We hope that this controversy, if a controversy it is destined to be, will be conducted upon broad and national principles; that sectional interests will not be permitted to mingle in the discussion; and that this noble domain, the heritage of the American people, purchased with their treasure, and peopled under the auspices of their government, will remain, at least for a time, under the disposal of the national legislature. Whenever the wisdom or the liberality of Congress shall become questionable, or its purity less than that of the state legislatures; whenever the public lands shall be unequally distributed, or their proceeds appropriated with partiality; whenever the western states shall be oppressed, or the people believe themselves the objects of oppression, we shall advocate the disposal of the lands to the states in which they lie, or the distribution of the proceeds-but not until then.

The following data are condensed from an able report of Mr. Woodbury, the present Secretary of the Treasury:

The whole amount of lands now owned by the United States Government, within the states and territories, exceeds 330,000,000 of acres, and that owned west of the Mississippi, and of Missouri and Arkansas, exceeds 750,000,000. Of this last, about 80 millions have been appropriated to Indian tribes, the balance remains undisposed of. The Secretary estimates the one fourth or 270,000,000 as waste land, or covered with water, and one half of the whole too poor for cultivation for many years

Of the land owned by the government within the states and territories, there has been surveyed and offered

for sale from the year 1789 to 1834, 122,000,000 of acres, not one third of which has been sold. The whole proceeds of the sales during that time, have amounted to about 50,000,000 of dollars, and the net proceeds afterdeducting charges, for purchase, surveying, management, &c., are about 4,000,000. of dollars.

The quantity actually sold from 1789 to 1834, a period of 45 years, after deducting about 6,333,333 acres, sold under the old credit system, and which afterwards reverted, was about 37,500,000 acres. The quantities bestowed in bounties, during the last war, and for schools and other purposes is about 16,000,000 of acres.

The sales never amounted in one year to one million of acres until 1815. In 1817 they amounted to 2,500,000 acres, and in 1819 under the credit system, and high price of cotton, to 5,500,000 acres, thus exceeding the sales of 1834, considerably. The price of cotton fell in 1820, and left the country indebted for lands, to nearly the amount of 22,000,000 of dollars. The credit system was then changed to cash, and by the relinquishment of the lands to the government, the debt was nearly extinguished. The annual sales again fell below one million of acres, and continued thus until 1825. In that year the price of cotton began to rise, and the quantity of land sold also increased, and in the year 1829, again exceeded one million of acres. From 1829 to 1834, there has been a steady enlargement of the quantity sold. In 1834 it amounted to 4,000,000 of acres, and in 1835, is estimated at 9,000,000 of acres. The Secretary estimates, that from the increase of our agricultural population, and other causes, the sales for the next six or seven years, will exceed 1,000,000 of acres, and that the proceeds may be estimated at from 3 to 6,000,000 annually. The exports of cotton in 1790, amounted to 500,000 pounds, in 1834 to 380,000,000 of pounds, whilst the home manufactures consumed 90,000,000 during the same year. We now

furnish fifteen sixteenths of all the cotton consumed in Great Britain, and seven tenths of all that is consumed in France. The value of the fabrics manufactured from the raw material furnished by us, is to Great Britain $180,800,000, and to France $80,000,000, and to our own manufactures about $62,000,000..

CHAPTER XII.

Western Steamboats.

When we consider the unexampled rapidity with which the western states have acquired population and importance, we are surprised, not only at that fact, but at the inadequate ideas which have heretofore prevailed as to the magnitude and resources of this country. We are a traveling and a calculating people, and it seems strange that those who visited the western wilds in early times, should not have foreseen the events which have since transpired. That they did make golden reports, we are aware; but contrary to all experience in similar cases, those reports have fallen far short of the truth, and all that has been dreamed and prophesied in relation to this region, by its most sanguine admirers, has been more than realized. When a few hunters, encamped in the forests of Kentucky, heard the rumor of the battle of Lexington, and gave that name to the spot on which they reposed, how little could they have imagined, that within the duration of one human life, a town of excelling beauty, and a population remarkable for its intelligence and refinement, would spring to maturity in these shades-or that in the wilderness beyond them, a population would grow up within the same period, superior in number to that which

was then contending for independence, against the most powerful nation of Europe! But when intelligent men, with better opportunities for observation, explored this region after the germs of its greatness had begun to expand, even they had but faint conceptions of its destiny. We shall endeavor to assign a few reasons why this country was thus underrated, and why it has outstripped the largest calculations which were made in its favor...

Fifty years ago, it was known that the western lands were fertile, and watered by fine rivers, and settlements were made on the eastern sides of the Ohio and Mississippi. But the inhabitants were exposed to the hostile attacks of the Indians, who occupied the whole region to the west and north, except a few spots held by the French. The hostile dispositions of the Indian tribes, and their superiority of numbers, rendered it dangerous to explore any part of the country in which they hunted, and impracticable to visit large portions of it. It was therefore but partially explored, and immense districts which are now considered in all respects the most desirable, were then totally unknown. As the Indians retired the country came into notice, as a fine landscape painting is disclosed by the gradual rising of a curtain. The parts that were settled were continually subject to invasion, and the inhabitants dreadfully harassed: The most shocking enormities were perpetrated; and only the hardiest pioneers ventured to reside near the frontier, or to explore the lands in the vicinity of such dangerous neighbors. Those atrocities no longer occur; the powerful arm of our government, and the mild influence of its pacific institutions, are felt from the Atlantic to the Rocky mountains, and on the remotest portion the dwelling of the pioneer is sacred. The murder of a white man by an Indian is now of rare occurrence; more rare than the murder of white men by each other; and the massacre of a family is no longer apprehended. This happy change

has taken place since the last war with Great Britain; and we may attribute the rapid growth of the western country within the last fifteen years, chiefly to the security with which it has been explored and made known, and the safety enjoyed by the people, who have thus been, enabled to spread over the surface in every direction.

The reported unhealthiness of the western country, was a great obstacle to its early settlement. The entire history of our population, from the landing of our ancestors on the Atlantic coast, until now, shows that new settlements are generally subject to violent, and rapidly fatal diseases; those west of the mountains have not been more greatly afflicted in this way than others of older date, but the pioneers suffered sufficiently to excite the alarm of the timid, and to give rise to reports which were greatly exaggerated.

The country was at first difficult of access; indeed, for all the beneficial purposes of commerce it was almost inaccessible. The port of New Orleans, and the country bordering on the Mississippi, were held by Spain, by whom our right to navigate that river was denied. Had the latter privilege been conceded to us, the possession by a foreign power of the only port of entry, and place of deposit, which was accessible to the western people, must have rendered the trade in that direction precarious, by subjecting it to expensive duties, and frequent interruptions. Setting these difficulties aside, New Orleans was not then, as it is now, a large commercial city; it, was a small town, without capital or enterprise, and reputed to be so fatally unhealthy, that its future growth was considered as entirely improbable: And, the navigation from that place, to our northern ports, on the At lantic coast, was, as it still remains to a considerable extent, dangerous and expensive; while the ascent of the Mississippi, against its mighty current, by means of the boats then in use, was a slow and most laborious process.