The workingman's advocate. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1864-1877, 1871-04-08

archical principles of the Old World
The original Northern Pacific railroad
bill alone granted iorty-seven million acres.
The supplementary act Of last session IN
creased the grant eleven millions, making
total Of fifty eight million acres granted 10
one great corporation and, as If to demon
stratc the complete subserviency OF both
branches Of Congress to the wishes of this
company, every proposition looking to the
rights Of pioneer settlers, or In any way
restrictive Of the powers Of the corporation,
was successfully voted down by strong ma
jOrities. Even the right of other roads to
connect with this line was impudentlytde-
MED And this nefarious policy seems now
only fairly launched. The Senate at its
last session passed, in all, twenty Immigrant
bills, calling for the enormous aggregate OF
over one hundred and sixteen million acres,
according to careful estimates made by the
Commits ,oner Of the General Land Office.
Two Of these bills only have gone through
the House, covering more than fifty-nine
million acres. There are yet pending in
the Senate some thirty-seven bills, calling
for the further quantity Of over one hundred
and ninetet million acres and some of
these measures exhibit an audacity Of reck-
,sness 50 marvellous and a contempt for the
rights Of the people 30 surprising, that
find il difficult to credit the legislative rec
ord Among them is bill TO encourage
the establishment Of line Of steamships
for the conveyance of our mails to European
ports and ports of India and China, and
for promoting immigration from Europe to
the Southern States Ii calls for more than
nineteen million acres, for which land script
is TO be issued to tie different States named
III the bill in certain specified proportions !;
and fourteen million acres of the amount
granted are TO be gobblcd UP in the land
States OF the South from the unsold public
lands Of that section, which have been 50
wisely dedicated to homestead settlement
only BY the landless poor, white and col
ored
A twin brother of this project, and mir
acle Of legislative impudence, has been in
troduced in this body at the present session.
The corporation which It creates is at once
chartered ocean carri er and chartered
land proprietor The huge monopoly thus
aAhaugurated, while destroying individual
commercial enterprise under the false pre-
tense Of re establishing American commerce,
you'd seize indefinite millions Of acres of
selected pubic lands in different sections Of
the country, and hold them back from set
Element in aid Of it, own greedy purposes.
The entire list Of land grant bills pending
in this House is not nearly so formidable
as that OF the Senate, nor have | ascertain
ed how much land they would require but
i would probably be safe to estimate that
the bills yet pending il both Houses, if en-
acted into laws, would absorb fully one
hundred aud fifty million acres. If we re-
member that our eutre public domain, out
SIDE OF ALASKA, is only about one thousand
million acres, 1t will not he difficult to see,
il the tigsres | have gwen, tile extent Of
the conspiracy to rob the Voor of this and
coming generations of their rightful nheri-
lance in the public domain, aud to crush
and subju-atc the producing and laboring
masses through the power of organized
capital, The hope Of the country is in the
popular branch Of Congress for the Sen
ate, judged hy it, action at the last session.
seems entirely beyond the reach Of the PEG,
pie.
Sir, this whole policy should be abandon
Cd absolutely or, if continued under any
circumstances, it should he confined to works
Of clearly national character and importance,
connecting important distant points, and
passing over thinly region Of
country and the lands appropriated should
not pass into the hands Of any corporation,
but be sold and conveyed directly to actual
settlers, 10 limited quantities, and at such
moderate pIice as to bring them within the
reach Of those who actually need them for
homes. Nothing short of such restrictions
can prevent the establishment of landed
arisiocracy in our midst worse even than
that of the Russian and Hungarian mobiles,
or the old plantation lords Of the South.
Mr.. Speaker, the readiness Of the govern
ment to espouse the cause of monopolists
and corporations is MOI less forciby Illus
trated in the management of our Indians
reservations durlug the past eight or nine
years. These Teser gatons, when the Indian
desire to part with their title, are no longer
conveyed directly to the United States, and
thus made subject to the control Of Congress,
as other public lands, but are sold by trea.
ty to railroad corporations, or to individual
mOnopOlists, in utter disregard of the rights
Of settlers under the pre- emption and home
stead laws, aud without any warrant what
ever in the Constitution Of the United
|, States, which gives to Congress the sole
power to dispose Of and manage the public
domain.
As | have shown on other occasions, mil
lions of acres have thus fallen into the
grasp Of mOnOpoilsts, which should have
been the free offering Of tie government to
our homeless pioneers. The most remark
able Of these transactions is the late treaty
with the Cherokee Indians, by virtue Of
which a territory fifty miles long, and TWEEN
ty five miles wide, containing eight hundred
thousand acres, was sold 70 James + .Joy
for the price Ct one dollar per acre The
right which these Indians had in these lands
was that Of occupancy only, and this they
had abandoned and fortified by the attempt
ed conveyance to the confederate States in
1861. The lands were thenceforward sub
ject to presumption and settlement precisely
as all other pubic lands, nor did the Cheer
okees manifest any disposition t. occupy
them, Or any hostility 70 their settlement
/. BY our citizens They had no des re what
ever 70 convey the lands to any party save
the United States, and their sole aim was
to recoy er the value of their reservation,
which they had vaiuly sought TO convey to
the public enemy. ~ the date Of this trea
ty more than onc thousand families we're On
the land a. actual settlers, and there are
now thlrty-6,c hundred, o., about eigh
teen thousand settlers occupyinn the coin