Semi-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1853-18??, 1854-04-12
THE HOMESTEAD BILL.

One Of our subscribers writes a. follows { 7 wish
you would give Us short explanation Of what is
called the homestead bin also tho bills giving to the
different States lands for the benefit Of insane,
blind deal &C. It seems it is only for
the distribntion Of the public lands. think The
States can take care Of their own blind insane
We hare no concealments on these or any other
questions and therefore respond at once to the
call of our correspondent g
The homestead bill, SO called, which has passed.
the House of Representatives gives to every man in
the United States hundred andsixty acres Of the
public land on condition of settlement on the same
for Eve years we do not remember the entire the
exact provsins OF the BILL but the substance of tits
as stated. s. a.
We believe now as heretofore, that the public
lands ought tobe 1ez' by the general government
and managed as a. g prudent proprietor would his
lands for the benefit of all the States-this bene
fit to enure to the States not individually separ
ately, but in their character parties to com
mon government We believe, furthermore, that the
price of the public lands ought to be placed
beyond the reach of honest industry and hat it is
not the duty Of the general government, even if it
had the Constitutional power to do, to provide
homes for the landless without charge-or, in other
words, to set apart, by law, free farms for free
men,. /" 1t is of paramount Importance that the gem
eral government should be rigidly confined to the
sphere of action assigned 1t by the Constitution. The
people of the States and especially of the Southern
States look with jealousy upon every measure calcu-
lated to render the States dependent on federal gifts
federal bountes and hence the settled opposition
evinced to distribution of the lands their pro-
ceeds among the States. But if the action in this
respect Of the general government on the States be
so highly objectionable, what shall we say of mea-
sure which operates directly on the masses of the
people of the States, throws open the public lands
to them without charge, and invites them not merely
to abandon the old States for the new and for the
Territories but which accustoms them to turn their
eyes steadily than at any former period to the
general government the fountain of benefactions
and the source of favors and of power? The cur
rent of Capitalization, stronger than ever here
tofore, ought to be resisted by all practicable and
Constitutional means. Washington City, matter
what party holds the rcns of government, is the
chief object of thought and attraction among poll
ticans, and even among large portions of the peo-
pie. The central government, instead of dispensing
a borrowed light from the thirty sovercigntes of
which it is composed, and who created it and gave
it life and motion, shines with splendor alike daz-
zling and fascinating and nearly all its own. 1t
eclpscs the States. 1t is to say the least, strong
future without vast schemes ofnternal improvement
homestead bills, and lands for the insane of the in
dividua States We must return to the doctrines of
the republican fathers must look to the opinions,
and practice them, of Jefferson, of jackson, and
Polk; must determine, in the same spirit which
animated and acuated them, that the rights of the
States shall be preserved and the liberties of the
people perpetuated in the old way and in the only
way, in our humble judgment, of combining the gen.
eral government strictly within the limits of the
Constitution. So far concerned, our course
is clear We shall adhere to principles and stand
by the lights of the States whatever may occur;
and however painful the duty may be, we shall not
hesitate to express dsapprova of the acts po
litca friends which we may consider, on full refec-
ton, to be in opposition to the Baltimore platform
the sentiments announced in the annual message of
President Pierce. We entirely satisfied, as we
think the Democrats of Pennsylvania and of the
Western States ought to be- with the doctrines of
that message in relation to the public lands and
shall not cease to struggle whether under adverse
prosperous circumstances to advance and give effect
to those doctrines.