New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1852-06-02
FREE LAND.


THE Hartford Times has very savage
leader on the Free Land bill, to which we
shall reply but mildly, as we can't help
thinking The Times don't really mean it.
To deny Land to the Poor, yet expose them
to the scourge and blight of the Rum
Traffic, is rather worse than we think even
that paper can seriously mean to do. Yet
it says:
"Ths Homestead Bill is deficient in several essential
particulars To be consistent with its avowed objects
II should provide for the payment By Congress- In adj
dition to quarter section OF land now proposed,
the sum of $500 TO every poor man who will emigrate
West and settle on the Public Lands. This would en-.
able him not only buy frock for his daughter but
TO transport himself and family to the newly acquired
home which Uncle Sam had so considerably furnished
for him at the West Without this provision, the Home.
stead Bill IL only piece Of disqualification. II would
be punishment instead of blessing to the poor man,
for It would place him, like Tantalus, IN position to see
and smell fruit for which he was thirstng, without
permitting him to taste IT,
Now The Times seems ignorant of the
fact-which nevertheless is fact-that
many if not most of the first settlers in
new region are worth less than 5000 in
cash all told, and often less than 500.
They have very scant allowance of house
hold stuff, a COW, an axe and (some of
them) a gun-such is generally the inven-
tory of pioneers effects. And for seve-
raj years, while they are wrestling with
the giant woods or hiring eight-ox teams
to break up the tenacious prairie or root
bound Openings their crops are meager
and their incomes light; for Nature is mig
gard and obstinate, and all manner of; pre-
datory birds and animals contest sharply
the claim of the intruder on their imme-
mortal heritage. Many pioneer has been
three years settled on his quarter-section
and has worked fairly in its cultivation and
ia provement, without having produced
500 worth in all that he could spare from
the sustenance of his family. He wants
Seed, Tools, Buildings, &c. while two of
every three days work has to be dsne in
clearing, fencing, breaking.up, road-mak-
ing, &c. which put nothing directly into
his granary or his purse. Many pioneer
has been ten years on his quarter-section,
has worked pretty fairly thereon, and has
slowly hewed out tolerable farm, without
ever having seen a hundred dollars in
money or in salable products during any
year since he squatted there.
20, yes says The Times, the desti-
'tute pioneers case is so hard that 1t Is a
punishment to give him land without CIV
ing him $500 in cash wherewith to clear
and stock tive answer, He don't
think so, and his opinion is worth more in
the premises than yours, being based on
experience. Give him-nay, allot, appor-
ton him. place wherein to stand, and
his own right arm will do the rest. He
will have as good chance as Adam had
this side of Eden. He must do without
Injuries, and his children wear coarse and
ragged clothes; but he will work his way
to independence if you will but allow him
ground to stand upon.
1t seems, indeed, a small matter to pay
$500 for farm but a farm as gen.
orally understood, implies buildings, fences,
roads, fruit-trees, well, interest in a
school house, church, county buildings,
&c. All these the pioneer has to create or
pay for; they are not included in the first
cost of his land. We think Lands are
nearly or quite as cheap, all things consid-
cred, in Vermont or New-Jersey as in Hi
nois or Wisconsin. And, while the pio-
neer is getting ready to pay for his land,
the interest on its purchase is eating him
up. When he has occupied it two years
his presumption expires, and then he must
pay the 5000 or anybody else may buy it
over his head. So he causes some capt.
talist or speculator to pay the 5000 and
take deed giving him an article which
stipulates that the Spectator will sell to
the settler whenever the latter shall be
ready to pay the principal with twelve,
ffteen or twenty per cent. interest. Be
fore rli~ period arrives, the interest will
have run tn, price up to four, six or eight
hundred dollars.
Still worse is the Temptation now held
out by our present laws to tOrsstalling, or
buying up public lands favorably located
on speculation, and holding them for three,
FIVE, ten or twenty times their cost. When
ever township or county settles rapidly,
or is likely TO do so, Speculation rushes in
to buy Up gil the best unoccuPied lots in an