Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 6.djvu/101

 THE SURPLUS REVENUE IN CANAAN.

��8.S

��Then let joy's merry tones ring out. King far and wide in gladsome shout. Till vale and hill shall give reply In echoes sounding to the sky !

Long may the old town guard with care That honored station now its share: And may its truant children all Return at each reunion's call,

To pass at least one happy day

With those at home, who wisely stay. To ever keep thy growing fame. — With them 'tis sale— thy honored name.

From heaven to earth no bliss descends More pure than greeting childhood's friends And may we hope reunions here Will mark with joy each passing year.

For they will ever truly be, Like islands green in life's drear sea, And grow more dear as years shall glide Adown time's ever ebbing tide.

Yet 'mid our joy comes thought of pain. We may not all meet here again; For one by one we journey 'lone Unto the land of the unknown.

But through the years of coming time. As pilgrims in an eastern clime Gather at Mecca, their shrine so dear — So may our children gather here.

When earth and time no more shall be, I hope and trust, old friends, that we Shall yet a grand reunion hold 'Yond gates of pearl, in streets of gold.

��Manchester. Aua-ust •_'!. 1882.

��THE SURPLUS REVENUE IN CANAAN.

��HOW THE PKOPLE RECEIVED IT AXD KEPT IT.

��F.V W. A. WALLACE.

��Ill the year 1836 Congress voted to distribute about thirty-six millions of dollars of surplus revenue, then ly- ing in the treasury, among the several states. These millions had accumulat- ed from the sales of public lands, and were still increasing. The national debt had been all paid. Gen. Jackson told his party that this money was a source of danger to the liberties of the country. The Democratic part) in those davs was hostile to internal

��improvements, and opposed them every where. Railroads were built by individual energy; rivers were obstructed by snags, sawyers, rafts, and sand-bars, and even the harbors of the lakes, and the St. Clair Hats were found pretty much in the condition nature left them. This money was to be distributed in four installments, — three of which were paid when an ano;ry cloud hovered over our northern borders, threatening war with England,

�� �