Public Lands of Rome and America [pp. 428-431]

PUBLIC LANDS OF ROME AND AMERICA.
assume among the powers of the earth the separate and equal station
to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them."
Earnestly we beg you, then, men of the South, turn out and send
full delegations of your nobIest sons to the Convention.
JAMES LYONS, of Virginia,
T. B. BETHIEA, of Alabama,
,W. M. CHiURCHILL, of Tennessee,
B. C. YANCEY, of Georgia,
W. W. BOYCE, of South Carolina,
Committee.
ART. XII.-PUBLIC LANDS OF ROME AN]I AMERICA.
THERE is a remarkable similarity in the system of policy adopted
by the Romans, in the administration and disposition of their public
lands, and that employed by ourselves, for the same purposes. We
have unconsciously followed their example, without imitating or copying them. Like circumstances and necessities, acting upon civilized
peoples, have produced like effects-showing the identity of human
nature in all ages, and that the works of man, like those of bees, ants,
and other inferior animals, are the promptings of instinct, or the impulsions of Providence, rather than the results of reasoning.
The Roman method of surveying and dividing their lands was almost identical with our own. Under the title "Agrirnensores" in
Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, we find the following account of their method: "Thus we find that, in the case of
land surveying, the aagur looked to the south; for the gods were supposed to be in the north, and the augur was supposed to be looking in
the same manner as the gods looked upon the earth. Hence, the main
line in land surveying was drawn from the north to the south, and
was called cardo, as corresponding to the axis of the world; the line
which it cut was called decumnanus, because it made the figure of a
cross, like the numeral X. These two lines were produced to the ex
tremity of the ground which was to be laid out, and palallel to them
were drawn other lines, according to the size of the quardrangle required, &c." The reference to the numeral X is unfortunate. The lines
referred to cut each other at right angles, and all the sections or divisions cf land were rectangular and quadrilateral.
I)During the whole term of the Republic, the Romans were vainly
endeavoring to prevent the patricians and wealthy plebeians from monopolizing the public lands. Licinius procured a law which prohibited the holding of more than five hundred jtgera (about three hundred and thirty acres) of those lands, by one person. This law was
violated, and became Qbsolete, and attempts made to revive it seem
to have constituted the only crime of the seditious Gracchi. These
lands were gradually monoopolized by the rich and powerful, until,
under the Empire, single individuals, even in Italy, owned whole territories. Nominally, the title still remained in the Government, as trutee, for the whole people; but for all practical and profitable purposew,
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