collector's office, and the various institutions connected with the Government there. They had won exceptional credit by reason of their freedom from the debasing arts of political assessments, and yet are to be again plunged into the mire from which they so laboriously have emerged. It has been sent out to employees at Chicago, and assessments made there at $9.30. It has been sent to every postmaster in the country; as least I have returns from almost every State east of Nevada. It has been sent to the men engaged upon the works on the Ohio river at Marietta, and $18 has been assessed and demanded of men who day by day for their daily wages cut stone in making the dam. It has been sent to every employee in the Departments in Washington, every clerk, and they have been assessed in various amounts from $18 to $50. This circular has been sent to men who are engaged in daily labor on the Capitol grounds, digging up and beautifying these grounds, and $6 has been assessed upon each of them. It has been sent to the boys in the Printing Office, to whom you pay only a dollar a day and furlough them without pay, and $7 has been demanded from each of them. It has been sent to enlisted men in the army, and an assessment of $18 made upon men who are paid from the army appropriation bill. Wherever a name can be found upon the pay-roll of the government for any amount, great or small, this circular has been sent, and it is being sent now to those to whom time has not allowed it to be sent before.

"I said it had been sent to every clerk in all these departments. Why, sir, it has been sent to those unfortunate ladies whom the exigencies of life now compel to support a family off the pittance earned painfully by them, which would scarcely have sufficed to dispense their yearly charity in other days. It has been sent to the women who scrub out the departments in this city, and whose poverty is so great that when they leave for their daily work they are obliged to lock up in their close and fetid room the infant children who cannot be allowed to wander in danger in the streets. It has been sent to the employees of the Senate, and men have been required to pay $30 in order that they may hold their places.

Nay, more, Mr. President, it has been sent, at least in the other House, and possibly in this, to the little pages, bright, intelligent, active little fellows, who do the bidding of members there and here. I imagine I can see this grave committee, with this circular in their hands, going to one of these little pages and saying to him by his appreciation of the emergencies of the country, by his appreciation of the excellence of Republican practices, by his dread of the restoration of the Democratic Party to power, he shall make his contribution of $9 in order to avert such a terrible calamity.

Mr. President, if this were not a sad scene of political degeneracy and partisan tyranny it would be in many of its aspects a broad farce.

"I have no fitting words in which to express my apprehension of the degradation and danger of this whole system, of which this is one of the most dangerous outgrowths. It demoralizes and breaks down every man connected with it, those who give and those who take alike. Among the names on this circular are some of our own cherished associates and members, men of the other House also, who stand high in the estimation of their party and their country. They are important factors in weilding the political destinies not only of their party but of their country, honorable, upright, excellent gentlemen, to whom we would willingly commit, and do commit our honor, and if necessary would commit our lives, men who could not be forced even by torture to go themselves and with this circular in their hand to make applications to these persons to whom it is sent; men who could not be induced to do it; who would feel it to be a personal dishonor to do it. Yet together they combine and put in operation this machine which has no heart to be touched, no body to be punished, no soul to be damned, to visit the houses of the widow and the fatherless, and extract from them for political partisan purposes a large proportion of their hard earnings.

"It degrades the men to whom it is sent. What sense of self-respect can there be in a man who feels himself compelled to submit to this extortion which his honest judgment abhors and which his penury rejects, and yet is obliged with a hypocritical smile to pretend that it is a voluntary contribution? What faithful, honest personal service in office can a man render when he feels that upon his very best service is put this badge of servitude? How can he admire with his whole heart as he ought and devote himself absolutely to the duties of an office when he is made to buy with money, that office which he knows, and everybody who will think a moment knows, is a public trust involving duties to the public? What discipline can there be in a system when all above him and all below him are bound together by the conciousness of this common degradation? The galley slaves are chained together, their proximity making them conscious of the common infamy, and the common degradation and the common punishment make them hate and despise and dread and suspect and injure each other.

"Mr. President, this system is a great wrong to the people. A fair day's work and a fair day's pay is common honesty imported into our Government. If these employees can have extracted and abstracted from their salary 2 or 4 or 10 per cent., and yet sufficient remuneration left to them, then I say the deduction should be made directly from their salary and be left in the Treasury.

"I will not speak of what this system may be, if against their interest, against their will, against their moneyed capacity, these men are compelled to submit these contributions if they are extracted out of the suffering of themselves and their families. When I see that this system tends to such degradation, such demoralization, to the breaking down of our civil administration, the destruction of the instinct and patriotism in our country, I declare upon my conscience I believe it would be better for the country, better for the service, better for the people, if a felonious hand were put into the Treasury of the United States and this money were abstracted for this purpose and a clear thing be made of it by charging it up to "soap."

"Have we not been told, are we not told constantly, that this Republican party is the party of God and morality in the country? Has not the gentleman declared with a seriousness of tone and sincerity of manner that leaves no room to doubt his conviction of the truth, that it is the best and purest party that has ever existed in this government? Why, sir, I have read the description of a party like this: But all their works they do for to be seen of men; they make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of their garments; and love the uppermost rooms at feasts and the chief seats in the synagogues; and greetings in the markets, and to be called of men, "Rabbi, rabbi." ''

"And if, after making all the professions of purity and excellence and faith, when you happen through the flimsy device to be caught in evil practices, you seek to screen yourselves from the consequences behind the examples of others, there will be denounced "Woe unto you * against you that terrible anathema. hypocrites, for ye devour widow's houses, and for a pretence make long prayer; therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation.'

**

"Mr. President, men of our race and language have always been tenacious of the purity of the civil service of their government. Even as our fathers emerged from the ages which we are in the habit of calling dark, they began to require that the purity of civil service should be the characteristic of their kings as well as of their commons. Six hundred and fifty and more years ago King John in the Magna Charta was compelled to declare :

"We will not make any justiciars, constables, sheriffs or bailiffs, but of such as are knowing in the law of the realm, and are disposed duly to observe it. "

"Nearly a hundred years afterward, in the time of Richard II., in 1288, the Commons passed a statute

"That the chancellor, treasurer, etc., the justices of the one bench, and of the other, etc., and all other that shall be called to ordain, name or make justices of the peace, sheriffs, escheators, customs, comptrollers or any other officer or minister of the king, shall be firmly sworn that they shall not ordain, name or make justice of the peace, sheriff, escheator, customer, comptroller, nor other officer or minister of the king for any gift or brocage, favor or affection; nor that none which pursueth, by him or other, privily or openly, to be in any manner office, shall be put in the same office or in any other; but that they shall make all such offieers and ministers of the best and most lawful men, and sufficient to their estimation and knowledge.

"Lord Coke says that that was

"A law worthy to be written in LETTERS OF GOLD, but more worthy to be put in due execution."

"A few years passed on and Edward IV., pressed by his necessities, commenced to levy 'benevolence' upon the commons of England, which the people very turbulently, as he thought, called malevolence,' and thereupon, in the first year of Richard III., the bloody monster as he was called, Lord Coke mentions how the exaction under the good name of benevolence,' begun in 12 Edward 4, came to be so that 'many of the people did much grudge at it and called it a malevolence.' He refers to 1 Richard III., wherein the commons recite :

"That the commons of this realm, by new and unlawful inventions and inordinate covetise against the law of this realm, have been put to great thraldom and importable charges and exactions, and in especial by a new imposition named a benevolence, whereby divers years, the subjects and commons of this realm, against their wills and freedom, have paid great sums of money '—

"After which, and other recitals, it is ordained

"That his subjects and the commonality of this his realm, from henceforth in no wise be charged by none such charge (exaction) or imposition called benevolence, nor by such like charge; and that such exactions called benevolences afore this time taken betake for no example to make such or any like charge of any his said subjects of this realm hereafter, but it be damned and annulled forever."

"And Lord Coke, speaking of this very statute, 1 Richard III, says that—

"Of the acts of Richard the Third one of the wisest was that of 1 Ric. III., ch. 2, ‘an act to free the subjects from benevolences!' But he did not adhere to it. There is mention of letters sent by him exacting these benevolences and specifying the sum which each person was required to give. It is stated that 'this' was a fatal blow at what re'mained of his popularity.'

History repeats itself. Benevolence exacted for his private purposes by the king which the people called malevolences, and which were rejected and repudiated by the Commons. He seemed to favor the rejection, but he sent out circulars even in those days to his good subjects, and specified in those circulars the amount of money which he required them to pay. Behold the example which this committee has followed!

"Mr. President, to these principles embodied in Magna Charta, embodied in these statutes, the people of our race have always been true. Sometimes they have wandered, sometimes they have straggled from the paths, but they have speedily returned to them, and in their return they have always been led in England by the Commons, and in this country by the Democratic party. To-day the time has come when they shall be led again to appreciate the beneficence of a pure civil administration. To-day the Democratic party is putting itself at the head of that return, civil service reform is writ on its escutcheon and emblazoned on its banner. By its strength and in order to perfect it, the Democratic party will sooner or later come into power. I say to Senators on the other side of the Chamber that the sooner it comes into power the better it will be for them and for the country. It may for a moment wound their susceptibilities, but it will advantage their prosperity and their liberties. When that time does come, when we shall take possession of this Government, when we shall put in the high places of power our worthiest and best, the President of the United States, the chief of the state, under the people the source and fountain of honor and powers in this country, will be able to say to all as Van Artevelde said in response to Vauclaire who was thanking him for his promotion :

The Overthrow of Monopolies.

There is no question before the people of the United States involving such vast interests as the question of the forfeiture of the unearned lands granted to railroads, and, it may be added, that there is no question of vast public concern so little understood. One is apt to be dazed by the magnitude of the subject, and not fully to understand it. We speak in this chapter of bodies of land larger than New England; of tracts that have been granted to corporations equal in size to the kingdoms that have ruled the world; of hundreds of millions of acres that have been given away, valued at hundreds of millions of dollars. We give at length the history of these grants, present tables showing the amount of land granted, and give references to the law in each case. The record of the Republican party on this question has been made; it is here given; by the record let it be judged.

History of Our Public Lands.

The era of the birth of monopolies" in this country covers but a short period of time, but the injury inflicted is incalculable. That era dates from July 1, 1862, and extends to March 3, 1871. The former date was the date of the Union Pacific act, and the latter the Texas Pacific act. From July 1, 1862, to March 3, 1871, less than nine years, public lands were voted away to corporations to the amount of 144,538,134 acres. By law, the roads earned 49,410,380 acres, leaving 95,127,754 acres that can and should be reclaimed for the people. There is besides this nearly ten million acres, comprised in grants made to States that are forfeitable and should be reclaimed, making the grand total of lands to be reclaimed over one hundred million acres of land.

The Public Domain-How Acquired.

Perhaps the first thing that should be done to enable the reader to clearly understand the condition of the public domain is to show its original extent, how portions of it have been disposed of, how much of it remains, and the claims that are made upon it.

The United States held and claimed no land in the thirteen original States, so that the land (341,782 square miles, or 218,740,480 acres) included within the boundaries of these States is not to be considered.

The first public lands belonging to the Government were cessions by some of these States, viz.: Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Virginia, North and South Carolina, and Georgia, of lands held by them under grants from Great Britain. The amounts ceded were by

New York and Massachusetts.
Virginia (exclusive of Kentucky).
South Carolina..

Georgia..

North Carolina.

Connecticut....

Total

Acres.

202,187 165,659,680

3,136,000

56,689,930

29,184,000

4,300,000

259,171,797

Of the amount ceded by Virginia, Massachusetts claimed 34,560,000 acres, and Connecticut claimed 23,000,000 acres ; but whatever rights they had, if any, were given to the general Government.

The session from North Carolina, while it gave jurisdictional rights did not really give any land, as the territory ceded (now the State of Tennessee) was completely covered with reservations. This makes the actual number of acres acquired by these sessions, which the Government could sell or dispose of, to be 229,987,187 acres, or 359,356 square miles.

Over the territory now included in the State of Kentucky, Government was given jurisdictional control, but it acquired no lands, as these like the lands in Tennessee, had been disposed of by the State in grants.

The next land acquired was by the treaty of 1803 with France, when the territory of Louisiana was purchased, at a total cost of $27,267,622. This territory contained 756,961,280 acres, being larger in extent than the original thirteen States and all their territorial possessions, which only amounted to 531,200,000 acres.

This purchase included parts of the present States of Alabama and Mississippi, all of Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa and Nebraska, nearly all of Minnesota and Kansas, all of Dakota, Montana, Idaho, and the Indian Territory, with parts of Wyoming and Colorado.

The next acquisition was in 1819 from Spain, the territory of Florida, containing 37,931,520 acres, the cost being $6,489,768.

From Mexico, by the treaty of Gaudalupe Hidalgo, Feb. 2, 1848, 334,443,520 acres were acquired, costing $15,000,000. This territory comprises California, Nevada, part of Colorado, Utah, and the greater part of New Mexico and Arizona. In 1850 the Government purchased from Texas certain lands claimed by it, amounting to 65,130,880 acres, at a cost of $16,000,000.

In 1853 the Gadsden purchase was made from Mexico, comprising 29,142,400 acres, at a cost of $10,000,000. This purchase forms a part of the territory of Arizona and New Mexico.

In 1867 the territory of Alaska was purchased for $7,200,000, and comprises 369,529,600 acres.

So that the public domain of the United States consists of

In this the State of Texas is not included, as by the treaty of annexation it retained the ownership of all public lands within its borders.

How the Domain has been Disposed of.

Of these lands up to June 30, 1880, there had been surveyed 752,557,195 acres, and of this there remained undisposed of, 24,802,711 acres, making with the unsurveyed land the number of acres now owned by the Government, 1,273,946,438.