Showing posts with label Internal Improvements. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Internal Improvements. Show all posts

Thursday, February 22, 2024

Congressman Albert G. Brown’s Speech on Homesteads, July 26, 1850

WHEN arrested in the progress of my remarks yesterday, I was about to say that I approved of the main object of the bill reported by the Committee on Agriculture, and which had been advocated with so much zeal and ability by the gentleman from Tennessee [Mr. Johnson]. I was about to say that my judgment approved the policy of supplying, by some appropriate means, a home to every citizen.

Ours is essentially an agricultural community. The national prosperity of this country, more than any other, depends upon the production of its soil. Whatever tends to increase that production, enhances the national wealth, and, by consequence, increases the national prosperity. The first care of this nation should be to promote the happiness and prosperity of its citizens; and acting on this hypothesis, it has been my constant aim to promote the passage of all laws which tended to ameliorate the condition of the toiling millions.

I have always thought, and now think, that some salutary reform in our land system, by which a fixed and permanent home should be placed within the reach of every citizen, however humble his condition in life, would promote the national prosperity, add to the wealth of the states, and give fresh impetus to the industry and perseverance of our people.

I repeat, sir, that I am for giving to every man in the United States a home—a spot of earth—a place on the surface of God's broad earth which shall be his against the demands of all the world—a place where, in the full enjoyment of all his senses, and the full exercise of all his faculties, he may look upon the world, and, with the proud consciousness of an American citizen, say, This is my home, the castle of my defence; here I am free from the world's cold frowns, and exempt from the Shylock demands of inexorable creditors. These, sir, are my sentiments, long entertained, and now honestly expressed; nor am I to be deterred from their advocacy by any general outcry. Call these sentiments Socialism, Fourierism, Free-Soilism—call them what you please—say this is the doctrine of "vote yourself a farm"—say it is anti-rentism—say what you please—it is the true doctrine; it embraces great principles, which, if successfully carried out, will lead us on to higher renown as a nation, add to the wealth of the separate states, and do more for the substantial happiness of the great mass of our people than all your other legislation combined.

Congress has been in session nearly eight months, and what have you done?—what have you been trying to do? More than six months of that time has been expended in attacking and defending the institution of slavery—the North depreciating and trying to destroy the sixteen hundred millions of dollars invested in this species of property; and the South, forgetting for a season her party differences, banding together for the defence of this vast interest. Sometimes the monotony of this tedious drama has been relieved by a glance at other matters,—a member has appeared to advocate the manufacturing interests, or possibly to put on foot some grand scheme of internal improvement. But, whatever has been said in all our discussions, or by whomsoever it has been said, "the upper ten" have been constantly in view. No one has thought it worth his while to take account of the wants of the millions who toil for bread. The merchants and the manufacturers, the mariners and the speculators, the professions and the men of fortune everywhere, have their advocates on this floor. I speak to-day for the honest, hard-fisted, warm-hearted toiling millions—I speak here, in the councils of this nation, as I speak in the midst of my constituents; and whilst I do not object to the consideration which you give to other interests and other pursuits, I stand up here to demand even-handed justice for the honest but humble cultivator of the soil.

I cannot forget my allegiance—I know the men whose devotion sustains this government—I know the men whose friendship sustains me against the attacks of slander and the malignity of the interested few. For them I speak, and by no senseless cry of demagoguism, will I be turned from my purpose of vindicating their rights on this floor.

Talk, sir, of your lordly manufacturers, your princely merchants, your professional gentry, and your smooth-tongued politicians. The patriotism of one simple-hearted, honest old farmer would outweigh them all; and, for private friendship, I had rather have the hearty good will of one of those plain old men than the hypocritical smiles of as many of your smooth-tongued oily fellows as would fill this Capitol from its dome to its base.

It is my fortune to represent a constituency in which is mingled wealth and poverty;—whilst some are wealthy, and many possess more than a competency, there are many others on whom poverty has fixed his iron grasp. All, I hope, are patriotic. But, sir, if I were going to hunt for patriots who could be trusted in every emergency; patriots who would pour out their blood like water; and who would think it no privation to lay down their lives in defence of their country, I would go among the poor, the squatters, the preemptors, the hardy sons of toil. Though I should expect to find patriots everywhere, I know I should find them here.

Sir, in the great matter of legislation, shall men like these be neglected? I invoke gentlemen to forget for a moment the loom and the furnace, the storehouse, and the ships on the high seas, and go with me to the houses of these people; listen to the story of their wrongs, and let us together do them justice.

Men in affluent circumstances know but little of the wants of other men, and, unfortunately, care less for the miseries of the poor. Rocked in the cradle of fortune from infancy to manhood, they do not understand why it is that some men toil with poverty all their lives, and die at last in penury. Let gentlemen picture to themselves a man reared in humble life, without education, and with no fortune but his hands; see him going into the wild woods with a wife and a family of small children, there, by his unaided exertions, to rear his humble dwelling, to clear the forest and make way for his planting. See him after the toils of the day are over, returning to that humble dwelling to receive the smiles of his wife and hear the merry prattle of his little children. Watch him as he moves steadily and firmly on from day to day; fancy to yourself his heart buoyant with hope as he marks the progress of his growing crop, and pictures to himself the happiness of his wife and little children when he shall have gathered the reward of his summer's toil, sold it, and with the proceeds secured this his humble home.

Look, sir, at this scene; gaze on that sun-burnt patriot, for he is worthy of your admiration. Now go with me one step further, and behold the destruction of all these fairy visions; blighting seasons, low prices, disease, a bad trade, or some unforeseen disaster has overtaken him. His year of honest industry is gone-the time has come when government demands her pay for this poor man's home. He is without money—government, with a hard heart and inexorable will, turns coldly away, and the next week or the next month she sells her land, and this man's labor, his humble house and little fields, are gone. The speculator comes, and with an iron will, turns him and his family out of doors; and all this is the act of his own government—of a government which has untold millions of acres of land. Now, Mr. Speaker, let me ask you, can this man love a government that treats him thus? Never, sir, never. To do so, he should be more than man, and scarcely less than God. Treatment like this would have put out the fire of patriotism in Washington's breast, and almost justified the treachery of Arnold.

Instead of treating her citizens thus, I would have this government interpose its strong arm to protect them from the iron grasp of the heartless speculator. By doing so, you encourage industry, promote happiness, develope the resources of the soil, make better men and purer patriots. In a word, you perform a vast amount of good without the possibility of doing harm.

Not having seen the bill reported by the committee under circumstances which afforded an opportunity for a critical examination, I am not prepared to say that its details meet my approbation.

I am disinclined to give to the settler an absolute title to lands. I am so, sir, because I would secure him in the possession of his home against his misfortunes, and even against his own improvidence. If he is an honest and industrious man, he should have a home where that honest heart could repose in peace, and where the hand of industry could find employment. If he be dishonest, give him a home where, in the bosom of his family, he may hide his shame, and where they may find shelter from the frowns of a cruel world. If he is idle and worthless, give him a home where his wife and children may toil, and, by their example, bring him back to habits of honest industry. In any and in every event, give him a home, and secure him in the possession of that home, against all the contingencies of life and vicissitudes of fortune. When you have done this, rest satisfied that you have at least made a better man, and done something towards the general prosperity.

My own scheme has been reduced to the form of a bill, and before I take my seat I beg leave to send it to the Clerk's desk, that it may be read—promising that I am wedded to no special plan. The object is a good one; it meets my cordial approbation, and I shall most heartily unite in any scheme which gives reasonable promise of success.

I offer the paper which I hold in my hand as a substitute for the original proposition, and ask that it may be included in the motion to print.

Mr. Brown's proposition was read.

Strike out all after the enacting clause, and insert as follows:

 

That the laws now in force granting preemption to actual settlers on the public lands, shall continue until otherwise ordered by Congress, and that the same be extended to all the territories of the United States.

 

SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That from and after the passage of this act, the rights of preemptors shall be perpetuated: that is to say, persons acquiring the right of preemption shall retain the same without disturbance, and without payment of any kind to the United States, but on these conditions: First, The preemptor shall not sell, alienate or dispose of his or her right for a consideration, and if he or she voluntarily abandons one preemption and claims another, no right shall be acquired by such claim, until the claimant shall first have testified, under oath, before the register of the land office when the claim is preferred, that he or she has voluntarily abandoned his or her original preemption, and that no consideration, reward or payment of any kind has been received, or is expected, directly or indirectly, as an inducement for such abandonment; and any person who shall testify falsely in such case, shall be deemed guilty of perjury. Second: Any person claiming and holding the right of preemption to lands under this act, may be required by the state within which the same lies, to pay taxes thereon in the same manner, and to the same extent, as if he or she owned the said land in fee simple; and in case such lands are sold for taxes, the purchaser shall acquire the right of preemption only. Third: Absence of the preemptor and his family for six consecutive months, shall be deemed an abandonment, and the land shall, in such case, revert to the United States, and be subject to the same disposition as other public lands.

 

SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That lands preempted, and the improvements thereon, shall not be subject to execution sale, or other sale for debt; and all contracts made in reference thereto, intended in anywise to alienate the right, or to embarrass or disturb the preemptor in his or her occupancy, shall be absolutely null and void.

 

SEC. 4. And be it further enacted, That the preemptor may, at any time, at his or her discretion, enter the lands preempted, by paying therefor to the proper officer of the United States one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre.

 

SEC. 5. And be it further enacted, That in case of the preemptor's death, if a married man, his right shall survive to his widow and infant children, but the rights of the older children shall cease as they respectively come of age, or when they reach the age of twenty-one years; in all cases the right of preemption shall remain in the youngest child. And in case of the death of both father and mother, leaving an infant child or children, the executor, administrator, or guardian, may at any time within twelve months after such death, enter said preempted lands in the name of said infant child or children, or the said preemption, together with the improvements on the lands, may be deemed property, and as such, sold for the benefit of said infants, but for no other purpose, and the purchaser may acquire the right of the deceased preemptor by such purchase.

 

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In reply to Mr. Morse, of Louisiana, Mr. BROWN said: Mr. Chairman, the gentleman from Louisiana [Mr. Morse], in the progress of his remarks was understood by me to assume the ground that my proposition is unconstitutional. I did not, as you know, Mr. Speaker, undertake to explain, much less to vindicate that proposition. Its provisions are so few and so simple, that it may be well left to speak its own vindication, even against the furious assault of the honorable gentleman.

It proposes simply to perpetuate a law which has stood for years on your statute book, an honorable monument to the wisdom and justice of Congress. To-day, for the first time, it has been discovered to be unconstitutional. The preemption law struggled into existence against the combined opposition of many of the first minds in the country. It has received the repeated sanction of Congress, and to-day I know of no man from the new states who desires its repeal, or who has the boldness to avow such desire if he feels it. Instead of limiting the right of the preemptor to one year or two years, I simply propose to perpetuate that right, and this is the measure which the astute gentleman from Louisiana says is unconstitutional. I shall not stop to vindicate the measure from such a charge. The government has full power to dispose of the public lands, and in the exercise of this power, it has from time to time reduced the price, and in many hundred instances given them away.

I ask the honorable gentleman if the act by which five hundred thousand acres of the public lands were given to the state of Louisiana was unconstitutional? Were the various acts giving lands to the states, Louisiana among the rest, for educational purposes, unconstitutional? Did the honorable gentleman violate the Constitution last year, when he voted to give to his own state five millions of the public lands for works of internal improvement? Did we all violate the Constitution the other day, when we voted bounty lands to the soldiers of the last war with Great Britain and all our Indian wars?

No one knows better than the honorable gentleman, that this government has habitually given away the public lands—given them to the states for internal-improvement purposes; given them to establish colleges and primary schools; given them to railroad and canal companies given them to states and to soulless corporations, for almost every conceivable purpose; and all this has been done within the Constitution; but now, sir, when it is proposed to allow the humble citizen to reside on these lands, the gentleman starts up as though he had just descended from another world, and startles us with a declaration that we are violating the Constitution.

It has pleased the honorable member to denominate this as a villanous measure; and with great emphasis he declares, that its supporters are demagogues. It will not surprise you or others, Mr. Speaker, if I speak warmly in reply to language like this. The gentleman was pleased to extract the poison from his sting, by declaring that he used these words in no offensive sense. In reply, I shall speak plainly, but within the rules of decorum.

"Demagoguing,"—“demagoguing," says the honorable gentleman, "for the votes of the low, ill-bred vagrants and vagabonds." Sir, this is strange language, coming from that quarter. I know something of the gentleman's constituents. Many of the best of them are of this despised caste; many of them are the low, ill-bred vagabonds, of which the gentleman has been speaking. Many, very many, of them are squatters on the public lands. Sir, I should like to hear the honorable gentleman making the same speech in one of the upper parishes of Louisiana, which he has this day pronounced in the American Congress. I can well conceive how his honest constituents the squatters, would stare and wonder, to hear a gentleman, so bland and courteous last year, now so harsh and cruel. Yes, sir, the gentleman's squatter constituents would stand aghast to hear the representative denouncing them as a dirty, ill-bred set of vagabonds and scoundrels—when the candidate, with a face all wreathed in his blandest smile, had told them they were the cleverest fellows in the world!

It may do very well, Mr. Speaker, for gentlemen, when they come on to Washington, to get upon stilts and talk after this fashion. It may sound beautiful in the ears that are here to catch the sound, thus to denounce a measure intended to relieve the poor man's wants as villanous, and its advocates as demagogues. But, sir, I take it upon myself to say there is not a congressional district in the West or Southwest where a candidate for Congress would dare to use such language.

Sir, I know very well how popular electioneering canvasses are conducted, and bold and valiant as the gentleman is, he would scarcely commit the indiscretion of saying to any portion of the voters in his district that they were an ill-bred set of vagabonds, and if he did, they would hardly commission him to repeat the expression in Congress. Let me warn the gentleman, that if the speech made by him to-day shall ever reach his constituents, it will sound his political death-knell. If I owed the gentleman any ill-will, which I take this occasion to say I do not, it would be my highest hope that he would write out and print that speech just as he delivered it. I should at least have a comfortable assurance that the speech would be the last of its kind.

In conclusion, Mr. Speaker, I have to repeat that, notwithstanding the maledictions of the gentleman from Louisiana, I am still for this proposition; and though that gentleman may continue to denounce the squatters on the public lands as a worthless, ill-bred set of vagabonds, I am still their friend. They are honest men, pure patriots, and upright citizens. They are worthy of our care. If the candidate can afford to flatter them for their votes, the representative should not skulk the responsibility of voting to protect their interests. I hold but one language, and it shall be the language of honest sincerity. I would scorn to flatter a poor squatter for his vote in the swamps of Louisiana, and then stand up before the American Congress as his representative, and denounce him as a worthless vagabond.

Sir, if the men are worthless the women are not, and I could appeal to the well-known gallantry of the honorable member to interpose in their behalf. If you will do nothing for the ruder sex, interpose the strong arm of the law to shield the women and children, at least, from the rude grasp of the avaricious speculator. If a man be worthless, let the appeal go up for his wife and little children. Secure them a home, and that wife will make that home her castle. It will shelter her and her little children from the rude blasts of winter, and the rude blows of a wicked world. She will toil there for bread, and with her own hand. plant a shrub, perchance a flower. She will make it useful by her industry, and adorn it by her ingenuity. Give it to her, sir, and she will invoke such blessings on your head as a pious woman alone can ask.

I thank the gentleman from Louisiana, not for his speech, but for his courtesy in giving me a part of his time in which to reply.

SOURCE: M. W. Cluskey, Editor, Speeches, Messages, and Other Writings of the Hon. Albert G. Brown, A Senator in Congress from the State of Mississippi, p. 194-9

Tuesday, September 5, 2023

Remarks of Jefferson Davis on the Bill to Raise Two Regiments of Riflemen delivered in the House of Representatives, March 27, 1846.

Mr. JEFFERSON DAVIS said he did not intend to enter into a wide discussion with reference to the tariff, to Oregon, to Texas, or to the improvement of the rivers and harbors of the country. The House had under consideration a proposition to raise two regiments of riflemen. The only questions to be determined were: first, the necessity of the increase; and, second, the mode in which it should be made. There were two great propositions imbodying different modes: one to increase the army by increasing the number of regiments; the other, to add to the rank and file of the existing regiments. Our organization under a peace establishment is designed only to be the skeleton of an army; we organize our regiments not so much with a view to their present efficiency as on the arising of an emergency which shall require them to enable us to fill them up and render us the greatest service. We who were literally the rifle people of the world, who were emphatically skilled in the use of the rifle, were now falling behind France, England, and other nations, who were paying attention to it, and now actually had no rifle regiment. For this reason, if there were no other, he would vote to raise a rifle regiment to perfect our organization, and add the wanting bone to the skeleton of our army.

Another reason in behalf of this bill was, that it was recommended by the President of the United States. [Mr. D. read that part of the Message recommending the establishment of stockade forts on the route to Oregon, &c.] It did not depend upon the notice, upon future emigration, but was necessary to protect the emigration now passing to Oregon. He pointed out the dangers from the attacks of nomadic hostile Indians, to which the traveller across the prairies is exposed, the necessity of mounted riflemen for their protection, and the superiority in very many respects of mounted to unmounted riflemen for this service. He agreed with the gentleman from Kentucky, [Mr. BOYD,] who, in his amendment, proposed to make it discretionary with the President whenever, in his opinion, the public interests shall require, to mount such portions of these regiments as he may deem necessary. He (Mr. D.) hoped that at least half of them would be mounted; for it was perfectly idle to send infantry to guard emigrants against Indians who live on horseback, who rob all companies not sufficiently strong to resist them, and fly with their booty as on the wings of the wind.

He denied the correctness of the position of Mr. RATHBUN, that this bill was intended for raising troops to transport our men, women, and children to a territory over which we dared not assert our rights; and said that the President had recommended mounted riflemen to protect the emigration which is now going on; we needed it before emigration commenced, and emigration has only increased its necessity. He urged the importance of this measure, and the advantages and facilities which would be extended to emigrants to Oregon, by the erection of a line of stockade forts on their route. In further reply to Mr. R., he vindicated the qualifications of western men for this particular kind of service, acknowledging that they would be loth to submit to military punishment, but assigning their habitual subordination to the laws of the country, and their patriotic and gallant devotion to its interests, as the means by which they would avoid subjecting themselves to it. In the course of his remarks, he adverted to the necessity of the Military Academy in reference to the attacks from time to time made upon it, maintaining the unquestionable necessity of a military education to prepare a man for command in the army; which education, he said, was only to be obtained at a military academy, or piece by piece to be picked up, at the hazard of loss of property and life, by the officer, after he was commissioned and under heavy pay. Mr. D. also touched briefly upon one or two other points.

SOURCE: Dunbar Rowland, Editor, Jefferson Davis, Constitutionalist: His Letters, Papers and Speeches, Volume 1, p. 39-40

Wednesday, July 25, 2018

John H. Lumpkin* to Howell Cobb, November 13, 1846

Rome [ga.], 13th Nov., 1846.

Dear Cobb, Your letter of the 10th inst. was received by last night's mail. I agree with you that the Southern democracy have not redeemed their pledges to their Northern allies; that while we have contended for and obtained the whole of Texas, we have sacrificed and given up one half of our claim to Oregon — and this of itself is enough to account for the defeats that our friends have met with in Pa., N. Y., and other Northern and Northwestern States. But is this the cause of our disasters? I think not entirely. Indeed I incline to the opinion that our Northern allies are not prepared to support some of the cardinal measures of the Democratic party. With the Southern' portion of our party a tariff for revenue only is a cardinal principle, and we cannot consent to compromise this principle, even for success itself. But in Pennsylvania and in New York and some other states North and East this doctrine is repudiated by those who claim to be associated with us in principles. I need not inform you that such Democrats received no encouragement or countenance in the legislation of the last session of Congress. I am not surprised therefore that these men have been repudiated at home. In fact I rejoice that Whigs have superseded such Democrats as Dr. Leib, Yost, Black etc. etc., and for my part I had rather be in the minority than to be in the majority controlled by such men. The bill making appropriations for rivers and harbours caused a similar division among our own friends in different sections of the Union, and has likely contributed in some degree to these disastrous results. But shall we give up our opposition to protective tariff and to these extravagant appropriations on this account? By no means. Let us commence the contest anew and have nothing to do with any man or set of men who combine for our destruction; and if we have not the power to accomplish positive good, we may have power to prevent harm and prevent our destruction. Some of our warm and influential Democrats in this section of the State are disposed to censure the President and his Cabinet and attribute these results to the want of management in our Executive. I disagree with all such. I do not believe that Genl. Washington, or Genl. Jackson in his prime, could have directed the ship of state with more ability. Indeed, no man living or dead could have produced harmony and ensured success with such conflicting and discordant materials. I am amazed when I see what was accomplished at the last session, and can never censure the President for any of these disastrous results. I differ with the President in one point only, and that is purely a question of policies, and that is in regard to appointing men to office who do not agree with him in principle. I do not mean such as are politically opposed to him alone, but such as do not sustain the great, leading measures of his administration that are nominally identified with the Democratic party. More of this when we meet. I shall be with you in Augusta on the first. Mrs. L. unites with me in regards to Mrs. Cobb.
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*A leading Democrat of northwestern Georgia, Member of Congress, 1843-1849 and 1855-1857; judge of the superior court of Georgia (Cherokee circuit), 1849-1850; a close friend and voluminous correspondent of Howell Cobb.



SOURCE: Ulrich Bonnell Phillips, Editor, The Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1911, Volume 2: The Correspondence of Robert Toombs, Alexander H. Stephens, and Howell Cobb, p. 86-7

Tuesday, July 17, 2018

Charles J. McDonald* to Howell Cobb, July 7, 1846

Macon [ga.], 7th July, 1846.

Dear Cobb, I am here, and a moment's leisure gives me the opportunity to inquire of you what the Democratic party intend to do? Can it be possible that the unanimity of the committee which reported on the proceedings of the Memphis Convention is an indication of the mind of Congress on the subject? It is reported that a majority of the democratic members of Congress from Virginia will follow that committee in trampling down the cherished doctrines of her Jeffersons and Madisons on the construction of the Constitution of the United States. It is by the strict construction alone, which they practiced and enjoined, that Congress can be kept within the bounds prescribed for it by the people who formed the instrument which gave it being. The people never intended to give their representatives the right to assume power by implication. The power to regulate commerce gives no authority to create roads or canals. It is the authority to prescribe the rules or laws which shall govern the commercial intercourse between the States. It is to be hoped that the perilous doctrine will be at once rebuked. Mr. Madison about twenty years ago vetoed a bill with such objects. Can you get the Maysville veto for me? I suppose all the high protectionists will, to a man, support a doctrine which will draw from the Treasury annually twenty millions of dollars. That sum can be lost in the unfathomable bed of the Mississippi every year without any improvement in its ever varying channel. Will the whole Democracy of the West be drawn from their positions by the apparent interest of their constituents in the stupendous expenditures to which this policy will give rise? These men are too apt to be swerved from duty by an interested ambition. No political death is so sweet as that in which a man falls a sacrifice to noble principles. I have not heard from you on this subject, but I take it for granted that you are not a convert to this new faith. Let me hear from you.

I am sorry to hear of the dissensions in the Democratic ranks at Washington. Can they not be healed? The party have treated Mr. Polk unkindly in not sustaining his patriotic measures in regard to our foreign relations. They have given the Whigs a decided advantage, and the whole course of Congress in regard to the Oregon question has shown the ignoble spirit that would concede to power what it would maintain against a nation less able to defend its usurpations.

Why has Mr. Polk passed by the army, which distinguished itself in the late battles, in making his appointments?
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* Governor of Georgia, 1839-1843; candidate for the governorship in 1851 on the Southern Rights ticket, defeated by Howell Cobb. Judge of the supreme court of Georgia, 1856-1861.

SOURCE: Ulrich Bonnell Phillips, Editor, The Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1911, Volume 2: The Correspondence of Robert Toombs, Alexander H. Stephens, and Howell Cobb, p. 84-5

Monday, April 16, 2018

Gerrit Smith: The True Office of Civil Government, April 14, 1851

[Delivered at Troy, New York, April 14, 1851.]

The legitimate action of Civil Government is very simple. Its legitimate range is very narrow. Government owes nothing to its subjects but protection. And this is a protection, not from competitions, but from crimes. It owes them no protection from the foreign farmer, or foreign manufacturer, or foreign navigator. As it owes them no other protection from each other than from the crimes of each other, so it owes them no other protection from foreigners, than from the crimes of foreigners. Nor is it from all crimes, that Government is bound to protect its subjects. It is from such only, as are committed against their persons and possessions. Ingratitude is a crime: but, as it is not of this class of crimes, Government is not to be cognizant of it.

No protection does Government owe to the morals of its subjects. Still less is it bound to study to promote their morals. To call on Government to increase the wealth of its subjects, or to help the progress of religion among them, or, in short, to promote any of their interests, is to call on it to do that, which it has no right to do, and which, it is probably safe to add, it has no power to do. Were Government to aim to secure to its subjects the free and inviolable control of their persons and property — of life and of the means of sustaining life — it would be aiming at all, that it should aim at. And its subjects, if they get this security, should feel that they need nothing more at the hands of Government to enable them to work their way well through the world. Government, in a word, is to say to its subjects: “You must do for yourselves. My only part is to defend your right to do for yourselves. You must do your own work. I will but protect you in that work.”

That, the world over, Government is depended on to instruct, improve, guide, and enrich its subjects, proves, that, the world over, there is little confidence in the democratic doctrine of the people’s ability to take care of themselves: and that the opposite doctrine, that the many must be taken care of by the aristocratic and select few, is well nigh universally entertained. The people’s lack of confidence in themselves is not only proved, but it is accounted for, by this dependence on Government. This dependence of the people on the policy, providence, and guidance of Government, as well in peace as in war, has necessarily begotten in them a distrust of their ability to take care of themselves.

One of the consequences of this self-distrust on the part of the people is, that Government is employed, for the most part, in doing what it belongs to the people to do. And one of the consequences of this illegitimate work of Government is, that Government has become too great, and the people too little — that Government has risen into undue prominence, and the people sunk into undue obscurity. This is evident, wherever we look. The British Government overshadows the British people, and is their master, instead of their servant. It is in France as in Britain. The French Government owns, instead of being owned by, the French people.

The people of every nation are annoyed, enthralled, debased by this meddling of Government with the people’s duties! And never will the liberty, dignity, and happiness of the people be what they should be, until the people shall have risen up, and driven back Government from this meddling. In other words, the people will never be in their proper place, and Government will never be in its proper place, until the work of the people is done by the people.

Whenever the work of the people is taken out of their hands by the Government — or, since the people are quite as ready to shirk their work, as Government is to usurp it — I might as well say, whenever the people devolve it on Government, it is, of course, badly done. This is true, because every work to be well done must be done by its appropriate agent. Whenever Government builds railroads and canals, it builds them injudiciously and wastefully. So too, whenever Government meddles with schools, it proves, that it is out of its place by the pernicious influence it exerts upon them. And to whatever extent churches are controlled by Government, to that extent are they corrupted by it.

That Government does the work of the people badly is not, however, my chief objection to this meddling. There are two other objections to it, on which I lay greater stress than on this. One of these is — that Government, being allowed to do the work of others, fails, for this reason, to do its own work — or, in other words, being allowed to do what it should not do, it fails to do what it should do. The other of these objections is, that the doing by Government of the work of the people has the effect to degrade and dwarf the people.

I said, that Government has naught to do, but to protect its subjects from crimes. The crimes, however, which it permits against them — and, still more, the crimes, which it authorizes, and even perpetrates against them, show how extensively it fails of its duty. We will glance at a few of these crimes.

Slavery is one of them. And who needs to be told, that slavery is a crime? ay, the highest crime against both the body and the soul. Nevertheless, Government, not only permits its subjects to be enslaved, but it actually enacts laws for their enslavement.

Land monopoly is another of these crimes. The right of every man to his needed share of the soil, is as inborn, inalienable, and absolute, as his right to life itself: and the world has suffered more wrong and wretchedness from the violations of this right than it has even from slavery. Indeed, the robbing of men of their liberty is but a consequence of robbing them of their land. The poverty and impotence of the landless masses make them an inviting and easy prey of slavery. The masses, who fall under the yoke of slavery, fall under it because they are poor. Well does the Bible say: “The destruction of the poor is their poverty.” But were the equal right to the soil practically acknowledged, there would be no masses of poverty: and, hence, there would be little or no slavery — almost certainly no slavery. Stupendous, however, and everywhere-practised robbery, as is land monopoly, Government, nevertheless, does not forbid it. Nay, it positively and expressly permits it. Still worse, it does itself practise it. Government is itself the great land monopolist.

The compelling of one generation to pay the debts of another is among these crimes. Government not only suffers its subjects to be robbed of their earnings, in order to pay the debts of former generations, but it actually compels them to submit to such robbery.

There are wrongs done to woman, which fall in this class of crimes. Such is the wrong of denying her the right to control her property. Such is the wrong of denying her the right to participate in the choice of civil rulers. But Government, so far from defending these rights, does itself rob her of them.

The violation of the right to buy and sell freely, whenever and wherever we please, is another of these crimes. Government does, by its Tariffs, annihilate this right.

Now, why is it, that Government is engaged in all this, and, also, in a still greater, variety of nefarious work? It is, because having been allowed to neglect, and go beyond, its own proper and good work, no effectual limits can be set to its improper and bad work. And our answer to the question, why Government fails to perform its appropriate work of protecting its subjects from crimes, is that its meddling with the work, which is not its own, has unfitted it to appreciate and perform the work, which is its own. Let the lawyer dabble with merchandise, and he will be like to lose both his relish and his competency for his law business. Let the doctor annex to his province that of the lawyer, and, ten to one, he will be more interested in his briefs than in his pills. And, so too, if Government shall intrude itself into the province of the people, and usurp the work of the people, one consequence of such intrusion and usurpation will be its growing indifference and infidelity to its own duties — to its own proper work. “Ne sutor ultra crepidam” is an adage quite as applicable to Civil Government, as to an individual.

I referred to two of my objections to the meddling by Government with the work of the people. One of them I have now explained; and I need say no more to show, that it is well founded, and that the misdoing and no-doing of the proper work of Government are a necessary consequence of its meddling with the work of the people. Equally well founded is the other objection. The unhappy effect on the Government is a no more certain consequence of this meddling, than is its unhappy effect on the people.. The character of the people suffers as much from it, as does the character of the Government. The people, who consent to have their proper duties meddled with, and usurped by, Government, are shrivelled in self respect and manly spirit, and are fast tending to impotence. They are the servants and hangers-on of Government. They are swallowed up by it. To a great extent this is true of every people, who crave the guiding and sustaining hand of Government in their farming and manufacturing; in their road-building and canal-building; in their schools and churches. When smarting under the effect of their own follies, they will, instead of manfully undertaking to retrieve themselves, invoke the help of Government. What right-minded person has forgotten the humiliating spectacle, which the American people presented, some fourteen years ago, when they cried out to Government to relieve them of the consequences of that haste to be rich, which had then been prevailing throughout our country? The National Executive was implored: —— a special session of Congress was called for: — and all this, because so many thousands had got swamped in corner-lot and other speculations!

There are several points, on which an explanation may, perhaps, be desired of me.

1st. Do I mean, that Government shall invariably and absolutely forbid slavery? Yes — as invariably and absolutely, as it forbids murder. God no more creates men to be enslaved than to be murdered. And that does not deserve the name of Civil Government, which permits its subjects to be enslaved. And he is a pirate, instead of a Civil Ruler, who lays his hand on men to enslave them. And that is not law, but anti-law, which is enacted to reduce men to slavery, or to hold them in slavery. Hence, they are pirates, mobocrats, and anarchists, who are for the “Fugitive Slave law;” and they are law-abiding, who trample it under foot.

Law is for the protection of rights. And they, who believe, that enactments for the destruction of rights are law, know not what are the elements of true law. The American people in their folly, and madness, and devilishness, are busied, under their Fugitive Slave Law, in trying the questions, whether this man and that man are slaves — whether this being and that being, “made in the image of God,” are chattels and commodities. As well, (and not one whit more blasphemously,) might they try the question, whether God is entitled to His throne, or whether God shall be permitted to live. The American people proudly imagine, that theirs is the highest style of Christian civilization. And, yet, where shall we look for ranker atheism, or more revolting features of barbarism?

2d. Do I mean, that men have an equal right to the soil?

Yes — as equal as to the light and the air: and Government should, without delay, prescribe the maximum quantity of land, which each family may possess. In our country, as its population is so sparse, this quantity might go as high as a couple of hundred acres. A century hence, however, and the population may have increased so far, as to make it the duty of Government to reduce this quantity to a hundred acres. Two centuries hence, and it may, for a similar reason, be necessary to bring it as low as fifty acres. The population in Ireland is already so dense, that not more than some ten or twenty acres should be allowed to each family in that island.

To the question, whether I would have the landless claim improved land, I answer — not until the stores of wild land are exhausted. The people of Ireland should be put in immediate possession of the soil of Ireland, “vested rights” to the contrary notwithstanding. In our country, such rights may be spared, for a while longer. But the day is not distant, when, if they have not been previously and peacefully disposed of by Homestead Exemption and Land Limitation laws, they will be compelled to give way before that paramount natural right to the soil, which inheres as fully in every man, as does his right to himself.

3d. Do I mean, that a People may repudiate their national debt? I do. The debt of Great Britain is an average burden on each of her families of, say, one thousand dollars. That of Holland imposes a greater burden. These debts are crushing. The masses groan, and despair, and perish under them. All obligation to pay them should be promptly disavowed. So far is the present generation from being morally bound to lie under this burden, it is morally bound not to lie under it. No generation is bound to begin its career under burdens. No generation is bound to enter upon the race of life, incumbered with the dead weights of debt, which former generations have entailed upon it. On the contrary, if it would fill its page in the world’s history with usefulness and honor, (and no less than this does God require of it,) it must insist on having a free and a fair start.

But we are told, that a national debt is incurred in carrying on patriotic wars. To this we reply, that wars, which the people, who are carrying them on, believe to be just, they are willing to pay for: and that, therefore, every generation may, reasonably, be expected, and required, to pay for its own wars. Far fewer would be wars, if they, who wage them, had to pay for them. Had President Polk sent round the hat for contributions to carry on the Mexican war, the sum total would have been insufficient to pay for one volley. His noisiest partizans and the most bloated patriots would have cast in not more than Sixpence apiece. They loved the war; but they would have others pay for it. They delighted in the entertainment; since it was to be left to others to bear the expense of it. Right glad were they of a chance to dance; if others could be compelled to pay the fiddler.

What, however, it is asked, if the national debt has been created, or increased, by expenditures on “internal improvements” — such as railroads and canals? We answer, that each generation must be left free to choose what wars it will engage in, and, also, what canals and roads it will build: — with the proviso, nevertheless, as well in the one case, as in the other, that it shall pay, as it goes — or, to say the least, that if it makes debts, it shall pay them. But, it may be said, that a single generation, could not build and pay for, an Erie Canal. Then, let one generation build it as far West as Utica ; and the next extend it to Rochester; and the next to Buffalo. But, whether it shall be built by one, or by several, generations, let Government have no part in building it — let not Government be the owner of it, or of any canal, or of any railroad. Were there no other objection to such ownership, it is sufficient, that it puts into the hands of Government a power and a patronage of corrupting influence on both the Government and the people. No small objection to such ownership is, that it occasions so much legislation, and consumes so much of the time of our public councils. (Let it not be inferred from what I have here said, that I would not have our State finish its canals. It should finish them with the least possible delay, or sell them. It has no moral right to keep them unfinished any longer than is necessary.)

Pennsylvania owes forty millions of dollars for her State works. They cannot be sold for one-third of that sum. Now, to compel the payment of the remaining two-thirds from any other generation than the one, which had the fingering of the moneys, that these works cost — than the one, whose demagogues and log-rollers contrived and carried forward these works—is downright robbery. Nevertheless, these demagogues and logrollers were regarded, in their day, as the benefactors of posterity. Pretty benefactions to posterity are those, which posterity has to pay for! and which are generally worth less than half their cost!

A conclusive objection to national debts is the vast increase of Governmental power, which they occasion. Without reflection, one might say, that Government is weak in proportion to the amount of debt, which the nation owes. But, with reflection, he will say, that Government is strong in proportion to such amount. It is true, that the nation is weak in proportion to the extent of the national debt — but it does not follow, that the Government is. The debt due from a nation is a mortgage upon all its wealth and industry. Now, the collecting of this debt is in the hands of the Government. All the persons employed in collecting it are servants of Government. All the power wielded in collecting it is power of the Government — as much so, as if the Government were the creditor, as well as the collector. If, then, the power of Government is to be kept within due limits, the nation must be kept out of debt.

4th. Do I mean to be understood condemning all Tariffs? I do. I would not have a Custom-House on the face of the earth. But, what if our nation should grow rich with a Tariff, and poor without it? Then, let it grow poor. Whatever may be the effect on its wealth, every nation is to cultivate the freest, fullest, friendliest intercourse with every other nation. The nations of the earth constitute, and should feel, that they constitute, a brotherhood. But, restrictions on trade build up frowning barriers across this brotherhood, and are fruitful sources of estrangement and war. In the words of the poet, they

“Make enemies of nations, who had else
Like kindred drops been mingled into one.”

Great, very great, is the crime of Government in imposing these restrictions. Would I send a barrel of flour to the starving family of my Canadian brother? Would he send a roll of cloth to my freezing family? The arresting, by an individual, of this mutual beneficence would be held by all to be very criminal. But the arresting of it by Government is surely no less criminal. The case here supposed is one, which fairly illustrates the inhumanity and irreligion of Tariffs.

But the profit, the profit, of Tariffs is still urged upon our regards. We deny the fact of such profit. We believe, that, even in a pecuniary point of view, truth and justice and benevolence are gain. What, however, were we convinced of such profit? We must not suffer ourselves to be influenced by it. Even to look upon it, is to expose ourselves to be seduced from our opposition to the inhumanity and sin of Tariffs. We must not go so far into the way of temptation, as even to contemplate a motive for doing wrong. The bare contemplation of the motive may bring us to yield to its power, and to do the wrong.

What can be more unjust than Tariff-taxation? Instead of taxing the rich, in proportion to their riches, it taxes the poor, in proportion to their poverty. That they are thus taxed is obvious. For the poor man is poor, in proportion to the number of children he has to bring up; and, in that proportion, is the amount of Tariff-taxed supplies, which he needs for their subsistence. It often occurs, that a poor man pays, under Tariff-taxation, a greater amount of taxes than a rich man pays under it. One-quarter of the wealth of the nation pays a greater amount of Tariff-taxes than do the other three-quarters.

In addition to what we have said, is the consideration, that Tariff-taxes are so much greater than would be the direct taxes in their stead. We now pay, even in time of peace, thirty millions a year to defray the expenses of the General Government. Let its expenses, however, be defrayed by direct taxes, and the thirty millions would be brought down to three:—and, moreover, the South would pay, far more nearly than now, her full proportion of the nation’s taxes. We have spoken of the reduction of taxes in time of peace. What would be the reduction in time of war we scarcely need estimate: for when direct taxes shall have come into the place of Tariff-taxes, and the expenses of war shall, as well as other national expenses, have to be met by direct taxes, there will, probably, be no war.

Never, never, will there be an honest or frugal Government, until it is sustained by direct taxation: — for never, never, will the people be duly watchful of the conduct of Government, until the cost of Government shall be directly felt by them.

The Government, which taxes the poor, as this Government taxes them, is a robber of the poor, instead of discharging the Governmental duty of protecting the poor.

And I would not be content with the mode of taxation, which the free-trade men propose. They ask, that the people shall be taxed according to their property. But I ask for a still further concession to justice and humanity. I ask, that they shall be taxed according to their ability. Now, his ability to pay taxes, who has ten times as much property as his poor neighbor, is not but ten fold as great. It is infinitely greater. The poor man, Who has but two hundred dollars a year, on which to subsist his family, pays his taxes from the little store, every copper of which is urgently negded for their subsistence. But, the rich man by his side, whose income is two thousand dollars a year, pays his taxes from his superfluity. Equity and fraternity do, therefore, claim, that this rich man should pay taxes both for himself and his poor neighbor.

I close my argument with regard to Tariffs by remarking, that if Government will, at all events, sustain and enrich the manufacturers against foreign competition, it should do so by giving them bounties. These bounties I would, of course, have produced by assessments on property, or rather on ability, instead of taxes on consumption.

5th. Do I meant, that Government shall have nothing to do with Schools? I do. In this country, nearly every person admits, that Government should not have aught to do with churches. Why, then, should it have aught to do with schools? Because, says the answerer, schools are the places, in which to get education, whilst churches are the places, in which to get religion. But, in the esteem of many of us, there is great danger, that the education will prove worthless, nay positively and frightfully pernicious, which does not include religion; which is not, at every step of its progress, blended with religion, and identical with religion, and designed to promote religion. Moreover, in the esteem of many of us, the school, in its legitimate use, is, quite as emphatically as even the church itself, the place to get religion. Our school-years constitute that impressible period of life, which is far more hopeful than any or all after years to the plastic hand of the religious teacher. How important, then, that the school-teacher — that every schoolteacher — be also a religious teacher! Is it said, that religion can be taught during our school-years, and yet not in school?

We admit, that it can: — but it will be with comparatively little hope of success, unless it be taught in school also. Is it said, that religion may be gotten, after our school-years are ended? But, not to say, that the heart may, by that time, be imperviously and forever closed against religion, there is but too much reason to fear, that the religion, which is gotten after our school-years are ended, will, in general, be found to be a picked-up, superficial, and easily-parted-with religion, contrasting very widely, in this respect, with the religion of childhood — with the religion, which incorporates itself with, and becomes an inseparable part of, the very being of its possessor. Certain it is, as a general truth, that the religion, which we would fasten in the heart, must be put there in childhood. Do we wonder, that the Roman Catholic is so tenacious of his religion? We will not, if we reflect, that he imbibed it in his childhood. Do we wonder, that Roman Catholics are so strenuously opposed to our common school system? We will not, if we reflect, how deeply they believe in their religion, and how determined they are to imbue everything with it, and how conscientiously opposed they are, therefore, to excluding school-hours, or any portion of school-hours, from the influence of religion. And, in all this, Roman Catholics are right. And, in compelling them to uphold a system of education, which is an infidel system, or which, to say the least, is, to whatever extent it is religious, opposed to their religion, they are cruelly wronged. We call it an infidel system: — and such it virtually is. For, at the most, it contemplates but the toleration, instead of the inculcation, of religion: — and, what is more, it will not even tolerate any other than a conventional and nominal religion. What positive and earnest religion there is among the people of a school district must, so far as the school is concerned, be held in abeyance. Were such a religion allowed to enter our district schools, it would break them up. The doctrine, that “a man’s a man,” whatever his condition, or color, is an essential, fundamental religious doctrine: — and I add, that the current religion of our country is spurious, because it lacks the practical recognition of this doctrine. Now, the honest and hearty attempt to teach this doctrine in our district schools would be resisted to the last degree. It would be held to be a gross and unendurable violation of that religious neutrality, which is a confessed part — nay, the very corner-stone — of the common school structure. The instance has occurred in my own county, where the presence of an antislavery book in the school-library produced great commotion. It was voted out. I have heard of warm indignation in an adjoining county at the discovery in a school-library of William Jay’s history of the Mexican war. The proslavery histories of that war are welcome to our school-libraries. But William Jay’s is an antislavery history. The common school compromise in regard to religion tolerates proslavery, but not antislavery. The common school neutrality in regard to religion permits the praising, but not the condemning, of our war against Mexico.

A popular argument for Government or district schools is, that they are a cheap police. I admit, that good schools are. And so are good churches. Why, then, should not Government take upon itself the care of the churches, as well as of the schools? And since good family-government is, also, a cheap police, and a thousand fold more important to this end than either schools or churches, or both put together, why should not Government take under its supervision our family affairs also? In this cheap-police plea for Government schools, there is, at least, one thing taken for granted, which should not be. It is, that without the help of Government, there would not be schools, or, at least, not so many: whereas the probability is, that, were there no interference of Government, our schools would not only be better than they now are, but quite as numerous also.
It is asked — what will the poor do to get their children educated, in case Government aid is withdrawn? We answer, let them do anything rather than hang upon Government for an education — for an education, which, because it is Governmental, is emasculated of all positive, earnest, hearty religion — for an education, in which, because it is Governmental, the substance of morality is exchanged for the show of morality — and in which what is honest and uncompromising and robust and manly in character is made to give place to pusillanimity, effeminacy, calculation, baseness.

The Government of Prussia sees to it, that the children of Prussia are educated. Nevertheless, it forbids them, when educated, to exercise their education on certain proscribed topics. But, how much worse is this than the system of education, which shuts out vital topics, and the stern demands of principle from the process of education? If my child may not, whilst in the course of his education, be freely instructed in the most radical political and moral truths, and in the duty of their most faithful application, the chances are a hundred to one, that he will not relish such instruction in after years. And, if he has not, whilst in school, been permitted and encouraged to be true to his convictions, the strong probability is, that he will be false to them in subsequent life. Not having been allowed to be a true boy, he will not prove to be a true man. Why is it, that the great mass of the people in this land are ready to make, and uphold laws for chasing down and enslaving the poor? It is because they were taught no better in their childhood. It is because they were cursed with a compromising education. New England boasts much of her common schools. But, what have her people learned in them? To spell, read, write, and cipher, is the answer. But have they learned in them to respect and uphold human rights? They have not. On the contrary, they have learned in them to use their spelling, reading, writing and ciphering, against human rights. It is but a day or two since, that an innocent man was sent publicly from the very capital of New England to the doom of perpetual slavery. This single fact is a sufficient reply to all the beasts of New England schools. The people, who can perpetrate such a crime, are badly educated, and their schools — not to say churches also — are worse than worthless. Is it said, that they consented to this most atrocious sacrifice of their fellow man out of their respect to law? This apology for their case only makes it worse. The people, who can respect as law, who can even know as law, that, which calls for the most horrible form of murder, are, beyond all doubt, educated more into folly than into wisdom, more into falsehood than into truth, more into demons than into men, more into fitness for the society of the under than the upper world. I will not believe all this of our New England brethren. Hence, I will not accept the apology for them, to which I have here referred.

I think it was the mighty John Knox of Scotland, who inscribed over his door: “Love God with all thine heart and thy neighbor as thyself.” Ah, how much better off would New England be, though without so much as one Government school, but with this inscription over her every door and upon her every heart, than she is with all her fulness of learning, and her equal fulness of moral cowardice and of treachery to God and man! But this universal inscription she will never have, so long as her schools are founded on an accommodating policy in respect to fundamental morality, and on that compromise between righteousness and wickedness, which “splits the difference ” between God and the Devil.

Do not suppose from what I have said, that I believe New England to be worse than other parts of our country. I believe her to be quite as good, as any other part of our country.

I have, now, given one answer to the question — what will the poor do to get their children educated, in case Government aid is withdrawn? I have another to give to it. It is, that if Government will protect its subjects in their natural and absolute right to personal liberty, and to the soil, and to buy and sell where they please, and to choose their civil rulers — there will be but few poor.

What, however, if these few poor should be tenfold as numerous, as I suppose they would be — nay, even as numerous as the present poor? — private benevolence would, nevertheless, make abundant educational provision for them. The voluntary principle is found to be sufficient in the case of churches. Why should it be distrusted in the case of schools? But, it has proved itself worthy of reliance in the case of schools. The free gifts made in New England and New York to aid the cause of education would not compare unfavorably in amount with what the laws extort for this object.

If there are poor to be helped, it is voluntary, and not compelled help, that they need. Compelled help is of little worth either to the helper or the helped. Such help is not the twice blessed mercy, of which the great poet speaks:—

“It blesseth him that gives and him that takes.”


Whether, however, our schools, if left, as are our churches, to the voluntary principle, would be sustained or not, I, nevertheless, protest against the doctrine of compelling men to sustain them. Compulsion to this end is, as I view schools, and as ten thousand others view them, a no less invasion, and a no less offensive invasion, of the rights of conscience and of the liberty of religion, than is the compelled support of churches. In our esteem, the school is, in its true character, as fully identified with religion, as is the church: and, hence, when Government interferes with the school, it makes itself, in our esteem, as obnoxious to the charge of meddling with religion, as when it interferes with the church.

My concern respecting the compelled support of schools is not for the religious man only. It is for the infidel also. If I would not have the Roman Catholic compelled to support schools, whose religion is repugnant to his own, neither would I have the infidel compelled to support schools of any religion. The rights of the infidel are to be held as sacred, as the rights of the christian: and Government is to leave both infidels and christians at full liberty to build up such schools, as they may respectively prefer.

But, it is said, that our schools will be as diversified and sectarian, as our churches, if Government, instead of insisting on running them all into the Government-mold, and making them all after one pattern, shall allow its subjects to have whatever variety of schools they will. In the name of consistency then, why not set Government at work to purge our churches of sectarianism? Now, I admit, that sectarianism, whether in schools or in churches, is a very pernicious error. But I deny, that it is an error, which Government is either to correct, or prevent. Government has nothing at all to do with it.

I do not object to charity — though, I confess, that I do not think there would be much occasion for it, were Government to do its part toward a right construction of society. Charity does not cure the ills, which spring from our false social state. It is but a present, and a very superficial palliation of them. Our eleemosynary institutions are busy with the leaves, instead of striking at the roots, of our multiform disorders.

But, though I do not object to all charity, I am totally opposed to charity at the hands of Government. It is justice, and not charity, which the people need at the hands of Government. Let Government restore to them their land, and what other rights they have been robbed of, and they will, then, be able to pay for themselves — to pay their schoolmasters as well as their parsons. The best way to defend Government for undertaking to educate the children of the poor is on the ground, that this is a slight return for its robberies of the poor. The highwayman does, sometimes, compound with his conscience by giving back enough of the spoil to furnish his victim with a supper, or a night’s lodging. But better than all such generosity of the Government and the highwayman would be their ceasing from their robberies.

I said, it is justice, and not charity, which the people need at the hands of Government. Ay, one crumb of justice is worth more than a whole loaf of charity. I would have the people delivered from all necessity of begging. But, so long as they must beg, let them beg, not of Government, but of one another. Let them never consent to gather into groups of mendicants around the almsgiving hand of Government. It is the of Government, which bribe the people into acquiescence in the loss of their rights — of the very rights, which Government is bound to maintain, but of which it has robbed them — or suffered others to rob them. What is worse, these gifts to the people have the power to blind the people to their loss. They are robbed, without knoowing, that they are robbed.

The last thing, which I have to say on the subject of schools, is to refer to the fact, that the American people are ever and deeply deprecating the union of Church and State. I admit, that they cannot deprecate it too earnestly, or too constantly. It is among the greatest of all evils. But, let me here say, that every admitted interference of Government with the duties and business of the people, is a step toward its union with the church, since every such interference prepares the way for another. I add, that the union of Government with the common school is a step, which lacks but one more step of bringing the Government into union with the church: and I add, that this lacking step would soon be taken, if the people had a common religious faith. It is the intolerant diversity of their religious belief — or, in other words, their division into sects — which saves the people of this nation from the union of Church and State. The common impression, that there is an invincible repugnance among us to the union of Church and State — to the thing itself — is not founded in truth. The man, who is willing to have Government sustain, and take care of the schools, can easily be made willing to have it sustain and take care of the churches also; provided only, that the churches are of his faith. Were this a Catholic, or Presbyterian, or Baptist, or Methodist, or an Episcopalian nation — that is to say, were the mass of the people of one religious creed — and were the present false views of the office of Government still to obtain — the nation would speedily be cursed with a union of Church and State. Let it not be inferred, from what I have here said, that I regard sectarianism, in any case, as a good. I have before condemned it. I now add, that it is an unmixed evil. It is “only evil continually.” A crime against Christ and the christian brotherhood is it to go into any sect whatever. By Divine arrangement, the christians of a place are the church of such place. Very presumptuous and guilty therefore are they, who would supplant this with a human arrangement. All, that can be said in favor of sectarianism in the present instance is, that it is one evil counteracting another — one disease preventing another.

The truth is, that Government has got into the sanctuary of the people’s business and interests; and, that, whilst it is suffered to be there, no limits can be set to its meddling and mischief. To-day, it lays its hand upon the school. To-morrow, it lays it on the church. The only safety consists in expelling the intruder from this sanctuary, and in keeping him outside of it, where he may stand sentinel to it, and so fulfil the only office of Civil Government.

I said, that the only province of Government is to protect from crimes the persons and possessions of its subjects. Some of you may think, that this is making the province of Government too narrow to include all its duties. But, which of its duties would be left outside of these limits? Perhaps, it will be asked, if the duty of abolishing the traffic in intoxicating drinks would not be. I answer, that it would not. I ask Government to abolish this traffic, not because I would have Government enact sumptuary laws — for I would not. Nay, I go so far, as to say, that if the drinkers of intoxicating liquors would do no more than kill themselves, I would not have Government interfere with their indulgence. It is murder, not suicide, that I would have Government concern itself with. Nor do I ask Government to abolish this traffic, because I hold, that Government is charged with the care of the public morals. As I have already shown you, I hold to no such thing. Why I ask Government to abolish this traffic is because it is fraught directly, immensely, necessarily, with wide and awful peril to person and property. Neither property, nor life, is safe from the presumption, the blindness, and the fury of the drunken maniac. The drunken driver upsets the stage. The drunken engineer blows up the steamboat. It is a drunkard, who has ravished our wife, or daughter, or sister. It is a drunkard, who has burned our dwelling. It is a drunkard, who has murdered our family.

What is a crime then, if the traffic in intoxicating drinks is not one? And what crime is there, from which Government should be more prompt to shelter the persons and possessions of its subjects?

Perhaps, it will be asked, whether Government, under my definition of its province, would be at liberty to carry the mail; build asylums; improve harbors; and build light-houses? I answer, that nothing of all this is, necessarily, the work of Government. The mail can be carried, as well without, as with, the help of Government. Some of the best and most extensive asylums in our country are those with which Government has nothing to do. And the interest and humanity of individuals and communities might be relied on to improve harbors and build light-houses, as well as to keep bridges and roads in repair. I admit, that harbors and light-houses are an indispensable protection to life and property, and that the failure to supply them is a crime against mankind, and a crime, of which Government should be cognizant. But Government would, probably, never have to compel the merchants of Portland and Boston and New Bedford &c., to supply the New England coast with harbors and light-houses. It certainly would not, were it to allow them the privilege of imposing a reasonable tax for these securities on the vessels, that enjoy them. And, here, let me add, that, inasmuch as Government has undertaken their care and improvement, and supplied itself, at the people’s expense, with the means therefor, the neglected condition of the harbors upon our lakes is among the evidences, that ours is a faithless and dishonest Government.

I close with saying, that the work of Civil Government is not so much to take care of its subjects, as to leave them in circumstances, in which they may take care of themselves: — and not so much to govern its subjects, as to leave them free to govern themselves. Civil Government is to hold a shield over the heads of its subjects, beneath which they may, in safety from one another, and from all others, pursue their respective callings, and discharge their respective duties. Whilst confining itself to this employment, it is a blessing above all praise — above all price. But, when it forsakes its own work to usurp that of the people; and, especially, when, as it has been recently known to do, it arrays itself against the great and holy God, who ordained Civil Government, and blasphemously enacts laws, which are opposed to His laws, then is it a curse and a monster, which deserves to be hated with all our hatred, and resisted at every hazard.

SOURCES: Gerrit Smith, The True Office of Civil Government: A Speech in the City of Troy, p. 5-30; Octavius Brooks Frothingham, Gerrit Smith: A Biography, p. 181-4

Sunday, April 1, 2018

Robert Toombs to Congressman Alexander H. Stephens, January 24, 1845

Washington [ga.], Jany. 24th, 1845.

Dear Stephens, . . . I can hear nothing of local politics. There is a dead calm. The report of the Finance Committee is doing us much good. It has struck the Locos dumb. Crawford's administration has certainly been eminently successfull and has made him very popular. If we can get him to run again we can carry the State and retrieve our fortunes in Georgia. The course of the Democracy in Congress on Texas and the tariff is doing them mischief in this State, and if our local press would handle those questions now in the present calm of the public mind much could be made out of them; but very few of our papers are worth a straw. As soon as I get able I shall open upon them in several of the papers. Now is the proper time to affect the public mind. I did not see how you voted on that Rail Road iron question. That duty ought to be repealed or greatly reduced. It should be a low revenue duty only. 1st. Because it is greatly to the interest of the country to encourage internal improvements and thereby cheapen internal transportation which benefits all classes and especially the agricultural classes. 2ondly. R. R. iron not being an article of general consumption, competition is not likely to become sufficient within a reasonable time to cheapen the article and compensate for the duty. Hence the duty will continue to be a bounty to the manufacturer, and under that state of facts no article ought to be protected. I am able only to suggest my objections and not enforce them. The most foolish thing Mr. Clay did during the campaign was to write that foolish letter to Pennsylvania pledging his opposition to any modification of the tariff of 1842. It is a good law but it is not perfect; nor did human ingenuity ever make a perfect revenue law. It never will. His letter to Bronson and his N. Carolina speech contained the true doctrine on the tariff. I am unwilling to go an inch further. I care not a fig for the clamors of that American Beotia (Pennsylvania). If the whole duty on R. R. iron was repealed her agonies would give me no pain. Annexation by Congress gives me considerable trouble. I am in great doubt about it. The words of the Constitution ex vi termini are sufficient to embrace the case, and I am clear from the action of the Convention that the Convention did not intend to limit the power to the admission of States from the then territory of the United States. I think the Convention were then looking to the acquisition of Louisiana. It was absolutely necessary to our western States. I am therefore clear in the opinion, nothwithstanding Mr. Jefferson's opinion to the contrary, that the acquisition of Louisiana by treaty and then its admission was perfectly constitutional; but I am not clear that it would have been constitutional without such previous acquisition by treaty. But from the best reflection I can give it, it being a question of doubt, I would decide it in favour of the popular will and, I therefore honestly believe, the public safety and the safety of the Union, and go for Foster's plan. Benton's division of the territory will not answer. I would yield nothing upon [the] slavery question below 36½ degrees latitude — and I don't like that. Congress has no right to interfere with the social relations of the inhabitants of any State. And the Missouri Compromise was all wrong and could only be defended because it practically yielded nothing.

SOURCE: Ulrich Bonnell Phillips, Editor, The Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1911, Volume 2: The Correspondence of Robert Toombs, Alexander H. Stephens, and Howell Cobb, p. 60-2

Monday, July 17, 2017

Salmon P. Chase to Ahaz Merchant,* Cleveland, Ohio, Saturday, January 23, 1849

Jan. 23d [1849.]

Dear Sir — I received this morning your favor of the 18th inst. & I beg leave to disclaim at once all pretention to the position, which your courtesy assigns to me, of “head of the Free Soil Party of Ohio”. I am but one of a numerous host, animated by a common desire to divorce our National & State governments from all support of Slavery, and thus ensure the speedy deliverance of our country by Constitutional means, from its greatest curse; and to apply the principle of equal rights, on which our action against slavery is based, to other permanent questions of public policy. This body of citizens constitutes the Free Democracy or Free Soil Party, in which and with which I am content to labor, in any position which may be assigned to me, but without aspiring to lead so long as the great purpose of its organization require my service. You enquire as to my views, 1. in relation to a National Tariff  2d. in relation to Banking; 3d. in relation to Lake & River Improvements by the General Government. — I am not averse as those acquainted with me well know, to a frank expression of my opinions, as an individual, to any who may think fit to ask for them:— But, I confess I should feel some hesitation in answering your questions, put to me as they appear to be under an unfounded impression, that I sustain some peculiar relation to the Free Soil Party of the State, if I did not find answers ready to my hand in the resolutions of our National & State Conventions which set forth views, which, I as a Free Soiler, adopt & defend without reserve. I answer your first question, therefore, by a reference to the fourteenth resolution of the Buffalo Convention:— your second, by a reference to the fourth, fifth & eleventh resolutions of our own Free Democratic Convention, recently held at Columbus; and your third by a reference to the twelfth resolution of the Buffalo Convention. As you may not have at hand the Resolutions of these Conventions, which constitute the State & National Platforms of the Free Democracy of Ohio, I enclose a copy. I also enclose a copy of a Resolution adopted by the Free Territory Convention of Ohio on the 21st of June on the subject of River & Harbor Improvements, which though offered by our friend Mr Briggs, was drafted by me and expresses my views.

With great respect,
[SALMON P. CHASE.]
_______________

* From letter-book 6, p. 165.

SOURCE: Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1902, Vol. 2, p. 155-6

Sunday, May 31, 2015

Abraham Lincoln’s Address to the People of Sangamon County, March 9, 1832*

FELLOW-CITIZENS: Having become a candidate for the honorable office of one of your Representatives in the next General Assembly of this State, in accordance with an established custom and the principles of true Republicanism, it becomes my duty to make known to you, the people whom I propose to represent, my sentiments with regard to local affairs. Time and experience have verified to a demonstration the public utility of internal improvements. That the poorest and most thinly populated countries would be greatly benefited by the opening of good roads, and in the clearing of navigable streams within their limits, is what no person will deny. Yet it is folly to undertake works of this or any other kind without first knowing that we are able to finish them,—as half-finished work generally proves to be labor lost. There cannot justly be any objection to having railroads and canals, any more than to other good things, provided they cost nothing. The only objection is to paying for them; and the objection arises from the want of ability to pay.

With respect to the County of Sangamon, some more easy means of communication than it now possesses, for the purpose of facilitating the task of exporting the surplus products of its fertile soil, and importing necessary articles from abroad, are indispensably necessary. A meeting has been held by the citizens of Jacksonville and the adjacent country, for the purpose of deliberating and inquiring into the expediency of constructing a railroad from some eligible point on the Illinois River, through the town of Jacksonville, in Morgan County, to the town of Springfield, in Sangamon County. This is, indeed, a very desirable object. No other improvement that reason will justify us in hoping for can equal in utility the railroad. It is a never-failing source of communication between places of business remotely situated from each other. Upon the railroad the regular progress of commercial intercourse is not interrupted by either high or low water, or freezing weather, which are the principal difficulties that render our future hopes of water communication precarious and uncertain.

Yet, however desirable an object the construction of a railroad through our country may be; however high our imaginations may be heated at thoughts of it, — there is always a heart-appalling shock accompanying the amount of its cost, which forces us to shrink from our pleasing anticipations. The probable cost of this contemplated railroad is estimated at $290,000; the bare statement of which, in my opinion, is sufficient to justify the belief that the improvement of the Sangamon River is an object much better suited to our infant resources.

Respecting this view, I think I may say, without the fear of being contradicted, that its navigation may be rendered completely practicable as high as the mouth of the South Fork, or probably higher, to vessels of from twenty-five to thirty tons burden, for at least one half of all common years, and to vessels of much greater burden a part of the time. From my peculiar circumstances, it is probable that for the last twelve months I have given as particular attention to the stage of the water in this river as any other person in the country. In the month of March, 1831, in company with others, I commenced the building of a flatboat on the Sangamon, and finished and took her out in the course of the spring. Since that time I have been concerned in the mill at New Salem. These circumstances are sufficient evidence that I have not been very inattentive to the stages of the water. The time at which we crossed the mill-dam being in the last days of April, the water was lower than it had been since the breaking of winter in February, or than it was for several weeks after. The principal difficulties we encountered in descending the river were from the drifted timber, which obstructions all know are not difficult to be removed. Knowing almost precisely the height of water at that time, I believe I am safe in saying that it has as often been higher as lower since.

From this view of the subject it appears that my calculations with regard to the navigation of the Sangamon cannot but be founded in reason; but, whatever may be its natural advantages, certain it is that it never can be practically useful to any great extent without being greatly improved by art. The drifted timber, as I have before mentioned, is the most formidable barrier to this object. Of all parts of this river, none will require so much labor in proportion to make it navigable as the last thirty or thirty-five miles; and going with the meanderings of the channel, when we are this distance above its mouth we are only between twelve and eighteen miles above Beardstown in something near a straight direction; and this route is upon such low ground as to retain water in many places during the season, and in all parts such as to draw two thirds or three fourths of the river water at all high stages.

This route is on prairie-land the whole distance, so that it appears to me, by removing the turf a sufficient width, and damming up the old channel, the whole river in a short time would wash its way through, thereby curtailing the distance and increasing the velocity of the current very considerably, while there would be no timber on the banks to obstruct its navigation in future; and being nearly straight, the timber which might float in at the head would be apt to go clear through. There are also many places above this where the river, in its zigzag course, forms such complete peninsulas as to be easier to cut at the necks than to remove the obstructions from the bends, which, if done, would also lessen the distance.

What the cost of this work would be, I am unable to say. It is probable, however, that it would not be greater than is common to streams of the same length. Finally, I believe the improvement of the Sangamon River to be vastly important and highly desirable to the people of the county; and, if elected, any measure in the legislature having this for its object, which may appear judicious, will meet my approbation and receive my support.

It appears that the practice of loaning money at exorbitant rates of interest has already been opened as a field for discussion; so I suppose I may enter upon it without claiming the honor, or risking the danger which-may await its first explorer. It seems as though we are never to have an end to this baneful and corroding system, acting almost as prejudicially to the general interests of the community as a direct tax of several thousand dollars annually laid on each county for the benefit of a few individuals only, unless there be a law made fixing the limits of usury. A law for this purpose, I am of opinion, may be made without materially injuring any class of people. In cases of extreme necessity, there could always be means found to cheat the law; while in all other cases it would have its intended effect. I would favor the passage of a law on this subject which might not be very easily evaded. Let it be such that the labor and difficulty of evading it could only be justified in cases of greatest necessity.

Upon the subject of education, not presuming to dictate any plan or system respecting it, I can only say that I view it as the most important subject which we as a people can be engaged in. That every man may receive at least a moderate education, and thereby be enabled to read the histories of his own and other countries, by which he may duly appreciate the value of our free institutions, appears to be an object of vital importance, even on this account alone, to say nothing of the advantages and satisfaction to be derived from all being able to read the Scriptures, and other works both of a religious and moral nature, for themselves.

For my part, I desire to see the time when education — and by its means, morality, sobriety, enterprise, and industry — shall become much more general than at present, and should be gratified to have it in my power to contribute something to the advancement of any measure which might have a tendency to accelerate that happy period.

With regard to existing laws, some alterations are thought to be necessary. Many respectable men have suggested that our estray laws, the law respecting the issuing of executions, the road law, and some others, are deficient in their present form, and require alterations. But, considering the great probability that the framers of those laws were wiser than myself, I should prefer not meddling with them, unless they were first attacked by others; in which case I should feel it both a privilege and a duty to take that stand which, in my view, might tend most to the advancement of justice.

But, fellow-citizens, I shall conclude. Considering the great degree of modesty which should always attend youth, it is probable I have already been more presuming than becomes me. However, upon the subjects of which I have treated, I have spoken as I have thought. I may be wrong in regard to any or all of them; but, holding it a sound maxim that it is better only sometimes to be right than at all times to be wrong, so soon as I discover my opinions to be erroneous, I shall be ready to renounce them.

Every man is said to have his peculiar ambition. Whether it be true or not, I can say, for one, that I have no other so great as that of being truly esteemed of my fellow-men, by rendering myself worthy of their esteem. How far I shall succeed in gratifying this ambition is yet to be developed. I am young, and unknown to many of you. I was born, and have ever remained, in the most humble walks of life. I have no wealthy or popular relations or friends to recommend me. My case is thrown exclusively upon the independent voters of the country; and, if elected, they will have conferred a favor upon me for which I shall be unremitting in my labors to compensate. But, if the good people in their wisdom shall see fit to keep me in the background, I have been too familiar with disappointments to be very much chagrined.

Your friend and fellow-citizen,
A. Lincoln.
New Salem, March 9, 1832.
_______________

* Lincoln was just past his twenty-third year when he indited this address to the people of Sangamon County. Though defeated in the effort to become a member of the General Assembly of the State of Illinois, his address, distributed in the form of a hand-bill, aroused great interest and enthusiasm among his fellow-citizens. It is worth passing mention to note that this defeat for the Illinois Legislature was the only one Lincoln ever suffered by direct vote of the people.

SOURCE: John G. Nicolay and John Hay, Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, Biographical Edition, Volume 1, p. 1-9