Year: 1861

papers are pitching into the Legislature for
turning over portion of the Swamp Land


Fund to the General Fund for time in or


der to pay the accruing expenses of the
State government. Some go so far as to
say it is an utter violation of all principle.
| There have always been found writers


who find fault with any act of the Legisla-


ture, and the race is not yet extinct. If we


are correctly posted there was in the Swamp


Land Fund on the assembling of the pres


ent Legislature hundred and seventy thou


sand dollars or thereabouts. It's proper use
is the reclamation of the tule lands of the


State. As no system of draining these lands


has been provided by law, the money was
lying idle in the vaults of the State Treas


ury. What good could result from allow


ing it to lie there year after year has never


been clearly made known. Perhaps some


of those who are finding fault with the


Legislature for putting it to some practical


use for the time being, may have some hid :


den reason for wishing it to remain unused


in the vaults beneath the capitol while


longer. But those who take into conside


ration that Legislators, like other men, can


not live without having something to live


upon, and cannot be expected to do good


work unless they are well paid, and who


consider too that other important fact, that


the General Fund is amply able to refund


to the Swamp Land Fund every dollar bor-


rowed and before the latter is likely to


need it, will be very likely to commend the


action of the Legislature in taking care to
pay the expenses of the government as we
go along, in cash, instead of resorting again


to the scrip system. The reason that the


General Fund is deficient at this time is
because very heavy amount of money has
recently been taken from it to pay McCauley
& Tevis, for keeping the State prisoners
That large sum drained the General Fund
almost entirely. The revenue which will
oooh oe p'tlu III III SulilCe W restore lne
money borrowed, without material damage
to any body.


SEwARD's SPEEcH.-The speech of Wm
H. Seward in the Senate is worthy of him
and o. the times. Like true patriot, as
he is, he rises above party and declares for
the Union as paramount to every thing else
but honor.


The speech is just suited to the crisis,
and Gov. Seward in making it has well
earned the title of the "great pacfcator."
He says he is willing to allow a change
in the Constitution, though he does not
deem it necessary, so that the North shall
not interfere with slavery where it exists.
He says there is no right to make such in
further assurance he is ready to give it.
He is willing also to punish those who in
termeddle by force. He proposes to allow
the Territories to be admitted as States,
and thus by this means settle the slavery
question. But he would not vote to al
low slavery extension. AT some future
time when the passions of men are cool,
he would favor a convention of all the
States to look over the Constitution and
remedy its defects, if any it have.


Gov. Seward shows in mastery man.
ner how the Republic split up into sepa-
rate states would engender more causes for
war, than one powerful nation. He shows
the folly of disunion in clear and con-
vincing light, and the concilatory, forbear-
ing and gentlemanly manner in which he
his Southern brethren does him
Infinite honor as statesman and patriot.


PEACEABLE DIssoLUTIoN.-The idea that
the Southern States can secede from the
Union peaceably is entertained favorably in
some quarters. A great many prominent
men, however, are positive that no peacea-
BILE secession is possible. The great West |
will never consent, it is said, that the mouth |
of the Mississippi shall be controlled by
another nation. The interests of the West
demand the free and uninterrupted naviga-
ton of that river. The arguments used in
the beginning of the present century for the
acquisition of the Louisiana territory are
still better now that the Upper Mississippi
Valley is filled with millions of people
Not long since the doctrine of the Ostend
Manifesto, which was embraced by the
South, was, that as Cuba was essential to
the welfare of the United States, the United
States had right as a last resort to take it
by force of arms. The right of the West to
take and hold possession of the mouth of
the Mississippi ought not to be disputed by
the secesSionists after such declarations on
their part, for the reason that the Louisiana
purchase is part of the property of the
North and West, who contributed largely
to obtain it. To fight for it is but to fight
for their own. How those who were for
the acquisition of the Louisiana territory
and Cuba for certain reasons, can deny the
right of the West to the uninterrupted nav
igation of the Mississippi, is left to the ge-
MUS of some Southern loglcian not yet
arisen.