New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1854-03-21
The Homestead Bill.

49, IL
This bill, which passed the House of Repre-
sentatives on the 9th, makes the following bro
visions
L. That any free white person who is at the
head Of family, or who has arrived at the age Of
twenty-one years, and ID citizen Of the United
States, shall be entitled to enter, free of cost,
one-quarter section of vacant and inappropriate
ed pubic land which at the time of application
may be subject to private entry at one dollar
and twenty live cents per acre, or quantity
equal thereto, to be located in body in con-
formity with the legal subdivisions Of the pub
lie lands, and after the same shall have been
surveyed.
y The person applying for the benefit of this
act in which he or she is about to make such
entry, shall make affidavit before the said Reg.
lister that he or she is the head of family, or
twenty one years Of age, and upon making affi-
dayIt and filing it with the Register, he or she
shall thereupon be permitted to enter the guam
tlty Of land already specified; provided that no
certificate shall be given or patent issued there
for until the expiration of five years from the
date Of said entry, and if at the expiration of
such time the person making such entry, or if
he be dead, his widow, or in case of her death
his heirs or devisee, or in case of a widow max :
ing such entry, her heirs or devisee in case of
her death shall prove by two credible witnesses
he, or she, or they, have continued to reside
upon and cultivate said land and still reside
upon the same, and have not alienated it or any
part thereof, then in such case he, or she, or
they, shall be entitled to patent as in other
cases made and provided for by law; provided
further in case of the death of both father and
mother, leaving an infant child or children un-
der twenty one years Of age, the right Of the free
entry shall llnure to the benefit of the said infant
child or children, and the executor, administra-
tor, or guardian, may at any time within two
years after the death of such surviving pa :
rent, and in accordance with the laws Of the
State in which such children for the time being
have their domicil, sell said land for the benefit
OF the SAID infants, flor no other purpose, and
the purchaser shall acquire the absolute title
by the purchase, and be entitled to patent
from the United States
.. All land acquired under this act shall in
no event become liable to satisfaction of apy
debts contracted prior to the issuing Of the
patent therefor.
4. In case person who has filed the afida-
Wit required shall have changed his or her resi-
dence, or abandoned said country for more than
SIX months at any one time, in that event the
land SO entered to revert back to Government.
subject to appeal to the General Land Office.
5. If any individual now resident of any
one OF the States or Territories and not a citizen
of the United States at the time of making such
application for the benefit of this act, shal
have filed declaration of intention as required
by the naturalization laws of the United States
and shall become q citizen of the same before
the issuance of the patent as made and provided
for in this act, shall be placed on an equal foot
ing with the native born citizen of the United
States
6. No individual is permitted to make more
than one entry under the provision of this act,
and the Commissioner of the General Land OF.
hce is required to prepare and issue such rules
and regulations consistent with this act as shall
be necessary and proper to carry its provisions
into effect, and the Registers and Receivers of
the several land offices shall be entitled to re-
celve the same compensation for any lands en-
tered under the provisions of this act, that they
are now entitled to receive when the same
quantity of land is entered with money, one
half to be paid by he person making the appli.
cation, at the time of so doing, and the other
half on the issue of the certificate by the per
son to whom it may be issued; provided, how
ever, all persons entering land under the proyi:
sions of this act shall as near as may be prac-
ticable, IN making such entries, be confined to
each alternate quarter section, and to land
subject to private entry, and provided nothing
IN this act shall be SO contrueted as to impair or
interfere In any manner whatever with existing
pre-emptlon rights; and provided further, that
the provisions Of this act shall be SO construed
as to authorize the class of persons provided for
who may not own over 100 acres Of land, to
enter free of cost any public lands adjoining
his or her farm, subject to private entry at the
minimum price in quantity when added to what
he or she now owns, equal to 100 acres-pro-
yided he or she shall cultivate the whole or
part thereof
The LOUISIANA LEGISLATURE AND CUBA.-The
following resolutions were adopted by both
houses Of the Legislature on the last day of the
session, with but three dissenting votes
BE 1t Resolued, That we view with alarm
the recent and avoWed change that has taken
place in the policy of the Spanish Government
in Cuba, the manifest tendency and result of
which must be the abolition of slavery and the
destruction of the white race in that country