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I ask for the people that which is already the property of the people; but possessions so holden, that it is through your action alone they can be applied as is now urged.

The whole public good must be sought and advanced through those channels which most certainly contribute to the moral elevation and true dignity of a great people.

Americans boast much of superior intelligence and sagacity; of power and influence; of their vast resources possessed and yet undeveloped; -- of their free institutions and civil liberty; of their liberally endowed schools of learning, and of their far-reaching commerce: they call themselves a mighty nation; they name themselves a great and wise people. If these claims to distinction above most nations of the earth are established upon undeniable premises, then will the rulers, the political economists, and the moral philosophers of other and remote countries, look scrutinizingly into our civil and social condition for examples to illustrate the greatness of our name. They will seek not to measure the strength and extent of the fortifications which guard our coast; they will not number our vessels of war, or of commerce; they will not note the strength of our armies; they will not trace the course of the thousands eager for self-aggrandizement, nor of the tens of thousands led on by ambition and vain glory: they will search after illustrations in those God-like attributes which sanctify private life, and in that incorruptible integrity and justice which perpetuates national existence. They will note the moral grandeur and dignity which leads the statesman to lay broad and deep the foundations of national greatness, in working out the greatest good for the whole people; in effect, making paramount the interests of mind to material wealth, or mere physical prosperity. Primarily, then, in the highest order of means for confirming the prosperity of a people and the duration of government must be the education of the ignorant, and restoring the health and maintaining the sick mind in its natural integrity.

I will not presume to dictate to those in whose humane dispositions I have faith, and whose wisdom I cannot question.

I have approached you with self-diffidence, but with confidence in your impartial and just consideration of the subject submitted to your discussion and righteous effective decision.

I confide to you the cause and the claims of the destitute and of the desolate, without fear or distrust. I ask for the thirty States of the Union 5,000,000 acres of land, of the many hundreds of millions of public lands, appropriated in such manner as shall assure the greatest benefits to all who are in circumstances of extreme necessity, and who, through the providence of God, are wards of the nation, claimants on the sympathy and care of the public, through the miseries and disqualifications brought upon them by the sorest afflictions with which humanity can be visited.

Respectfully submitted,
D.L. DIX.
WASHINGTON, June 23, 1848.