33D CONG....2D SESS.

instinctively resists arbitrary authority. No reasonable mind objects to conformity to established regulations, and obedience to defined, permanent, and uniform rules. Beyond those rules the rights of a subordinate officer are as perfect as those of any other man. Within them be feels that it is no degradation to obey. It is not at all improbable that many of the difficulties that have been encountered in the British Museum, and in the Smithsonian Institution, have arisen not so much from lodging too much power in the secretary, as from the absence of by-laws fully defining the powers, duties, and relations of all the officers employed in them. The committee is particularly desirous to have it understood that they feel justified in expressing a very decided opinion that the difficulties that have arisen, and which the evidence sufficiently discloses in the bosom of the Institution, and the dissatisfaction that may exist in some portions of the community, may safely be attributed to the causes just mentioned, and not in the least to any want of fidelity or zeal on the part of its managers.

"As it respects the general policy, advocated by the friends of a library, to make it the prominent feature of the Smithsonian Institution, the committee are of opinion that the funds of the Institution are sufficient to accomplish that object at a more rapid rate of gradual accumulation than heretofore, without essentially impairing the usefulness and efficacy of the policy pursued at present by the managers. Active operations, original researches, and the publication of scientific treatises, if the wlfole income were consumed in them, would have to be confined far within the limits of what would be desirable. A limitation must be suffered at some point within the income; and the satisfaction of the country is of greater importance than a few thousand dollars, more or less, expended in either direction.

"But a few words are needed to do justice to the value of a great universal library at the metropolis of the Union. Every person who undertakes to prepare and publish a book, on any subject, will be found to bear testimony to the need of such a library. The great historians and classical writers of the country have to send abroad, often to go abroad in person, in order to obtain materials for their works. All literary men are eager to inspect catalogues, and explore alcoves, in the prosecution of their favorite departments; and there is no direction in which they are more tempted to drain their frequently quite moderate resources, than in the purchase of books. Such a library as would be accumulated by an appropriation of $20,000 annually, for twenty years, judiciously expended, would be frequented by scholars and authors in much larger numbers than persons not acquainted with their wants will be likely to suppose. In half a century it would give to America a library unequalled in value, and probably in size, in the world.

"There is a special reason why such a library should be provided at the seat of the Federal Government. The annals of all other countries, running back into the past, are soon shrouded in fable, or lost in total darkness. But ours, during their whole duration, are within the range of unclouded history. The great social, moral, and political exper iment here going on, to test the last hope of humanity, is capable of being described in clear and certain records. The history of each State and Territory can be written on the solid basis of ascertained facts. In each State and Territory there are, and from the first have been, many persons who are preparing, and have published, works illustrative of the entire progress of those respective communities. In local histories, commemorative addresses, and the vast variety of productions of this sort, our literature is rich and ample-beyond that of any other people. There is no way in which the patriotism and virtue of a people can be so effectually fostered and strengthened as by cherishing in their breasts "an interest in their ancestry, in the incidents that have marked the fortunes of their States, their towns, and the scenes of their residence-the transmitted reminiscences of their homes and firesides. It would be a great and a good thing, could there be collected in a national library, in distinct alcoves, all valuable publications illustrating the history of the several States of the Union. Different processes of legislation, and various social and political influences, have operated upon them severally, and the records of the results ought to be here for the inspection and instruction of the Representatives of the people, of the people themselves, and of the whole world.

"But if every other description of books is avoided or crowded out, there is one which surely ought not to be. If the resources of the Institution are to be exclusively or mainly devoted to science rather than to general literature and knowledge, it ought, at any rate, to have within its walls a perfect and universal library of science and art; not merely modern science and recent researches, but all the publications of all ages, and all countries, that illustrate the progress of science, as such. If we cannot have a universal library, give us, at least, a scientific library, such as no other nation can boast.

"One advantage of a liberal expenditure for a library, not to be thought lightly of in a Government resting entirely on popular opinion, is that it results in something that shows for itself. The people can see in it what has become of the money. It would forever grow before their eyes, and in all coming generations, from its unapproached and ever expanding magnitude, would be an object of perpetually increasing national pride. Under the present policy, the funds disappear as they are expended, however salutary their application may have been, and the only monuments are a few volumes, admirable, no doubt, in their form and substance, highly appreciated by scientific societies at home and abroad, but never seen by the people.

"The short time allowed them, the necessary consequent inadequateness of their investigations and deliberations, and the impossibility of any legislative action by this Congress, restrain the committee from reporting any bill to the House; but, in view of all the circumstances, as a measure of peace, as a mutualconcession, which, in such a matter, is the only way of settling a difficulty, they would express their conviction that the compromise adopted at, an early day by the Board of Regents, ought to be restored, and that all desirable ends may be ultimately secured by dividing

the income equally between the library and museum on the one part, and active operations on the other.

"The only other suggestion the committee have to make is, the expediency, in order to avoid all embarrassment in future, to have each division of the Institution placed under its proper and distinctive head. Let the secretary have charge of the active operations, preside over the scientific researches, and direct the publications. Let the librarian have charge of the library and museum. If the two departments are thus separated, and placed under the control of well devised and clearly defined regulations, never interfering with each other, but working freely and harmoniously in their respective spheres, each principal responsible only for his own province, and subject alike to a common head, whether the Secretary of the Interior or a Board of Regents, the Institution would, we think, be found to work more auspiciously, and produce the best and greatest results. For the committee,

"CHARLES W. UPHAM, Chairman."

GRANTS OF LAND FOR RAILROADS.

SPEECH OF HON. JOHN PERKINS,
OF LOUISIANA,

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,
February 28, 1855,

On the bill granting alternate sections of Land to aid in the construction of the Vicksburg and Shreveport Railroad.

Mr. PERKINS, of Louisiana, said:

Mr. SPEAKER: In offering the bill granting alternate sections of land to aid in the construction of the Vicksburg and Shreveport railroad, prepared by the Committee on Public Lands, as an amendment to the railroad bill now before the House, my object is to avoid anything like sectionalism in the passage of either of these bills. They are not so in their character, and should not be made to appear so by the mode of their introduction.

Substantially, the same bill that I now offer as an amendment has passed twice the Senate. It was introduced into this House last session, before any of the other bills now with the Committee on Public Lands, and, under the circumstances, I see no reason why its report should be delayed. It is in discharge, therefore, of a duty, and without reflecting upon the members of the committee for the order in which they are disposed to bring forward their bills, that I offer it at this time.

If it is voted down now, it will again come up, when reported by the committee, should the committee be again called.

My time will not permit me, Mr. Speaker, to do more than suggest the points I would wish to discuss fully before the House.

The action of past Congresses on the subject of railroads, the indorsement of the policy and constitutionality of the grants of alternate sections of land to aid in their construction by Mr. Calhoun, the reasoning of the President's first message on the subject, and the full approval of the same policy in the annual report of the Secretary of the Interior, makes entirely unnecessary any constitutional

argument.

The third section, of the fourth article of the Constitution says:

"Congress shall have power to dispose of, and make all needful rules and regulations respecting, the territory or other property belonging to the United States; and nothing in this Constitution shall be so construed as to prejudice any claims of the United States, or of any particular State." Mr. Calhoun, in a report to the Senate on the memorial of the Memphis convention, at the session of 1845-'46, said:

Your committee will next proceed to consider that portion of the memorial which relates to the communication by railroad between the valley of the Mississippi and the southern Atlantic States. They regard works of the kind as belonging to internal improvements, (that is, improvements within the body of the States,) and as such are, in their opinion, not embraced in the power to regulate commerce. But they are, nevertheless, of opinion, that where such roads, or other works of internal improvement, may pass through public lands, the United States may contribute to their construction in their character of proprietors, to the extent that they may be enhanced in price thereby. This has usually been done by ceding alternate sections on the projected line of such works, and it is believed that no mode of contribution more fair, or better calculated to guard against abuses, can be devised.

"That Congress has a right to make such contributions, where there is reasonable ground to believe that the public lands will be enhanced in proportion, under its right to dispose of the territory and other public property of the United States,' your committee cannot doubt. In making this assertion, they hold to the rule of strict construction; and that this power, like all the other powers of the Govern

Ho. OF REPS.

ment, is a trust power, and, as such, is strictly limited by the nature and object of the trust. In this case the rule requires that the lands and other public property of the United States should be disposed of to the best advantage; and where that can be done by contributing a portion to works which would make the residue equally or more valuable than the whole would be without it, as is supposed, they hold it would be strictly within the rule. Your committee go further: They are of the opinion, not only that Congress has the right to contribute to the extent stated, in such cases, but that it is in duty bound to do so, as the representative of a part of the proprietors of the land to be benefited. It would be neither just nor fair for it to stand by and realize the advantage they would derive from this work without contributing a due proportion towards its construction. It would be still less justifiable to refuse to contribute, it its effect would be to defeat a work, the construction of which, while it would enhance the value of the land belonging to the public, and that of individual proprietors, would promote the prosperity of the country generally."

President Pierce, in his first annual message to Congress, 1853, said:

"Numerous applications have been, and no doubt will continue to be, made for grauts of land in aid of the construction of railways. It is not believed to be within the intent and meaning of the Constitution that the power to dispose of the public domain should be used otherwise than might be expected from a prudent proprietor, and therefore, that grants of land to aid in the construction of roads should be restricted to cases where it would be for the interest of a proprietor, under like circumstances, thus to contribute to the construction of these works. For the practical operation of such grants, thus far, in advancing the interests of the States in which the works are located, and, at the same time, the substantial interests of all the other States, by enhancing the value and promoting the rapid sale of the public domain, I refer you to the report of the Secretary of the Interior. A careful examination, however, will show that this experience is the result of a just discrimination, and will be far from affording encouragement to a reckless or indiscriminate extension of the principle."

The Secretary of the Interior said:

"There can be as little doubt of the constitutionality of such grants as of their propriety.

"The right to donate a part for the enhancement of the value of the residue can no longer be justly questioned. The principle has been adopted and acted upon for nearly thirty years; and since experience has shown it to be productive of so much good, no sound reason is perceived why it should now be abandoned.

"It has been of incalculable importance to the great West, and either directly or indirectly to all the States."

The Commissioner of the General Land Office, in his report, 1853, said:

"The great and extraordinary increase in the amount of lands disposed of in sections of the country remote from each other, can only be accounted for by the improvements, aided by grants of alternate sections of land." "If no other reason existed this one, on the score of sound economy, would be sufficient. Many of these lands, however, have been in market long enough for the interest to amount to much more than the principle, and during all this period the States were deprived of the right and benefit of taxation." "To grants of this character for railroads," he continues, “not one tangible or substantial objection can be presented. The increased value given to the lands enables the Government to get double price and a ready sale for those retained, and hence the grant costs them nothing."

The power to "dispose of" the public lands exists. The exercise of this power is in the Government as proprietor, and although limited properly by the nature and restraints of the Constitution, the power, if employed at all, should be to insure the greatest advantage to the country.

Those who interpret the Constitution most largely, and contend for the right, under it, to carry on a general system of internal improvements, find no difficulty in these grants. Those who, like Mr. Calhoun, interpret strictly the terms of that instrument, deduce the power from the proprietary character of the Government. The difficulty is in the limitation of the power. But there are guards upon its exercise that do not exist in appropriations for internal improvement, both of time and locality. Time ceases when all the lands in a State are appropriated. The locality is determined in the designation by a State of the road chartered, and the confining of the grant by the Government to the vicinity of such roads. Illinois has received for railroad purposes, 2,595,053 acres. Missouri 2,442,240 Alabama 419,528 Mississippi 66 737,130 66 Arkansas 2,189,200

In all.....

66

66

66

of land have been thus granted.

..8,383,151 acres

It is proposed, by the amendment I have offered, to grant to the State of Louisiana, for the Vicksburg and Shreveport railroad, alternate sections of land on the same terms of the grants to these States.

33D CONG....2D Sess.

If this bill passes, it will secure to that railroad about 729,600 acres.

A letter from the Commissioner of the Land Office, which I have just received, says:

"In regard to the lands along the Vicksburg and Shreveport railroad, I have to state, as follows:

is.

The estimated vacant within six miles, on each side of the road is....

The estimated quantity of land proposed to be granted 729,600 acres. .422,400 "The average length of time these lands have been in market is twenty one years. About three quarters of the lands were offered between the years 1822 and 1843. The remaining one quarter-chiefly in the De Bastrop claimis not yet offered. The graduated price of lands in market twenty-one years would be fifty cents per acre. "I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

"JOHN WILSON, Commissioner,"

This, sir, is not a large demand. Reduced to dollars, it would be about $350,000. This is in the supposition that there remain sufficient vacant land within twelve miles of the line of the road to supply alternate sections for the grant. Within the last three months, however, a very large portion of these lands have been entered in anticipation of the construction of the road, and the fairer estimate would be that the lands to be conveyed by this bill do not value at more than $250,000. Louisiana has never yet had a grant of land for railroad purposes. All that she has ever asked for, is less than you have granted to the State of Illinois.

Road from New Orleans to Canton. Distance from N. O. Miles. Feet. Acres. 90 grant would be 540 345,600

to 31st latitude... Road from N. O. to Mobile.

Distance from N. O. to Pearl river..... Road from N. O., via Opelousas, to Texian line..

Road from Vicksb'g,

via Shreveport, to Texian line......

Total......

HO. OF REPS.

sessions, and west to and over the Rocky mountains, you gave but $15,000,000. Years since you have been more than paid back this sum from the sale of lands, within but a small portion of this territory.

Amount of Moneys received for Lands sold in the undermentioned States up to January 1st, 1849, as per Statement of R. M. Young, Commissioner of the General Land Office, and as per Appendix to the Report of the Commissioner for the year 1848, page! 255.

States.

1,107,235 31

Missouri*. Louisianat. Arkansast

359,088 55

Iowag..

947,334 63

123,081 00

275,000 00

167,800 05

Improving the navigation of the Ohio, Missouri, and Mississippi rivers.. Improving the Missouri, Mississippi, Ohio, and Arkansas rivers..

191,300 00 258,523 84 430,000 00

Increasing the depth of the mouths of the Mississippi

Forts, fortifications, and other works of defense..........

Refunding money for land sold in the Greensburg district..

"1,860 1,190,400

Expenditures of all kinds........

286,497 97 433,070 36 56,510 00 140,596 00 21,000 00 2,387,089 23 174,244 89 $9,208,857 37

310 66

The States all around her have had such grants. They have been made to Alabama and Mississippi on the east; Arkansas and Missouri on the north. Texas on the west, has entire possession of all her lands. Why this distinction? Louisiana purchased after the adoption of the Constitution-from her history-the treaty stipulations of her cession; and her peculiar position, with the mouths of the Mississippi river within her borders, has certainly as great a claim upon the consideration of Congress. She brought with her to the Union, the free navigation of the Mississippi. She gave to the United States the commerce of the Gulf of Mexico; and opened the way to the Pacific coast. She has "contributed more," it has been well said, "than any other cause," to the growth and prosperity of the valley States east of the Mississippi, whose commerce has built up the cities, the commercial marine, the manufactures, the canals, and railroads of the States bordering on the Atlantic.

In return for all this, Louisiana, Mr. Speaker,|| has received but little from the Government. She has not, to be sure, been importunate in her demands, and I hope she never will be; but when she has a just claim upon the Government it should be acknowledged. The money paid into the Treasury for her lands, and collected on customs from her commerce, has been to her a dead loss of so much extracted from her wealth and disbursed in remote portions of the Union. She has been, in fact, like a mine, out of which treasure has been dug for the General Government

This statement exhibits the net proceeds, say $37,903,276 79 of the receipts of Louisiana from her admission into the Union in 1812 until 30th of June, 1853, after deducting every expenditure by the Federal Government within the State, as well as the appropriations to the Mississippi and its tributaries.

Mr. Speaker, the interest of Louisiana, particularly the portion of it that I represent, is agricultural.

The Mississippi river, flowing along the borders of the seven land States of Wisocnsin, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Arkansas, and Mississippi, passes through Louisiana with a western bank of more than six hundred miles, and an eastern one of more than four hundred, together, about one thousand miles.

The alluvial bottom along its course, that is but a narrow strip above Missouri, widens out with the waters of its lower tributaries into an immense basin of low land, that gives to Louisiana a gulf shore of several hundred miles all along the line of, and over and through which the waters of the great West reach the Gulf level.

This physical peculiarity has given to Louisiana an exceptional character of interest, connected || with the land policy of the Federal Government, difficult to be appreciated by one who has not lived within her borders.

The fact that she has been under three different rules-Spanish, French and American-has com

disputed grants and unadjusted claims, that in 1849 numbered 4,721,180 acres. Although organized as a Territory in 1804, and as a State in 1812, the first land office opened within her limits was in 1818, and such was the delay on the part of the General Government in surveying her lands, that of her (in round numbers) 29,000,000 acres of land, only 2,700,000 had, up to 1850, been surveyed.

In fact, sir, since her introduction into the Union, she has been like a captive fettered by the operation of your land system. For the whole of the original territory of Louisiana, beyond the Mississippi, extending north to the British pos

18,306,646.05 $23,531,283 09

*Averaged per acre, $1 31. Averaged per acre, $1_27. Averaged per acre, $1 26. (Averaged per acre, $1 25 1-9. Every dollar you now realize from the sale of the remaining land in the State of Louisiana is in the nature of profits from a Government speculation. I have once before, since I have been in this House, alluded to this subject, as a cause of just complaint. Mr. BENTON said, in 1829, that the Federal Government had treated Louisiana worse with reference to her lands than she had been treated by the kings of France and Spain. His words were: "For all that the Federal Government has done, that State would now be a desert."

Mr. Livingston, in 1830, said "that in the twenty-five years she had been in the Union the Federal Government had retarded her just one half in her population;" and the Commissioner at the head of your General Land Office has said, "that it would have been cheaper for the original citizens of Louisiana to have purchased over again their lands from the General Government, than to have incurred the expense of the litigation to which they have been exposed in defending their titles."

I refer to these facts, Mr. Speaker, as showing, that aside from the peculiar merit of the present grant, Louisiana has claims of a general character upon the consideration of Congress.

Gentlemen may remind me of the swamp grant of near ten millions of acres, made to Louisiana at the time of similar grants to the other States, South and West.

This was, Mr Speaker, to some of the States,. in many respects a munificent grant. It was, as regards Louisiana, certainly a most just and proper grant. The Representative, [Mr. Harmanson,] who, by his active zeal, honorably attached his name to the legislation which secured it was from the congressional district of Louisiana I now represent. His untiring exertions in this behalf were gratefully appreciated at home.

But, sir, Louisiana has not yet been benefited by the grant to the same extent as the other States who were its recipients. It was a grant not only to reclaim land, but to secure from miasma and disease, a large region of country. Disease, which higher up the Mississippi river, strikes here and there an individual, has, in some instances in Louisiana, swept whole communities.

The object of the grant was to enable the State to do what the General Government could not so well do, remove, by a system of draining and leveeing, the causes of a miasma which, generated in swamps more than half the year covered with water, and protected by deep and thick forests from the sun, was borne by currents of wind, over the more elevated and healthy regions on each side. I have in my hand the report of the Board of Swamp Land Commissioners of Louisiana, addressed to the Governor of the State, January 2, 1854, with reference to these lands. From it I find, that in that year, two out of the three engineers engaged by the State in surveying this swamp land fell victims to disease. From the report for the present year it appears that the survey has been again delayed by reason of the ill health of those exposed in this duty.

The united report of the three commissioners of the State for the year 1854, says that the protection levees on the Mississippi river, with other rivers and bayous of the State, require such great expenditures that the lands available to that State may not produce more than sufficient to guard

33D CONG....2D SESS.

against overflow. And that the draining of the lands would not cost, for main drains, machinery and building, more than eight dollars per acre, or $72,000 for nine thousand acres.

This is the outlay calculated to be made by the State for "main drains" only. The smaller drains and clearings are pot included in this estimate, and are to be performed when preparing for cultivation. One of these commissioners, an old and respected citizen of the State, (Colonel Van Winkle,) says, in his report to the Governor:

"It is now, with fear and trembling, that the citizens of our State witness the annual rise of the Mississippi, not knowing at what moment the labor of years may be swept away, and all their plans for the future dissipated."

The effect has been this: The water of the Mississippi river leveed out from the banks above, has been forced down upon Louisiana, in an increased volume, making it necessary to strengthen and build higher her levees, cut outlets, and make drains, resulting in the organization under scientific men, of a system of State internal drainage, attended with great expense, and entirely unknown in any other State of the Union. So great has been the expense entailed upon her by this means, that the Commissioner of the General Land Office, (Mr. Wilson,) than whom no one is better acquainted with the peculiarities of Louisiana swamp lands, recommended in 1852, as but an act of justice and propriety, the granting to her the remaining ten millions of acres of public land within her borders.

Under these circumstances, Mr. Speaker, I trust there will be no more allusion in this House to the grant of swamp lands to Louisiana as a gratuity. In no light can it be regarded as a gratuity. A great portion of the land comprehended in the grant has never yet been surveyed, by reason of their low and marshy character. Had the General Government received no other consideration, the enhanced value in the reclamation of large tracts of public land heretofore produced by private levees would be a full equivalent.

But, Mr. Speaker, I leave this general view of the subject, and ask the attention of the House, while I state, as briefly as possible, a few of the particular reasons in favor of the grant of lands under the bill now before the House.

1. The local peculiarities of the country to be traversed by the proposed railroad, are such as to make it greatly to the interest of the Government to grant alternate sections of land in order to give value to the remaining sections.

2. The national character of the road for which the grant is asked, and the terms of the bill under which it is to be conveyed, strongly recommend it to the favorable consideration of Congress.

3. The amount of land asked is so small, and, in its present inaccessible state, its value so little, that, even should this bill pass, nominally making a grant to the State, the Government in reality will have made a most profitable contract.

I believe that the land to be conveyed under this bill will be more than reimbursed in value to the Government, threefold.

1. By the increased value of the remaining sections of land along the route.

2. By the saving in the carrying of the United States mail.

3. By the saving in the transportation of its troops and military stores.

The

The Vicksburg and Shreveport railroad company's charter bears date the 5th July, 1852. company was organized the 25th January, 1853. The route from Vicksburg across to the Texas line has been surveyed. The distance is two hundred and ten miles. The State of Louisiana has subscribed for $800,000 of stock. Individuals living along the line, the parishes through which it passes, and persons living at the proposed termini, have liberally subscribed. Portions of the road are now under construction, and such is the deep interest felt that many of the planters along the route have contracted for portions of the work, to receive pay in stock.

In the entire distance across the State the road will vary only nine miles from a direct line. From Vicksburg, on the Mississippi river, it will pass directly west to Monroe, in Louisiana, a distance of seventy-five miles, and from Monroe to Shreveport, a distance of about one hundred miles, and from there to the Texas line west about thirty

miles. The entire distance, in all, is about two hundred miles. The elevation in this distance will be only about fifty feet.

When completed, the immediate advantages of the road will be felt in the development of the interior regions of Arkansas, Texas, and Mississippi; while its connection with a system of roads to extend through Texas to the Pacific, will open a large avenue of rich trade. There is not, perhaps, a richer agricultural region in the world than portions of that through which the road will pass. It is intersected by marshy lakes, bayous, and small rivers seldom navigable. What Napoleon once called, on his return from his Russian campaign, a fifili element of nature in addition to earth, water, air, and fire, mud makes it impassable to ordinary roads. There are in it tracts of the finest cotton and sugar land in the world, lying entirely unproductive, islets, as it were, in a region of morass. The road will cross the triangle of land between the Mississippi and the Red river, bringing into market these lands, and connecting, as a link, the railroad going west, terminating at Vicksburg, with that coming east from Texas at Shreveport.

I hold in my hand a table, drawn from the last census returns, showing the extent, population, agricultural product, and wealth of the twelve parishes most nearly interested in the construction of this road.

Statistics of the undermentioned Parishes in Louisiana as per United States Census returns of 1850, with the Marshal's returns of what are

considered average crops.

Acres of land in

Im

farms.

Unim

proved. proved.

Cash value of

farms.

Value of farm

ing implements

and machinery.

Value of live stock.

Bushels of Incorn.

Ginned cotton

-bales of 400

lbs.

Average crops

of corn-bushels.

Average crops cotton-bales of 400 lbs.

Their production in 1851 was 138 bales of cot

ton and 2,000,000 bushels of corn, from the labor

Ho. OF REPS.

of 46,099 slaves. Their white population in 1850 was 33,392. I cannot be much in error in relying upon a calculation made by my colleague, [Judge JONES,] when I estimate the product of these parishes for 1853 to have been nearly 300,000 bales of cotton. Complete this railroad, and the increased facility to market will draw a dense population, and cause greatly increased production. I have here, sir, a remarkable table, to which I invite attention, as showing the difference in the expense of getting produce to market at the South by ordinary roads of the country and by railroad:

STATEMENT

Showing the value of a ton of Cotton, say five bales of four hundred pounds each, at seven cents per pound, equal to $140 the ton, and one of sugar, say, two hogsheads, of one thousand pounds cach, at three and a half per cent. per pound, equal to seventy dollars the ton-at given points from market, as affected by cost of transportation by railroad, and over the ordinary roads, computing the cost by railroad at three cents per ton, ten miles, and by the ordinary road, one dollar and a half per hundred for ten miles-the estimated average rates in the southern country by these two modes of conveyance:

80 miles from market... 90 miles from market... 100 miles from market... 110 miles from market... 120 miles from market... 130 miles from market... 140 miles from market... 150 miles from market... 160 miles from market... 170 miles from market... 180 miles from market... 190 miles from market... 200 miles from market.. 210 miles from market... 220 miles from market... 230 miles from market... 210 miles from market... 250 miles from market.. 260 miles from market.. 270 miles from market.. 280 miles from market... 290 miles from market... 300 miles from market...

These facts and figures are not given except to show that this application for land is not made in behalf of a small interest, or for the advantage of a few speculators.

If ever there was an application for a grant of lands for railroad purposes within a State that could with propriety be termed national in its charracter, this is certainly one. It is to connect the great chain of railroads which already exists, with one or two broken links from Charleston to Vicksburg, with that which is provided for in the magnificent grant by Texas to construct a road across her entire borders. A region of country five times the size of the great State of New York, and much larger than the whole of New England, lies to the southwest of the Mississippi valley, all embraced within the single State of Texas. Its resources are yet undeveloped. In population and wealth it will exceed what New England now is. Without going beyond its limits we may, without any stretch of imagination, picture it to the other States of the South, and in its influence upon the Union what New England has been to the northern States and the Union. This region, once alien, now seeks to be

33D CONG....2D SESS.

bound yet closer by increased means of intercourse and trade with the Union.

Her gulf shores are shallow, and not always accessible to our large merchant vessels.

The Red river, her natural outlet to the Mississippi valley, is obstructed in its navigation by rafts and other causes, that make it, for almost six months in the year, entirely useless for trade. The small town of Shreveport, of only a dozen houses a few years since, has grown into a flourishing city, second only to New Orleans in population and wealth, of any in Louisiana. It has become so by being the stopping point of the wealth and trade of the West in its course East. Often the merchants of Texas, deterred by the sickness in the Gulf cities, from passing through them, on their way East for northern purchases, have been obliged to trust the uncertain and circuitous navigation of the Red river, or to force their way by land across north Louisiana, along the very line of this projected road. The emigration from the States east of the Mississippi, west over this line, and through Shreveport to Texas, is very great. It has been estimated, in some years, from sixty to one hundred thousand persons. When the water in Red river is low, the principal portion of it is through by land; and when high, by the river. It is not unusual at certain seasons (my colleague, Judge JoNEs, tells me) to see forty or fifty large traveling wagons together, on the eastern bank of the Red river, waiting their turn to cross the ferry toward Shreveport.

I will not enlarge upon the commercial advantages to result from the completion of this road. It will open a direct, valuable, and increasing demand for the manufactured articles of the middle and southern, as well as for those of the northern States. It will go far towards completing, almost on the same parallel of latitude, of thirty-two degrees, the longest line of railroad in the world, and passing through the richest agricultural region | that exists. It will make comparatively easy the accomplishment by capitalists, even without the aid of Government, of railroad communication with the Pacific, and through a region embarrassed neither by the snows of winter, nor the excessive heats of summer. The fields where are grown the cotton and sugar of the world will be along its line. The gold mines of California and the trade of the Pacific will be at one end, and Cuba and that of the Atlantic near the other. The same trade that made the shores of the Mediterranean sea to bloom with civilization and built up large cities along its line, will pass directly through our borders. There can be no calculation of the effect upon the future of the South. New life and energy will be given to every interest. I forbear, however, to more than suggest a few of these national considerations.

I have said, Mr. Speaker, that the grant of alternate sections to this road would be, I believe, more than threefold repaid to the Government.

1. The value of the land granted is to be repaid by the sale of the remaining sections along the line, at double their present price. Experience shows that the Government has been (says the Commissioner of the General Land Office) fully reimbursed in this way for railroad grants heretofore made.

If there is any doubt, however, on this point in the mind of any one, I ask his attention to another aspect of this question. The amount of duty on iron which this company will pay into the public Treasury in constructing two hundred miles, will of itself pay more than the value of the lands. It is estimated that the present duty on every mile of railroad iron laid down, is over $1,200. This for two hundred miles would be $240,000 paid into the Treasury.

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3. By the bill, the road, when constructed, will "remain a public highway for the use of the Gov. ernment of the United States, free from toll or other charge upon the transportation of any property or troops of the United States." Under this section, in case of war with Mexico, the Government would be in one year more than repaid in the transportation of its troops, the full value of the lands proposed to be granted. That this may be perfectly plain, I call attention to House document No. 24, containing a letter from the Secretary of War, transmitting reports in reference to obstructions to the navigation of the Red river, dated January 16, 1854, in which the Quartermaster Department reports to Colonel Davis, that in 1851 it was estimated "that if the raft in Red river were removed, so as to afford an unobstructed navigation to that river, it would result in a saving of about $4,500 for each company to be supplied or for a regiment about $45,000 annually." The report says that from 1851 to 1854 the cost of transportation remained about the same. General Jesup, in 1851, gave the data of this calculation, as follows:

On one hundred and thirty-two thousand one hundred and sixty pounds subsistence, at three cents per pound... ..$3,964 80 On five thousand pounds clothing and camp equipage, at three cents per pound.... 150 00

On ten thousand pounds quartermaster's ord-
nance, and medical stores, at three cents per
pound......

On twenty-eight enlisted men, at four dollars each,
Amount saved to a company...

300 00 112 00 $4,526 80

There is at present one regiment (fifth infantry) which is to be supplied from Fort Smith, or by Red river; consequently, the saving to the Government, which would be made by the removal of the raft, may be estimated at $45,000 annually, provided a regiment of troops is to be maintained on that line of the frontier, and in proportion as the number may be decreased or increased.

The foregoing calculation is based upon the supposition that only the new posts ordered to be established by the fifth infantry are to be supplied by way of Red river; but, if that river should be effectually cleared out so as to render its navigation certain during the high stages of water, it is believed that at least two of the present posts in Texas, now occupied by other troops, could be more economically supplied than at present, by way of Indianola, on the coast; added to which, it is but fair to presume that, as the posts on the new line be pushed forward towards the Rio Grande, it will be found that that route will be cheaper and more certain for supplying the posts in the vicinity of El Paso, in New Mexico, than the present routes via Indianola or Fort Leavenworth.

It will be observed that this saving, of near $50,000, is the difference between what the Government now pays, and what it would have to pay for the transportation of troops and military stores, were the raft in the Red river removed. By the railroad, if constructed, with the aid of a grant of lands from the Government, its saving would be of nearly the entire amount now expended. It is not extravagant to estimate, therefore, that the Government would thus be more than paid back to the fullest in a few years the value of the lands donated.

Mr. Speaker, I will not refer to the injustice of individuals—small landed proprietors-paying taxes for the construction of railroads by which the General Government, the largest landed proprietor along the line, is to reap the greatest advantage in the enhanced value of its land, without itself paying even a cent in taxes. I have heretofore called to the attention of the House a calculation made in 1849, that from a forbearance to tax the land of the General Government, within their limits, the States have lost $72,000,000. I have now said, sir, all that I intend to say on this subject. My remarks apply, except where the Vicksburg and Shreveport railroad is mentioned, to all the other railroads in Louisiana for which land grants are asked.

I will not be tempted into anything that even by

cacy of the bill before the House. Louisiana will construct her roads, Mr. Speaker, whether you grant or refuse her the lands along their line. She has capital, energy, and intelligence united in the direction of these enterprises. She has never been, and I trust she never will be, an importunate beggar for grants of any kind from the Federal Government. If you deny her justice under the legislation of this House, she will, at least, preserve her self-respect. When the recent bill for the Pacific railroad was up for passage, under the rules of your House I could not protest against what

HO. OF REPS.

To

seemed to me very much like an effort to shut her off from all the advantages of the Pacific trade. I do not charge it as such an effort. I have too much respect for the gentleman from Indiana [Mr. DAVIS] to believe that was the design; but, sir, coming from almost any other source, I would have believed it to have been such an effort. the proposition to construct a great central road to the Pacific, with one northern branch running towards the great lakes, and the other, not, sir, towards the Gulf of Mexico, but towards Memphis, I did not move an amendment turning that southern branch towards New Orleans; for even then it would have been a virtual exclusion of both Texas and Louisiana from the advantages of the California trade.

My colleague [Judge DUNBAR] offered the bill of the Senate, providing for a northern, a central, and a southern route. Could anything be more just? It was rejected. I then offered to the House a proposition prepared by the member from Arkansas, [Mr. WARREN,] which I thought national and entirely just towards all sections. It was, that the Government should grant alternate sections of land for the construction of a railroad through its Territories, from any point west of the Mississippi river that individual enterprise and capital should select, with proper guarantees for its completion to the Pacific. To such a grant few entertain constitutional objections. President Pierce, in his first annual message, said:

"Congress, representing the proprietors of the territorial domain, and charged especially with power to dispose of territory belonging to the United States, has, for a long course of years, beginning with the Administration of Mr. Jefferson, exercised the power to construct roads within the Territories, and there are so many and obvious distinotions between this exercise of power and that of making roads within the States, that the former has never been considered subject to such objections as applied to the latter, and such may now be considered the settled construction of the power of the Federal Government on the subject."

Asking no monopoly, Mr. Speaker, by the Federal Government of this trade to herself, I know I speak the sentiment of Louisiana when I say she will not acquiesce without a sense of wrong done her in any legislation on the part of Congress which secures it to some other State further north. Natural advantages, capital, and individual enterprise should determine the route. Left to such a decision, I have no doubt where the railroad will run. I have material which, on this point, it seems to me, should satisfy every unprejudiced mind. To place it on record, and, at the same time, give it circulation, I will conclude my remarks by reading it:

Captain Marcy, in his report dated November 20, 1849, concludes by saying:

"From all I can learn of the other routes to California, I am induced to believe, that should our Government at any future time determine upon making a national road of any description across the continent, the southern route we have traveled is eminently worthy of consideration. We find upon none of the northern routes as much water, timber, or rich fertile soil, as upon this. There are many more mountains to pass over, and during a part of the year they are buried in deep snows.

Major H. H. Merrill, United States Army, writing from Austn, Texas, May 6, 1854, to Hon. Anson Jones, of that State, says:

"An active service of over five years in your State, most of which has been confined to her remote borders, has brought under my personal observation much of her country, and, I may say, quite all you refer to, and as lying east of the Rio Grande." "For grazing purposes there is, perhaps, not a finer country in the world." "The climate of this latitude is mild and beautiful all seasons of the year." "For

general health it will compare with an equal extent of any country throughout the United States." "Nearly all the country along this route is susceptible of a dense population, watered, and has an abundance of stone, with a due proporcomposed generally of rich lands easily cultivated, well tion of timber." "That the line of 32 is by far the cheapest and most practicable route for the Atlantic and Pacific railroad is, in my own mind, settled beyond a doubt. Possessing an easy grade, with ample stone, timber, and water, passing through a rich and beautiful country, with a climate not surpassed, if equaled, by any in the world, it cannot fail to attract the attention of all, and become the favorite route of the country. The very liberal donation of your State in granting twenty sections of her land, of six hundred and forty acres each, for every mile of road constructed on this route, I regard as ample for its entire construction within your limits.”

For an interesting and concise statement with reference to the southern route, made by A. B. Gray, (not yet published,) late United States surveyor of the Mexican boundary, under the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, I am indebted to General

33D CONG....2D SESS.

RUSK, of Texas. I am assured every reliance can be placed upon its correctness:

Estimates, &c.

Assuming the distance from Lake Lodo, near Shreveport, on Red river, Louisiana, to the eastern bank of the Rio Grande, at El Paso, to be eight hundred miles by the route proposed in the vicinity of the parallel of 32° north latitude, the following estiniate will not, I think, be far from the truth. It is, of course, only approximate, but, based upon a computation upon reliable data, and I believe that, with proper judgment and economy, and a faithful management of affairs, will be fully sufficient to complete the whole line from the eastern to the western limits of the State of Texas.

Know-Nothingism—Mr. Ruffin.

From its perfect accessibility at all seasons of the year, free from the drifting snows of the north, and the malignant diseases of the tropics, this main trunk railway must command, to a great extent, the trade and commerce of the world.

HO. OF REPS.

The route through Texas, by way of El Paso, or Presidio del Norte, to the Gulf of California, would shorten the present mode of travel from England to Australia, by the Isthmus of Panama, at least seven days, by giving a connected line of railroad for two thousand five hundred miles, at the rate of from twenty to thirty miles the hour, whereas at present, by the Isthmus, there would be but eighty miles at that speed. D. H.

Time from Liverpool to Isthmus, (steamship,)
4,446 miles, at 240 miles per diem.......
to Panama by railway..
from Panama to Australia, (steamship,)
7,637 miles, at 240 miles per diem....
Total days........

$4,200,000

Time from Liverpool to Halifax

Ties, 800 miles, $2,000...

..1,600,000

Halifax to New York..

Iron, 800 miles, $8,000..

Bridging, 800 miles, $1,500,000..

New York to the Rio Grande, via Mississippi and Pacific route, 2,100 miles, Rio Grande to Guaymas, 500 miles..... Guaymas to Australia, steamship, 6,671 miles, at 240 miles per diem....

Equipment.

I have shown that no impassable barriers exist between Texas and the Gulf of California; and should a railroad be built through Texas, nothing, in my opinion, can prevent its continuance to the Gulf and, likewise to the State of California.

A line west of El Paso for two hundred and fifty miles to a point in the neighborhood of the town of Tubac, (now in the United States, under the recent treaty with Mexico,) might be a common trunk to California, as well as to the Gulf. A railway to the latter I conceive would facilitate thetconstruction of a road to the former.

I is less than five hundred miles from the Rio Grande to the Gulf, and two hundred and fifty of it being in common, would leave two hundred and fifty miles at most to build, and when finished would be the means of easy transportation for the heavy materials, necessary to the construction of the road to California.

Guaymas has a large and safe harbor, and accessible at all times. The geographical situation of the Gulf of California renders it certain that some place there must become important, and it holds a conspicuous position in connection with the speedy construction of the line to the Rio Grande.

The fine back country of Sonora, Chihuahua, and part of New Mexico, with its mineral and agricultural wealth, has its natural outlet upon that Gulf, and it only awaits a steady and liberal Government there to develop it as one of the most valuable districts upon the continent.

At the same rate of estimate as given for the line through the State of Texas, a railroad from the Rio Grande to the Gulf of California, would cost as follows:

The line through Texas, I believe, can be built in five years, and, upon its connection with the gulf, will at once be available to the China, Australian, and Pacific trade. To California, it will reduce the time from New York to ten days, besides aiding in the continuation of the road to that State.

The benefits to be derived from the construction of the railway along the parallel of 32° north latitude, in Texas, are not alone confined to that State. Incalculable as the advantages may be to her, still every State in this Union must be deeply interested in it, from the frontiers of Missouri to the State of Maine, and from the capes of Florida to Corpus Christi. From the Atlantic to the Pacific, I believe, it will be the great trunk from which, at the east, will branch lines to St. Louis, to New York, to Charleston, and New Orleans, and at the west will likewise branch to California and to Guaymas, or some other convenient point at the gulf.

0 4 31 20

50 12 D. H. 10 02 1 06 3 12 0 20 27 19 43 11

Were Galway, in Ireland, a packet station, it is shown at a railway convention, that the time of travel between the two great cities of New York and London could be shortened by four days, or four days and a half.

Thus the transportation of the mails and passengers, the $40,000,000 specie annually, and the expresses to and from Australia and the South Pacific, at least, would be forced (by the saving of such vast interest) to follow this route. Add to this the mails, passengers, express packages, specie, and manufactured articles that would necessarily be transported by a railway to and from California and the North Pacific, and enormous returns upon the outlay of capital invested in its construction and maintenance would be the result.

The local trade, likewise, that this road would command is of no little consideration, but of itself, in my opinion, would very shortly pay well. The whole valley of the Rio Grande, from Santa Fé to Presidio del Norte, the extensive interior of Sonora, Chihuahua, New Mexico, and Texas, would be subservient to it.

Heaviest grade 66 feet, (around Guadalupe mountains,) which can be avoided by lengthening the line some ten miles.

Settlements extend for 450 miles westward in Texas. Three hundred and fifty (350) miles to the Rio Grande at present no settlements.

From Rio Grande to the Gulf of California, near Alta, settlements within fifty (50) miles of the route, all the way except for one hundred and fifty (150) miles.

No desert is encountered on this line, water sufficient for all purposes, and no swamps.

Timber for the first four hundred and fifty (450) miles in abundance.

For the second four hundred (400) miles, cotton wood and pine with some post oak, will have to be transported at distances of fifty and seventy five (50 and 75) miles only. Two hundred miles west Rio Grande, (200 miles,) no point over (60) sixty miles without timber; and for three hundred (300) miles, plenty at convenient distances. Climate.-Climate salubrious throughout, admitting of labor on the road at all seasons.

The greater proportion of country along this line, capable

of the highest state of cultivation, and the minerals and metals, that will bear transportation upon it, and found in its neighborhood, are coal, iron, copper, lead, silver, and gold.

In concluding this hastily written statement to accompany the profile of the line of my reconnoissance, I would remark that I am much indebted to my friend, W. J. McAlpine, Esq., late State engineer of New York, for important memoranda for estimates, &c., which much facilitated my computations.

I have the honor to be, sir, very respectfully yours,
A. B. GRAY.

KNOW-NOTHINGISM.

I had thought that the question of religious toleration was settled by the Constitution of the country, and that American citizens had always proudly boasted that here every man had the right to worship Almighty God according to the dictates of his own conscience, and that this right was not only guarantied by the fundamental law of the land, but was regarded as inherent and inalienable. And, Mr. Chairman, I had thought that the naturalization laws passed under the administration of Jefferson, amended and perfected by subsequent legislation, had given general satisfaction to the country, with the exception of a small faction. Throughout the country discussion on these questions has been revived of late.

To keep pace with the spirit of the times, early in the present session honorable gentlemen were struggling to get the floor to bring them before the House for its consideration. The honorable gentleman from Tennessee, [Mr. TAYLOR,] more fortunate than his competitors, succeeded in his efforts, and, having obtained the floor, introduced a bill proposing an alteration of the naturalization laws. Sir, that gentleman is responsible for the introduction of the subject here, or, if he prefers it, he is entitled to the distinguished honor of having been the first to introduce this measure into the House at the present session of Congress.

And again, sir, not long since a series of resolutions embodying certain principles in relation to these questions was offered by the honorable gentleman from Pennsylvania, [Mr. WITTE.] I was called upon to vote for the suspension of the rules to enable the House to consider those resolutions; and it is not out of place here that I should give the reasons which influenced me in giving the vote which I gave on that occasion. These are generally known as the anti-Know-Nothing resolutions.

I can conceive of no evil, either real, or imaginary, existing or supposed to exist in this country, which will justify American freemen in the formation of secret oath-bound political societies. They may do for the despotism of Russia; they may do for Austria; but there can certainly be no necessity for such in our land.

No, sir; in our country, where every man has the right to speak, print, and publish whatever he may see fit, only being liable for the abuse of that privilege, and where, to use the language of an old revolutionary writer, "The press glows with freedom's sacred zeal,"-here, sir, there can be no necessity for resorting to institutions of this kind with a view of controlling the legislation of the country. Those who framed our Government wisely provided the means of altering such laws as needed amendment. They are open to repeal or alteration; but, sir, this can be done through the ballot-box, in the sunlight of broad day. Our institutions depend, for their success, on the virtue, intelligence, and patriotism of the people; and when the time comes in which they will desert the usual mode, do away with the open action of day, and resort to these secret cabals to influence the