make twenty states and more than
twenty states of the size of some Of the
states of the Union. That is Il e on
Opoly which this railroad company IS
20 have; and yet, when that is the case,
when such a grant as no government
in the world ever made to a private
corporation is pending, and when the
whole upshot Of the business is that
this government is t o bui'd the road,
to equip the road, to pay enough TO
build it and pay enough to equip 1t,
and then turn il over as a gracious gift
to a private corporation, to be the ZION
opoly of that corporation when that
is the case, this measure is to be urged
through the senate without even a
word said in its favor by those who
ought to furnish the information, if it
exists, that would justify the passage
of any such act,
| say, Mr.. President this is a strarg
kind OF proceeding 1t is a strange
thing that such a a as this, such
a monopoly rs is to be created by the
proposed legislation, should come be
fore this senate without evena report
from u committee, without II single
fact officially stated or automatically
stated which justiies the Senate in pas
sing the resolution atal.
4 = There is nothing done by
this company on toe faith Of our act
except a paper organization. And now
the senate is aPpea ed to, as if it was
The most m~eritorious thing we could
do, to go in the dark and enlarge the
privileges of this corporation. 1t
seems to me hat with some gentlemen
their hopes of salvation rest upon their
generosity to rrilroad corp r%ations, and
that to give the lands Of the people to
railroad corporations is a more charita
bic than to feed the poor, to relieve
the suffering, Or even to perform our
duties to our Maker himself. \ y
Now, Mr.. Presii lent, l wish that the
amendment l offered, if it be defective,
as well it may be, shall be amended;
but / wish that it may be considered
We are now at the outset of this bust
ness-no, not at the very outset, but st
a point where a new departure is about
to be taken. Do senators knOA that
there are pending in the senate and
house of representatives, before the
two bodies or committees of the two
bodies, railroad schemes that appropri-
ate over four hundred million acres of
the public domain-more land than
was in the original thirteen states.
And these schemes are to depressed,
n after another, before the senate.
Now we are to decide the question what
shall be u policy in the future. Shall
these grants be such as they have been
heretofore without limitation, with
out restriction, without one single
shield of protection, TIN own around
the settlers and the people of the cour-
try; or shall we say if we do give these