Part 157

Mr. HOLLAND.--Some small tracts only may sell for six dollars. We bind the purchasers to plant the first year 9,000 plants, and 3,000 annually after.

Mr. MORROW, of Ohio.--I rise only to reply to the gentleman from Virginia, (Mr. JACKSON.) I never seek for information in the lobby, nor the gallery, nor Pennsylvania avenue. The gentleman is misinformed.

Mr. JACKSON.--My authority is an honorable member near me--an authority at least as respectable as any the gentleman from Ohio can have.

The question was taken--50 for striking out, 51 against it. The committee rose, and the House considered the bill.

Mr. CROWNINSHIELD.--There is no interest to be received. I have made a calculation that, considering the want of interest to the time of the last payment, we now get only ninety-seven cents per acre. I move to strike out two, and insert three dollars per acre.

The motion was lost--44 only for it.

Mr. CROWNINSHIELD.--There are in a section about 23,000 acres, making about 46,000 dollars. I move to insert six per cent. interest till paid.

Mr. NICHOLSON.--Public lands are sold without interest for a certain time. If the money be not punctually paid, I am willing the debt should be on interest after.

Mr. JACKSON.--I move to postpone the consideration of the bill indefinitely.

The ayes and nays were called for, and taken on this motion--ayes 53, nays 59.

Mr. CROWNINSHIELD’s motion for the insertion of interest was lost--52 to 49.

Mr. D. R. WILLIAMS moved the insertion of two instead of six years for payment of the land. Motion lost--54 to 45. The bill passed to a third reading for to-morrow.

FRIDAY, February 14.

Indiana Territory.

Mr. GARNETT, from the committee appointed on the eighteenth of December last, to whom were referred the report of a select committee on the letter of William H. Harrison, made the seventeenth of February, eighteen hundred and four; a memorial of the Legislative Council and House of Representatives of the Indiana Territory, and several petitions of sundry inhabitants of the said Territory; made the following report:

That, having attentively considered the facts stated in the said petitions and memorials, they are of opinion that a qualified suspension, for a limited time, of the sixth article of compact between the original States and the people and States west of the river Ohio, would be beneficial to the people of the Indiana Territory. The suspension of this article is an object almost universally desired in that Territory. It appears to your committee to be a question entirely different from that between slavery and freedom, inasmuch as it would merely occasion the removal of persons, already slaves, from one part of the country to another. The good effects of this suspension, in the present instance, would be to accelerate the population of that Territory, hitherto retarded by the operation of that article of compact, as slaveholders emigrating into the Western country might then indulge any preference which they might feel for a settlement in the Indiana Territory, instead of seeking, as they are now compelled to do, settlements in other States or countries permitting the introduction of slaves. The condition of the slaves themselves would be much ameliorated by it, as it is evident, from experience, that the more they are separated and diffused, the more care and attention are bestowed on them by their masters, each proprietor having it in his power to increase their comforts and conveniences in proportion to the smallness of their numbers. The dangers, too, (if any are to be apprehended,) from too large a black population existing in any one section of country, would certainly be very much diminished, if not entirely removed. But whether dangers are to be feared from this source or not, it is certainly an obvious dictate of sound policy to guard against them, as far as possible. If this danger does exist, or there is any cause to apprehend it, and our Western brethren are not only willing but desirous to aid us in taking precautions against it, would it not be wise to accept their assistance? We should benefit ourselves, without injuring them, as their population must always so far exceed any black population which can ever exist in that country, as to render the idea of danger from that source chimerical.

Your committee consider the regulation contained in the ordinance for the government of the Territory of the United States, which requires a freehold of fifty acres of land as a qualification for an elector of the General Assembly, as limiting too much the elective franchise. Some restrictions, however, being necessary, your committee conceive that a residence continued long enough to evince a determination to become a permanent inhabitant, should entitle a person to the rights of suffrage. This probationary period need not extend beyond twelve months.

The petition of certain settlers in the Indiana Territory, praying to be annexed to the State of Ohio, ought not, in the opinion of your committee, to be granted.

After attentively considering the various objects desired in the memorials and petitions, the committee respectfully submit to the House the following resolutions:

1. Resolved, That the sixth article of the ordinance of 1787, which prohibits slavery within the Indiana Territory, be suspended for ten years, so as to permit the introduction of slaves, born within the United States, from any of the individual States.

2. Resolved, That every white freeman of the age of twenty-one years, who has resided within the Territory twelve months, and within the county in which he claims a vote, six months immediately preceding the election, shall enjoy the rights of an Elector of the General Assembly.

3. Resolved, That the petition of certain settlers in the Indiana Territory, praying to be annexed to the State of Ohio, ought not to be granted.

4. Resolved, That it is inexpedient, at this time, to grant that part of the petition of the people of Randolph and St. Clair which prays for a division of the Indiana Territory.

Referred to a Committee of the Whole on Thursday next.

Society of Harmony.

The bill allowing George Rapp and his associates to locate a township of land in the Indiana Territory on certain conditions, was read a third time.

Mr. CLARK moved to recommit the bill to the Committee on Public Lands. The bill wants several amendments. There is no penalty, should the petitioners neglect to plant the vines.

Mr. JACKSON.--I second the motion of my colleague. These public lands formerly belonged to the State of Virginia; when ceded by that State, the Government of the United States were made trustees “for the common benefit of the Union; faithfully and bona fide for that use, and for no other,” to use the words of the act granting the cession. This is a contract between Virginia and the United States; we are in the place of trustees; we cannot violate the trust, yet this mode of selling the land for the benefit of individual foreigners is a violation of the trust. This precedent will be quoted hereafter, and will operate most injuriously. Notwithstanding what the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. MORROW) has said, I cannot help saying, that there are men ready at this time to give six dollars per acre for this very land, or land of this description. This bill will give them a whole township, 23,000 acres of land of the first quality. I cannot conceive the cultivation of the vine as a national benefit, as being “for the common benefit of the Union.” It will diminish the revenue, should vines be raised in abundance here. Wine is heavily taxed, and the tax is paid by the rich. I am altogether opposed to the bill.