The debate on the Iowa Railroad Bill was continued on successive days
down to February 17th, when the speech of Mr. Sumner was particularly
assailed by Mr. Hunter, of Virginia. To this he replied at once.
One word, if you please, Mr. President. The Senator from Virginia [Mr.
HUNTER], who has just taken his seat, has very kindly given me
notice that I am to expect "a broadside" from the Senator from Kentucky
[Mr. UNDERWOOD]. For this information I am properly grateful.
When, a few days ago, I undertook to discuss an important question in
this body, I expressed certain views, deemed by me of weight. Those
views I submitted to the candor and judgment of the Senate. I felt
confidence in their essential justice, and nothing heard since has
impaired that confidence. I have listened with respect and attention to
the address of the Senator from Virginia, as it becomes me to listen
to everything any Senator undertakes to put forth here. But I hope to
be excused, if I say, that, in all he has so eloquently uttered with
reference to myself, he has not touched by a hair-breadth my argument.
He has criticized--I am unwilling to say that he has cavilled at--my
calculations; but he has not, by the ninth part of a hair, touched the
conclusion which I drew. That still stands. And let me say that it
cannot be successfully assailed in the way attempted by him.
I said that injustice is done to the Land States, out of this body
and in this body: out of this body, because I often hear them called
"land-stealers" and "land pirates"; in this body by the Senator from
Virginia, when he complains of the partial distribution of the public
lands, and particularly points out the bill now before the Senate as an
instance. I said that this charge was without foundation. Why? On what
ground? Because there is an existing equity (I so called it,--nothing
more) on the part of the Land States as against the General Government.
And on what is this founded? On a fact of record in the public acts
of this country,--that is, the exemption of the public domain from
taxation by the States in which it is situated. The Senator from
Virginia does not question this fact; of course he cannot, for it is
embodied in Acts of Congress.
The next inquiry, then, was, as to the value of this immunity,
which I called an equity. To illustrate this value, I went into
calculations and estimates, which I presented, after some study of
the subject,--not, perhaps, such study as the Senator from Virginia
has found time to give, or such as the Senator from Kentucky, in
the plenitude of his researches, doubtless has given. On those
calculations and estimates I attributed a certain value to the equity
in question. My calculations and estimates may be overstated; they
may be exaggerated. The Senator from Virginia thinks them so. Other
gentlemen with whom I have had the privilege of conversing think them
understated. However this may be, it does not touch the argument. I
may have done injustice to my argument by overstating them. I intended
to understate them. From all that I hear, I still think that I have
understated them. But, whether understated or overstated, the argument
still stands, that these States have conceded to the General Government
an immunity from taxation,--that this immunity has a certain value,
I think very large,--and that this value constitutes an equity to
which the Land States have a right to appeal for bountiful, ay, for
munificent treatment. Has the Senator from Virginia answered this
argument? Can he answer it?
I forbear to go into the subject at this time. I rose simply to state,
that, as the Senator from Virginia generously warns me that I am to
expect "a broadside" from the Senator from Kentucky, I am to regard
what he said to-day, so far as I am concerned, simply as a signal gun.
The Senator will pardon me, if I say it is nothing more; for it has not
reached me, or my argument. Meanwhile I await, with resignation, and
without anxiety, the "broadside" from Kentucky.
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