A question embracing such important interests and so well calculated
to enlist the feelings of the people in every quarter of the Union has
very naturally given rise to numerous plans for the improvement of
the existing system. The distinctive features of the policy that has
hitherto prevailed are to dispose of the public lands at moderate
prices, thus enabling a greater number to enter into competition for
their purchase and accomplishing a double object--of promoting their
rapid settlement by the purchasers and at the same time increasing the
receipts of the Treasury; to sell for cash, thereby preventing the
disturbing influence of a large mass of private citizens indebted to
the Government which they have a voice in controlling; to bring them
into market no faster than good lands are supposed to be wanted for
improvement, thereby preventing the accumulation of large tracts in few
hands; and to apply the proceeds of the sales to the general purposes of
the Government, thus diminishing the amount to be raised from the people
of the States by taxation and giving each State its portion of the
benefits to be derived from this common fund in a manner the most quiet,
and at the same time, perhaps, the most equitable, that can be devised.
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