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Show 112 EMIGRANT'S GUII')E. Agre~ably to the last mentioned provision, the proposet:l new ~tate canno1 impo:-~e any tax upon lands, which may hereafter be purchased from the United States, for five years from the time they are sold. Now let it be observed, st~id Mr. Lattimore, that the benefit of this' pmvi:-;ion cannot be claimed as to purchases a_lready m_ade ; and that within the limits of the proposeJ state, there Js •ery httle good land for sale, whil~t millions of acres, lte might say, would be offered to sale in the proposed Alabftma territory, in the course of a few y~ar_s. He thou~ht it probable. at least, that more land would ~e s_ol_d w1th~n five year~ from 1his time, than is now held by all the mdJvJduals Ill our proposed state. Wht~t then, he asked, would be the effect o}· t~iG pro~ isiun, if the whole territory were admitted as ?ne . state ? fhrs, unquestionably, th at the lands in the. western part of the state would all be taxed, whilst nearly all tho e in the eastern part would be exempt. The eastern part wouiLi be by far the most populous, and yet the westE>rn part wou\J have to bear the burdens of f!;Overnment. That part would ~<,vern, and this pay the expense. tThis inference, he said , was inevitable, and could not be Jenietl. But. s::) id Mr. L., he would take another view of this subject. According to the concludinh provisions of the 5th section of the act, no part of the fi \'e per cent. of the p1 oceed~ of the lands is to bE> appl ieu to the purpo~e of making road~, until after the debt tlue to the state of GE>orgia , and the whole amount of the '' Mississippi stock" are paid. Out of what lands, he asked, will these claims be satisfied? Of course, out of the first that will be sold. ·And where will these be ? Doubtles~ in the Alabama territory ; anJ unle:-~ a purchase of the Indians shuuiJ soon be maJe within our propnseJ western state, the lands of the Alabama tPrritory will satis(y the whole of these claims. and leave to us an arnpJe fund, untoucheJ, for making roads every \\iliere throughout the state, whenever an extiuguishment of the Indian titles takes pl.:tce. In case of division, this would give us a great advantage ovE>r the eastern state. Mr. L. ob~erved, that he would mention one other advantage, which would be ~ecured to us by a division, in relation to roads. The 5th section, already r .... ferred to, provides for the making of" a road or roads leading to the stale." ' If the bill contemplated the admission of the whole territory' the provision would probably be the same ; and, in that case, congress wouiJ not be bound to make but one road leading to the state. If they shoulJ be di!iposed to make but one, to what part would that one ]ead ? Unquestionably to the eastern part, through Georgia fro!ll the other Atlantic st~tes. But if we are separ~tted from the eastern part, tht: spirit of the provision will require that the road shall lead from the western states, with which we ·have the closest interests in every point of view. A distinguished western member in congress advo· catt:d a division of this territory partly with this view. He said he wished t? continue their great westf'rn road to our proposed state. He sa1d, that the line designated by law , was nut the one he wished to obt~in. The one h~ was in favour of, and which he urged the comm1ttee to adopt, would have uivided the territory into two equal parts as nearly as CO\lld wsH be i(Rai;ined. The gentleman fro~ EMIGRANT'S GUIDE. 113 ·wilkinson ridicules this line, because it is an artificial one. \Vhat is the line which this gentleman proposes? One which he would have to commence at the middle of the bay of Mobile, and run thence due north to the state of Tennessee. This line, saiJ l\fr. L., would, according to the new map in the land·office, cross the Tombi()'bee twenty or thirty times. He asked if this was not an artificial line? lVas it not as much so as the one he had suggested? Yes, said Mr. L.! very ariificia] ; and he thought it required some ingenuity to con- CeiVe of one so exceedingly bad. . Mr. L. stated the information which he had received and on which he rel_ied, in r~lation to the difficult 11!1\'i o-ation to Mobile, and other lo.cal mconvenrences of that town. He alw adverted to the po ition ~ f the town of .Biakeley,_on the opposite side of the bay, which various Iea!ons he .ass1gned, he mferred would ce rtainly supersede Mobile as a commerc1al depot, and concluded that the latter would inevitably fall. . What then, he. asked, becomes of the gentleman'~ great com~ ercJal town ? _But, continued he, if it should be a place of the great 1mpmtance wluch _the gentleman from VVilkinson supposes, of what advant~ge would 1t be t~ m? Who OTJ the Mississippi, Amite, or Pear] nver, would carry h1s cotton to that market or bring supplies of sugar or_ coilee thence? As to the state tax on the merchandise of !he plac~, 1t was not worth naming. Let the town of Mobile be what lt ~ay~ It co~ld not be an obj~ct worthy of our attention. Indeed, S~ 1d Mr. L., It would be a di sad\'antage to us; for if it should be so ncb a place a~ t~1e gentlem_a~ trie~ to persuade us, this very circums tan~e "~ould m~1te ~he cup1tltty ol an enemy in time of war. . ! h.e mformat10_n gtven by Mr. Lattimore I~rcs_en.ts .a luminous expoSitiOn of the local mteresls ~f the ne~v state pf Mlsstss tppi and territory o~ ~!abama, an~ every t~nng consu{ered, pe rhaps there is no local dJVJSJO~ made m the Un1 ted States 50 well calculated to leave the respect1ve parts a whole in themselves. Few states in the Union have more local advantages than the Missis. ippi. Except sugar, the ~ost valuable staples yet produced in the United States can b~ raised m the lan~s of this state. Every spot where !he soil is capable of culture, Will produce cotton and tobacco. The latter, after the substances actually neces!!ary to human existence combines more advantages to the cultivator and to the consumer tha;l any ve()'etable matter yet used by man for the gratification of his necessities~ convenience ~:luxury. I fancy no part of the United States is better situated fo; 1 e cult_ure and conveyance of that article to market: it is certamly t _1e regiOn upon and in the vicinity of the mouth of the l\iississippi river, where t~1at plant can be renrcd to most advantage. · £The foregotng act of congress definea the limit of this state· by r~ eren~e t~ th_e pr~fixed map, its r~lative position will be seen,' and t e vanety ~~ Its cl1mates and loca) positions obvious. The present population of the state of l\iississippi is a' present but ;~ry vaguely known. So much increase must haye taken place since ofel last census as to .have ~reatly augmented the m-ss. At the epoch L ~ ~ 0, West Flortda was not divided between the two states of . omsrana and Mississippi. In that part of West Florida included m the .state of Mississippi, there were in 1810 at Jia!lt ~0()0 persons~ 1..5 |