12 



I would not question the wisdom of this policy, for the 

 purposes for which it was designed. It was designed to 

 effect an early settlement and civilization of the great West; 

 and its wisdom is justified by the existence, at so early a 

 period after its adoption, of so many populous and pros- 

 perous States, in regions which were, seemingly but yester- 

 day, the abodes of wild beasts or wilder men. We hail 

 those new and noble States, as they successively and 

 rapidly advance to maturity, as the proudest products of 

 our land, and welcome them to the privileges and the 

 glories of a Union which we pray may be perpetual. 



The influences of this policy, in some other ways, may 

 have been of a more doubtful character. But who can say 

 that the American Government has done nothing for agri- 

 culture, with such a policy, so long and systematically 

 pursued, before his eyes ? What greater bounty could be 

 contrived for the multiplication of farmers, and for the 

 extended cultivation of the soil, than the standing offer of 

 the best land in the world, with its title guaranteed by 

 the strong arm of the nation, and its muniments deposited 

 in the iron safes of the Government, at a dollar and a quar- 

 ter an acre ? — unless, indeed, it be found in the absolute 

 gift of a homestead to every settler for two or three years, 

 or in the " vote yourself a farm," or " land for the landless," 

 projects of the present day. What has the Government 

 ever done for commerce or for manufactures, which can 

 compare with this great bonus to agriculture ? Nay, what 

 has the Government ever done, or ever been able to do, to 

 counteract the constant drain upon commercial and manu- 

 facturing labor which this system has created? 



No one, I suppose, can doubt that one of the great obsta- 

 cles in the way of establishing and maintaining a manu- 

 facturing system, and of building up the mechanic arts, in 

 these Eastern States, has been the constant inducement 

 and temptation to leave home and go off to the West, 



