Part 33 (1/2)

Gentlemen, of our interior adhly iht to attract much more attention than it has hitherto received, especially from the people of the Atlantic States The public lands are public property They belong to the people of all the States A vast portion of them is composed of territories which were ceded by individual States to the United States, after the close of the Revolutionary war, and before the adoption of the present Constitution The history of these cessions, and the reasons forthem, are fae tracts of unsettled lands within their chartered limits The Revolution had established their title to these lands, and as the Revolution had been brought about by the common treasure and the coht not unreasonable that these unsettled lands should be transferred to the United States, to pay the debt created by the war, and afterwards to remain as a fund for the use of all the States This is the well-known origin of the title possessed by the United States to lands northwest of the River Ohio

By treaties with France and Spain, Louisiana and Florida, containing many millions of acres of public land, have been since acquired The cost of these acquisitions was paid, of course, by the general governe upon the whole people The public lands, therefore, all and singular, are national property; granted to the United States, purchased by the United States, paid for by all the people of the United States

The idea, that, when a new State is created, the public lands lying within her territory become the property of such new State in consequence of her sovereignty, is too preposterous for serious refutation Such notions have heretofore been advanced in Congress, but nobody has sustained theh one cannot say whether they may not be revived, in consequence of recent propositions which have been made in the Senate The new States are ad, to the fullest extent, the right of the United States to the public lands within their borders; and it is no more reasonable to contend that sonty overrides all these stipulations, and ainst the provisions and conditions of their own constitution, and the Constitution of the United States, than it would be, that a similar doctrine entitled the State of New York to the money collected at the custom-house in this city; since it is no overnment should hold lands, for the purpose of sale, within the territory of another, than it is that it should lay and collect taxes and duties within such territory

Whatever extravagant pretensions may have been set up heretofore, there was not, I suppose, an enlightened ht in the States, when the proposition to cede the lands to the States was , therefore the common property of all the people of all the States, I shall never consent to give them away to particular States, or to dispose of theeneral use of the whole country

I felt bound, therefore, on the occasion just alluded to, to resist at the threshold a proposition to cede the public lands to the States in which they lie, on certain conditions I very retted the introduction of such a itate ell settled, and to disturb that course of proceeding in regard to the public lands, which forty years of experience have shown to be so wise, and so satisfactory in its operation, both to the people of the old States and to those of the new

But, Gentleiven away, nor ceded to particular States, a very liberal policy in regard to theht certainly to prevail Such a policy has prevailed, and I have steadily supported it, and shall continue to support it so long as I ard to these lands, is undoubtedly to settle theration, may enable us to settle them

The lands, therefore, should be sold, at a low price; and, for one, I have never doubted the right or expediency of granting portions of the lands therants of money, for objects of internal improvement, connected with them

I have always supported liberal appropriations for the purpose of opening coh these lands, by common roads, canals, and railroads; and where lands of little value have been long in market, and, on account of their indifferent quality are not likely to command a common price, I know no objection to a reduction of price, as to such lands, so that they may pass into private ownershi+p Nor do I feel any objections to re the lands for five years after they are sold But while, in these and all other respects, I am not only reconciled to a liberal policy, but espouse it and support it, and have constantly done so, I still hold the national doeneral property of the country, confided to the care of Congress, and which Congress is soleood

The benefit derived froreatest degree, enjoyed by those who buy theovernment constitutes but a small part of their actual value Their iives him coion of fertile territory, all on sale at the saly low one Selection is no sooner un, and the first furrow turned, than he already finds hies of Western erants and Western settlers; and they are such, certainly, as no country on earth ever before afforded to her citizens This opportunity of purchase and settlement, this certainty of enhanced value, these sure means of imhts and the blessings of the people of the West, and they have my hearty wishes for their full and perfect enjoyment

I desire to see the public lands cultivated and occupied I desire the growth and prosperity of the West, and the fullest develop it near to us, by every species of useful communication I see, not without admiration and amazein already containing more people than Massachusetts These people I know to be part of ourselves; they have proceeded from the midst of us, and we may trust that they are not likely to separate the, from their kindred, whom they have left on the farms and around the hearths of their common fathers

A liberal policy, a sy of participation in its prosperity, are due to the West, and will be met, I doubt not, by a return of sentiments equally cordial and equally patriotic

Gentleeneral question of revenue is very much connected with this subject of the public lands, and I will therefore, in a very feords, express my views on that point

The revenue involves not only the supply of the treasury with money, but the question of protection to manufactures On these connected subjects, therefore, Gentle back, I will state my opinions plainly, but very shortly

I am in favor of such a revenue as shall be equal to all the just and reasonable wants of the government; and I am decidedly opposed to all collection or accuovernment expenditure, and unnecessary accus, to beAe manufactories, but also, and more especially, as employed in the various mechanic arts, carried on by persons of ss of their own personal industry

Every city in the Union, and none more than this, would feel severely the consequences of departing froovern this last branch of protection If duties were to be abolished on hats, boots, shoes, and other articles of leather, and on the articles fabricated of brass, tin, and iron, and on ready-es, furniture, and many similar articles, thousands of persons would be immediately thrown out of employment in this city, and in other parts of the Union Protection, in this respect, of our own labor against the cheaper, ill-paid, half-fed, and pauper labor of Europe, is, in my opinion, a duty which the country owes to its own citizens I a our own industry and our own labor

In the next place, Gentlemen, I am of opinion, that, with no more than usual skill in the application of the well-tried principles of discri and specific duties, all the branches of national industrysuch duties on ie the treasury

And as to the revenues arising froht to be set apart for the use of the States

The States need the overnment of the United States does not need it Many of the States have contracted large debts for objects of internal improvement; and others of them have important objects which they would wish to accoranted for the use of the several States; and now that their proceeds are not necessary for the purposes of the general governo to the States, and to the people of the States, upon an equal principle Set apart, then, the proceeds of the public lands for the use of the States; supply the treasury from duties on imports; apply to these duties a just and careful discrimination, in favor of articles produced at home by our own labor, and thus support, to a fair extent, our own eneral outlines of that policy which the present condition of the country requires us to adopt

Gentle to express opinions on the principal subjects of interest at the present moment, it is impossible to overlook the delicate question which has arisen from events which have happened in the late Mexican province of Texas The independence of that province has now been recognized by the governave the President thea diploovernment, and the late President immediately made use of those means

I saw no objection, under the circu an appropriation to be used when the President should think the proper time had come; and he deemed, very promptly, it is true, that the time had already arrived

Certainly, Gentlemen, the history of Texas is not a little wonderful A very few people, in a very short tiainst the authority of the parent state; and this governenerally supposed, there is little probability, at the presentable to overturn

This government is, in form, a copy of our own It is an Areat American model We all, therefore, must wish it success; and there is no one ill more heartily rejoice than I shall, to see an independent coent, industrious, and friendly towards us, springing up, and rising into happiness, distinction, and power, upon our own principles of liberty and governuised, Gentlemen, that a desire, or an intention, is already manifested to annex Texas to the United States On a subject of such nitude as this, and at a moment when the public attention is drawn to it, I should feelin candor, if I did not express my opinion; since all must suppose that, on such a question, it is impossible that I should be without some opinion

I say then, Gentlemen, in all frankness, that I see objections, I think insurmountable objections, to the annexation of Texas to the United States When the Constitution was formed, it is not probable that either its framers or the people ever looked to the admission of any States into the Union, except such as then already existed, and such as should be for to the United States Fifteen years after the adoption of the Constitution, however, the case of Louisiana arose Louisiana was obtained by treaty with France, who had recently obtained it from Spain; but the object of this acquisition, certainly, was not reat political interests were connected with it Spain, while she possessed Louisiana, had held the reat rivers which rise in the Western States, and flow into the Gulf of Mexico She had disputed our use of these rivers already, and with a powerful nation in possession of these outlets to the sea, it is obvious that the coer of perpetual vexation The coreat object aimed at in the acquisition of Louisiana But that acquisition necessarily brought territory along with it, and three States now exist, formed out of that ancient province