The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1852-04-27
The Homestead Bill.

The Homestead Bill.
Nothing illustrates in more striking manner
the rapid progress of now and dangerous, or
rather of old and exploded humbugs, than the
Homestead bill. BY this it is proposed to be-
stow quarter section of the public lands on
any landless man with family who applies.
This bill receives formidable support in The
House of Representatives, and may pass that
body.
II is only, we believe, about twenty years ago
that Mr.. BENror's bill to graduate the price of
public lands, according to value, was offered. IL
was defeated and although repeatedly renewed
never succeeded, and was abandoned only about
ten wears afterwards.
The strongest argument against MIR. BENroNs
bill was that it tended too much to the adop
ton of an agrarian policy. Mr.. BENTON him
self was the most radical Democrat of the
time
But now Mr.. BENTON is distanced in the race
for popularity. Even Mr.. WEBSTER has headed
him, end goes in for giving the lands away IN
this manner SO does General CAss
The fundamental principle on which this po-
licy rests is, that all men have natural right to
the soil. There could scarcely be anything
more absurd. If it were true, Congress would
have no right to dispose of it in any way, Tor II
does not belong to the United States. Thai
could be done only by an assembly OF all ma
tons, or of all men, and that is impossible-the
right is mpracticable.
But if such right were conceded, it could
not be exercised by large portion of the hu
man race which is cut off from its lands by seas
and oceans, which are natural barriers.
natural right from which nature has cut off its
pOssessor, is absurd.
But if such natural right exists, can il be
sold? Can a man sell his land? If he can,
and does, and then loses or squanders his mo
ney, is he entitled to another tract by nature
If he is not, does the Homestead bill prohibi
every man from taking u quarter section who
has been 80 thrttless or unfortunate as to have
lost his original share! Or if he has sold one
tract and has the money, can he take another!
These suggestions, and hundred others that
might DO made, demonstrate the utter folly OF
the doctrine of a natural right to la'.d.
And if there i. no such right, it may perhaps
: be conceded that the public lands of the United
States belong to the States and people who ac
quired them, and are to be disposed of AS they
directed. Ifso, any attempt of Congress to be-
stow them as gift on any body, is an attempt
to deprive the owners of their property. Ifthis
can be done by a mere act of Congress, then
any other property may be taken by that body
and given away at pleasure.
This we believe is the first effort ever made
in this country to give away public property
without any consideration whatever; unless,
perhaps, in the case of the donation made to the
people of Caracas, who suffered by an earth
quake. There is no foundation for the natural
conclusive denial of it in every systerA-of phil
osophy or politics that has been practically
tested. The rights of men are dependent on
their duties or the performance of them
disregard of duty has always forfeited right
from the day ADAM was driven from the garden
of Eden to the present. All things are held
from God, and all are held on condition Of per-
forming certain duties enjoined by him. This
is the moral law, the higher law, which governs
the world and overturns all human institutions
at variance with it. Forms of government and
statutes may exist on paper, but so far as they
are at variance with the moral relations of men,
are eflectualy null and void. And the whole
system of natural right, as independent Of moral
qualities is delusion that sprang from the
brain of Atheistc or Infdel dreamers, and never
did exist or can operate in actual life, single
day.
A man can now buy forty acres of public land
for fifty dollars, and that is as much as he can
cultivate. Give n farm to man who has not
the industry or self-denal to acquire that sum,
and he will not cultivate his farm. Isolate him
on tract of land, and he will perish. Such a
man can live only among others, who can en-
ploy, direct, and relieve him. And he who does
possess the energy to earn a farm, will acquire
one which will be worth ten times the money
under the present system, among other farmers
OF similar thrift, than any one he could acquire
under the proposed system, surrounded by men
too lazy to cultivate the land given them, and
hence, dangerous to the hog pens and hen-roosts
of thrifty neighbor.
The Collins Steamers.
We understand the proposition now before