"This is a measure emphatically for the benefit of the agricultural interest--that great interest, which he declared to be the foundation of all national prosperity, and the backbone, and substratum of every other interest--which was, in the body politic, front rank for service, and rear rank for reward--which bore nearly all the burthens of government while carrying the government on its back--which was the fountain of good production, while it was the pack-horse of burthens, and the broad shoulders which received nearly all losses--especially from broken banks. This bill was for them; and, in voting for it, he had but one regret, and that was, that it did not go far enough--that it was not equal to their merits." The bill passed by a good majority--27 to 16; but failed to be acted upon in the House of Representatives, though favorably reported upon by its committee on the public lands. 2. The pre-emptive system. The provisions of the bill were simple, being merely to secure the privilege of first purchase to the settler on any lands to which the Indian title had been extinguished; to be paid for at the minimum price of the public lands at the time. A senator from Maryland, Mr. Merrick, moved to amend the bill by confining its benefits to citizens of the United States--excluding unnaturalized foreigners. Mr. Benton opposed this motion, in a brief speech. "He was entirely opposed to the amendment of the senator from Maryland (Mr. MERRICK). It proposed something new in our legislation. It proposed to make a distinction between aliens and citizens in the acquisition of property. Pre-emption rights had been granted since the formation of the government; and no distinction, until now, had been proposed, between the persons, or classes of persons, to whom they were granted. No law had yet excluded aliens from the acquisition of a pre-emption right, and he was entirely opposed to commencing a system of legislation which was to affect the property rights of the aliens who came to our country to make it their home. Political rights rested on a different basis. They involved the management of the government, and it was right that foreigners should undergo the process of naturalization before they acquired the right of sharing in the government. But the acquisition of property was another affair. It was a private and personal affair. It involved no question but that of the subsistence, the support, and the comfortable living of the alien and his family. Mr. B. would be against the principle of the proposed amendment in any case, but he was particularly opposed to this case. Who were the aliens whom it proposed to affect? Not those who are described as paupers and criminals, infesting the purlieus of the cities, but those who had gone to the remote new States, and to the remote parts of those States, and into the depths of the wilderness, and there commenced the cultivation of the earth.