Your National Parks, with Detailed Information for Tourists — John Stuart Mill — John Shaqi
Your National Parks, with Detailed Information for Tourists
John Stuart Mill · en
In the House, the Committee on Public Lands reported the bill
favorably. Henry L. Dawes, of Massachusetts, championed the measure.
It reached a vote, February 27, 1872, with the following result:
yeas, 115; nays, 65; not voting, 60. The bill was signed by President
Grant, March 1, 1872.
It is a remarkable fact that Congress should have thus created the
Yellowstone National Park. Through the ages the privileged classes
have had almost exclusive enjoyment of scenic empires. The campaign
which brought about the creation of this Park was brief, intense, and
unique. It was a genuine and epoch-marking achievement.
The National-Park idea has gone round the world. All leading nations
now have national parks and are planning more. Time is likely to stamp
our original legislation as one of the important acts of
statesmanship. A few public-spirited men of vision began a revolution
and triumphed. The anniversary of this event may some day be observed
with world-wide celebration. People progress in the improvement of
their playgrounds no less than in the ordering of their workshops.
Concerning this National-Park legislation, General Hiram M.
Chittenden, author of "The Yellowstone National Park," makes the
following comment:--
Perhaps no act of our National Congress has received such general
approbation at home or such profuse commendation from foreigners
as that creating the Yellowstone National Park. The lapse of time
only serves to confirm and extend its importance, and to give
additional force to the sentiment so well expressed by the Earl of
Dunraven when he visited the Park in 1874: "All honor then to the
United States for having bequeathed as a free gift to man the
beauties and curiosities of 'Wonderland.' It was an act worthy of
a great nation, and she will have her reward in the praise of the
present army of tourists, no less than in the thanks of the
generations of them yet to come."
It was a notable act, not only on account of the transcendent
importance of the territory it was designed to protect, but
because it was a marked innovation in the traditional policy of
government. From time immemorial privileged classes have been
protected by law in the withdrawal, for the exclusive enjoyment,
of immense tracts for forests, parks, and game preserves. But
never before was a region of such vast extent as the Yellowstone
Park set apart for the use of all the people without distinction
of rank or wealth.