No Free Homesteads Yet
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NO FREE HOMESTEADS YET.
We are sorry to be compelled to record the probable failure of the Free Homestead Bill,1 as far as this session of Congress is concerned. It is useless, indeed, to deny that a measure which refers simply to the general good, and has nothing to do with “slavery,” or the contesting claims of “north and south,” and cannot be wrung in to help partizan ends, has very little chance now-a-days in the national legislature.
The Free Homestead Bill is a special case in point. Whenever the Bill came up, in the regular order of proceedings, a death like lethargy spread over the Senate, where it was being considered. The speeches in its favor were delivered to empty benches; and it was eventually left to its fate, without enough friends to stand up and speak the words necessary to save it.
But the friends of the principle of Free Lands to actual settlers must not be discouraged—but must “try again.” It would be a great help (perhaps the greatest of all) if something, either by law or usage, could be introduced into the management of the public lands of the United States, which would save them from falling into the clutches of speculators. It is not so much the $1,25, the minimum government price for the lands, that the settler in the west has to contend against, as the extortions, seizures, mortgages, &c., of the speculators.
Probably indeed, the best rule that could be adopted would be to dispose and give out deeds for none of the public lands except to pre-emptors, actually entering upon the lands—heads of families, young and old, single and married, women as well as men—and to establish a series of easy regulations which would secure the government pay, but would give the new settler a fair sight, and a chance for an independent farm.
Notes:
1. The Free Homestead Bill eventually become the Free Homestead Act of 1860. It was passed by Congress, but ultimately vetoed by President James Buchanan. However, under President Abraham Lincoln, it was passed into law as the Homestead Act of 1862. This allowed any American, including freed slaves, to claim western settlements up to 160 free acres of federal land to farm for five years. [back]