upon the government, and they thought that the time had now come when the government was willing to do justice to all the New York Indians in Wisconsin, for the hardships they had suffered, and the heavy expenses they had incurred in removing to and securing themselves homes in the Green Bay country. Austin E. Quinney, the Sachem of the tribe, and myself, were therefore appointed and repaired to Washington, to lay before the government our claims for remuneration, on account of expenses and losses connected with, and growing out of, our procuring lands for ourselves on White river in Indiana, and at Green Bay; our self-removal; and those lands being taken from us by treaties with other tribes without compensation. We failed to obtain any recognition of our just claims, which were, however, continued to be presented year after year, until they were finally adjusted by the Senate of the United States, in the amendment made by that body to the treaty of 1848, by which we were allowed the sum of $25,000, and lands, not less than seventy-two sections. I was absent from home in the performance of the above duty very nearly six months. [1839-6 months.] In 1841-2, in company with J. N. Chicks, I again visited Washington on the above business, being absent from home eight months. [1841-2-8 m's.] I made another visit with the Sachem of the tribe in 1844, for the same object, and for the purpose of obtaining a modification of the law of Congress of March 3, 1843, making the Stockbridges citizens, contrary to the wishes of a majority of those people, and was absent from home four months. [1844—4 months.] In 1846 I was appointed and visited Washington alone, and had the gratification of succeeding in procuring the repeal of the law of 1843, and an allowance by Congress of $5,000 on account of our claims before referred to. On this occasion I was absent from home eight months. [18468 months.] The $5,000 above referred to, having been withheld, together with other moneys belonging to the tribe, I visited Washington again in 1848, to endeavor to obtain payment of the same, and to get the provisions of the Act. of 1846, repealing that of 1843, carried out, but was compelled to return home without effecting any thing. Absent five months. [1848-5 months.] In company with Austin E. Quinney, Sachem of the tribe, I visited Washington in 1850 for the above purposes, and to obtain permission for our tribe to select the lands granted by the amendment to the treaty of 1848, on the Mississippi river. We were successful in both objects. Absent on this occasion also, five months. [1850-five months.] In all 63 months, or 5 years and 3 months. I am now on my ninth visit to Washington, in an official or delegated capacity-on important business of my tribe, with reference to their new location in the west, which has not yet been fixed upon, and arrangements for their removal thereto. WASHINGTON CITY, April 12th, 1852. JOHN W. QUINNEY. THE SOCIAL INDEPENDENCE OF THE AMERICAN LABORER. SPEECH OF MR. SMITH, OF ALABAMA, ON THE HOMESTEAD BILL, DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, APRIL 27, 1852. The House being in the Committee of the Whole on the bill "to encourage agriculture, manufactures, commerce, and other branches of industry, by granting to every man who is the head of a family a homestead of one hundred and sixty acres of land out of the public domain, upon condition of occupancy and cultivation of the same for the period herein specified" Mr. SMITH said: I have before me, Mr. Chairman, a copy of the bill which has for some time engaged the attention of the committee. I propose to address myself particularly to its merits, disconnected entirely with politics. My speech will not be in response to the honorable gentleman who has just addressed the committee, nor in response to any political speech which has been made here. I believe the conviction has seized upon all of us, long ago, that this bill involves in it more of real and actual interest to the farmers of the country, and to the agricultural interests of the country, than any bill which has been brought before Congress for many years; and the first proposition I make is simply this: that the adoption of this bill will introduce into the character of the American farmer a new element of social independence; an element which is now wanting. If I show the committee that that will be the effect of the bill, and that it is the duty of the Legislature of the country to promote the social independence of its citizens; and if I show, also, that at this time there is a lack of that social independ ence, I trust it will be considered at least as a plausible argument in favor of the bill. It is too late in the day, Mr. Chairman, to talk about the constitutionality of this bill. The clear grants in the Constitution, and the precedents in the land legislation of Congress, are too numerous; and no argument can be framed, however ingeniously, (and there have been many of that character within the last few days,) as to induce Congress, at this late day, to pause and consider the abstract constitutional question, because this right to appropriate the public lands has been yielded years ago. I do not wish to be understood as saying that precedent makes the Constitution; but precedent is usually the result of elaborate investigation, and therefore entitled to the greatest weight, as a matter of authority. Upon the constitutional question, I listened to the speech of the honorable gentleman from Maine, [Mr. FULLER,] and the speech of the honorable gentleman from Virginia, [Mr. AVERETT,] and to the speech of the honorable gentleman from New York, [Mr. JENKINS,] and I have read their able speeches with a sincere desire to investigate, to the utmost certainty, the truth of the constitutional objections; and while I accord to them the merit of fine logic, and the greatest ingenuity, I am compelled to say that I have not been convinced, even of the plausibility of their arguments; and I am fully satisfied that Congress has a right to pass this bill. Now, Mr. Chairman, in order to show that there is at the present time a lack of the social independence, to which I refer, I beg to call the at tention of the committee to the condition of the emigrant farmer; the man who finds it necessary to leave the old States, because he has no land there to cultivate; the man who is driven away from the place of his birth because of the encroachments of wealth, and of the power accumulating with wealth. Well, sir, we will take him, if you please, now in a new State-say Alabama, for instance. He goes there with his family in pursuit of a home, having entertained a hope, during his journey, that lands might be easily and readily procured. But he is not able to buy a farm; his means have been exhausted in his travel; he finds it necessary to live, and he is forced to rent a place to make a crop, so that he may feed his family for one year, that he may then go further West in the pursuit of a farm of his own. RENTED FARMS. This position of the emigrant farmer gives rise to the contrast which exists between a rented farm and a farm owned by an independent citizen. I have no doubt, sir, that you have seen a rented plantation. You know its ragged, uncultivated, and dilapidated appearance. The fences are down, the rails are rotting, the barn-door is torn from its hinges, the gates of the yard and garden are gone, and broken rails are thrown in the vacuum to keep out the prowling stock for the moment; the orchards are going to wreck, and the fruit is destroyed; the spring is grown over with moss, and the well is in a caved and useless condition, its "old oaken bucket" yielding no more refresh ing draughts from its "moss covered edge"-all family, who may not be worth more than $500, one is patch-work and ruin. This is all natural. When hundred and sixty acres of land. Sir, that is a little a man rents a farm he has no interest in keeping fortune. One hundred and sixty acres of land is it up; all he wants or expects from its fields, is a fine beginning for a young man; and it is in the the produce of a single year; and from its house, beginning of life that the young men need assistits shelter for the moment. Consequently his cul- ance. It is an admitted truth in political economy, tivation of the field does it no good; his habitation that the difficulties which beset us in making forof the house contributes only to its desolation. At tunes are in the beginning of life. It is harder to the end of the year it takes a large portion of his gain the first dollar than the second; because the crop to pay the rent, and he leaves it in disgust, in dollar gained becomes a money-breeder, to aid the its dilapidated condition, not caring for it or its hand that made it in future and further acquisitions. owner. Sir, there is truth in this picture. It is Now, sir, if you will set a young man up when he is even too lightly colored. And there is a great ques-ready to enter life, upon a plantation which he can tion of morals growing out of this condition of the call his own, of one hundred and sixty acres, ceremigrant farmer on a rented plantation. Not tainly it may be considered the foundation, the caring to bestow labor upon premises which are not beginning of a fortune, or at least the sure source his own, the days of leisure which he may have of those comforts of life which contribute so much during the growing of his crop, instead of being to the independence and happiness of man. devoted to the necessary repairs of the place, are given up to idleness, and perhaps dissipation. Idleness is the devil's holiday-the spell of the infernal-especially if the idleness be induced by those feelings of despair which usually attend the reflections of that man who has no home of his own. In proportion as you make a citizen comfortable, you make him happy and contented; as you leave him in want, you make him sullen and despairing. With no inducement to labor; with a repugnance to remaining always in the presence of squalid wretchedness and prospective famine; with a natural desire to escape, in some way and at some time, from the ills that beset his vision in his rented house, he lounges off to some neighboring shop, and sucks from the glass lips of a bewilder-finding at the end of each season but little to lay ing fiend something to go to sleep on; thus courting the forgetfulness of a night in the arms of oblivion and deeming it a happiness to have grown one day older without having had to count the gloomy hours as they passed. Sir, I know many farmers in my country who have ten sons—the oldest perhaps being nineteen or twenty years of age-and who have not a foot of land upon the earth which they may call their own. It has taken all their life's labor to rear their children. The young man of this class is strong, hardy, vigorous, and brave, and capable of going to your wars and doing service to the country. But when he comes to be twenty-one, and has to start out in the world, his father being unable to give him anything, not even a horse, he finds himself free, but without a cent. Having no land of his own, he hires himself to work; but it takes all he makes to clothe him and support him decently. He struggles on year after year, up for the future. If you pass this bill, the day he is twenty-one he will rise up and go forth to take possession of his estate, not only a freeman, but a landlord. If he is not married-this being necessary to perfect his possessions-his neighbor has a daughter whom he will woo and marry. The land will come as a dowry to his young bride. They will go to work with glad hearts and cheerful faces; comforts will spring from the inheritance, and young soldiers will be the result of the alliance. [Laughter.] And the fact that this bill || will promote early marriages is no light argument in its favor. Now, contrast this gloomy picture of the emigrant farmer and his family, on a rented plantation, having no way to spend his idle hours but in the pursuits of oblivion, with the appearance of the family and the farm of an independent owner of the soil. You have only to look at the plantation which belongs to the man who cultivates it to see around it all the appearance of independence. You see his fences good; his orchards growing and flour- You will perceive, Mr. Chairman, that I desire ishing. If the old trees are failing, there are new to make the young farmer an owner of the soil; I ones coming on to take their places. Every piece desire to make the emigrant farmer an owner of of work that is done upon the plantation is done the soil; I desire to convert the foreigner into an with a view to its permanency. Its springs are American, by giving him a home, and making carefully preserved; its well is cleared of its filth; him a lord of the little valleys and hills within his its gates swing on unbroken hinges and close with sight, in order that his foreign heart may be innever-failing latches. Comfort and plenty, fresh-spired with a gratitude which will kindle finally ness and vigor, distinguish the appearance of his home. Every cot is erected with a view to permanence; every rail is made with a view to the lasting quality of its timber; and the character of the materials and of the work is but a token, a symbol, of the happiness and independence of the owner. He is not beset with the sullenness of despair, nor The remarks which I have made in reference to the inclination to forget the hours as they pass, rented plantations, and the unhappy condition of but his spirit is cheerful and elastic; and, with a the renter, will apply with the fullest force to the glad heart and a smiling face, he turns his footsteps citizens of those immense emperiums where large to the neighboring church, and not to the neigh-masses of destitute families are crowded together boring grocery. So true it is that comforts bring religion-God dwells in bliss, the devil in despair. HELP, IN THE BEGINNING OF LIFE. Well, this bill proposes to give every head of a into a living, blazing patriotism. Then, sir, he can forget, in the midst of his happiness, the galling chains which drove him from his birthland of oppression. THE BILL A BOON TO THE CITIES. in rented cellars and garrets; where the rent money takes from the mouth of the child its wanted bread. And I beg to present this view to those gentlemen who represent cities here. Can it be possible that any Representative of a city can vote against this bill? This bill is a boon to the cities. The Congress of the country owes it to the cites to pass this bill. It is the duty of Congress to help the cities to disgorge their cellars and their garrets of a starving, haggard, and useless population. Certainly the Representatives of the cities of the East, if they have a due regard to the interests of their own constituency, will come into the support of this bill. these will revive the heart, restore the mind, and reanimate the spirit. Oh! sir, this bill is a boon to the cities; and I feel authorized to call to its support the Representatives of the cities. DIGNITY OF AGRICULTURE. Mr. Chairman, the cultivation of the earth is the most dignified and exalted occupation which any man can engage in-simply because the earth is the physical source of all life, and the actual sustainer of existence. The earth is the glory of creationbeing the footstool of God! It gives clay to the potter; marble to the builder; gems and gold to the and shade, and fuel; fruits, and odors, and flowminer; food and raiment to man. It gives drink, ers. It affords a foundation for the habitations of THE CONDITION OF THE ENGLISH LABORER HAS But it is said that these poor destitutes have not the means to move. Mr. Chairman, I do not think that argument has any force. If it is known that a man, however poor, can obtain one hundred and sixty acres of land by the trouble of moving to it, and he will give the necessary pledges, there will be capitalists enough to lend him the money to move. Capital and philanthropy will join hands to help him off;-and the facilities of moving from the cities are great. Why, even in the southern country, where emigrants have to travel upon pack-mules and upon foot, they begin their travel with but little money, sometimes with none, and yet they reach the far West. They have axes and hoes, and implements of labor, and can work one day, and travel the next. Here, in the North, where railroads are so numerous, and the facilities of travel are so great, surely, if not all, at least an immense number of the unemployed citizens of the cellars of the cities might be put upon the roads of travel. The union of philanthropy and speculation, I repeat, would soon transport this vast population to the West. The speculator himself would have an interest in it. He would make it an enterprise. He says to the emigrant, "I will lend you forty dollars to take your family to the West, where you can have a farm set apart for you, a little kingdom of your own; and you can pay it back to me with eight per cent. when you have made the money." Then it is no argument against the passage of the bill, that the poor, starving population of the cities cannot remove. What philanthropy and specula-pence; and other labor in proportion. In Bishop Fleettion fail to do, will be finished by that selfishness which prompts men to pay a little to get rid of an unpleasant neighbor; and wealth will grow liberal under the operations of spleen. Mr. Chairman, whether this hopeless population of the cities can get to the far West or not, they ought to have the inducement to start, even with the slight prospect of reaching the end. Hopes of comfort and independence will nerve the heart, and make it capable of new endurances, new struggles, and give it new energies. This population ought to have the privilege of starting, the invitation to move; for I hold it to be better that they should perish by the wayside; that they should die off one by one on the road; that they should be crushed under the wheels of the rail cars, than to remain in the midst of the filth, the haggardness, and destitution-inducing the most horrible designs and disgusting practices-with which they are surrounded in the cities. These unhappy denizens are capable of making good and worthy citizens. What though the gloom of their present habitations may have crushed their hearts, and impaired the native vigor of their minds? The recreating influences of the great West, with its balmy breezes, its lofty trees, its green vales, its turbulent rivers, its great mountains, its natural temples of worship, its awe-inspiring shades, and its ever-yielding harvests: In this connection, Mr. Chairman, I propose to show that the condition of the laboring class of society, in the old countries, has been growing worse and worse for the last five or six centuries. I have some statistics upon that subject, to which I wish to call the attention of the committee. I propose to show that the income of labor five hundred years ago, produced more, of the actual comforts of life, than it does now, in the old countries. If I show this, then, sir, it must be admitted that it is the duty of the legislative power to guard against this evil in a new country. The following extracts will show the prices of labor, and the amount of comforts procured by the income, at the times referred to. I am indebted to an admirable essay on labor, by Robert Dale Owen, for these extracts: "The act of 23d Edward III, (that is in 1350,) commonly called the Statute of Laborers,' fixed rates of wages as follows: For common labor on a farm three pence halfpenny per day; a reaper, per day, four pence; mowing an acre of grass, six pence; threshing a quarter of wheat, four wood's Chronicon Preciosum,' a work of reputation, are says he, a harvest man had four pence a day, which en- * "The act of 23d Henry VI. (in 1444) fixes the reaper's wages at five pence, and others in proportion. And the account book of a convent, quoted by Sir Frederick Eden, dated between 1415 and 1425, gives us :-wheat per quarter averaging five shillings; sheep from fourteen to sixteen pence; butter three farthings per pound; cheese a half penny per pound; and eggs, twenty-five for a penny. Fleta, the average price of wheat in his day. Hallam, whose who wrote about 1335, gives four shillings per quarter as general estimates agree with the above, calculates butcher's meat in the fifteenth century, at a farthing and a half per pound,,, appear that, in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the "Taking the average of these various prices, it would weekly wages of an English day laborer would procure for him about half a quarter of beef, or one and a half sheep, or about ten geese, or (the most important item) four bushels of wheat. Manufactured articles were somewhat higher in proportion. Yet a day's labor in harvest sufficed to pay for a pair of shoes, and a trifle over a week's wages to purchase broadcloth enough for a coat." * * Now for the contrast: * * "Cullum (already quoted) reminds us, that toward the * close of the last century, about a fortnight's labor had become necessary to purchase four bushels of wheat." * "The average wages of farm laborers throughout Great Britain, are now rather under, than over, eight shillings a week ; just the average price in that country, for years past, of one bushel of wheat. One month's labor now supplies the same quantity of bread to the British laborer as a week's labor did five hundred years ago." * * * "In the fifteenth century, a week's labor purchased sixty-four pounds of butcher's meat. Now, (at six pence half penny, its average value per pound,) eight shillings a week procures the peasant hardly fifteen pounds; but no such luxury as animal food now smokes on the table of the downtrodden laborer of Britain. So, if the comparison did not seem like mockery, I might proceed to show, that, instead of ten geese, two would now absorb a week's wages; that instead of a sheep and a half, the laborer must now toil five weeks for a single sheep; that a day's wages will now purchase, not eight dozen of eggs as formerly it would, but two dozen and a half; not eight pounds of cheese, but two; not five pounds of butter, but a pound and a half. Four days' labor will now hardly procure the pair of shoes which a single day formerly paid for; and two weeks' labor, instead of little more than one, would be insufficient, in our times, to obtain the material for a winter coat." ་ These extracts show, that the condition of the laborer in the old country has been getting worse and worse gradually for the last five hundred years. They show that one week's labor, five hundred years ago, procured more of the comforts of life than the labor of one month now procures. In the olden time, the English farmer was surrounded with comforts; he could live upon the fruits of his own industry, and indulge in the luxury of eggs, butter, and meat. It is now well known that beef and meat are strangers to the poor man's table in England. Even one century ago they enjoyed many of these comforts and luxuries. I will prove this by reading extracts from the speeches of some of their most distinguished statesmen. Lord John Russell, in a recent speech, makes the following remarks: "If we compare the condition of this country (Great Britain) with what it was a century ago, it is impossible not to see, that, while the higher classes have advanced in luxury beyond measure; while the means available for the diffusion of comfort and the enjoyment of life have prodigiously increased; while, if we look to the middle classes and their means of procuring comfort, they have made a very great advance; if we look to the laboring classes--to men who either till the soil or labor in the factories-if we look to the quantity of necessaries which their wages would buy in the middle of the last century, and that which they can buy now-I think we must be convinced that they have not participated in an equal degree to the advantages which civilization and increased knowledge have conferred upon us.” Here, sir, you have a true picture of the condition of the laboring classes in England. From the Westminster Review, we find on the same subject: "There is not a step, but simply a hand-breadth between the condition of the agricultural laborer and pauperism." Robert Dale Owen, from whom I read, elaborates this idea: "Comfort has disappeared. Famine watches by the door. The peasant feeds his family on potatoes and salt, with a little bread and lard, and a miserable dole of scalded milk. Incessant labor keeps his head just above the rising waters of indigence; and at the first trifling accident, these close and overwhelm him. For the thousand casualties of life, there is not the scantiest provision. The indisposition of a day curtails the meager rations dealt out around his board, and the sickness of a week threatens with starvation his wife and little ones.” Such is the melancholy condition of the English farmer! Five centuries ago labor was rewarded, and it could procure a comfortable subsistence. It is not so now. Comfort has disappeared from the cottages of England. Why? Because the land of the country has been engrossed under the feudal system by the few. Sir, speculation, in the end, may do here what war and feudalism have done in England. The tendency of the age, the formation of companies and corporations, looks towards a monopoly of the lands of this country, and to the monopoly of water, too, sir, under the tyrannical dominion of steam! Sir, the passage of the bill is greatly necessary. It would check, for a season, the growth of grand companies, whose combinations are formed for monopolizing the lands. This bill gives the land, in small quantities, to the individual population of the country, under proper restrictions and provisions, securing to every man a home for himself and his children. Happily for us, the farming interests of the American people, in striking contrast with the interests of the English farmer, have been advancing, their condition getting better, especially in the new States. I am not sure but the remarks which I have made in reference to the laboring classes of England, would apply, to some extent, to the laboring classes of the Eastern portion of this country. But I say, in the West, in the South, and Northwest, the condition of the laboring class has been getting better; and I hold it to be the duty of Congress to increase the good, and guard against the evil. Admitting, then, Mr. Chairman, the existence of this very favorable contrast in reference to our laboring population, it is hardly necessary for me to press upon the committee the indisputable proposition, that it is the duty of Congress to look to the future, and to avoid the evils of the past, by wise and healthful legislation. What better, sir, could we do, than to give permanent homes to the rising generation? DESTITUTION IN THE CITIES. Several of the gentlemen who have addressed the committee upon this subject, have referred to the destitute condition of the citizens of the cities. I should not say citizens, but those starving denizens who die off by thousands, and whose deaths are unrecorded, except as they are traced by tears in the faces of their desolate children. Go to the cellars and garrets of Philadelphia and New York, and you will find them occupied by these destitute persons. I here read an extract, as read by the honorable gentleman from New York [Mr. JENKINS] in his speech: "DESTITUTION IN PHILADELPHIA.-The Philadelphia American gives an account of a visit made a few days ago to the hovels of many of the poor and destitute of that city, who live in small unventilated rooms, for which they are compelled to pay ten cents rent each day. It is supposed the number of these unfortunate beings is about five thousand. Many of them were found with their hands and feet frozen for want of fuel to keep them warm, while others had even disposed of most of their scanty clothing to buy bread. In one cellar a family were found who had been turned out of home because they were unable to pay their rent. In another place, a poor miserable woman and several children were found in a shed, the children covered up in a heap of ashes to keep them warm. Having no clothing whatever to cover them, the mother had been driven to this resort to keep them from freezing. The clothes had been sold to buy bread.” In appealing to Congress, as well in behalf of the class of population described in this extract, as in behalf of the farmer, I propose to show you some singular items in reference to the poor population of the cities, and the indigent laborers of England. I have some statistics here, which show the most extraordinary, and, to us, anomalous facts--and these statistics are applicable to the old countries, where the poor laboring people |