Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1874-08-13

land system. 1t was long ago adj
Judged that dollar and o quarter was
full equivalent for an acre of the pub.
lie domain. Accordingly that was
traversed by highways in severy d.
rection, and its geography is as tamil
lar to our children as the geography
of New England was to the children
of 1861. Aud here, within this very
Republic which thirteen years ago the
faithless Democracy turned over to
the Republicans for burial, capital has
combined to construct more miles Of
railway than all the rest of the world
possesses. Harbors and rivers have
been improved, and the trade of our
Western lakes and rivers now employs
commercial marine exceeding 1,2o0,-
900 tons.
Enlarged facilities for trade have
swelled the volume OF trade.
OUR POWER INDICATED.
When in October last, q Spanish
vice consul in Cuba so far forgot the
respect due to the United States as
to seize upon vessel sailing under
the protection of her flag, Spain
promptly, without the firing of q
gun or spilling a drop of blood, made
that honorable PREPARATION which
every just government is glad to
make for wrong done.
MATERIAL DEVELOPMENT.
And this is not all. Our material
| development has kept pace with our
political reforms, and despite the dis
enlargement to immigration, and the
positive drain of a great war lasting
four years, our population increased
| between 1860 and 1870 more than sew
en- millions The Increase was but a
little more than eight millions during
the previous decade. In spite of the
enormous cost of that same war, both
in money and in muscle, our lines of
completed railways have increased
from 81, 900 miles, at the close of 1861,
to almost 10000, at the close of 1873.
One iron track spans the continent;
others are projected and more or less
advanced In construction. That vast
region between the Rocky Mountain
range and the Sierra Nevadas, which
was almost unknown in 1851, is now
fixed as the minimum price. That
gave to the Government 5000 for
quarter section Of land. But Repub-
licanism adjudged that farmer was
more worth to the country than 5000,
and so it has rendered homestead
not exceeding one hundred and sixty
acres to every head of family who
will make farm upon it. And in
view of fact which no State can af-
ford to overlook, to wit: that a sue
cessful agriculture is the primal me-
cessity and grand inspiration of every
other industry, and that, TO be truly
successful, agriculture, like every 9TH
er craft, should be learned, prosperous
colleges have been endowed out of the
public domain, wherein field culture
may be reared from the rank of craft
to the dignity of a science; to the
grandure even of an art.
But, as establishing the future land
policy of the Republican party, the
following resolution of the House of
Representative is submitted:
Resolued, That in the judgment of this House
| the policy of granting subsidies in public land
| to railroad and other corporations ought to be
| discontinued; and that every consideration of
public policy and equal justice to the whole
people requires that the public lands of the
| United States should be held for the exclusive
purpose of securing homesteads to actual set
tiers, under the homestead and presumption
IawS cuhiant IN reasonable annrnnriationa of
such lands for educational purposes.
THE UNION PRESERVED
Fellow-eitizens when you commit
ted the Union to the keeping of the
Republican party, it seemed on the
verge of dissolution. Many hoped
and some feared it had received an in
durable wound. We present the I'm
ion to you to day every whit whole
The Republic is at peace throughout
all her borders; she is at peace with
all the world. Her rightiul authority
is disputed nowhere; her opinions are
respected everywhere. She stands in
the vanguard of sovereign States
We challenge history to produce an
other instance of q country raised from
such humiliation to such grandure in
so short a time. And this transfor-
nation has been wrought not merely
without the aid of the Democratic
party, but in spite of its utmost hos
tility.
THE OPPOSITION REVIEWED.
You have seen the shortcomings of
that party in administration. It's faults
in opposition have been still more
glaring. Perhaps they can be for
given for allowing the ship of State to
drift so near the rocks. But how can
they be forgiven their struggles to pre-
vent her from being snatched from
that peril? That charity, which de-
lights to think no evil, may excuse
their omission to lift the country, up
on the plea of incompetency. But
not charity itself can see anything but
malignancy in their persistent effort to
prevent the country from being lifted.
The world does not resent, but rather
pities, the helpless crew under whose
seamanship Jesus sailed for the coun-
try of the Gadarenes. 1t plain they
could not still the winds which threat
ened to sink the ship. But if they had
attempted to throw the Savior over
board when he appeared to rebuke
those impious winds, the world would
have known no pity for the crew
And that is the great Democratic Of
tense which still smells to heaven;
not that they did nothing for the coun-
try, but that they fiercely opposed
everything that was done for the coun-
try. 1t would not be quite true to say
that the Democratic party opposed the
national effort to suppress the rebellion
that would have been high treason
1t would be quite as far from the
truth to say that they promoted that
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