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The Senate Reacts To Franklin Pierce's Veto
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| 67 | These are my views. I regard this bill, as I stated in some remarks which I submitted when it was passed by this body, as distribution in the worst phase that has come up here -- worse than ever the genius of Henry Clay conceived -- far more odious than that which John C. Calhoun, Silas Wright, and Thomas H. Benton, deprecated in the memorable session of 1841: -- ay, sir, a distribution, not of money from our Treasury, but of lampblack and rags, French assignats, from the Treasury of the United States, to the value of ten millions of acres of land to the sovereign States of the Union. | |
| 68 | Sir, the Senator from Vermont spoke yesterday of unclean, dishonorable, or corrupt legislation touching the public lands. My position as a representative from one of the new States, and my position upon the Committee on Public Lands, of which he is a member, requires that I should demand from him, in this presence, whether he meant to insinuate that any corrupt or dishonest bill had emanated from that committee, or from any one of the new States, so far as he is cognizant of those transactions? And if so, I demand of him that he now disclose, in its full length, and breadth, and extent, every particle of that corruption or unclean legislation. Sir, I make the demand with perfect respect to the gentleman. I do, sir, because of our kindly personal relations; but this is a great question, and his insinuation, if I may call it such, may affect individuals. I make the demand with perfect respect. I pause for a reply. | |
| 69 | Mr. FOOT. Mr. President, I have only to say that I have made no imputation of the sort which is now attributed to me; and the publication of my remarks, as taken down by the reporter, will show that an entire misconstruction has been placed upon them. I have cast no imputation upon the action of the committee of which I am a member; no imputation upon the action of this or of the other House; no imputation upon the new States of this Union. No man here, as I took occasion to state yesterday, has voted more liberally in favor of the application for appropriations for various purposes by the new States than myself, I had no reference to any past legislation -- upon the subject of the public lands. This, I think, is a sufficient disclaimer. | |
| 70 | Mr. DODGE, of Iowa. Perfectly so. | |
| 71 | Mr. FOOT. An entire misapprehension has been placed upon the remarks which I submitted. | |
| 72 | Mr. DODGE, of Iowa. In that misapprehension I am not alone, as the Senator knows, from the construction immediately placed on his language by the Senator from Illinois, -Mr. DOUGLAS;- and neither of us, as he knows, has any disposition to do him injustice, because of our personal respect for him. | |
| 73 | Mr. FOOT. Certainly not. | |
| 74 | Mr. DODGE, of Iowa. Mr. President, I said that I regarded this as one of the most fatal bills, one of the most ill-advised, looking at our complex but admirable system of Government, that has been passed by this or any other Congress. The Senator from South Carolina -Mr. BUTLER- was clearly right, when, on yesterday, he remarked that this bill had not been thoroughly discussed, or considered by the Senate. How long has it been since the Senator from Ohio, -Mr. CHASE,- who, notwithstanding his notions upon certain slavery questions, has some good views respecting State rights, defeated a kindred bill? Not more than two years since. What, then, were the provisions of this " Miss Dix bill," as it is called? Nothing more nor less than that New York should hold in the very heart of Iowa or California more than ten counties, in superficial area; to hold that land up at any price which she might choose to fix upon it; hold it there as Indian reservations or other reservations have been held in the center of some of the new States, to be increased sufficiently in amount to control the entire politics of the States where the lands lie. How long has it been since the respectable Senator from Kentucky -Mr. Underwood- moved his amendment to the Iowa railroad bill; that the States in which there were no public lands should, as States, be allowed to hold and within the borders of other sovereign States of this Union? How long is it since the provision originated for issuing this bank rag currency, stamped all over with pictures, to be issued at the Treasury? Only since it was shown in the discussion on Mr. Underwood's amendment to the Iowa land bill, but about two years since, that the proposition, if carried, would lead to domestic insurrection and bloodshed. Then originated, for the sake of getting rid of the difficulty of allowing one sovereignty to hold lands within another, this paper money invention, it is due to a respectable member of the other House, -Mr. Bennett, of New York,- to say, that his genius conceived this mode of getting rid of the difficulties of allowing one sovereign State to hold land within the heart of another, controlling its politics and disturbing its peace and harmony. | |
| 75 | Sir, without intending to make any imputation upon any human being, and least of all, upon the dignified Senator from Vermont, let me tell him that, without intending it -- and I know he does not intend it -- his bill would have produced scenes of speculation, scenes of disgrace, and of plunder, and pillage, such as this country has never witnessed but for the wise interposition of President Pierce's veto. It was, in my opinion, the commencement of a system which, if it had been prolonged, as it certainly would but for the death blow which the President has struck it, would have swallowed up the whole of the public lands, and have established a system of trading and peddling -- at Albany, Montpelier, and other seats of government, under the control of the dominant majority which has heretofore proved so fatal. These cords of French assignats would have been taken there to be squandered and bargained off by corrupt legislative majorities, to control and influence the politics of our distant States. The lands would be disposed of at those seats of government for political purposes. Cords of these bank bills would be carried of from the Treasury of the United States, and bought up at low prices by favorites, who would go and locate them on the public lands (rich as the Delta of Egypt) in Iowa, Wisconsin, Louisiana, and other new States. | |
