178 



CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



teachers of a certain class of school districts in 

 the several States; it provides for a certain 

 class of scholars that shall be entitled to the 

 benefits of the fund appropriated from the 

 people's Treasury, to the exclusion of others. 



" Sir, I say it is a stretch of power which, 

 as a member of the Republican party, I re- 

 pudiate as not being within the range of 

 the powers of the Congress of the United 

 States. I have stood upon this floor in times of 

 danger, and have advocated the use of all the 

 powers that could be gathered to strengthen 

 the hands of the Government ; but I am here 

 to-day to protest with all my force against 

 taking away one solitary State or municipal 

 right that exists now in this free Union. 



" Sir, the great pendulum of the clock of 

 history is moving ever to and fro. After 

 reaching one extremity it is bound to go back 

 toward the other extremity. We reached the 

 extreme in one direction during the war, and 

 now the pendulum has commenced sweeping 

 in the other direction. If gentlemen on this 

 floor are not wise, we shall find ourselves now, 

 with the views we entertain as the majority, 

 imploring Heaven to come to our help to pre- 

 vent these powers being turned against us and 

 our dearest home interests. Can no gentleman 

 on this side of the House imagine such a po- 

 litical revolution in the future as shall take 

 from men of our views the power on this floor, 

 and at the other end of the Capitol ? 



" Can they not see, then, that the principles 

 established in this bill will put us, perhaps, 

 under a majority here who do not appreciate 

 our municipal organizations of the North, our 

 school-district system and its value ; who may, 

 as we are doing now, put the strong hand of 

 the Federal Government upon the dearest 

 rights which we cherish in the States to which 

 we belong and which we love? Everybody, 

 sir, who looks at all to the" philosophy of his- 

 tory, must see that the time has come when we 

 must heed the swinging of this great constitu- 

 tional pendulum, when we must guard against 

 the extreme to which we shall inevitably drift, 

 unless we commence early to apply the steady- 

 ing powers of a more wise, and constant, and 

 peaceful judgment." 



Mr. Phillips, of Kansas, said: "The gentle- 

 men defending the measure have claimed that 

 this bill interferes with nothing ; that it leaves 

 the preemption and homestead laws intact; 

 that it interferes with no new legislation; that 

 it only takes moneys formerly derived from 

 public lands and applies them as a school fund 

 in the way specified. In taking this position, I 

 believe the gentlemen are honest ; in express- 

 ing it, I am sure they are candid ; I feel equal- 

 ly sure that they are mistaken. 



" On the American land question the public 

 mind is deeply stirred ; and the settlers, who 

 are, after all, the' interested parties, are deter- 

 mined on reform. An indignant protest has 

 gone up against permitting the lands to go into 

 the hands of corporations and speculators, 



great or small. The public lands left hare 

 little or no value save that which the labor of 

 the settler gives them. That this value should 

 not be taxed to sustain other interests, is de- 

 manded. And while these demands are being 

 made, while the few good steps already taken 

 are sought to be blended with better ones still 

 to be taken, while the Committee on the Pub- 

 lic Lands is engaged in preparing measures to 

 properly dispose of the public domain, this bill 

 comes in from the Committee on Education 

 and Labor to settle the question effectively and 

 ruinously, and to bar the avenues to land re- 

 form forever. Do not tell me that legislation 

 hereafter may do what it pleases. Pass this 

 bill, and you create a great interest, which will 

 forever fight all questions of land reform, and 

 which will be here, whenever a bill is pending 

 to aid the struggling settlers, to argue that all 

 lands are consecrated to education, and the 

 ghost of religion and morals will be conjured 

 up to make this bill a finality, and to seal and 

 foreclose all the blunders of American land 

 legislation. 



"I think it high time that the land question 

 be considered apart from all such propositions. 

 It is the foundation-stone of American politics. 

 The time is surely coming when the hardy 

 pioneers will no longer be asked to develop 

 the country and maintain outside benevolence. 

 I would a thousand times rather vote money 

 from the Treasury. The last thing Congress 

 should part with is the public domain." 



Mr. Cox, of New York, said : " Mr. Speaker, 

 I am opposed to this bill for several reasons. 

 First, on economic ground ; secondly, because 

 I am opposed to the enactment by Congress of 

 the civil-rights bill as reported and recommit- 

 ted; thirdly, because the bill itself augments 

 Federal power, is unjust in the distribution of 

 the funds, and is a part of a pernicious system 

 of ' over-legislation.' 



"First, as to economy: "Whether we stop 

 prodigal expenditure or husband legitimate re- 

 sources, it is alike wise ; in fact, it is necessary 

 in this emergency of the Treasury. I have be- 

 fore me the President's message. Last year, 

 he says that there were 1,626,266 acres of pub- 

 lic lands sold for cash. This was some 300,000 

 more than the year before. By the Land-Office 

 Report of October 20, 1873, it appears that 

 there were cash gvoss receipts, under various 

 heads for lands sold, for the year ending June 

 30, 1873, amounting to $3,408,515.50. Under 

 this head are certain scrip not strictly cash. 

 These are to be deducted, together with the 

 expenses of sale. The appropriation for land- 

 sales ending June 30, 1873, was $772,000. 



"Without being too nice, therefore, I may 

 take the calculation of the gentleman who re- 

 ports the bill (Mr. G. F. Hoar), and reckon the 

 proceeds of the lands for each year, as from 

 one to two millions net cash, the mean being 

 one million and a half. Of this, under the bill, 

 for five years the more illiterate sections, as 

 where the negroes predominate, will get the 



