New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1852-06-01
FREE LAND AND ITS FOES.

FREE LAND AND Its FOES.
The passage of the Homestead bill by
the House has aroused good many sum-
bering Rip Van Wrinkles. Rubbing their
eyes and lazily stirring their stumps, so asto
restore circulation to their torpid blood,
they forget to look at the clock to ascertain
the true time of day. Thus the Courier
and Enquirer trains itsrusty carronade upon
the Free Land bill and opens upon it in the
following style:
Demagogueism Is of rutful'growh, and, like an Ill
weed thrives best where it is the most baneul. This
s an axiom we need hardly repeat. wherever the
greatest amount of liberty prevails there 1t Is found
with but nominal restrictions and II COMFORTS itself &C.
cordinely 1t assumes many forms, and exhibits Itself
under many aspects And 1t not unfrequently accom-
pshes wonders Popular liberty is essential to 1t as
the vital air breathe and they who depend upon
popular constituency, sometimes dragged into us
support either by its receptions, the misled opinions
OF those represented, who lend to greedy ear and
are convinced by It's Establishments. Nowhere in the
world is IL b be found in shameful nudity than In
the United States-nowhere in the UPfed states, In
more unmsakable coors than in the Senate and House
of Representatives at Washington. One OF s latest
Protean shapes Is the movement to vote away the puo
lie lands under the phanthropc view OF the question
that the poor need homes, and that the Government
cannot do better than by parceng out to them home
steads from our immense unsettled domain"
Perhaps the above is argument; if so,
we may as well confess that we don't
know how to answer it. We may be
permitted to suggest, however, that The
Courier and its Editor have often profeSsed
a profound admiration of the Statesman
ship of WILLIAM II. SEWARD, who is the
warm supporter of this very "Protean
shape" of the Free Farm bill, the shame
full nudity" whereof now fills The Courier
with amazement and indignation. We
wish its Editor would just take up Gov.
SIS mastery speech on this subject and
see what fist he can make at answering it.
Then there is DANIEL WEBSTER, whom
The Courier now processes to support for
President, and to regard as the model of
great conservative Statesman, who has
been an open and Jealous advocate of the
Free Land principle even longer than Gov.
Seward, and who, on the 22d January,
1850, submitted to the Senate the follow
ing:
Resolred That provision ought TO be made by Law,
that ery male citizen OF the United States, and ecey
male person who has decafed his intention Of becoming
citizen according to the provisions OF law Of q years
Of age upward, shall be cHtHled TO enter upon and
lake anu one quarter section Of the public lands, which
may be open entry a. private sale TOR tbs purposes OF
residence and cultivation and that when such citizen
shs have resided on tho same land for three years. and
cultivated the same If dying in the meantime, the
residence and cultivation shall have been held and
red out by his widow his heirs or devsees for the
space of full three years from and after making entry OF
such land such residence and cultivation - be completed
within four years from the time of such entry then
polent 10 issue Tor the % hs person making entry
living otherwise to his heirs devisees the
may require PToridsd, RSr1tAess, that such person
entering and taking the quarter section as Aforesaid
shall lot have shall his heirs deyisees have, any
power ALLEVIATE such land create any title thereto
in law equity by deed transfer lease, or any other
conveyance, except by devise by WILL
This, it will be seen, is the Homestead
bill W hich has just passed the House almost
rerbdtim, and Mr.. Webster has on several
occasions reiterated his devotion to it.
Where slept the thunders Of The Courier
that memorable devotee of Principles,
not Men, while WEBSTER and SEWARD
were matchmaking the Country with this
Free Land " demsgoguism " in all its afro
cious "nudity!" Is there not danger that
Rip has shaken the poppies from his eyelids
q trihe too late
- But The Courier has a more specific
objection to Free Farms. The South is
especially smitten by them, and their valiant
champion rushes 10 therescue. Hear him
This whole question is argued on its merits, not
political but pnilsnthropc measure. The masses in
the North and West favorable 70 II as naturally they
should be- inasuuch Is these sections embrace nine
tenh Of The needy population, for whose beneh the do
nstons would be made The South oppose the move.
ment and to cor mind correctly denounce it fraud
and scheme that could proceed from other source
than pure derrAgogueism tself
But Ia thus tring with the South there 10 more real
,hsn imaginary danger that harmony which happily
exists az the present moment between the sections
The SOUTH view the question inraction Of right
and enter their protest against what they deem reck
less waste Of the national wealth
Now the author of this very bill which
The Courier is denouncing is ANDREW