SENATE.]

Expunging Resolution.

[JAN. 13, 1837.

in the harvest of immortal fame, for the proceedings on the resolution of 1834 are destined to the same immortality as those on the resolution now before the Senate. In those proceedings, too, the field was vastly more ample, and all will be entitled to come in for some share in the glory and fame which is to be borne down the tide of time to the latest posterity. Even the vast host of witnesses who came up here in the form of petitioners, to testify against the President and for the bank, will share in the immortality, as[ believe their testimony was all published with their names, making five large volumes. Here, sir, is a golden harvest of fame for the partisans of the bank, who either volunteered as witnesses, or promptly came forward at the request of their honorable friends in the Senate.

And in regard to this proceeding, he did not see but that those who oppose the resolution would have the same chance for immortality as those who support it; the nays will be recorded on the same page with the yeas, and both go down along with the black lines to posterity. All will have an equal chance of immortality from this day's work; but whether it will be of honor or dishonor, and to which of us one or the other, remains to be known. As was said by a popular writer, Judas is as well known as Paul, but history ascribes his fame to very different actions. Having discharged what we believe to be our duty, the whole subject, the black lines and all, will be handed over to those who are to succeed us, and it will remain for posterity to decide who is right and who is wrong, and to award to each and all their share of the honor or infamy which belongs to the transaction. He was content with this; he rejoiced that it should be so; he rejoiced that the deeds of this day, that the merits of this long and painful controversy, will have to be decided upon by posterity, when all the angry passions which it has engendered will have subsided, when it can be viewed calmly and dispassionately, when the judgment will be free from personal prejudice or party rancor, and when the transaction can be viewed with a sin-,

if permitted to stand, will be a dangerous breach in the constitution. A distinguished political writer in England, (Lord Bolingbroke,) in speaking of the constitution of that country, says: "We understand our constitution to be in danger, not only when it is attacked, but as soon as a breach is made by which it may be attacked; and we understand this danger to be greater or less, in proportion to the breach that is made, without regard to the probability or improbability of an attack." But to show the danger of these conflicts between the different departments of the Government, he would refer to the history of that country from whence our ancestors came, and brought with them the great principles of our free institutions. If we look into the long controversy which preceded the civil war, it will be found to have sprung from the very principle contained in the resolution of 1834: the right of one independent branch of the Government to try and condemn the acts of another. He would beg leave to refer the Senate to Whitlocke, who was an actor in those scenes, a member of Parliament, he believed an officer of the army, and a chronicler of the events of his own times. He says, "it is strange to note how we have insensibly slid into the beginning of this civil war, by one unexpected incident after another, as waves of the sea, which have brought us this far, we hardly know how; but from paper combats; by declarations, remonstrances, protests, votes, messages, answers, and replies, we are now come to the question of raising forces, and naming a general and officers of an army. We are here told, by an actor in those bloody scenes, that it was a paper warfare, carried on between the Parliament and the Executive, which involved that country in all the horrors of a civil war; which armed father against son, and brother against brother; which depopulated its towns, desolaled its fair fields, and stained their soil with the blood of Englishmen. These lessons of history, written in characters of blood, should not be lost on a free and intelligent people. It was, in his opinion, not more on the account of the injustice, flagrant as that was considered, than the dangerous ten-gle eye to the great principles involved. The decision dency of the proceedings of 1834, which has roused up the spirit of the country against them. It is the danger of such a precedent, rather than its unconstitutional Although he could not view the present proceeding in character, which has brought upon the resolution in so solemn a light as some gentlemen seemed to regard question so marked a reprobation. On a recent occa- it, he thought he was fully sensible of its importance, and sion he attempted to assign the reasons which had at- of the responsibility which belongs to it. He had contached, for nearly half a century, a high degree of op- sidered the matter long and well, and, so far as concernprobrium to the sedition law; and asserted that the repro- ed himself, he was prepared to assume the responsibili bation of that act did not arise so much from its being ty. He could not doubt the power of the Senate to puregarded as unconstitutional, as from its dangerous char-rify its journal, by removing from its pages a resolution acter, and its being considered as a deadly blow aimed at which ought never to have been entered there; and, bepublic opinion, the essential element of our Government. lieving that we have the power, he considered it our duIt is the same with respect to the resolution of March, ty to exercise it. Not being willing (said Mr. N.) to de1834. The people have regarded it as dangerous and tain the Senate longer, I will say, in conclusion, that, pernicious; they have regarded the whole proceeding with these views of the whole subject, I am prepared to of the Senate as factious and violent, fraught with mis stake what little of reputation I have, either here or elsechief and danger to our institutions, calculated to lead to where, on the final issue of the question before us. I commotion and recrimination between the different de-am prepared to record my vote in favor of this resolupartments of the Government, which may result, as was the case in England, in rancorous dissensions, and even in civil war. Under the influence of sentiments like these, they were not content that the dangerous precedent should remain upon your records, and now demand at our hands that it shall be removed or expunged.

Sir, the honorable Senator from Kentucky [Mr. CRITTENDEN] has informed us that those of us who may vote for this resolution will have a fair chance for immortality; that our names would be as imperishable as the black lines, and seems to insinuate that both are destined to be damned to everlasting fame. But if there is any immortality connected with this matter, I am sure the gentleman and his friends will come in for a full share, and something more. They will, indeed, be double sharers

|

thus made will be final; from it there will be no appeal, and all must acquiesce.

tion, and to permit it to go down along with the black lines to posterity, and abide their impartial judgment. I am prepared to vote to purify our journal, to erase, obliterate, blot out, or expunge, the obnoxious resolution—any way, to remove it from our records. Nay, more: had I, like the prophet of old, the gift of divination, I would raise my voice on high, and devoutly invoke that Being in whose bands are the destinies of nations, who is the searcher of all hearts, and in whose presence we all stand, to send fire from heaven and consume the desecrated page.

Mr. MOORE said that the appropriate suggestion with which the Senator from Connecticut [Mr. NILES] had closed his speech, brought to his mind a very important and useful amendment, the propriety of which he

JAN. 14, 1837.]

Public Lands.

[SENATE.

gress a reduction of the price of the public lands; but the continuation of the existing system is worse than a refusal to reduce the price; it is equivalent to a law raising the price to settlers and cultivators from one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre, to a price varying from five to thirty dollars per acre. It is well known that, within the last few years, vast bodies of public lands have been purchased by speculators at one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre, and resold to settlers or cultivators at prices varying from five to thirty dollars per acre. And what must soon be the inevitable result of continuing the existing system? At the rate of twentyone millions of acres per annum, speculators in a very few years must own nearly every acre of good land in the present new States and organized Territories of the Union. When this monopoly shall be complete, and no good land remains the property of the Government, will not a still higher price be demanded for those lands by those who hold them? If we abolish the system of sales to speculators, these millions of acres of good land, now owned by the Government, will pass, from time to time, at the minimum price, into the hands of settlers or culti vators, which otherwise would be purchased by speculators, and resold by them at from five to thirty dollars per acre. Every Senator who votes against this bill votes for continuing a system by which this vast enhancement to settlers and cultivators, of the price of the public lands, must soon take place. There can be no great-price of their lands. But admitting that of these refuse er curse to any country, no more serious impediment to its prosperity, than the high price of its unoccupied lands. It prevents or postpones the settlement of those lands, and decreases the wealth, products, and population, of a State. It is equivalent to a decree of man, con. demning to remain waste and uncultivated vast regions created by nature inexhaustibly fertile, and inviting the hand of improvement. What Senator from any new State has not seen whole townships of land remaining in the hands of speculators, waste and unoccupied, where otherwise purchases by settlers or cultivators would have been made at the minimum price of the Government, and where would now be smiling farms and prosperous villages.

The Senator from Kentucky [Mr. CLAY] tells us that, under the present system, the new States have grown and prospered. No, sir; it was before the present system of speculation had seized the public mind, and when settlers and cultivators purchased the public lands at the minimum price per acre. But will it be contended that a State will Hourish more by enabling speculators to sell to settlers and cultivators, at from five to thirty dollars per acre, those very lands which otherwise they would obtain at a dollar and a quarter per acre? The facts in our past history are against the argument of the Senator from Kentucky. The average sales of the public lands from 1796 to 1830 amounted to less than one million of acres per annum. Sales must, therefore, then have been made almost exclusively to settlers and cultivators by the Government, at the minimum price, when the West increased so rapidly. But what is the case now? Why, more than four fifths of the sales are made to speculators. Thus we have seen the sales of the year. 1836, including those at Pontotoc, amounting to more than 21,000,000 acres. And the sales of 1835 13,000,000

4,658,000

38,658,000

32,843,019

Thus it is proved that the sales of the last three years exceed, by nearly six millions of acres, the entire sales for nearly forty years preceding. The system of sales,

then, at the minimum price, by the Government, to settlers or cultivators, was, in fact, the system under which the new States grew and prospered; but let any new State realize what will soon be the situation of all of them under the existing sales, when every acre of unoccupied good land within their limits will be in the hands of speculators, and not an acre to be obtained at the Government price; and can they continue, as heretofore, to increase and prosper? He who thinks so must believe that a State will flourish more rapidly by enhancing to settlers and cultivators the price of its unoccupied lands; and he who thinks so should oppose the reduction of the price of the public lands. The reduction to settlers of the price of the public lands is certainly an important measure to the new States, and one which (Mr. W. said) he yet hoped to see adopted. But this reduction of the price of refuse land, on an average, of twenty-five cents per acre, is by no means so impor tant to the new States as the passage of this bill. If the maximum required for settlement and cultivation annually be five millions of acres, which under this bill would be sold for these purposes at one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre, but, by the continuance of the existing system, sold by speculators to settlers at an average profit of five dollars per acre, there would, by this bill, be saved annually to the settlers and cultivators of the new States twenty-five millions of dollars in the lands, long in market, proposed to be reduced, on an average, twenty-five cents per acre, a million of acres were purchased annually for settlement and cultivation, there would be saved annually to the settlers of the new States, in the price of their lands, two hundred and fifty thousand dollars; being less, by upwards of twenty-four millions annually, than is saved to the settlers of the new States by the adoption of this measure. If it were proposed at once, by an act of Congress, to transfer the whole public domain to speculators, at the minimum price per acre, what Senator from any new State would not at once object to it? Would we not all say it would be equivalent to raising to settlers the price of these lands, on an average, five dollars per acre? And yet, can we close our eyes to the fact that, by continuing the present system for a few years, the same consequences must follow, when, could we even obtain from Congress a reduction of the price of the public lands, there will remain none worth purchasing upon which the reduction could operate? Continue this system a few years, and the land offices of the United States will be abolished for all practical purposes, and offices opened in their place by speculating companies. Already has this been done in at least one of the new States, and half a million of acres advertised for sale by a single company, at prices varying from two to thirty dollars per acre. Another company is progressing with its entries, with a capital of six millions of dollars; and this, with other similar associations now formed and forming, and individual capitalists embarked in these operations, will monopolize the public domain, leaving, in a very short time, not an acre worth cultivating, to be purchased at the Government price per We do not yet feel fully all the evils of the system, because in most of the new States the Government still has considerable bodies of good land for sale at the minimum price, and competes with the speculator in the market; but when this ceases, as it soon will under the present system, and every acre of good unoccupied land is in the hands of speculators, and the monopoly complete, who can foretell the high price that will be demanded? The proposition seems almost too clear for argument, that the monopoly of the lands of a State by a few individuals must deeply injure its prosperity. The Territories of the Union will suffer most by continuing this system, and Florida, Iowa, and Wisconsin, re

acre.

SENATE.]

Public Lands.

[JAN. 14, 1837.

only an annual profit of five or ten per cent., when five hundred per cent. can be made in a series of years, at a single operation, by purchases of wild lands. Many of these capitalists purchased these lands as a permanent investment, intending to withhold them from sale for periods ranging from five to twenty years, calculating that the continued advance would be more than equivalent to the ordinary interest of money or profits of business. In the mean time, during this long interval, this ten mil lions annually might as well he sunk in the ocean. the West, which, whilst it drains the East of millions of capital, condemns to a period of long sterility vast portion of the beautiful valley of the West, containing a soil inexhaustibly fertile, but remaining in the hands of speculators barren and unproductive. From the old and the new States combined, we have seen that there was this year withdrawn more than twenty millions of dollars, for investment in lands for speculation. For the present, this twenty millions might as well be annihilated; and if the system is continued, great indeed will be the distress and embarrassment of the whole country. Indeed, to this cause, more than all others combined, must be attributed any existing difficulties in the money market. No one at all versed in the principles of political economy can for a moment doubt that twenty millions taken annually from commerce, agriculture, and manufactures, must embarrass the business of any nation. These results of this system (Mr. W. said) he clearly foresaw and predicted at the last session of Congress. Mr. W. here read the following extract from the report made by him at the last session, from the select committee in favor of the bill confining the sales of public lands to settlers or cultivators:

tained much longer in territorial pupilage. The spirit of speculation will sweep over them, like the hurricane of the tropics, subverting all within the range of its wild and desolating career. These Territories will, in fact, so far as regards the public domain, cease to be the Territories of the United States, and become the Territories of speculators, owning their soil, controlling their destiny for half a century, and postponing their admission as States of the Union. To the truly wise and patriotic American, there can be no spectacle more truly sublime than the admission of new States of the Union-There is thus opened a golden stream from the East to to behold another region reclaimed from solitude, and added to liberty and civilization; another country emerging from territorial pupilage, and assuming the attitude of one of the States of the American Union. Pass this bill, and in a few years more Iowa and Wisconsin, containing the mountain streams and fountains of the great Mississippi, will, together with Florida, send their Senators here to co-operate with us in advancing the prosperity of our common country. These Territories are unrepresented on this floor; and should we not all feel disposed to legislate for them in a spirit of parental kindness, and, above all, save them from the grasp of speculating monopolists? This bill embraces within its munificent provision the whole Union and all its parts. It reserves our noble public domain as a precious inheritance for the whole American people, to be purchased only by settlers or cultivators, from the Government, at the minimum price. It encourages agriculture, that mother of freemen, that nurse of virtue, liberty, and independence-that truly useful and virtuous vocation, heretofore depressed by exorbitant tariffs. It will enable every American citizen to obtain a farm at a reasonable price from a paternal Government, for more than half a century to come. It reserves for the noblest purposes, as the inheritance of the whole people of this Union, what, under the existing system, will soon be the property of a few speculating monopolists.

"Until within a few years past the sales were made almost exclusively for settlement, but now the reverse is the fact. The sales within the last year have amounted to nearly thirteen millions of acres, being almost three times the amount sold in any preceding year. Eight millions of acres of these sales have probably been

There is another method in which the existing system retards the prosperity of the new States. Of the twenty-seven millions of dollars paid this past year for pub-made for speculation, and not for settlement. This lic lands, at least fifteen millions are paid by the people of the new States, and at least ten millions of this for purchases for speculation. Thus is ten millions taken in a single year from the people of the new States, for investment in wild lands, remaining a dead capital, and withdrawn from investment in farms, or buildings, or railroads, or some of the useful branches of productive industry; and thus injuriously affecting the business and prosperity of the new States. Nor is it only the new States in which this evil is experienced. No; the old States are perhaps the greatest sufferers. Exclusive of the entries made for cultivation or settlement upon the ratio of the present year, we have seen that upwards of ten millions annually from the old States will be withdrawn for the purchase of wild lands for speculation. This is a process equally injurious to the old and to the new States. To the new States, we have seen that it is equivalent to a law advancing the price of the public lands to settlers and cultivators, for the benefit of speculators, at least five dollars per acre. To the old States, it is a withdrawal of ten millions annually from the channels of productive industry, for investment in wild lands, thus doomed to remain for years waste and uncultivated. Who can deny that ten millions taken annually from commerce, agriculture, manufactures, and public improvements, in the old States, must prove deeply injurious to those communities? Under the existing system, capitalists, great and small, and borrowers from banks, will send from the old States millions of money annually for land speculations, which they would otherwise invest in some useful business, or in some public improvements at home; but these investments will be not made, yielding

spirit of speculation in the public lands is increasing with alarming rapidity. Companies are forming in all directions to monopolize the ownership of the public domain, and thus be enabled to arrest the settlement and regu late the prosperity of the new States and Territories of the Union. A total and complete monopoly of the public lands by speculators is now contemplated, and the consequent withdrawal from the Government of all its power over this subject. This system will be deeply injurious to the interest of the old as well as of the new States. Vast sums will be taken from investment in the channels of productive industry in the old States, and invested in purchases of uncultivated lands. It is a bounty offered by Government for the annual withdrawal of capital from the useful pursuits of productive industry, for investment in waste lands, producing nothing, and, consequently, adding nothing to the general prosperity of the country. Agriculture, commerce, and manufac tures, are all injuriously affected by this process. For a great period of time, the moneys thus invested might as well be sunk in the ocean. Agriculture is not benefited, for settlement is retarded, and not advanced, by this sysCommerce and manufactures are injured by the annual sinking of so much of the active capital of the country. The vast sums thus invested during the present year have certainly greatly contributed to create the existing embarrassments, and, as the evil progresses, the embarrassments will be increased and aggravated. It is, then, the interest of the old as well as the new States to arrest this annual investment of millions in unproductive pursuits. Were it arrested, these millions of dead capital would be adding yearly to the commerce,

tem.