Year: 1872

popular excitement will dash into thou
sand hideous fragments.


Therefore | say the educational bill is
of vast importance. 1t assists in furnish
ing the free schools at which the children
of the poor may be educated but estab-
lish the rule that the public lands shall
be forever dedicated as homesteads for
the poor, and millions of the peoples
children will have the opportunity of at
tending these schools. Their little hands
will not be compelled to harden, and their
bodies to become dwarfed and dctormcd
by the forced labor which poverty neces-
sarily wrings from little ones who, in
happier stations, would still require the
nurses care.


Save the public domain for the people
and centuries will elapse before this hap
py land will sec that crushing, abect pov-
erty, SO common in Europe, which com
pels the tender infant of ten years to con
tribute his mite toward the support of the
family to which his little life has added Il
burden that cannot be borne without as
sistance from even his tiny arms. And
by freeing the families of the poor from
this dire necessity you will enable their
children to attend school, and give them,
in truth, an opportunity to acquire that
intelligence and knowledge which should
Il ltatt tteh - 4,
lie.


Contrary to those who favor the grant.
ing of the public land for internal i'm
provement, contend that the rule | SAX
this House to make would give an i'm.
petus to the settlement of the great West
which would far outstrip the iancied ra-
pidity with which railway lines settle uI
the country. The uncertainty rs to what
particular tracts are covered by the rail
way grant the ease with which tho line
of road may be changed from one loca-
ton to another in which the land is OF
more value, probably mado so by the
fact of settlement the length of time
that must elapso before the settler can
know whether his hard earned improve
ments are being put upon his own land
or upon that of the corporation the
fact that the railway generally, and if
practicable always, passes through the
most fertile and best Watered valleys, tax
ing one half the land and rendering the
title to the other half so uncertain rs to
make it Improbable to the poor settler
who has neither time nor money to OK
pend on uncertainties: each in itself tends
to and all combined produces the effect
preventing the settlement and improve
ment Of lands contiguous to large rail
way grants, and renders the settlement
those localities where the title to the land
is known to be in the Government, aud
where no veXatous lawsuits can como to
eat up the produce Of the labor, priva-
ton, and hardship of years.


Do not, Mr.. Speaker, misunderstood
me. No member on this floor will more
strenuously support the giving of national
aid to worthy national schemes of intern
al improvement than |. But do not give
the public lands. Do all in your power
to prevent the aggregation of large tracts
of land in the hands OF one man or one
company at least do nothing to assist it,
for | earnestly bclieve-and the expert
ence of other countries teaches it-that
this is the most dangerous ofall the sunken
rocks from among which our ship Of State
must be safely stcered, ii we would not
have her broken to pieces against their
jagged sides The disposal to settlers in
limited quantities ofthe public land builds
up II grand army of yeomanry, which in
time Of peace will make this broad con
tinent to blossom as the rose, and which,
in time of war, will prove bulwark
against which the nations of the earth may
dash in vain but follow the policy of the
last twenty years on this question, and
you build up in the nation a land system
which will ever prove weakness and a
mockery to republican institutions.


am aware, Mr.. Speaker, that prop
osition TO amend the Constitution OF the
United States is matter Of 50 serious
and important a character as to demand
the most profound consideration of every
| American law-maker. But this is nc
new question suddenly sprung upon the
attention Of members. The people of the
great West, Of all political parties, have
been for years demanding the very OBJ
ject for which | here contend. II cannot
be that gentlemen have been deaf to these
cries. They nave penetrated into every
town, village, aud hamlet in the land.
II is true that this demand has taken no
definite shape that no course has been
marked out for the attainment Of the de-
sired result. But that that result is anx.
iously, aye, prayerfully, looked for by the
American poor, no gentleman on this
floor will pretend to deny. Knowing the
difficulties attending the passage Of u con,
sttutional amendment, | have carefully
considered every other mode that hai
been suggested, but find that they all lal
short Of the object 10 be attained. What
ever may be said on the stump or else
where, both of the great political parties
Of the country have decided by their ao-
ton that Congress has the constitutional
power to give, grant or soil the public
lands of the United States 10 whom it
pleases, and in limited or unlimited guam
| titles.


In view of the facts Of the case il is
somewhat amusing, even in So serious a
matter to hear members Of the Opposi-