"that Iowa be
organized as a Territory when Wisconsin was admitted as a State."

It remained for Mr. Shepard of North Carolina to make emphatic
objections all along the line. He opened his speech by intimating that
the bill had been introduced to the end that "a fresh rich field might
be opened to those who speculate in public lands, and a batch of new
offices created for such as seek Executive favor." He had no sympathy
with the squatters. "Who are these that . . . . pray for the
establishment of a new Territory? Individuals who have left their own
homes and seized on the public land . . . . These men pounced on the
choicest spots, cut down the timber, built houses, and cultivated the
soil as if it were their own property . . . . Without the authority of
law and in defiance of the Government, they have taken possession of
what belongs to the whole nation, and appropriated to a private use that
which was intended for the public welfare. These are they who require a
governor and council, judges, and marshals, when every act of their
lives is contrary to justice, and every petition which they make is an
evidence of their guilt and violence. We, who are insulted, whose
authority is trampled under foot, are asked for new favors and
privileges; the guardians of the law are approached by its open
contemners, and begged to erect these modest gentlemen into a dignified
Government . . . . I cannot sanction their conduct; if they would not
move peaceably, they should go at the point of the bayonet; if they
forget what is due to their country and their distant fellow-citizens,
they ought to be punished. The majesty of the laws should be
vindicated."

The Representative from North Carolina was jealous of the growth and
development of the West, and he objected to the liberal land policy of
the United States since it encouraged the young men to leave their
southern homes. He declared that "if the Territory of Iowa be now
established, it will soon become a State; and if we now cross the
Mississippi, under the beautiful patronage of this Government, the
cupidity and enterprise of our people will carry the system still
further, and ere long the Rocky Mountains will be scaled, and the valley
of the Columbia be embraced in our domain. This then is the time to
pause . . . .

"If happiness depended entirely on the number of hogs raised, or the
quantity of corn gathered, then the citizens should be dispersed, so as
to occupy the most fe