USA > Georgia > The bench and bar of Georgia: memoirs and sketches. With an appendix, containing a court roll from 1790-1857, etc., volume I > Part 33
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letting him understand, as proposed by my colleague, the principle which we intend to pursue,-a principle coeval with the foundation of our Union ?
I ask pardon of the Senate for having trespassed so long upon them. I did not design to speak; but I thought it necessary for mne to do so in consequence of the position in which the question had been placed.
. The reader may see the various resolutions about Kossuth, and the final action of Congress on the subject, by reference to another part* of this work.
Following the example of other Senators, who took occasion to notice on the floor of the Senate certain newspaper-allusions to them, Mr. Dawson, on the 15th of April, 1852, asked the indulgence of the Senate for a personal explanation. He had seen in a New York papert some unfair criticisms relative to a Whig caucus which he was charged with attending a few nights previously. His name occurred in the following passage :-
What are the facts of this Whig caucus ? The North was there in strength. William H. Seward, Thaddeus Stevens, Mr. Wade, of Ohio, and other notorious ringleaders of the Abolitionists, were there, apparently the most efficient members in the practical action of the caucus. Certain spirited and consistent Union Whig members from Kentucky, Tennessee, and North Carolina were there, boldly demanding an understanding with the North, as the first step to united action ; but they were overwhelmed. There was a debate of four hours ; but the question was deferred, and Mr. Mangum intimated that he should at the next meeting rule the motion for an understanding to be out of order. This is bad, and places Mr. Man- gum in a bad position ; and the apparent concurrence with his views by Messrs. Badger, Dawson, Jones, of Tennessee, Stanly, and some other Southern Whigs, places them in the same questionable attitude.
In another article the same paper remarks :-
Mr. Mangum would undoubtedly, upon a satisfactory platform, be a very popular candidate to run with Gen. Scott. Perhaps his colleagues- Mr. Badger, of the Senate, and Mr. Stanly of the House-entertain the same opinion. It may be that Mr. Senator Dawson, of Georgia, has some aspirations for the Vice-Presidency. At all events, the apparent willing- ness of all these distinguished Southern Whigs to take Scott and his right bower-Seward-upon trust, gives a bad aspect to the whole case,-the aspect of a final caving in to the most insidious and dangerous of all the enemies of the South.
Only one paragraph of Mr. Dawson's explanation to the Senate is here given. He said,-
Now, Mr. President, I did not attend that caucus, nor did I participate in its conclusions, either directly or indirectly ; nor am I under any pledge to abide by the determination to which these gentlemen may come. My position, I thought, was well known. It was publicly announced, more than a year since, that I would support no man for the Presidency who would not support the measures, one and all, known as the Compro-
* Memoir of the Hon. John M. Berrien.
t The Herald.
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mise, openly and honestly, with no view to deceive either the friends or the opponents of those measures. Hence I aver that I will act with no party which shall endeavor, either directly or indirectly, to open for agita- tion the questions adjusted by the Compromise, even for the purpose of securing votes at the ensuing Presidential election. Nor will I combine to elect any man to the Presidency whose opinions are not beyond doubt or cavil on the finality of the Compromise ; nor shall I, under any circum- stances, act with any party that shall not have the firmness publicly to avow their support of the Compromise. Nor shall I commit myself by attending the Whig or Democratic Convention, as at present advised. I desire to see our friends in the non-slaveholding States by their own action determine for themselves what is their true position in regard to the agitating questions of the day. If the South is to have no quiet upon these questions, I want to know it. The South herself desires to know it ; and if it shall be determined that agitation is to be continued, then, my word for it, there will be no division in the South : there will be, as there should be, but one sentiment,-that of union against unconstitutional aggressions.
It is presumed that Mr. Dawson was content with the letter of Gen. Scott accepting the nomination for President, as he became one of his supporters, and exerted considerable influence in his favor ; though of course no man of intelligence was very sanguine that the vote of Georgia would be given to the brave old hero.
But the leading effort of Mr. DAWSON during the session was the speech he delivered in the Senate, March 1, 1852, "on the bill granting land to the State of Iowa in aid of constructing cer- tain railroads." As containing the facts and the arguments, a tolerably copious extract is given from the speech, as received in pamphlet form by the author from Mr. Dawson himself.
Mr. DAWSON said,-
As new States are added day after day, they call for appropriations of public lands, either by their Legislatures, or they wish to have them given to companies ; and, strange to say, we have appropriated millions of aeres without the Legislatures of the States asking for the appropriations ! Senators rise and tell us for what purpose it is wanted, and under such mistaken apprehensions we vote the appropriations. I am not now speak- ing of Iowa. I will look into Illinois. I am sorry that one of the Senators from Illinois [Mr. DOUGLAS] is not now in his seat; but many Senators who were with me on this floor when the Illinois Railroad Bill was passed will recollect that it was said that it would be four hundred miles long, from Chicago to Cairo; in other words, from the farthest northern boundary of Illinois down to its most southern on the Mississippi. Alter- nate sections were donated for ten miles in width. I opposed it then. on the ground of its injustice; but I was not even aided by many friend- from the old States. I then proclaimed the injustice of it; but I was not sustained. I saw that the rights of the old States were to be thrown over : and I saw what would be the result. The Senator from Illinois threw himself in for railroads yet in embryo, and took land lying six hundred and ninety miles along for a road, as I will show you. Upon that, I sup- jose, he thought he would ride triumphantly right off to the White
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House; and he is driving there now. I do not wish to interfere with the gentleman's aspirations, but I do not like to pay for his platform.
I have a statement before me, showing the lands granted under the Illinois bill. I call upon Senators, and I call upon the country, to lock this matter in the face, and see whether we, the old States, can pass these bills and do injustice to ourselves. Does any Senator on this floor know the length of the road from Chicago to Cairo for which we granted lands during the last Congress ? If I am wrong in my statement, I wish to be corrected. For that road-which was unsurveyed, which was not located, which was not called for except by the imagination of Senators- from Chicago down to Cairo, instead of appropriating lands for the length of four hundred miles as was represented, we appropriated for six hundred and ninety miles, including the branches. We appropriated money-or land, which is its equivalent-for two hundred and ninety miles of rail- road which we did not know we were building. Yet you will not vote a dollar for a light-house, for a fortification, or for an improvement, in any of the old States, unless surveys have been made and estimates have been presented. Still, you will suffer Senators and others from the Northwestern country to come here and take more in millions than you would grant to other States in thousands, and call it correct legislation, and charge those who oppose it and make these presentations of facts to the country, with a want of liberality and justice. Here, then, is a mistake. Instead of grant- ing lands for a railroad four hundred miles in extent, we were granting lands for a railroad six hundred and ninety miles long; and we did not know it ! Let us go a little further. The land which was granted under that act was taken up by Illinois. And how many acres do Senators sup- pose it was? Why, 2,700,000 acres of land. My friend from Illinois knows it to be so. I do not blame the Senators from that State for it. They presented the claim. They made no misrepresentation. They were asked for no information as to the true condition of affairs; and they said to us, " If you are willing, let it pass ;" and, gloriously for them, it did pass. I will show you now how it was carried out, who were the benefi- ciaries, and what was the object and character of the appropriation.
Mr. SHIELDS. Will the honorable gentleman permit me to ask on what basis his calculation is founded ?
Mr. DAWSON. From information given by the colleague of the honor- able Senator.
Mr. SHIELDS. I wish to know the authority of the gentleman for saying that the road is six hundred and ninety miles long.
Mr. DAWSON. I learn from the gentleman's colleague that the main road, including the branch to Galena and the other branches, will be six hundred and ninety miles long.
Mr. SHIELDS. The road from Chicago to Cairo will not be quite four hundred miles long; but I find that the gentleman includes the branches.
Mr. DAWSON. The six hundred and ninety miles include all. It is immaterial whether it is cross-firing or direct firing : the lands have been taken. The Senator corrects me on a part that does not involve any principle. I have not said that the Senators from Illinois acted wrongly. If I was a constituent of theirs, I should probably have approved of their course, by which their State got 2,700,000 acres of land to construct six hundred and ninety miles of road. What does the Senate suppose, what does the country suppose, has become of these 2,700,000 acres of land, which are said to be the finest lands in Illinois ?- and all the lands in that
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country are said to be of excellent quality. It is one of the most beauti- ful countries in the West. I was reading the other day the remarks of a gentleman on the subject, and he astonished me: he says it is the finest part of God's globe,-the finest country on which civilized man ever settled, -- promising, healthful, and fertile. Two million seven hundred thousand acres of this land have been taken for the construction of the Illinois Railroad. Why, it is but a little more than one year since we passed the bill authorizing the appropriation of this amount of public lands to build the railroad. Illinois, through her Legislature, passed an act authorizing certain agents to dispose of these lands to companies who would construct these railroads. Those agents disposed of these lands to a com- pany formed in Boston and New York, (through their agent Mr. Rantoul, who made a speech in the other House on this subject a short time ago, which astonished me, coming from a Representative of one of the old States,) who undertook to build these railroads and complete them in four years from this date. Illinois, I believe, reserves to herself seven per cent. of the gross receipts of these railroads thus to be built with the proceeds of 2,700,000 acres of the public lands. This number of acres is now in the hands of a company formed in Boston and New York, who, in their corporate character, are the sole and exclusive owners of the land. Mr. SHIELDS. Lest there might be some misapprehension about this subject, I would take occasion to state that the company only get control of the land as they make the railroad. They are not the absolute pro- prietors; they only obtain the land in proportion to the progress of the road. If they fail, the land reverts to the State.
Mr. DAWSON. Exactly. The Senator's statement shows that the com- pany receives the land in instalments instead of getting it all at once. What undertaker would pay a man $5,000,000 for work and labor to be executed ? He would not pay at all until all the work was done. It is admitted, however, that the title to the land is vested contingently in the company, and, as they finish the road from point to point, the title abso- lutely vests in them. I have gone into the estimates and calculations, and I find that the cost of building a railroad in that country will not exceed $10,000 a mile for laying down the rails, including excavations, embankments, and superstructures. The cost for these, and then for putting on the engines and cars for these six hundred and ninety miles, will be $6,900,000. What is now the estimated value of this land by the corporators themselves,-by the gentlemen of the corporation in Illinois ? The Senators from Illinois know its value. It is the finest land, as is admitted by the Senators, in the whole Valley of the Mississippi, and worth at least ten dollars an acre. There are 2,700,000 acres of land gone into the hands of this company to build a railway worth to them $27,000,000. Thus, by our legislation here, this company will receive a profit of 821,000,000 on six hundred and ninety miles of railroad. If we had acted properly, that might have been done by the United States, and the same profits been received into the Treasury. And yet it is said that this is honest and just legislation toward every section of country! Why. it is an outrage upon the justice and rights of the States which we represent here, and one which ought not to be again permitted to occur.
Nor is this all. These gentlemen say that they will not allow a division of the lands, and will not let the old States hold lands within the limit- of the State of Iowa or Illinois, or any other of the new States. They tell us they will not allow other States to hold lands within their limit -.
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Is a State more unkind than individuals ? Illinois will allow a corpo- ration of individuals to own 2,700,000 acres of lands within her limits. I present this to show that all these ideas are fanciful. They are unjust to ourselves and unjust to the country. It did not become us as repre- sentatives of the people, intending to do what is right and just between State and State. Why may not a State hold lands within another State ? Could not the Governor of Georgia have gone to Illinois and purchased the lands as Governor, by undertaking to execute the contract ? and then he could have held the land. Why, where is the constitutional provision to prevent one State holding land within the limits of another ? Nowhere. This is the reasoning got up to encourage what are called State-Rights men to support these appropriations. Here is the working of the system now illustrated before the country, and I want the country to know it : 2,700,000 acres of land have gone into the hands of a company to build a road six hundred and ninety miles long, which will cost $6,900,000; and the land is worth not a dollar less than $27,000,000. Then here are $21,000,000 gone by our legislation into the hands of a company,-gone by our legislation when we were not thinking of what we were doing. This is no fancy-sketch. I am telling the truth, and gentlemen know it, and I stand by it.
But, Mr. President, I promised to be short, and I have been. I have taken every thing in the way of a calculation out of my speech, because my friends from Kentucky [Mr. Underwood] and Tennessee [Mr. Bell] argued those matters so fully that I felt it would be unjust to the indulgence of the Senate to go over them. I have only gone over ques- tions which they did not touch upon. What next occurs ? My friend from Missouri [Mr. Geyer] talked about the great connecting-link which was to run and bind this country together by iron bars. That was the idea, though perhaps I am a little more fanciful than he was. And he said that these appropriations were made to carry on great roads, for the purpose of internal transportation upon land from place to place. That is true. Now, let me present a fact to this country. You say, gentlemen, that it is for the public good you do this; and if it did not increase the prosperity of the whole country it would be wrong, because, under the Constitution, we have no power to benefit a part at the expense of the whole. You say you want to form a great connecting-link in the country. Let us begin at Boston. Who built the railroad from Boston to New York? Who built the railroads from New York to Philadelphia, from Philadelphia to Baltimore, from Baltimore to Washington, and on, on, until you strike the Georgia line ? These are great connecting-links for transportation, for convenience, for rapidity. Who built them? They were built by the people ; they were built by individual capital and enter- prisc. What people ? The people of the United States,-equally entitled and equally bound first for the benefits, and then for the consequences, of our Government. These people did it. And when you get to my own State, one of the youngest of the Old Thirteen, which was kept down for years and years because she could not extend her possessions coextensive with her lines and limits, as they were in the possession and occupancy of the Indians; when she saw the condition in which the country was placed ; when she perceived that a connection with the North and South was desirable,-that intercourse must be rapid and improve our knowledge of each other, increase our affections for each other, and make us love our Government and love one another,-she did what ? In the midst of her
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poverty, what did she do? She commenced the line which had ended by the railroad from Charleston to Augusta. She commenced on the Georgia bank of the Savannah River, and with her own enterprise and with her own money ran that road to the Valley of the Mississippi ; and it is now in full operation. She went over to Tennessee and asked an act of incorpo- ration and permission to run her road through that State until we should strike the waters of the valley of the great Mississippi; and I will invite my friend from Missouri, [Mr. Atchison, ] who said that Georgia wanted lands, and would be quiet if she only got them,-I will invite him, I say, to return home with me by that route to Missouri. I will pass him over that road at the rate of twenty miles an hour,-over mountains and through tunnels. I will place him upon the waters of his own great West by steam, from one end of Georgia to the other, and I will connect him with a steamboat to carry him in the direction he wishes, and then I will ask him to tell me why was all this donc and by whom. Now, who joins the road at Cairo with this link of ours? We have now eleven hundred miles of railroad, at.the expenditure of a capital of something like $7,000,000, within our own State, all paid out of our own funds, running to the Valley of the Mississippi ; and when you get to Cairo, and want to go up to Chicago to see the President, if he should ever be there, what do you do ? When you land from your steamboat at Cairo and go over that road to Chicago, (six hundred and ninety miles with its branches, ) if the honorable Senator from Missouri should ask who built it, the people of Illinois would stand on that road and look as majestic, as magnificent, and as consequential as if it had been done out of their own money and by their own hands, when they got from us six hundred and ninety miles of railroad built at an expense to the Government of the United States of $6,900,000, and by the contract for which a company will make $21,000,000. That will be the result ; and then for the Senator to say that Georgia wants her share ! If Illinois is entitled to this great benefit, why is not Massachusetts or Georgia? Because Georgia has done these things by her enterprise and energy, is it a reason why any fair, just, or honorable man should say, "You have done the work already : you have expended labor and money and ouglit to be satisfied" ? No, sir. The question which ought to be apprehended is this :- Whose money is this ? How should it be divided ? To whom does it belong ? But my friend, I believe, will go with me, and when he gets into Georgia will say, "By-the-by, you ought to have your share." He says that now; but he is fearful of endangering the bill by the adoption of this amendment.
I said-I make the observation now, and it can be explained-I was astonished when I saw the course of some Senators and Representatives from the old thirteen States upon the land-bills, wlio come out to vindi- cate the right of the new States to take up all these public lauds. I read a speech, as I before observed, made by a gentleman in the other branch of the Legislature, which perfectly astounded me, vindicating these vast appropriations of the public money or public lands, and denying to his own State the right to have her share. I asked, Why is it so? When I came to search it out, I found he belonged to one of the companies which purchased these 2,700,000 acres of land from Illinois. I make this as no charge. It may have been all honest and fair; but I can see how it is that gentlemen here to-day jumped upon the Baltic, because it was the representative of capital, and denounced the idea that capital should be brought within the view of this Capitol to influence members in their
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course here; and yet you will do acts here that give capital to the amount of $27,000,000 to those who combine together to do a thing, in conse- quence of your legislation. I trust these gentlemen will become alarmed at this idea that the public lands are all to go into the hands of capitalists. Where is the Senator from Wisconsin, [Mr. Walker,] that he does not raise his voice against this accumulation of wealth and property in the hands of great landed proprietors and moneyed corporations ? Not a word is said; but let Georgia, Massachusetts, or North Carolina, or any other of the old States, ask for what justly ought to be given her, and they will say, " No: we will never submit to such a great landed proprietor within the limits of our States." Look at the question and meet it fairly.
But gentlemen ask, Where is the power thus to dispose of the public lands as we desire ? I have taken occasion to look at this thing; and just let me state what Congress has done. Congress has made grants to com- munities and individuals for various purposes. They have made grants to the States for education, for internal improvements, for public build- ings, and have even granted lands to corporations, &c. for education, and granted them for the deaf and dumb. Where did you get the power from the Constitution to do all these things? If you can benefit all the rest of the world, why can you not benefit the old States? Where is the principle in the Constitution that gives you the power to do that for others that you cannot do for your own? It is an insult to the understanding, and calculated merely to awaken fears in the minds of the people and keep them confused on this subject; but if light ever fully dawns upon them, and they see how these public lands are taken from them, woe be unto that man or that party that seeks to deprive them of their rights. But is that all? You have given land to cultivators, to men to raise olives, and to raise grapes from which to make winc. Where did you get that power, when you cannot give lands to the State of Georgia, or Kentucky, or North Carolina, or Massachusetts, to educate even the poor and save them from starvation ? You cannot do that ! Oh, no! but you can give them to foreigners to cultivate the olive and grape : and then to stand up before an honest and intelligent community and tell them you cannot do this, for you have not the power! Gentlemen who do that must have very little respect for the intelligence of the people. I feel amazed at these arguments, and I feel worse than astonished when I find them prevail in some sections of the country over the minds of the people.
But is this all ? Since that period you have given lands to Lafayette,- an individual. It was all right. You have made a donation of the pro- ceeds of the public lands. Now, if you are entitled to the proceeds of the public lands, will any one tell me what is the difference between the land and the money for which it was sold? Where is the principle of the Constitution which says you have a right to sell the lands and then divide the money, but which prevents you from dividing the lands among the States and letting them dispose of them in their own way? There is none at all. It is discreditable to the country to attempt to infuse such distinctions into the minds of the people and lead them from the main object in view. And, Mr. President, what do we all submit to? I appeal now not to the old thirteen States alone, but to all the States which have come into the Union whose lands are nearly gone. What is the effect of this policy upon our own section of the country? We are called upon to vote away public lands in this way,-for what? To diminish our population, to urge them to emigration and seduce them from the old
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