claim the forfeited land, who inhabit the same quarter section, the preference shall be given to the first occupant; and that none of the others should get "floats," (i. e. pre-emption rights, to be located on any land not entered elsewhere.) In consequence of some objections to the term "float," as unknown to the law and undefined, he agreed to waive the latter clause entirely, as being, in substance, provided for in other parts of the bill. The residue of his amendment to the amendment proposed by Mr. EwING was then agreed to. Mr. W. also proposed several other verbal amendments; which were agreed to. [JAN. 24, 1837. The bill now under consideration is the successor, not exactly legitimate, of one introduced by my colleague at the commencement of the session, for limiting the sales of the public land to actual settlers. That plain, unpretending proposition was what it professed to be, and nothing else; the title declared the object of the bill, and though I thought the measure impracticable, I could not but feel the justness of the motion, and the straight-forward means proposed to effect the object. That bill was réferred to the Committee on Public Lands, and we have here, reported back, in its name and in its place, what is now before us; and the title is all that is left, either of the letter or spirit of the original bill. But, even this small relic of what the bill once was, if I divine aright, is des tined to be obliterated and destroyed. The title is not descriptive of the contents of the bill, nor is it sufficientthat it will be in order, we shall have a motion to amend it, and, if the motion prevail, it will become "A bill to arrest monopolies of the public lands," &c. &c. &c.; the title is long and high sounding, and is to be found at large in the journal of last year, and I will not now de tain the Senate by reading it. I will, however, endeavor to show, before I sit down, what name it really merits; for I intend to discuss its provisions, not its title. Mr. TIPTON then moved an amendment, introducing the principle of graduation, and providing that land remaining unsold for ten years should be sold for one dollar an acre; and if remaining for fifteen years, at seventy-ly magniloquent. When the bill arrives at such stage five cents the acre, with a proviso that not more than 160 acres be sold to any one man; on which he asked the yeas and nays, and they were ordered by the Senate. Mr. PRESTON offered the following resolution; which was, by consent, adopted: Resolved, That the Committee on Naval Affairs be instructed to inquire into the construction of the act of the 30th June, 1834, regulating the pay of the marine corps, by the Fourth Auditor, and into the propriety of any further legislation thereon. Mr. PRESTON, when offering this resolution, remarked that he understood the design of the above-named act was to put the pay of the marine corps on the same footing with that of the infantry of the army, The construction of the Fourth Auditor had made it lower, contrary, he thought, to the design of Congress. Mr. BUCHANAN (Mr. PRESTON having referred to him) said he had already given notice that he wished to introduce a bill to remedy the construction of the Fourth Auditor, and be was prevented from introducing it only by information that the Naval Committee of the other House had reported a bill on the subject. He was, how. ever, gratified that Mr. P. had turned his attention to the subject. PUBLIC LANDS. This debate has been freely interlarded with high denunciation against a class of our fellow-citizens called "speculators"-men who purchase public land either for subsequent sale, or that it may lie by, as an invest ment of money to raise in value, and become a resource in after life, or an outfit for their children. And I have who denounce these "speculators" the most loudly and observed, also, what is not a little remarkable, that those the most frequently, on this floor and elsewhere, are those who understand them best, and who are themselves the most deeply engaged in the vocation which they thus condemn. This is generally, perhaps universally, the case. This disinterestedness of gentlemen who condemn thus openly their own calling, and devise laws, intended, as they say, to check and put it down, reminds me of an incident in modern history worthy to be remembered. Parliament for receiving presents from suitors, which When Lord Chancellor Bacon was convicted before bore a very strong fesemblance to bribes, and was removed from office, he was the foremost in proposing and keep off such temptation and sin in future, and most cerconcocting measures which should thereafter effectually tainly protect the purity of the bench. It reminds me, also, of a late occasion on which the gentleman from Virginia [Mr. RIVES] near me was so deeply impressed with the aristocracy of the Senate-himself certainly not the least aristocratic of its members-that he felt constrained to turn "States' evidence," or, perhaps, rather, "people's evidence," against the whole body, himself, of course, The Senate then took up the bill to prohibit the sales of the public lands, except to actual settlers, and in lim-inclusive, though I believe he did not suggest any remedy ited quantities. The question pending was on Mr. TIPTON's amend ment, offered yesterday, to the first section of the bill, that all lands that have been in the market ten years, and remain unsold, shall be sold for seventy-five cents an acre; and all that have five years, shall be disposed of at one dollar; provided that not more than one hundred and sixty acres be sold to one purchaser. Mr. EWING concluded his remarks, as given entire in succeeding pages. Mr. E. addressed the Senate as follows: Mr. President: As it is my purpose to examine this subject with some care and exactness, and, as far as in my power, show it to the Senate in its true colors and proportions, I find it necessary, in the outset, to spend a few moments in clearing it of some of the rubbish with which it is overlaid and surrounded. for the enormity which he exposed. Now, this is all right; and it is honorable; and it is unquestionably sin. cere. I take no exceptions to it, but merely notice it among the passing incidents of the times. Now, sir, I will say a few words as to this class of individuals who are so much the theme of discussion and of attack; and, that my opinion may have the more weight, I can assure the Senate that I am neither an aristocrat nor a speculator in public lands. I do not know that I have been accused here of the one or the other, but I have heard gentlemen on the other side of the House talk loudly and harshly of speculators, and those who favor speculations, while, at the same time, they made strong gestures towards the benches here. As it referred to no one in particular, I could only ap. propriate to myself my just distributive share of the reproach which, lessened by division, would be but small. Yet that modicum, insignificant as it may be, I am prepared to dispose of. I therefore say, once for all, that I am wholly free from the offence of having ever pur chased public land or any thing else from the General Government. And I have no sympathy, save that of general good-will to all mankind, with any who I know have so purchased. I never entered an acre of public land in my life, and do not know that I ever shall; nor do I know that any friend, or even acquaintance of mine, is engaged in these purchases. My neighbors, it is true, in whose welfare I take great interest, do sometimes raise a little spare money and go to the West and purchase a quarter or a half section of land, to settle a son who is about to arrive at the years of manhood, for which they pay the cash into the Treasury of the United States; and until gentlemen satisfy me, more fully than they have yet done, of the impropriety of the thing, I shall esteem them none the less for it, nor shall I the less assiduously advocate their interests and their rights. [SENATE. vented my hearing the Senator's principal speech on this subject, and that a pressure of business since my return has not allowed me time to read his report accompany. ing this bill. My remarks, so far as the Senator from Mississippi is concerned, applied to several short speeches of his on incidental questions touching the bill, which have arisen within a few days past. But I cannot concur with him in the distinction which he draws between those who purchase occupied and unoccupied lands of the United States. When all are offered in open mar ket fairly for sale; when all who desire to bid are invited by law to become bidders, I cannot recognise the right of any individual to press forward upon a choice piece of the public land, before the sale, against law. Nor can I admit that, by so doing, he makes the lawful purchaser amenable to censure, any where, for purcha sing according to law. The proposition is monstrous in itself, and it must be a diseased state of public morals that can hold it for a moment either reasonable or just. My guide on this subject is the law-those who purchase according to its letter and its spirit, and who neither break through nor evade its provisions, no matter how much or how little they may buy, and no matter who may have intruded upon the land before the purchase, I hold them in that matter blameless; and, as far as my information goes, in nearly all the cases in which occupied land is purchased the squatter is paid many times over the value of his improvements; and often permitted to remain and enjoy them. The sales of land in large quantities to large capital But, in declaring my utter exemption from all participation, direct or indirect, in that kind of investment which is here condemned in such unmeasured terms, I do not at all admit the truth or justice of the judgment which condemns it. It is a use of money that is suppo sed to be unpopular, and it is no new artifice to exclaim against it, as if it were a crime, until, by force of voice and repetition, it may come to be esteemed so; and what is more to the purpose, those who are most deeply engaged in it, by being loud and vociferous in its condemnation, throw off all suspicion from themselves, and stand the pure advocates of the people's rights, and theists, as a matter of public policy, is liable to some objecvery antagonist principle of all speculation and monopoly. But, sir, I see no objection to this mode of investing money when you have it to spare, and can make no better use of it. If it be fairly done, it is a fair, and just, and honest mode of acquiring property. The United States, by a public law, and a public proclamation, of fers its land for sale at a stipulated price; an individual, who is desirous of possessing the land, goes and purchases, and pays his money. Now, why, I ask, does any one here apply to this act, or the man who does it, opprobrious epithets? Why accuse him? Why denounce him? If he had bought fifty hogsheads of sugar, or a hundred bales of cotton, be would be just as criminal, and deserve just the same opprobrium and reproach from the members of our National Legislature. Gentlemen are mistaken; these purchases and speculations, in which they and their friends are so deeply engaged, are not criminal, nor even improper in themselves. They are liable, indeed, and especially liable, to be contaminated, by fraud or force, or combinations among purchasers, and collusion with public officers; but from these they and all honorable men, as a matter of course, are free. They therefore pronounce a harsh and unjust judgment on their own acts, and I am prepared to defend them against themselves before the Senate and the nation. [Mr. WALKER here rose to explain. If the gentle man's allusion was to any thing he had said, so far from criminating purchasers of this description, he had, in the report accompanying this bill, expressed many of the same sentiments just uttered by the Senator from Ohio. He had denounced, and ever should denounce, in the strongest terms, those speculators who attended public sales after having taken down the numbers of lots improved by actual settlers, and bid them off over their head, thus depriving them of their homes and the fruit of all their toil.] Mr. EwING. I referred to the Senator from Mississippi who has just taken his seat, and also to others who, in both branches of Congress, habitually use the same course of remark. But I accept the explanation with pleasure, and regret that absence from the Senate pre tions, though it produces good as well as evil consequences. The evil is sufficiently obvious, and being a very happy subject for popular declamation, it has been reiterated, I know not how often, already in this debate. That which occurs to me as substantial, and which we can obviate by legislation, without producing other and worse mischief, are, the entries, by an individual or company, of many small tracts, as of forty or eighty acres, in commanding points, all over the country, or what is called dotting, thereby compelling purchasers of the neighboring tracts to pay enormous prices for such choice spots; but will be seen that this bill, so far from remedying that evil, makes it infinitely worse. No man can now enter more than two forty-acre tracts, and one of those subject to certain conditions-proximity to his farm; but if this bill becomes a law in its present shape, he may enter no less than thirty-two of those small tracts, and he may select them any where on the public lands between the northern extremity of Wisconsin and the southern cape of Florida. The entries of large tracts by great capitalists, with a view to enhance their value by great and important improvements, such as railroads, canals, harbors, cities, have produced, and are producing, the most important advantages to the districts of country in which they are situated. Look at the southern shores of Lake Erie, and the whole coast of Lake Michigan, and see the towns and cities which are rising up on their borders, under the fostering care of capital and intelligence, and you will see at once the full strength of this position. The scatterred resources of a thousand individuals, who should have purchased each his quarter section of land in the neighborhood, could not have produced such mighty results in half a century as have been brought about in a few years by the investment of accumulated capital. It has facilitated migration by the establishment of lines of steamboats between the cities on the eastern shore of the lake and those remote western points which a few years ago were a wilderness. It has opened harbors, drained swamps, built wharves, and erected warehouses, transferring the business and bustle and comfort and intelligence of an old and cultivated community into the very SENATE.] Public Lands. [JAN. 24, 1837. heart of our remote Western forests. Fortunes, per- Gentlemen, it is true, could not be operated upon by haps, are made or augmented by it, but it is well. The motives of this kind, but it were well to avoid the value of land is enhanced greatly all around these select- appearance of evil; and as this bill will, if it become ed spots, but this also is well; it is a just reward of enter-law, have the direct effect of driving purchasers from prise and public spirit, and it injures no one, for the broad praries of the interior are still open to the grazier, and the plains and woodlands to the farmer, at the Government price, and a nearer and more extensive market is open to him in the new and flourishing cities which arise on these choice selected spots. I am not, therefore, prepared to condemn, even as a matter of public policy, the countenance which our present laws give to this kind of investment by the capitalist. Much less am I disposed to join in the denunciation of those who, under and pursuant to our laws, adopt this mode of investing their surplus capital. Gentlemen even here are perhaps | too much in the habit of addressing themselves to the lowest passions of the lowest portion of society, and, while they themselves are insatiate in their thirst for riches, speak of poverty as if it were a merit, a good thing in itself and wealth, or even competency, as if it were a crime. I, for one, unite in nothing of this feeling or expression; if a young man shows himself industrious, enterprising, and intelligent, and birds fair to rise in the world by these qualities, I am not pre- | pared, as a statesman, to tell him that the moment he has risen he will have lost his claim to the affections of his country and the respect and regard of its rulers. And in our country, where industry, sobriety, and prudence, will in almost all cases raise a man to competence, I do not think that mere poverty, too often the result of indolence and intemperance, is of itself sufficient to entitle the individual to our special affections and regard. In my opinion, poverty and wealth are, or ought to be, out of the question. I esteem a man none the more and none the less for being poor or rich; and in legislatlon I know not how we can discriminate between American citizens according to their prop. erty. And I contend, and am prepared to defend the proposition, that the man whom industry, temperance, and intellect, have enabled to acquire a competence, is as meritorious as one whom indolence, intemperance, and imprudence, have kept poor. I therefore put out of the question all that has been said about and against capitalists and speculators. I join in the denunciation of no class of our fellow-citizens who pursue a business which the law authorizes; and I do not make, nor do I pretend to make, any efforts to put them down. But, on the other hand, I will not consent to pass any law which shall operate against the mass of the community--against the small capitalist, the farmer, the mechanic, the laborer-for the special benefit of any class of speculators, however great their power or democratic their professions; and I believe it, that many of the executive officers, some of the very highest, next to the President himself, are deeply concerned in these land speculations. It is also said, and I believe it, that some in this chamber and in the other House are also members of these large joint stock companies, which have purchased to an immense amount. I charge no one in particular, nor do I present it as a matter of charge; but I name it to caution gentlemen who are so engaged and so interested, that they do not permit their private interest, unawares to themselves, to glide in and mingle with the performance of a public trust. How can those who are so engaged, and who have so purchased to the full extent of all their available means, how can they now, as lawgivers, say to the rest of the community, you shall not purchase-the public sales shall be closed against you-and if you wish to buy, come to us; we have land to sell in abundance, and we will sell it to all who will pay for it, without discrimination, and we sell it embarrassed by no troublesome conditions? | | the Government to the speculator, and as it is to continue in force about long enough to enable these large companies to make sale of the twenty millions of acres which they have now on hand, the public will attribute to them this, as one of the motives which induced the passage of the act. They will be the more inclined to think so, as this act is not, and they will see that it is not, what it is pretended to be. It is not a bill to confirm the sales of the public lands to actual settlers; and an amendment which would produce that effect, laid on the table by myself, (not offered, for I could not support any proposition which would deny to my fellowcitizens the right of purchasing lands to settle their children)—an amendment which would have produced that effect, met with the universal disapprobation of the friends of this bill. This bill, therefore, is not, and the people will see that it is not, what it purports to be; and its effect, which is the important matter, will be to raise at once some fifty or a hundred per cent. the price of the lands already in the hands of the large speculators, of whom the lawgivers, who are about to pass this bill, form a very respectable part, and whose friends in the executive Departments form another portion not less large and respectable. If this law pass, a member of one of those companies, whose profits would have been confined to one hundred thousand dollars, will pocket his two hundred thousand. For this it will be said he may very well break out in terms of patriotic indignation against speculators and capitalists, and he may overflow with sympathy for the poor man. But the churlish and ill-natured will aver that the members of the legislative and of the executive Departments, who hold the key in their hands, have fed until they were full gorged with these dainties, and then locked the closet, that no one else might break in until they were ready themselves to return and renew the feast. I have said that the amount of land in the hands of speculators is about twenty millions of acres; this, in round numbers, is very near the quantity. In a report which I had the honor to present last year, from the Committee on Public Lands, I estimated the quantity wanted for actual occupation at eight millions of acres yearly. This was then thought too high, but time will verify its accuracy. Year before last the sales amounted to about thirteen millions of acres. This year they amounted to more than twenty millions; which, taking my estimate of what is wanted for settlement as correct, (and every one admits it is high enough,) it will leave in the hands of speculators from sixteen to twenty millions of the purchases of those two years. The whole aggregate is low enough at twenty millions. This immense investment, amounting in cash (if we include all expenses) to thirty millions of dollars, has more than exhausted all the capital that can be turned from the ordinary business of the country to this object. Those who hold public stations and command political influence, or whose friends command it, have become borrowers to an immense amount of the public money from the deposite banks; and the deposite bill of the last year cut off the sources of their supply, and compels them to pour back into the fountain from which it was drawn a portion of their borrowed treasure. This state of things tends to make this business, pushed as it has been to an unreasonable extent, a precarious if not a losing business, unless the Legislature come to the relief of these borrowers of the public money. Gentlemen may say what they please about these persons, if they will only aid them by a law such as this. If they will but encumber the conditions of the sales of public land to honest and fair pur chasers, so that they cannot buy of Government, but may be compelled to buy of the speculator, those who have gone farthest in proportion to their resources, and are compelled to sell, will thank you for your hard names and good gifts. And they bave no reason to complain of unkindness; the Treasury order did much for them, but that cannot endure long; the public exclaim with one voice against it, and it must go down. But this bill, which better effects the same object, is to be first substituted in its stead. I see, however, by indications here, that we shall not touch the bill rescinding the Treasury circular in time for it to be taken up in the other House and passed into a law. It will not do to keep up that order to oppress the country, for the people will not endure it long. It is to be rescinded, but not by an act of Congress. We shall pass such act through this branch near the close of the session; it will be lost in the other House for want of time; and thus it will be reserved until after the 4th of March, that its final recision may be a feather in the cap of the new administration. I infer this from the fact that this bill, for which the people do not call, is pressed in advance of the bill to rescind the Treasury order. And when I moved the other day to take up that bill, I received a most significant intimation, from a gentleman whose word is law here, that I might spare my efforts, for they were useless; and it proved so the party refused to take up the bill. Having considered some matters which touch this bill collaterally, and which, if it pass, will really have more influence on its passage than any intrinsic merit which it possesses, I will now proceed to consider some of the provisions of the bill itself, and show how far forth it is likely to effect its professed objects. It proposes to limit the sales of the public lands to actual settlers, and that in small quantities. The requirements of the bill in that respect are, 1st, no man may enter under one of the sections of this bill more than 1,280 acres of land; but in another part of the bill he is very generously allowed 640 acres more if he want it, to eke out his farm; so he may purchase 1,920 acres; and this is what is called "small quantities." The settlement provision requires that the purchaser should reside on the land or some part of it one year, or not and--or clear and cultivate one tenth part of it within five years. Now, the clearing, where one tenth part of the tract is open prairie land, is not a matter of much difficulty or hardship, it requires only the burning off the grass in November, and that work is done. Then the cultivation; what is that, and how is it defined? Is it the passing a harrow over the ground, and sowing tame grass seed on it? Is it running a few furrows across a tract of one or two hundred acres, and planting corn rows upon it, with the hills a hundred yards apart? It is not to be cultivated well, but merely cultivated, and the fact of cultivation to be settled by those who make the affidavit before the register and receiver, in order to perfect the title. Those, then, who live upon the spot, and who understand it, would have nothing to do but to put up a log cabin, which would cost five or ten dollars, burn the grass off of 200 acres of prairie, and run a plough or harrow a few times across, and sow or plant a little grass seed or a few hills of corn, and the condition of the law requiring "actual settlement" is complied with. The affidavit is made, and the patent obtained. This bill leaves the fact of clearing and cultivation to the sound discretion and clear conscience of the affidavit man, who is to swear to it; and if there be any other regulation or restriction, I am not advised of it. We have a Committee on Agriculture, it is true, of which my honorable friend from Kentucky near me is a member, though not of high rank, last I believe. [Mr. CLAY: last, but not least." A laugh.] This committee, however, has not yet reported what shall amount to cultivation, and I presume it is not the purpose of the ་་ [SENATE. chairman of the Committee on Public Lands to refer this bill to them for their opinion. Now, my constituents who reside at a distance from the public lands, and who do not understand this mode of becoming "actual settlers" and of "clearing and cultivating land," would be unable to purchase of the Government at all, and would be driven to buy second hand of those who understood the matter better, or of the speculators who have already on hand large quantities for sale. Gentlemen who advocate this bill see in it a remedy for many great political and moral evils; among others, it is to destroy or prevent that dreadful scourge, "a surplus and distribution," for which they evince such a holy horror. This surplus was a very good thing so long as it remained in the deposite banks, and was by them lent out to those who wished to purchase public land in limited quantities”— such, for example, as half a million of acres to a single company; but when you come to distribute, or rather deposite in the State treasuries, then it carries with it all sorts of political iniquity and corruption; it is every thing that is monstrous, no republican can bear it, and this bill is to put an end to the mischief; and this money, which, if distributed, would corrupt the whole nation, can be safely trusted with the gentlemen and their constituents, without any danger of corrupting them. Let us, say they, be the exclusive purchasers of the public land; we will not take much of it, but we want it cheap; but save us from competition! Do not permit the Ohio and Pennsylvania farmers, rough, rude fellows as they are, to come to the sales with their little wallets of cash, and bid against us--us, anti-monopolists--or enter the land that we want, while we are waiting to raise funds to secure it; withdraw all this provoking competition, pass this bill, and make it unlawful for any man living in one of the old States to come to the new to purchase Government lands, and we will let the tariff alone, we will adhere to the compromise and hold it sacred, and we will also save you from the inconvenience of a surplus and the perils of distribution. Some of these gentlemen reason with us mildly, others declaim with oratorical vebemence. Why, say they, should you collect money from the people which you do not want, merely to distribute it among them again? And when we answer that it arises out of the sale of the national domain, that we must receive or stop these sales, and when received we must preserve it in such manner as to render the most service to the whole country, they offer to relieve us of all this inconvenience by keeping the public land and the profits on it themselves; thus lightening the public burdens by possessing themselves of the public property. You have, say they, a great quantity of excellent land, which is a very great trouble to you; we and our constituents will relieve you of it at once; but do not let the people of the old States have it, or any part or lot in it; they are speculators, and they will fill your Treasury with money, which you know is a very troublesome thing. We who are not speculators, but who know how to make money by dealing in land, will take it without embarrassing you with any thing that will burden your Treasury. These lands, which gentlemen ask, in behalf of themselves and their constituents, the exclusive privilege of purchasing at the minimum price of $1 25 per acre, are worth, by their own showing, from $5 to $40 per acre. There are yet undisposed of about one thousand millions of acres-not all of such great value, but worth, nevertheless, more than one thousand millions of dollars. Pass this bill, and follow it up, as you are certain to do if you once make the commencement, and there will be fortunes made under it, such as no crowned head in Europe can boast; Cræsus was a beggar compared with the industrious and unscrupulous speculator under this bill. Gentlemen before whose eyes these golden visions flit hate every thing they ought to hate, to induce other gentlemen to support their favorite measure: they hate the tariff, but they will endure it; they do not like the compromise, but they will adhere to it, if this bill can be passed to ease the Treasury of its cash, and relieve the people of their burdens. The public lands-an unconstitutional surrender of the public lands-is the only thing that can reconcile or pacify them. Pacific as I am inclined to be, and much as gentlemen have operated on the easiness of my disposition, and greatly as they have alarmed my fears, I am not yet disposed to make them this large peace-offering, until I am assured that we have the constitutional power to do it; I want to see our authority, and I would like, further, to know that we can do it and be just. This public domain is a fund placed under the guardianship of Congress by a compact prior to the constitution, and which is recognised and made obligatory by that sacred instrument. And Congress is bound, by that compact, to dispose of it bonafide for the benefit of all the States, members of this confederacy, according to their proportions of representative population. And it ought to be so, for it was bought with the common blood and common treasure of the people of all the States, old as well as new; for I acknowledge no pre-eminence in favor of the old States. Our common ancestors fought on their soil for our freedom; and they (the small remnant of them) and their descendants (now a mighty people) are spread over our whole vast territory; and whereso ever they are, they inherit the glory as well as the rights of their fathers. These public lands, then, are to be disposed of bonafide for the common benefit of all the States. The fund, of which we are thus made the trustee, is immenseworth not less than one thousand millions of dollars: this is now admitted; though a few years ago, when the estimate of its value was made by my friend from Kentucky, [Mr. CLAY,] it was scouted by gentlemen who then wanted to get the land, not because it was overflowing our Treasury with money, but because this land was not worth surveying and selling. Gentlemen, it is true, do not now ask it as a gift, but they admit the choice tracts to be worth from $15 to $40 per acre. And they ask us to withdraw from them all competition at public and at private sales, to give pre-emptions to those who shall intrude on the land, and thus secure it to them at $1 25 per acre. They only ask us to give them from about $14 to $39 an acre on all the choice land of the United States that remains to be sold. These demands, it must be admitted, are moderate, especially when addressed to a trustee who is bound to administer the fund bonafide for the equal benefit of all who have an interest in it. The privilege, therefore, which these gentlemen ask for their constituents, or those who shall become so, is a donation, and a very large one. It is against common right, and it promotes no meritorious object whatever. Suppose it to induce emigration: is that desirable to a greater extent than is now going on? Should it be the object or is it the interest of the United States, as a whole, to induce by bounties the citizens of the old States, on or near the seacoast, to abandon their farms and their homes, and migrate to the West? The last census shows that the older portions of the old States are in fact depopulating. From the year 1820 to 1830, Virginia, east of the Blue Ridge, lost about 100,000 of its population. The same was the case, though in a less degree, with several extensive districts in others of the old States. Now, 1 make no objection to this; but I do not think it a desirable state of things. It is enough for us, in the West, if we receive the nat ural increase of the population of the old States; and it is enough for them if their increased population finds an easy access to our fresh lands, and a cheap home when [JAN. 24, 1837. they come among us. It is not wise, nor is it necessary, to give new bounties for emigration; nor have we a right to do it. Suppose the bounty to emigrants proposed in this bill were to be paid in money out of the Treasury, and the lands were sold in fair and open market to raise the money, would any gentleman from the old States, having the least regard for the rights and interests of his own constituents, consent to it, or even entertain the proposition for a moment? I think not. And where is the difference? It is the same thing in substance and effect: the mode of bringing it about gives it a different aspect. Having considered the general objects of the bill, both as expressed and as professed by its advocates, I will now examine some of its provisions, and endeavor to show how those objects are to be carried into effect. The bill is entitled and professes to be "A bill to limit the sales of the public lands to actual settlers;" but I have said it is in fact no such thing. I call the attention of the Senate to its provisions. Who may enter land under it? Any one-man or woman, husband or wife, or both, without any evidence of residence, or of any declaration of intent to reside upon it. All they have to do is to swear that they enter it for their own use, and not for the purpose of speculation. Here is the initiation of the title. And how much land may be entered by making this oath, and under this particular section of the bill? The husband may enter 1,240 acres, the wife 1,240, the son and daughter, over eighteen years of age, 1,240 acres each-making in all, for an ordinary family of four persons, 4,960 acres; and this may be all entered in tracts of 40 acres each, making 128 tracts that a single family, such as I have described, may enter, on this "actual settlement" principle; and these 128 tracts may be dotted over all the public lands in the United States, occupying all the most commanding po. sitions in the country. They may take your woodland in a prairie region, your springs and brooks in a country where water is scarce, and your coal banks and quarries where fuel and stone are valuable. Having thus sworn and made the entry, and obtained the certificate, the next step to procure a title is to reside on some part of the land one year within the first five; it must not be a continuous residence, but one year in all; or, erect a dwelling-house, clear and cultivate, within the five years, one tenth part of the whole; that is to say, select in the entry somewhere one tenth part of your purchases in a dry prairie, which will burn over in October or November. This burning is a compliance with the first requisition, that "to clear." The next is "to cultivate;" and that can be done, as I have already shown, in a most compendious manner. A few bushels of grass seed, and one man, two horses and a harrow, for a month or two, are sufficient to make the "cultivation;" for it has only to be sworn to generally as "cultivation"-the mode and manner of it being in no wise designated. The next step to be taken to procure a title is to "swear" again, or to produce the affidavits of those who will swear-swear to residence, or swear to the erection of a dwelling-house, and swear to the clearing and cultivation of the one tenth part in five years. "Our army swore terribly in Flanders," said Corporal Trim. But the person making an entry of the public lands must swear that he enters it, not in trust for any other person, but for himself or herself only. This provision prevents the father from entering in behalf of his child, the guardian for his ward, or the trustee of a will in behalf of the widow or orphan devisees; it prevents, also, an entry in execution of a charity. All open, honest trusts, those that deserve the countenance of mankind and the favor of Government, are excluded by this bill, while every species of fraudulent and secret trust will come in and evade its provisions. A person, before he |