a Backbone Railroad Land Grant. SPEERECIE OF Hon. Andrew G. Curtin OF PENNSYLVANIA, In the U. S. House of Representatives, Thursday, June 26, 1884. The House having under considera- tion the bill (H. R. 5682) to repeal See- | tion 22 of the act to incorporate the Texas Pacific Railroad Company, ap- to “the forfeiture of the land grant therein | proved March 3, 1878, and declare | made, and for other purposes Mr, Corrin said : No can be insensible to the great Mr SPEAKER : American citizen benefits conferred on the trade, commerce and all the material inter It would have been better for the railroads | advancement of ests of this country by railroads. and those who invest money in them, | infinitely better for the people who goods over them, travel and transport if they had been confined to the com mon carries only, 1 can not but be lieye that the immunities and powers given our railroad system beyond the rights and powers of common carriers, by water or other means of transporta- | v better tion, would have been iofinitel r them and islation of for t the he Cor and by t public ive years the lands giver st seventy this « were held for the i ouatry in sacred trus, wople, to make homes for the homeless aad to give lands to the lend Fifcy three millions of acres, sir, | to the ess, were given States for internal eommuuications, for the advancement | of trade and the of the commences settlement States, and for the purpose of wlocatio porstions. In [S62 the Congress United States passed law koown as ry the homestead Jaw , was bene it puiation in Atlant: title to freeman could the li r>lates a welcome to a home | and a land where the A ai Lo ton it upon i f, And in the y his residen 1 1 i 1 4 Ix until Ni 4 and magnificent gifts were made to rail road rporations, Since 1874, wher bange occurred H the « this Hee \Y, , Bot ope and pot arisen irom fu 3 re ne 34] i it of th them, measur value are the lands to the people his Republic. | t that i4 to this tin land has been given to Lh 5 sir from 18 1¢ not oae acre of cory or wtion and pot ope grant that has lapsed by reasor of the failure on the part of the oTpora tion been revived or ex its condit tended limitations, to comply with its ns has bevond the time ol must not be understood, sir, to intimat great Govern ment should wot be held to its contract bad as they were in the beginning. “Keep thy covenant proclamed upon the plains of Mesopotamia so long since for an instant that this in the dark past” applies to individuals | as well as to the governments and peo ple, and as a safe rule of conduct for all humanity ; and where our Govern ment has made a contract let us fulfil it to the letter, but do not let the gift of this great Government and people be revived into life by management or ar- tifice, There runs through this entire bill the clearest evidence of manage ment by individuals to take a milion of acres of land which should have been dedicated to the people as their homes when they acquire title under the home- stead law, This Government can be strong and the Republic maintained in its strength only by the occupancy of land by the holders of small property, History is philosophy teaching by example ; and tell me in all the line of history where a government republican in form has existed where a few people owned the land and the masses were serfs or peons or small tenants. All the roads of the Empire lead to Rome is the boast of history, Armies march from Rome to { slopes of the Alps, in Taseanyand Lom, { burdy, where the | the lands, reserved to { sold | the slopes of the Alps scarcely one | man | une of the 1} {and { by Gracchus he made it generous to Applaus I} conquer and pillage foreign countries, They brought to Rome wealthand pow. er, producing centralization, and too | much of the immorality they found in the Asiatic conutries. Such was HE tralization in that great republic that | at last a fow people, rich and powerful | owned all the lands of the country, A distinguished citizen of Rome returning | from foreign service found upon the | Roman law should | have given the soldiers one fourth o the state to he and the money returned to its treasury, one half to be given to the Roman freemen for homes. Tiberius Gracchus found in all the provinces on Ro freeman who owned an acre of land. Returning to Rome, as the trib introduced a | to the litical Al cople, he aw it rich patricians, mn Wiis generous There were pr rings at that time in Rome as there are unfor tunately in this country at the present I'he rich and had day. the powerful their following of henchmen and servi . | tors, avd when the law was proposed the be pn i who hi patn ' ' } should for ki nomaes ul been depr ived of the people woulda pot ac oppression, actions of tyranuical lar bed them of all their erty and fr their struggle for the avulsed the commerce and f the world for 188 rights oc trade and eis the do h and led into smal! teen yoars I t the end main was taken from the chur tate end Frapee was div estates by purchase its } At thet fearfu world, Mir of humaait bune in the States s of wisdom sud el ane plished | Diy | Were never sentiment or m | uttered in the el never grander in the Britis or our own Webster in the r, m of the i Mirabean “must have an end the people is eternal {1 hilosophy ileges, . | | The wisdom of that prophecy and phil ' | osophy is not unprofitable in the discus- sion." And now, Mr, Speaker, without pro the details of this { bill I must refer to it in general terms, { ns gentlemen on both sides have given [all the date necessary for a proper con. clusion. I bave, sir, the most profound respect for the chairman of the Com. mittee on theJudiciary for his learning, his integrity, and his patriotism, and yet I find in this bill, as expounded up on the one side and the other, that this land is to be taken from the people by artifice and not by fair dealing, Old charters are revived, life is given worn out and forfeited grants and with dppar. rant attempt by indirection to revive a munificent grant of this Government, There is running through the entire bill evidence of the want of title and covenant, surely things of interest to this people It was the intention of the American people to enjoy this rich heritage given to them by the State and held in trast by the Federal Government forso many years, If there be doubt on this sub. Jjeot the covenont of the Government binds it. Let this question go to the posing to speak of | corporations to perform | court sits upon the question | Lhe | the jew | DAK « beau. | courts’ where my learned friend, the [ chairman of the Judiciary Committee, ment is remitted to the highway and to stant, Under the ragged clothes of can be heard and the legal! and just | the man ealled n tramp there may beat rights of the parties can be fairly ad. a heart as faithful to the Government Judged, This ie senrcely a question for | As yours and no man with proper feel the ut We per I'his question 15 not fn popular nssembly, place to decide a Berions the one under consideration, form our duty by maintaining that the the covenant grant has lapsed hy the failure of the they made, This question can be xettled by the calm deliberations of the courts When involving provi fed by the Constitution, the rights of American freemen I trust | ho called by the opprobrious name | sir, the judges will put on ermine that de com And if the courts the will be spotless, cide that the contract with panies is of such character and requireg | this means for its fulfillment, I say the American people will bow in submiss ion to the decision. 1 repeat, thy covenant; but if the court find that there is management and arti fice and indirection in tue attempt to acquire title to this land, then the back to the people of this country lands that belong to them, Mr. Speaker, the amount of money I . invested railroad « ration in in ip the United States is upward of ¥7, 000,000, and that does not include land granted by ( ress, lo contr prope omething meg to that the taxable ed Slate is O00 O00 OK), not inclu | our y sople perishie { large a part o i poverty. It is fortunete | vast amount of ca the enorm railroads and men who own 1 | stock can not mbine MRINOL cause 1D Lhe goverormeae) Of Ris ocuairy Lhe citizens wi Lo trol the railroads of this country are gegserally enlighteped men hey this G know too well the value of ve ry t 1a the protection of ttempt such a thiog v could say who wo sugust “plo HAamber in ihe 01 Loe wocupy the paiat end upon the ivited that Las power np | the individual Amer | bis Ge bupal that WwW ho would be the kes sayium if the ip t m who wottld undertake * t, sir, they can not combine { reason is dethroned aed th mad the | 0 ; Nor can rRiirosd mbine to dominate this country pe pie power ir wealth, the pumber of dd with them, or the rivalry st gin the way of tion, and as yet there A I pats Wisin wh tent controls those in the management of the railroads and the vast capital in vested in them. in the future; and while scarcely proper to expect such a calamity there is a time when it is fair to object to a itis combination such as is presented in this bill enriching railroads with lands which should be taken back and given to actual settlers under the beneficient legislation of our country to our soldiers who so gallantly served it in its great peril. Why, Mr, Speaker, the 200,000, (00 acres given to corporations would make seven States like Pennsylvania. and the gift of this vast domain to rail roads can scarcely be said to make your country strong. | read in a newspaper thats syndicate of a railroad corporation bad in the West 10.000 nores of wheat. I presume that two hundred men could put the seed in the ground and a reap and garner it with the modern machin. ery used in husbandry. Ten or fifteen men could watch aod care for this great farm during the winter, but what be comes of those not so employed? Where do they got Their homes are not there nor ean they settle upon lands, Thrown out of employment they must become what farcknown in this country as “tramps,” and the man who would work for a living if he could get employ. | the world, have had | tion decree | 000,000,000. not « | tional debt exceed | half. ( have con their interests | But sir, it might come | [ing will refuse a crust of bread to hun and he gry humanity thrown out of work cast upon cold charity, even though tramp, A ministers of the United Stites ne the abroad, after the war, credited to one of great power wus summoned { Into the presence of the oldest if not the ablest statesman and diplomst in Europe, who addresse § him us {oll ywe “Your country presents an anomsly to The Crimean war closed in IRH6G, We are still at a depreciation of 30 per cent on Out Eoecuritios u an exhaustive War, Ni | 700,000 people engaged in produc tive i “Keep | : { dustrial pursuits perished, should | Ww | part of your country was loft in nd a IAT de and poverty, The debt Government and States exe } munting the your smaller municipaliti three hill 1nenced debt; t your el the incor 5 1t tog ment fron 1 ible adebtedne vbtein individual happiness LY, and perpetuate the and » I hom {Line be his home or title was defeated to te Val grants boo Pp aw hither ell bow i ' om i Bever vols Mea 00 \pany for any purpose tiny nas eg make » grant t 11 vion, wwii ove » combination o any ss of people; for of all things in this | country that we should have a fear of, of | is, centralization power—ocentraliza | tion here at W ashiagton of power taken from the States, a departure from the purposes of the apostles of liberty and freedom who framed our Constitution; a departure from the equality which ean only come from a republican form of government until all power seems to be centering here as all power did at Rome until it broke that republic, Why, Mr. Speaker, what makes Ire. laud wo poor to day? The poor Irish. man living in his cabin does not own it or the ground it stands on. You make a government strong when members owna part of the soil, however little, and the roofs that cover their families, The large landed estates of Ireland have taken from the people of that un. happy country their spirit. They are oppressed by abeentecism and fruits of their labor gathered by others who live in luxury ; and the gallant people, with their poets and orators and statesmen, whose soldiers have fought in every bat. tle in which the British arms have tri. umphed and whose blood has stained the soil of avery battlefield of American freedom-Lexington and New Orleans and Buena Vista and Fredericksburg | : { attest this-have been dispersed through | out the of | | that time, country In brave people are restless under oppres The come down to less than i earth, it a wonder this kon? 9,000,000 population 5.0000 000) a historical fast that the great famine of 1546 47. 2.000.000 people per- in ished by starvation, and yet landlords exported grain from that wuntry at I can not but think it will be for tis better bands of nnd owners, especially when us country to be in the mal AL present power is so centralized in this Federal city, snd when the jurisdic tion of the courts of the National Gos ernment has bee n so extended that ‘ \ he people scarcely find a settlement of then property and yr in Why, + ights of the MMa'e court *, | eam re member wh n the American citizen no more felt the power of the Federal courts Wher nands thao the r he breathed money i% centralized in the when few men dominate and control the business of the country.l tremble. and wed 1 permit NOH 1000 Governmer ortunate 0 88 Ba cor » d woe yolter to do { y nd they rn 3) rporation ity that governs them » beginning of the 1 there and mill ansignale French rey n MH) wer 10d 1 four non the ] 1hl uj de Alb, i m be which may estitonted h of ths w held In classes, Fhe issue of the assignats was a finencial experiment and failed, Then | came the revolution, and from it the | restoration of the land of the country from the State and church to the people by purchase, and from that time France has been divided into small properties But two nations in the world could have paid the exactions which were made on! France at the end of the war with Germany. France is the United States is the other. England could not have paid it. England is owned by a small portion of her people. ] have a sincere belief that France will remain a republic, and chiefly from the number of small proprietors, Our Government made these vast con. cestions, and has also covenants with the people, as it held these lands in trust for their use and benefit. A code of morality that applies to individuals which eannot be rpplied equally to the Government is a fraud and a delusion. But, sir,the Government should be held striotly to the letter of the law’ and the people will sustain any such legislation, but beyond that not one step. No part of the lands granted that have been for- feited by the failure to perform the cov- enants on the part of the one should remain in their hands one day. | has | aod | | Speaker, and { tion Ling as thie | And it must be considered as the set, ! tled policy of this Government that pes more of the public domain will be given ] to corporations, My time is nearly exhausted, Mr, little It can perhaps there this not fail to be noticed with great satisfac in more Lo say on question, tion tha. at a recent national conven 1 there was a declaration made | against the importation of foreign labor ers by corporations. How wonderfully | elastic political opinion is in this coon views are as variable and chang- colors of the kaleidescope. Why, here in this book upon my desk is 1864, thor could be mn statute jassed in under whicke foreign | imported and which expressly provided that the 5 py im ported man could be m ILE held in bondege for a year, and if he built a house house and land coald FE be sold by on the con that summary prox £o dik At ie war was raging. To give made with him more gc on and encoursgement toy it was declared that they s OF ted Lo mi lary duty 4th of iarkable that the rity an whiche the convent y who \ and who shall not oor and we tl . th and ermis © Tr] Irate weal Tr reign r domest to and dominate its mportation of such ported within the hree years, | district honor to sent larg ungarians and een Import i. uniry the been the repre Italian iH ave | They our people, an i than the Chinese. th our own citizens who and naturalized, and tak: heir legitimate etaployment, There juestion that should Ap al strongly to the statesman | philanibropist and patriot, than the | condition of the laborers of this coun { try. The wonderful skill and ingenuity of the American people bas wrought such marvelous improvement in labor- saving machinery, that it, in a large measure, does the work of man, unti) { the hand of the skilled mechanic is rarely found, and there is an overpro ductionsand there can scarcely be said to be employment for the labor of this country ; if not now that time esn be anticipated in the near future. Now, if there is any power for us to legislate so as to protect American labor, it isn duty we owe to the people to doso. And we ean do it on this question, for 1 cannot but believe that if the puble lands had been reserved for the pu for which they were intended, and that the crowd. od population of the East could go West. and find homes there, great would be done. We are growing in Jopuintion, and the lands now illegally held by corporations under grants that have been forfeited or being acquired in vast tracts by foreign capitalists, would af. ford in the future homes for millions of Amerioan freemen. Let ue return, then, to the original condition of things, be- fore that terrible war Sypatuied us, making the South poor, and blisterirg the morality of the North; let vs rem turn to the principles of the founders of this Government: lot us scoept the Constitution and laws, and live up to them ; let us keep our covenant re quire the fulfillment of the covenant with us ; let us be faithful to our trust ; jiiate iD ANDY MOre interierew labor, native m them t with ver « hey re and above all things let Ii and jus. t uality, concord and boo oa i wg bei
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