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VOLUME XV. CAMDEN, SOUTH-CAROLINA, TUESDAY MORNING, AUGUST 1, 1854. NUMBER 31. I
PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY *
THOMAS J. WARREN.
~ TERMS. *
Two Dollars if paid in advance; Two Dollars and
Fifty Cents if payment be delayed three months, and
Three Dollars if not paid till the expiration of the year.
ADVERTISEMENTS will be inserted at the following
rates: For one Square, (fourteen lines or less,)
seventy-fivo cents lor the first, and thirty-seven and a
half cents for each subsequent insertion. Single insertions,
one dollar per square; semi-monthly, monthly
and quarterly advertisements charged the same as
lor a single insertion.
The number of insertions desired must bo noted
on the margin of all advertisements, or they will bo
published until ordered discontinued and charged accordingly.
. Bisreltatoits.
From the South Carolinian.
Action of the Temperance Convention, &c.
Candidates for the Legislature.
Messrs. Editors : Through the medium of
your journal I address the public on the sub.
i ? 1 t ?
jeci aDove menuoneu. any person who win
attentively peruse the proceedings of the Temperance
Convention, held in Columbia in May
last, cannot fail to perceive that the action of
that body had reference to the referring the
question to the people, whether they themselves
would be willing to have a law passed which
would prohibit the selling, or the making and
selling, of intoxicating liquors. It was supposed
that by petitions being circulated amongst
the people, and signed by them, asking the
Legislature to pass a law by which it would
be referred to the people, whether such a law
as would amount to the prohibition of the
selling, or the making and selling, of intoxicating
liquors, the question would be disentangled
from all discussion in the elections of this
year.
Such are the views which prevailed amongst
the delegates of the convention. It seems to
the humble individual who pens this article,
that it is strange such action could have been
misapprehended. Where candidates for the
Legislature have seen fit to express any opin
ion on this subject, they declare themselves
very idecidedly in favor of temperance, but opposed
to intemperance, and also opposed to
the enactment of a prohibitory law, usually
called the Maine law. The Temperance Convention
would desire that the people, through
petitions, should ask the Legislature to refer
this question to the people, and if the people
are in favor of such a law, then that the Legislature
should pass it. Now, 1 ask the people
nf the State arc the candidates for the Lccris
lature, now before tiie people for their suffrages,
afraid to trust the people with an affair that interests
them as deeply as the subject of temperance
does? Why, then, do they say they
are opposed to the enactment of a prohibitory
law? Do they suppose that the people are
not capable of judging and acting for themselves?
Are they the peculiar guardians of
the people's rights, and are they so careful of
the preservation of those rights that they are
fearful of submitting the question as proposed
by the Temperance Convention to the judgment
of the people themselves? Let the people
judge of this for themselves. One assertion
I will venture to make : If three-fourths
of the people in all the districts and parishes
in the State respectively were in favor of a law
prohibiting the selling, or the making and sell*
J * I - ? ? *1
ing, 01 intoxicating annas, very ie\v ui uie
candidates (or the Legislature would be found
in the ranks of opposition to such a law.
Another objection is started in opposition to
the legislation on the matter of temperance.
It is, that the subject is a moral one, and should
be left to the moral sense of the people. That
is the very thing wc propose to do. We desire
that this matter should be determined by
* the people, and not that the privilege of determining
it should be withheld from them. The
objection that this subject should not be legis*
lated upon, is not only obviated, but utterly
annihilated, by a fact that stands out prominent
in the legislation of this State, and of
every State in the Union; for every one of
them have laws regulating, and some of them
prohibiting the sale of intoxicating liquors.?
The statute book of this State is full of laws
regulating the traffic in liquors. Surely, then,
it cannot be an infringement of any man's
liberty to do now what has always been done
?legislate on this matter. If the people determine
to stop the sale of intoxicating drinks,
ftnd require a law of that kind to be passed,
the representatives of the State Legislature !
would not dare to disobey their will, and if
they did once dare to do so, it would not be
done a second time.
il l1..1 1 1
oucn are some 01 tne views mat-nave ueen
elicited by the action of the May Temperance
Convention. Public attention has been excited
and drawn to this important subject, and
there can be little doubt that good will result
from It. People will begin to see how vile and
debasing are the effects that flow from the sale
* of intoxicating drinks. They will see how
much of social, individual and national happiness,
is swallowed up in this burning, enslaving
passion to liquor. They will see that it is the*
most blighting curse of the land, destroying
and withering, and blasting, in its terrific
march, the brightest prospects that have ever
been placed before human vision.
This is not the extravagant effusion of a
heated brain. It is the sober judgment of one
who has seen something of human life, and is !
now at the post of duty, bearing with his fellow
men " the heat and burden of the day,"
and sharing all the responsibilities of a man.
I feel a deep interest in all that looks to the
promotion of the good of my fellow beings.
1 do not expect that the work in which I am
engaged will be accomplished without a strugcle.
and while that contest is waging, " I give
my hand and my heart" to it.
NEWBERRY.
An Asiatic chief, being asked his opinion of
wine remarked that he tho't it was a juice ex>
tracted from a woman's tongue and a lion's
heart, for after be had drank enough of it, he
could live forever and fight the devil.
A Cincinnatti'paper states that several thousand
barrels of Swine's blood is used in that
city every year for the manufactory of stveet
wine. That's an item for wine drinkers.
Should have been a Man.
"There goes something that should have
been a man." :
The poor wretch was just leaving a low
grog sjiop. A tall form, with a massive chest,
a noble brow, with a lock of frizzled grey hair,
eyes, deep dark and lustrous once, uot still
deep but sepulchral, and burning like smouldering
fires on red altars; these made the sum
bodily of that something that should have
been a man.
But at once to trace his career.
A beautiful babe pressed fondly on the breast
of a mother,?clinging to her neck, playing
with her ringlets, all innocence; filling the
house with the music of his laugh.
A lovely boy, towards whom all eyes are
turned; his face bright with enthusiasm, his
U1U*Y uuivvu Willi iiucriiL'Ci, wuinuug iii3 waj
school, and there winning prizes?perhaps silver
medals. So in the play ground, the king
amongst his fellows, vivacious, full of fun, and
repartee, eager at play. Hear the ring of his '
glad shouts.
A youth, already singling his gentle, blueeyed
partner, from the baud of social girls;
such ardent spirits seek for the frail clinging
of graceful vines strangely enough. A youth,
sipping at small parties the bright hued wine, i
and poetising upon the frothy pearls that deck
its surface. , . (
A young man ! How the words leap to pa- <
per. IIow much of strength, what beaming
eyes, what high resolves, and proud starting *
for fame! What yearnings to be rich. What ,
hopes of happiness. What mines of gold.?
What height of greatness. What excess of
joy, these three little words conjure before the
mind. A young man. Does be mean to be ,
drunken? To be poor? To.be dishonored?
To have the children laugh and point the finger <
at him? To strike down the defenceless wo
man { To deform innocent children { lo turn
home into worse than a howling desert ? Oh,
assuredly not. :
Nor does he think so while he leans back in
the gorgeous saloon, arid amid the flashing ,
lights and the bewilderment of beaut}*, aided
by every artifice, takes to his heart, to his soul
?hugging it as the miser hugs his treasure?
the fiend that desolates.
Well, time has passed swiftly, the brand is
burned out; it is charred and blackened; the |
star fallen from the heaven of home. lie
bickers, lie quarrels, he laughs with silly leering,
and kicks at the harmless chairs and ta- ,
bles. If his wife smiles he curses her.
Alas, poor drunkard. Whenever you behold ;
him, you see ' something that should have been ;
a man.'?Religious Herald. (
' 1
Br axd By.?There is music enough in
these three words for the burden of. a song.? 1
There is hope wrapped up in them, and articu- I
Int.. V....if nl'n 1... I.nn.t \V? I
IdlC v/i a iiuiiiaii iivai v. (uiu 1/ > i? c 1
lic.'ird it as long ago as we call remember, 1
when we made brief but perilous journeys from |
ciiair to table, from table to chair again. We s
heard it the other day, when two parted that '
had been "loving in their lives," one to California,
the other to her lonely home. Every- |
bod}* says it some time or other. The boy I
whispers it to himself, when he dreams of ex- i
changing the stubbed little shoes for boots like 1
a mail. The man murmurs it, when in life's
middle watcli he sees his plans half finished, <
and his hopes, yet in the bud, waving in cold, I
late spring. The old man says it when he 1
thinks of putting off the mortal for the immortal,
to-day for to-morrow. The weary watcher 1
for the morning whiles away the dark hours i
with "by and by?by and by." Sometimes it :
sounds like a song; sometimes there is a sigh i
m sob in it. What wouldn't the world give I
to find it in the almauncd^Bt down somewhere, ]
no matter if in the dead of December, to know
it would sprely come. Hut, fairy-like as it is,
flitting like a starbeam over the dewy shadows ]
of the yours, nobody can spare it, and when we <
look hack upon the many times those words 1
have beguiled us, the memory of that silver by '
and by, is like the sunrise of Ossian, "pleasant ;
but mournful to the soul." |
Things that are Coming.?Manhood will 1
come, old age will come, and the dying bed !
will come, and the very last look you shall 1
cast upon your acquaintances will come, and !
the time when you are stretched a lifeless corpse 1
before the eyes of weeping relatives will come,
and that hour when the company will assem '
ble to carry you to the church-yard will come, '
and that moment when you are put in the '
grave will come, and the throwing in of the J
loose earth into the narrow house where yon
are laid, and the spreading of the green sod 1
over it?all will come on every living creature
who hears me, and in a few years the minister ]
who now speaks, and the people, who listen, will
be carried to'tbeir long homes, and mako '
room for another generation. Now all this you '
know, must and will happen; your common ^
sense and common experience serve to convince '
you of it. Perhaps it may have been little '
thought ot in the days of careless and thought- (
locc nnrl thankless unconcern which vou have ^
spent hitherto; but I call on you to think of it now '
lay it seriously to heart and no longer trifle |
and delay, when the high matters of death and ;
judgment, and eternity, and thus set so evidently
before you.
t \
Beauty.?Let me see a temale possessing '
the beauty of a meek and modest deportment \
?of an eye that bespeaks intelligence and purity
within?of the lips that speak 110 guile? J
let me see in her a kind and benevolent disposition?a
heart that can sympathise with dis- {
tress?and I will never ask for the beauty (hat
dwells in "ruby lips," or "flowing tresses," or 1
"snowy^ hands," or the forty other et ceteras
upon wnicn our poets nave narpeo ior so many ,
ages. These fade, when touched by the hand J
of Time, but those ever enduring qualities of
the heart shall outlive the reign of Time, and ,
grow brighter and fresher, as the ages of Eter- !
nity roll away.
A clock is said to have the least self-esteem
of any article of manufacture, as it is constant*
!i _ . ir .1
ly mil rung useu uown.
Beauty is a transitory flower; even while i t
lasts it palls on the roving sense when held too
near or dwelling there long.?Jeffrey.
ftferrllattmts fjm
From the Keoicee Courier.
Tlie Blue Ridge Rail Road.
We place before our readers the report of
the President of the Blue Ridge Rail Road
Company, read at the meef'ng of-stockholders
held at Clayton, Georgia, on the 27th June.?
The business of the meeting was confined to
the election of Directors, and the location of
the road at Clayton; and wo learn that the
Board of Directors passed a resolution, leaving
to the citizens of Clayton the selection of one
of three lines that liavo been run adjacent to
that place. The nearest line to Clayton, which
is the longest by four thousand six hundred
feet, passes through lands adjacent to the corporate
limits, and being, we understand, entirely
satisfactory to the citizens of tho town,
will probably be the one adopted.
The President moved on to Franklin immediately
after the adjournment of tho Board of
Directors.
The following is Mr. Gourdin's Report:
To the Stockholders of the Blue Ridc/e
Rail Road Company :
The Directors of the Blue Ridge Rail Road
Company have respectfully to report, that since
the meeting held in this place, their labors have
chiefly beeiylevoted to the organization of the
Pnmn.miac ftinf. iroro niCfMl f i:l I in eon
3tVUI(U WiUI/aillVa VilUW li VI w vwwvi.?M.y ...
junction with this, to complete the great chain
of Rail Roads to connect, through this portion
of the country, the waters of the great West
with those of the Atlantic. At the session of
the Legislature of South Carolina immediately
following the organization of this Company, a
memorial was presented, asking a charter and
the aid of the State for a Rail Road from Anderson
C. II. to connect with the Blue Ridge
Rail Road at its southern terminus, and the
Directors are gratified in stating that the charter
was promptly granted and aid furnished by
an agreement on the part of the State to endorse
the bonds of the Company to the extent
of 81,250,000 on certain conditions.
The City Corporation of the City of CharlesIon
was also memorialized, and on reference of
the subject to the people, a subscription on the
part of the Corporation was made of $500,000
to the Blue Ridge Rail Road Company in
South Carolina, and $540,009 to the Blue
Ridge Rail Road Company, or in other words
it was agreed on the part of the Corporation to
assume the stock which had been subscribed
Urn* .% nflfo fr* ennu rn fllA
UJT (I JC W %J I lio VtllC^IIO IV OVVUI v ??v
Soon after this period, say in the month of July
last, a contract was made with Messrs. Bangs
& Co., of the State of New York, for the construction
and equipment of the entire line of
Rail Road from Anderson C. II. to the State
line of Tennessee ; the Hon. W. H. Thomas
[under authority to him as President) acting
for the Tennessee River Rail Road Company,
agreeing to unite his Company with the Company
in South Carolina and to place the construction
of the road under the contract niude ,
with Messrs. Banks & Co.
The contractors have agreed to receive in J
payment for the construction and equipment of
llie several roads one half in cash and the other
n the bonds and stock of the several companies
united in equal amounts of one-fourth each.?
It was further agreed that the work should be
commenced on the 1st day ot November last.,
but this time was, by agreement, extended to
the 1st day of January, 18D4.
Tim T.rKYi'cluf nro of Smith Carolina was affain
AIIV w. "wv.... - j
Memorialized l'or farther aid at its last session
in November, with a view of obtaining a subscription
on the part of the State in addition to
ts endorsement of the Company's bonds as
aefore granted. The bill introduced for this
purpose passed the Senate, but failed in the
House.
The hopes and expectations of the Board of
Directors, however, were, and are by no means
dampened by this disappointment, as there
wore causes which contributed to this result
which they are assured will not exist again ;
md it must not be inferred that the vote in the
popular branch of the Legislature is conclusive
that the people of South Carolina aro opposed
to legislative aid to this great enterprise, iti
iome more substantial form than the endorsement
qf the Company's bonds. There were
several projects opposed to us the last session,
which it is believed will not oppose us again.
Many thought that \vc should enter more thoraughly
on our work, and make more progress
before asking for further legislative aid, and
tthcrs that our surveys and estimates were too
general, and not sufliciently minute and in dc il
to iudire satisfactorily of the cost of the
road.
As the entire line in South Carolina is now
jnder contract, except the Tunnel at the Stump
House Mountain, and as this as well as the enfire
route through Georgia, will also be under
contract in a few days, this objection will soon
be removed; and, in relation to the last, the enare
line being finally located between Anderson
and Franklin (except a small portion adjacent
to Clayton kept in abeyance with a viewto
consult the interests and wishes of its inhabitants,)
and as the remainder *of the route
through North Carolina and Tennessee to
Knoxville, (the Knoxvillc and Charleston Itail
Road having also been brought into union
with the other companies, and under the contract
with Messrs. Bangs & Co.,) will be final-:
ly located also in the next few weeks; and
moreover, as the surveys and estimates through
South Carolina and Georgia, (where the most
jKa ??Ai?lr ni'n llflVA
Jlllll-uit |JU.uW..? ,
bad the confirmation of B. H. Latrobe, Esq.,
the distinguished Engineer of the Baltimore and
hio Rail Road, this objection will also he
speedily removed.
The Directors, therefore, feed warranted in
the opinion that the leading objections to a
Stale subscription being removed, the Legislature
of South Carolina will no longer withhold
its liberal and decided aid to an enterprise so
important to every interest in the State, and to
her future welfare and position in the Union.
In tho final location, the length of the Road
through South Carolina has been reduced to
50 1-2 miles, through Georgia to 17 1-2 miles,
through North Carolina to 71 miles, and.the
estimates are brought within those founded on
the earlier surveys.
The first 34 miles from Kno.vvillc have been
found on actual surveys to be much more fa
vorablc than was expected, but the more airficult
portions of this road have not yet beeVi
reached.
As thc# Blue Ridge Rail Road is only one of
a chain of Rail Roads that is destined to unite
the rallies of the Ohio and Mississippi with the
Atlantic seaboard, it will not be out of place
here to state that charters have been obtained
in Kentucky and Tennessee to complete the
connection between Knoxvillo and Lexington
or Paris, from which latter points rail roads are
already in the course of construction to C'incin
wati and Louisville.
Thai portion of tho line in Tennessee having
received the most liberal legislative aid,
will, it is understood, be very soon put under
contract, and the best assurances are given that
funds will not be wanting to cunstruct the line
(some 80 miles) through Kentucky.
The organization of the companies, and the
certain completion of the roads, renders the several
lines known as tho Blue Ridge Road a
mailer of necessity, which nothing but the most
shortsighted ignorance can now defeat. Bringing,
as they will, not only the interior of South
Carolina and her scabord, but a large portion
of Georgia and Savannah nearer to Cincinnati
and Louisville, than these great centres of commerce
are to any other city on the Atlantic,
and passing through a mineral region of untold
rvu.-ih.H jinrl extent, the business of this road
cannot fail to bo otherwise than large beyond
any calculation of limit, as the othcrgreat trunk
lines that have scaled the mountains here already
proved.
With these prospects, therefore, to the Road
itself, and looking to the vast and incalculable
benefit which it must confer on'all the States
through which it will pass, not only in our day,
but much more so in the future, it is an enterprise
not only of choice, but of necessit}', demanded
by the wants, the genius, the enterprise
and the spirit of our people, and due as well to
posterity as to our own honor.
Let every man, therefore, contribute to its
support by his unceasing efforts?by aid to the
extent of his means, and by his sympathy.?
And those to whom you have entrusted the
management of this great and magnificent enterprise
will, before many years, be enabled to
congratulate you on its triumphant achievement,
as they do now on its auspicious commencement.
HENRY CIOURDIN,
President Blue Ridge Rail Road Co.
For tlie Board of Directors.
Chime.?Such is the fearful increase of crime
and insubordination in this country, that at
each issue of our journal we could easily fill a
half page with the horrible and disgusting details
of the week's work of iniquity, did we
think it judicious to do so. In the city of New
Orleans alone, a murder transpires every 12
hours; while in New York and Philadelphia a
standing army of police avail but little to prevent
the daily and hourly perpetration of crimes,
?' which religion ami humanity stand aghast.
>Y;.cia Is this state of things to end ? Is it indeed
(rue that we are rushing recklessly into
anarchy and misrule?a monument to the world
of a stupendous failure in the great experiment
of self-government. God forbid! Butassure
as truth lives, if the fathers and mothers of the
country?who still have some claim to common
sense?do not restrain their children and
teach them bv times a wholesome obedience,
at the point ever, if necessary, of the forgotten
and abused rod, ruin, the most ghastly physical
and moral ruin is the destiny of the people.?
It is superfluous to ask whence this ovil procoeds,
when it is so plainly traceablo to the
miserable fireside and school discipline now so
much the vogue.
A leading paper of the West has recently actually
condemned the use of the rod under any
circumstances in the school. That editor never
taught a school, or he could not thus recklessly
flv in the fiico of Solomon, and the practice
of an ancestry who were great because
they were nurtured under the rod.
Abbeville Banner.
Newspaper in Nebraska.
A prospectus has heen issued for a newspaper,
to he published at lielleview, in the territory
of Nebraska, to be called the Nebraska
Palladium. The New York Tribune is not satisfied
with its principles as foreshadowed in its
prospectus.
" This paper will be strenuously devoted to
the support of the great interests involved in
the early settlement of this rich, beautiful, and
desirable country. It will he an earnest advocate
of the immediate establishment of those
industrial, social, political, and religious institutions
which give value and permanence to
society. ******
" The Palladium will be zealously devoted
to the social, political, ana morai interests 01
the vast multitudes who will soon transfer their
interests to This country, and begin the foundation
of future prosperity, freedom and happiness.
The higher interests of education and
Christianity will find a vigilant and an impartial
advocate in the Palladium.
" Our political faith and character will correspond
with that of the great democratic party
of the United Stales, and be a true exponent
of republican principles. We shall be
independent and honorable in our course with
friends and foes, and follow no party when
they depart from the standard of righteousness
and truth. WTe shall avoid a state of neutrality
upon all subjects?especially upon questions
that relate to the great moral interests of
mankind."
Greeley thinks it is rather singular that in a
prospectus so exceedingly democratic, plainspoken,
moral and religious, Messrs. Heed,
Latham & Co. should so carefully have avoid
cd the only question distinctively bearing on
the future condition of the territories, and just
now peculiarly interesting to the public at
large. Of course if they had been opposed to
slavery, they would have said so beyond the
possibility of being misunderstood, and the inference
is that "their journal will be a pallaJ*
1 i* - _1 ni-w) tViof- rtf'i?t
(lmm oruy iur siaveiiwiut..-, ....w v....u ...............
in popular sovereignty finds its truest illustration
in the crack of an overseer's whip."
MunnnLL's Captuukr.?The celebrated Virgil
A. Stewart, the Capturcr and historian oi
the land pirate John A. Murrell, died recently
at his residence in Wharton county, Texas.
uuincr a uitMu uuii
AVe copy, tliis morning, from the National
Intelligencer, an extended synopsis of the bill
introduced by Mr. Hunter as a substitute for
the Homestead bill, and which was adopted
and passed by the Senate by a vote of more
than two to one. This bill, also, like the other,
assures possession of limited portions of the
public lands to heads of families settling on
them, and gives a complete title after five years
occupancy, on the payment of a sum graduated
according to the time the lands have been
in market. This sum varies from one dollar
to twelve-and-a-half cents per acre.
The second feature of the bill is, that it
makes a general provision for grants of alter
nato sections of land on the lines of railroads
chartered by the States.
The third and most remarkable provision is
that "whereby the States are allowed to take
possession and acquire title to the lands within
their limits on the same terms as individual
settlers.
If the reader will consider what an infinity
of vexatious and absorbing questions will be
finally settled by this bill, if it shall receive
the approval of the House, he will admit that
it is one of the most important measures ever
brought before Congress. It reaches and reme
dies nearly all the evils that have so long beset
the question of the disposal of the public lands.
The details of the bill may be criticised, bat
as a whole it is statesmanlike, comprehensive,
and in its effects, promises to confer great benefits
on the country.
All the provisions of the hill are general and
look to the permanent disposal of the questions
reached by it. Besides, as we understand
it, it enaoies the otates to taae possession or
and acquire title to the whole public domain
within their limits, and thus provides for the
withdrawal of Government administration and
patronage so far as these lands are concerned.
In this respect it contemplates the same object
as the land bill brought forward by Mr. Calhoun
many years ago. All the impressivq, arguments
by which our Great Statesman sustained
his measure then, have gained strength
year by year, and all his predictions of evil
from leaving the question open, as trading capital
for demagogues and spoil for projectors,
? have been more than fulfilled.
The bill for which it was substituted, settled
nothing. It was simply one more specimen of
popularity seeking at the expense of the treasury.
It was an example of unthrift?nothing
more. All the thousand and one applications
for gifts of lands to corporations, charities,
I schools and what not, would still pour upon
Congress as before, and still swallow up the
time due to legislation for the general good.
It is to be hoped that so fruitful a source ol
corruption and legislative obstruction, may at
length be quieted. We have every reason to
believe that Mr. Hunter's bill meets the cordial
support of the Administration, and it goes to
lie House liv si) stionrr a vote of the Senate.
that it has at lea?t a prospect of gaining the
assent of that body.?Mercury.
TIic Homestead and Graduation
Bill.
After several weeks' discussion the Senate
yesterday relieved itseltj for the present, of
these great questions concerning the Public
Lands, by passing a bill containing three im!
portant principles, as will be seen by the subjoined
synopsis of the bill, which has yet to receive
the sanction of the House of ltepresenta
tives. Under the pre-emption clause, it will
be observed, the States in which the lands lie
can enter them all, or any particular class of
them, at the graduated prices.
SYNOPSIS OF TIIF. DILL.
The first section provides that the minimum
price of the public lands of the United States
shall be'reduced after the 1st of July, 1855,
and sold according to the following scale: For
lands which shall have been offered at public
sale and remain unsold five years, one dollar
per acre; for lands which shall have been offered
at public sale and remain unsold ten years,
seventy-five cents an acre ; for lands which
shall have been offered at public sale and remain
unsold fifteen years, fifty cents an acre;
for lands which have beep offered at public sale
and remain unsold twenty years, twenty-five
cents an acre; and for lands which shall have
been offered at public sale and remain unsold
thirty years, twelve and a half cents an acre;
provided that the graduating process, from fifty
cents to twenty-five cents an acre, shall not
take place until the lands in the fifty cent class
shall have been exposed to sale for a period of
at least two years, at the price of fifty cents per
acre, after which the price of the said lauds
shall bojrecjuceil to twenty-five cents per acre.
The second section provides that whenever
a Slate shall desire to acquire a pre eniption
right to all tho lands, or to all the lands of any
certain class and price, within its holders, for
other purposes than a railroad or canal, and
signifies the same to the President of the United
States by an act of its Legislature, they shall
be granted on the following terms: That said
State inay fix the price of said lands above that
proscribed in the first section of this act reserving
the excess to itself; provided that the title
shall not pass to tho purchaser until he has
paid the price fixed in the said first section to
the United States, and that the lands shall be
subject to the same legal subdivision in tho sale
and survey as are now provided by law and
provided further, that any State which shall
accept the provisions of this act, and shall preempt
any lands under it, shall take them in "full
ol the Qve per cent iunus inereatier 10 oecomo
due from the proceeds of said lands. But any
State accepting the provisions of this and the
preceding section shall take the lmds at the
price fixed for each particular class, and no
lands shall be sold by them for twenty-five
cents an acre until they shall have been prcviniiilu
cnliio/.l tr* nntfu llirmirrli n nrti'in/1 nf t.lVfl
V,"V -"J- ..
years at the price of fifty cents per acre, to be
paid to the United Slates.
The third section provides that whenever a
State shall charter a tail road or canal to run
through the lands of the United States, and
such State shall accept the benefit of the provisions
hereinafter prescribed by an act to be
passed at a general session of its Legislature,
upon due notice being given of the fact to the
Secretary of the Interior, it shall be his duty to
set apart, of the public lands, seven thousand
oia iiuiiuiuu iiuu uij^niy acres jjt:r nine ui rau-^Wj
road or canal, within twelve miles on oacbaidefl
and as near the route of such railroad or'caoalHsi
as possible, and the same shall be withdrawing!
from sale or entry by public advertisement oflp
the Secretary of the Interior, except in j
manner and form hereinafter prescribed. Tlt^K
_r xi 1~_J_ i.1?,11 I?
price ui uiese uiuus suuu ltc uij? uuiiur per^b*
acre for those which have not yet been offered??
i at public sale, or for* those which have' beewMI
subject to private entry less' than five^ears^B
seventy-five cents for tlfltee which havo been^K
so subject to entry more than five years an^Hr
less than ten years; filty cents for those jwh&hSR
have been so subject to entry more than tenMf
years and less than twenty years; and twenty^HI
five cents per acre for those w'hich have becwMg
so subject to entry more than twenty years. "T?
The fourth section provides that whenever <tJfl
State through which such railroad or canal-Mg
passes, and in which tho said lauds lie, shalt?]
desire to do so, it" may select, as pre-emptor,.?
all the lands so reserved at the minimum pricee]
designated in the third section of this act; but3V
the State must take up and pay in cash for"*?
said land within ten years from the time when*?
set apart by the Secretary of the Interior,'oft?
otherwise its right to such of them as remain
unsold shall be forfeited. But before, the ex- ?
piration of this period the State may seU thejjfcS
lands thus reserved to individuals or corpora-*'j?
tions, provided that no title shall vest in thevB
purchaser until he pays to the receiver of ^
proper land office of the United States, for thV^B
use of the United States, the price herein fixed??
as the pricevper acre for which'the lands shall'??
be sold. ,x 0'
The fifth section provides that, in thejevenV'
' of a difference between the Postmaster Gene- / S
ral and the railroad company as to the compen-"?
sation for carrying the mails, the matter shall"?
be settled by mutual agreement between the 'm
Postmaster General and the Governor of the
State in which such railroad lies. t
The sixth section provides that the lands -fl
nnroliaciwl Kt? finv Stflfp linHflP tllA nrflVlsiflflS ?
K?" "J --J ? I
of the third section of this act, shall be applied
by said State for the construction of the rail- *
road or canal for which*thcy were reserved; )
and that no lands shall be included within the,:,
operation of thio act to which the Indian title
has not been extinguished.
The seventh section provides that this act .
shall in no way apply to town or village property,
either in-lots or out-lots nor be so con-*.-*.strued
as to interfere with any pre eraption.
claim, or to lands reserved for. schools, saline*
or reserved sections on railroad grants or other
purposes, under any existing laws of the United
States, nor to any of the mineral lands of the
United States.
The eighth section provides that any free
white person, who is the head of a family, or
who has arrived at the age of twenty-one years, it*
and is capable of holding lands under the laws
of the State in which the lands lie,* or if they -j
lin in o TorfiMrw tlion nnv nerson who is ca
..v. ... .. . ?..j ,
pable of acquiring a pre-emption under the laws j
of the United States, shall, from and after the ^
passage of this act, be entitled to enter onequarter
section of vacant and unappropriated >
public lands, and no more, which may at the
, time the application is made be subject to private
entry, or a quantity equal thereto, to be <
located in a body, in conformity with the legal hti
subdivisions of the public lands: provided, that ij
lands ceded by any Indian treaty stipulating \
for the payment to such Indians of the nett _
proceeds of the sales of the ceded lands shall j
not bo subjected to the operations of this act,
, except at the graduated prices fixed therefor. The
ninth section provides that the person ,j
applying for the benefit of the foregoing eighth
section shall, upon application to the register
of the land office in which he or she is about ^
i i_ ?.? ?i? -a:J-..:, u v
CO mane sucn entry, runts c amuikviv uciuic uiv
said register that he or she is the head of a
family, or is twenty-one years of age, and that
such application is made for his or her exclu- ~
sive use and benefit, and thoSe specially men- '
tioncd herein, and not either directly or indU :ri
rectly for the use or benefit of any other person
or persons whomsoever; and upon making the >vaffidavit
as herein required, and filing it with
the register, he or she shall thereupon be per-. V
mitted to enter the quantity of land specified : j
provided, that no certificate shall be given or
patent issued therefor until the expiration of *
five years from the date of such entry, and until
the person or persons entitled to the land so
entered shall have paid for the same twentyfive
cent9 per acre, or, if the lands have been
in market more than twelve years, twelve and
a half cents per acre; and if, at the expiration ' j;
of such time, the person making such entry j
shall prove by two credible witnesses that he js
or she have continued to reside upon and culti- i
vate said land, and still reside upon the same, Jl
thon, in such cases, he or she shall be entitled -
to a patent, as in other cases provided for by
law; and all such persons as are specified in *
the eighth.section, and who are now settled
upon lands subject to entry by this act, shall
be entitled to its benefits, upon the expiration-^
of five years from the date of such settlement v
The benefits of this and the preceding section <
of this act shall be extended fo the settlers up*
on the public lands in California, upon payment
of one dollar per acrei.
The tenth section provides that the register
of the land office shall keep a register of all entries,
and make return thereof to the General
Land Office.
The eleventh section provides that any person
who may have filed his or her affidavit of
.... ? ... o Aimrtop section of land
| au uiimuiuu iv acme ?
under the provisions of this act may at any
time acquire title thereto by paying the full
graduated price for the same. But no person
or persons shall be allowed to file a declaration
of intention to settle, for the purpose of claiming
the benefit of the provisions of this act, in
regard to five years actual settlement, after the
Slate shall have purchased, or taken as preemptor,
the cluss in which said lands lie.
National Intelligencer.
-* %
After Minister Almonte had received a check
for seven millions of dollars in payment of the
first instalment duo to Mexico under the Cadsden
treaty, there was still left in the United
States Treasury the snug sum of $21,888,812.
No other nation in the world has such an
amount of surplus cash on hand.