I now propose to show
that it would produce a peculiar and permanent hardship upon the citizens
of those States and Territories in which the public lands lie. The
land-offices in those States and Territories, as all know, form the great
gulf by which all, or nearly all, the money in them is swallowed up.
When the quantity of money shall be reduced, and consequently everything
under individual control brought down in proportion, the price of those
lands, being fixed by law, will remain as now. Of necessity it will
follow that the produce or labor that now raises money sufficient to
purchase eighty acres will then raise but sufficient to purchase forty,
or perhaps not that much; and this difficulty and hardship will last as
long, in some degree, as any portion of these lands shall remain
undisposed of. Knowing, as I well do, the difficulty that poor people
now encounter in procuring homes, I hesitate not to say that when the
price of the public lands shall be doubled or trebled, or, which is the
same thing, produce and labor cut down to one half or one third of their
present prices, it will be little less than impossible for them to
procure those homes at all.
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