Portland Gazette, And Maine Advertiser

FOR THE GAZETTE.

TO THE LEGAL VOTERS IN MAINE.

In a former communication. I endeavored to show that Massachusetts would retain "the title" to her lands in Maine, for many years to come. That this policy would contribute greatly to her interest, was, I think, amply proved. Nevertheless, some suppose that, as that Commonwealth is interested, in a degree, in common with us, to prevent emigration to the South and West, she would encourage the settlement and population of Maine. This, in fact, she might do, and very much subserve her own interest, and be entirely up to the letter and spirit of "the conditions," and yet to the proposed State a greater injury, yes infinitely greater, than if she proceeded in the track we marked out for her. As soon as our squares of land become settled about any of hers, she might encourage persons to go on to her lots, by giving them long leases, securing to herself the payment of a small annual rent,—providing against strip and waste, &c. and for the reversion of the land to her, before the expiration of the lease if the conditions were not fulfilled. The faith of the Government might be pledged, that if the stipulations were complied with, the lease should be renewed, to the lessee or his heirs, at every expiration, forever. All this might be done and yet "the title remains" in the Commonwealth; and the lands, of course, "be free from taxation." It is, therefore very possible, in a course of years supposing all the lands in Maine were capable of cultivation, that the proposed State may have within it, from four to six million acres of land, valuable and well cultivated, from which she can not derive the least revenue!—peopled too by a set of Inhabitants so entirely dependent on a foreign Government, that as a matter of course, they would strive to promote the interests, the plans, or the intrigues of that Government, rather than consult the welfare of that in which they lived.

This would be such a wheel, within a wheel, such an imperium in imperio, as would hardly meet the views of our sticklers for independence.

Let us, by a few calculations, see, "whether this would not be a profitable course for Massachusetts—for, I repeat it, she will pursue that policy, which is most for her interest, and which is, at the same time, just and lawful. We ought to conduct, in this affair, as if Massachusetts would, in future, be guided by her interest solely we ought: to hope for nothing, from her generosity. The project, proposed to us, has nothing ambiguous, nothing hidden about it—the bargain offered by her, if accepted by us, will be a fair one, and we shall have no reason to complain of Massachusetts, if she makes the most she can of it. But to the calculation.

Suppose the rent for a 100 acre lot, be $5 a year—a sum, equal only to the state and county tax, annually paid by the owner of such a lot, with moderate improvements upon it. In a square, of twelve miles, there would be 921 hundred acre lots with a fraction of 60 acres; the annual rent of which would be $4608. The rent of a million acres would be $50,000. Massachusetts share in the lands will be more than four Millions of acres, at the least calculation. The rent of the whole, would amount, at the rate proposed, to more than $200,000, which sum, (supposing the whole to be leased) would be annually drawn from Maine into the coffers of Massachusetts, never a cent of it, to be returned. I leave it to the reader to judge, whether this calculation is not much below what might justly be made—and whether, if Massachusetts should require $10 annual rent for 100 acres, she would not procure settlers on her lands, as fast as we should open the way for them, by settling ours. At the last rate she would annually receive $400,000 or a million acres—a quantity of land, which she might lease, in the course of fifty years. Reader, calculate for yourself—examine calmly, and you will come to a right conclusion.

As to the clause respecting "obligations to perform settling duties." I shall say but little. not having sufficient information as to the number and value of these obligations; nor am able to say whether a greater number of them will fall to Maine or Massachusetts. I hope, however, some person, possessed of this information, will lay it before the public, that we may be able to act understandingly from "a view of the whole ground." For myself I can see no reason, why the law should require "all the principals," in one of these obligations, to be inhabitants of Maine, in order to its becoming the property of Maine nor why it should remain the property of Massachusetts if one out of three, or one out of ten of the principals, happen not to be inhabitants of this District. But so is the law—and it cannot be altered. We are left to determine, by our votes, whether we will incorporate this law, into our constitution, or continue our connexion with the old state—or, if we must be separated, whether we will not wait, until we can procure better terms.

A COUNTRYMAN.