The Congressional Globe, Volume 13, Part 2: Twenty-Eighth Congress, First Session Page: 55
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Jan. 184*. APPENDIX TO THE CONGRESSIONAL GLOBE.
5$
28th Cong 1st Sess.
Improvement of the Western waters—Mr. Wentworth.
H. of Reps.
We of the West have had enough of the conse-
quences of borrowing money to expend on internal
improvements, leaving the interest to hang like an
incubus upon our industry, bearing to the earth our
people, by the weight of taxes that follow. Thank
heaven ! the time has at length arrived when our
people can no longer be blinded and hoodwinked
into these disastrous and destructive measures, un-
der the belief that these debts may be finally can-
ceiled without resorting to th^irhard earnings.
They know well, by sad experience, that, what-
ever the pretence may be, if ever these debts are
paid, it must be done by the sweat of their brows.
Mr. Speaker, ever since I have had the honor of
a seat on this floor, I have noticed a disposition, on
the part of some members here, studiously to un-
derrate, misrepresent, and vilify, the people of the
West; and it is a little strange that that disposition
should always increase about the time we move for
appropriations to our western waters. I well recol-
lect an attack made upon us in the last Congress,
by the gentleman from New York, [Mr. Barnard,]
at the time that appropriation was pending. He
then exhibited the jealous and snarling disposition
which he has so often exhibited this session; and I
shall never forget the castigation he then received at
the hands of one of the members from my State,
who is no longer a member of this House. Not
content with that exhibition of his spleen, he has
again attacked the western people; ana now seems
to be writhing under the fear that the West
may at last receive some little of that government
consideration which has been so long withheld.
We claim no more than to be considered as Ameri-
cans, entitled to the same respect and consideration
that other portions of the confederacy receive. But
how are we expected to sit still, whilst we are not
only treated with studied neglect and indifference,
but called squatters, renegades, and land pirates? Sir,
I will not be calm whilst my constituents are thus
treated. I feel and know that the western people are
equal in industry, honesty, benevolence, and all that
makes society endearing, to any people on God's
footstool. True, we may not be as learned as my
friend from Pennsylvania, who sits by my side; few
if any of us, are able to interlard our speeches with
Latin quotations, which the gentleman does so often,
and, I must say, always in such good taste; yet,
if we do not use this lingo, we always try to speak
good plain English, and to speak out what we mean.
But the gentleman has just reminded me, that al-
though our country may be rich in soil and bound-
less m resources, yet, without the genius we borrow-
ed from Pennsylvania to aid in its improvement, it
would have been useless in our hands. It may be
so; I know it is generally the conceit of the older
country that the new depends entirely on the wis-
dom and refinements of the old, to give it consequence.
This was once the conceit of England towards her
colonies. Why, then, should not the old States in-
dulge in the same vain-glorious reflections? When
any of our friends from the older States come
amongst us, either to teach or be taught, they are a
part of our great household; and although, as na-
tives of the valley, we may be willing to yield to our
friends who visit us, or come amongst us to reside, a
superiority in dull, prosy book-learning, yet I must
be permitted to say, in behalf of our pioneers, that
for strong common sense, honest industry, and in-
domitable perseverance, their superiors cannot be
found upon the face of the earth. And, as one of
their representatives, and one who feels in his own
person these insults, I hurl them back into the teeth
of those who uttered them.
My friend from Bhiladelphia, [Mr. J. R. Ixger-
soia,]—and I take pleasure in thus addressing him
when I contrast his treatment of us of the West with
the course of some others on this floor—in his pecu-
liarly winning manner, attempts to persuade us that
not only have we not been treated with neglect, but
that, in point of fact, we have been treated as the
pet of the family. To prove this, he refers us to the
large amount of land that has been donated to the
western States, and to the ten per cent, of the pro-
ceeds of the sales of the public lands which has been
proposed to be distributed to vis, over and above our
equal proportion. Sir, I ask that gentleman why it
is that the price of the public domain has been re-
quired of the settlers in the western States to be paid
into the national treasury, instead of the respective
State treasuries? Was the price of the soil of the
older States paid into the national treasury? Why
this distinction? Not only so, but X ask if some of
the older States have not, in addition to the domain
within their own limits, received the proceeds oftht
sales of large tracts of land within the limits of the
western States? Did not Connecticut receive the
price of that large tract of country within the limits
of the State of Ohio, known as the "Western Re-
serve," into her State treasury? Why this distinc-
tion between the eastern and the western States? I
would be very glad if some person, instead of calling
us "land-pirates," would give us a good, solid, sen-
sible reason for this distinction.
Sir, when I hear you talk of the amount of lands
you have given to the western States, I am reminded
of that passage in holy writ where Satan is represent-
ed as having taken our Savour up into a high moun-
tain, and there showing him the kingdoms of
the earth, tells him "all these will I give unto
thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me."
What right had his satanic majesty to these king-
doms of the earth? Ah! sir, and what right have
you of the older States to our western soil?
If, Mr. Speaker, you put your claim on the ground
that you have acted as the agent of the people of the
West, who have, through much toil, tribulation, and
blood, settled the Western wilderness—that you
have expended the money of the government in
extinguishing the Indian title and other et ceteras
connected with the land system, and that, therefore,
you are entitled to be refunded the amount actually
expended,—then I admit your title to be a good one.
But don't you see that this upsets all the gentle-
man's liberality in giving us the 10 per cent, addi-
tion in the net proceeds? For if you only reim-
burse yourselves, (and that is all you are in good
faith entitled to do,) then you have no net proceeds
to divide. Does the gentleman think we of the
Westars too ignorant to see this absurdity?
But it is claimed that you have a large surplus to
distribute; if so, you have unjustly collected it
from the Western States; and we, forsooth, are to
be quieted by offering us a bribe of 10 per cent, of
the very money which you expect us tamely to
suffer ourselves to be fleeced of.
But, Mr. Speaker, another gentleman from Penn-
sylvania [Mr. Stewart] has discovered a panacea
for all these inflictions on the West. He has dis-
covered a process by which our drained pockets may
be replenished. And what do you think it is? Sir,
I don't know but I shall trespass upon order in
referring to it; for he certainly was out of order
when he condescended to inform us of its healing
and resuscitating effects. But I will, at the risk of
being called to order, barely refer to it. He tells us
of the West that not only our own pockets, but the
treasury of the nation, is to be filled to overflowing
by a protective tariff!! What a discovery! Not
only so, but he tells us that the price of an article
taxed is reduced in price to the consumer by that
taxation! Sir, if this be true, we will only have to
put it on a little heavier, and then we will get it for
nothing. What vast magnanimity the eastern man-
ufacturers—who have crowded the lobbies of this
House, urging Congress to pass a protective tariff,
must exhibit to the world.—when it is considered
that the effect of that tariff is to reduce their manu-
factured articles! Oh, shame on such absurdities!
This will do for a stump speech; but how silly it
makes the man look who utters it on this floor.
There was a time, Mr. Speaker, when we of the
West, before our attention was called to this thing
by being literally skinned by it, could be imposed
upon in relation to the effect of a protective tariff.
But, sir, our people, by an investigation of its oper-
ation, aided by the vast volume of facts furnished
by the last census tables, now see, as clearly as you
do, that whilst you get one dollar into the national
treasury in this way, you take four additional ones
out of their pockets, to be placed in the pockets of
some other persons, who have large capital invested
in the manufacturing establishments. If these be
the favors which our eastern friends deal out to our
western farmers, they may well say, God save them
from their friends!
There was one sentiment advanced by the gentle-
man from Pennsylvania, that I most cordially ap-
prove; and that was, the necessity of economy. I
will go in for economizing the expenditures of this
government with him who goes farthest—knowing,
as I do, that, of all expenditures, that made by gov-
ernments is the most profuse, wasteful, and extrava-
gant; and, of all kinds, does the least good. Sir, I
will aid in cutting loose the leeches and vampyres
which are gnawing upon the vitals, and sucking
the life-blood from the body politic, and, by this
means, save the laboring people of this glorious
Union from toiling from the rising of the sun to
the going down thereof, for the favored few, who bat-
ten upon the spoils thus wrenched from the sinews
of the many.
One more remark, and I have done. I do not like
to trouble the House; nor was it my intention, on
rising, to have consumed half the time I have. The
particular object I had in view was to set myself
right on those questions in which, it seems, I am
destined to be misunderstood. On a former day I
stated, in reference to the Hudson river, that, when
compared with the mighty Mississippi, it dwindled
into the insignificance of a "spring branch," and
good-liumoredly remarked that the great State which
it watered was so small, in comparison with the
Mississippi valley, that 1 could almost put it into
my breeches pocket. I did not suppose any person
would take it to heart; but many of my friends from
that State have been laboring sedulously ever since
to show that the Hudson is larger than a spring
branch! And further, I am told that some of them
are now engaged in taking depositions to prove that I
cannotput New York into my breeches pocket.
SPEECH OF MR. WENTWORTH,
of illinois,
In the House of Representatives, January 9, 1844—In
Committee of the Whole on the state of the
Union, on the reference of the President's mes-
sage.
The immediate state of the question before the
committee was as follows:
Mr. Wise had heretofore offered the following
modified resolution:
"Resolved, That so much of the President's mes-
sage as relates to the policy of attending to the lakes
and rivers of the West be referred to the Commit-
tee on Commerce."
And Mr. Thomasson of Kentucky had offered
the following modified amendment thereto:
"Resolved, That so much of the President's mes-
sage as relates to the improvement of the western
rivers and harbors upon the lakes be referred to a
select committee of nine members."
And the pending question was on agreeing to the
amendment as thus modified.
Mr. WENTWORTH rose and addressed th«
committee as follows:
Mr. Chairman : As a representative from a State
deeply interested in the improvement of three of
the great western rivers, (the Wabash, the Ohio,
and the Mississippi,) but from a district more im-
mediately interested in the improvement of the lakes
and all the northern frontier waters, I rise to ask a
division of the amendment, since I believe the in-
terest of the lakes is perfectly safe in the hands of
the Committee on Commerce; and, as an act of
courtesy to my friends representing the riparian dis-
tricts of the rivers, I am willing to give that branch
of the amendment such a direction as may best suit
them. Par be it from me to create any invidious
discrimination between the interest of the northern
frontier waters and those of the Mississippi and its
tributaries. All I ask is, that the immediate repre-
sentatives of each shall control the reference of their
respective interests; both of which are common
sufferers, and have been for the past five years—
ever since the session of '38 and '39, when all ap-
propriations for the West and the Northwest, for
the improvement of rivers, erection of light-houses,
construction of harbors, and even for that great
and useful national highway, (the Cumberland
road,) begun with the plighted faith of the nation
to ^complete it, were denied. The trivial exceptions
to this assertion, gleaned by littles here and there,
can have no effect upon its extent, when we con-
sider the importance of the matter. All these great
and imperative interests of the country have been
most outrageously neglected. Too long—altogether
too long—have the people of nearly half of our
Union, from the disproportion of former representa-
tions on this floor, been knocking at the doors of
Congress, makingjust and long-repeated complaints,
and demanding their unquestionable deserts. Up to
this time, they can scarcely be said to have had ad-
mittance, and relief has been administered to them
only as crumbs thrown from the windows, as the
waste of the prodigality lavished upon our army
and navy. Why, sir, during the short time of which
I have been speaking, there has been expended up-
on our navy alone rising $30,000,000; and, when
you seek for the advantages of all this, I tell you
that you may as well seek the tracks which our
ships have left on the ocean. "
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United States. Congress. The Congressional Globe, Volume 13, Part 2: Twenty-Eighth Congress, First Session, book, 1844; Washington D.C.. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth2368/m1/65/: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.