The Camden weekly journal. [volume] (Camden, South-Carolina) 1853-1861, 1854-08-01
The Homestead and Graduation
Bill.

After several weeks discussion the Senate
yesterday relieved ITSELF for the present, of
these great questions concerning the Public
Lands, by passing bill containing three i'm
portant principles, as will be seen by the sub.
joined synopsis Of the Bill which has yet to re-.
ceive the sanction of the House of Representa-
tives Under the presumption clause, it will
be observed, the States in which the lands lie
can enter them all, or any particular class OF
them, at the graduated prices.
SYNOPSIS OF THE BILL.
The first section provides that the minimum
price Of the public lands Of the United States
shall be'reduccd after the lst of July, 1855,
and sold according to the following scale: For
lands which shall have been offered at public
sale and remain unsold five years, one dollar
per acre; for lands which shall have been offer
ed at public sale and remain unsold ten years,
seventy.fve cents an acre ; for lands which
shall have been offered at public sale and re-
main unsold fifteen years, fifty cents an acre.
for lands which have been offered at public sale
and remain unsold twenty years, twenty-five
cents an acre; and for lands which shall have
been offered at public sale and remain unsold
thirty years, twelve and half cents an acre;
provided that the graduating process, from fit
ty cents to twenty-five cents an acre, shall not
take place until the lands in the fifty cent class
shall have been exposed to sale for period oil
at least two years, at the price of fifty cents per
acre, after which the price of the said lands
shall beIreduced to twenty-five cents per acre.
The second section provides that whenever
a State shall desire to acquire pre-. .emption
right to all the lands, or to all the lands ofany
certain class and price, within its borders, for
other purposes than a railroad or canal, and
signifies the same to the President of the United
States by an act of its Legislature, they shall
be granted on the following terms: That said
State may fix the price of said lands above that
prescribed in the first section of this act reserv.
ing the excess to itself; provided that the title
shall not pass to the purchaser until he has
paid the price fixed in the said first section to
the United States, and that The lands shall be
subject to the same legal subdivision in the sale
and survey as are now provided by law and
provided further, that any State which shall
accept the provisions of this act, and shall pre-
elnpt any lands under it, shall take them in full
Of the FIVE per cent funds thereafter to become
due from the proceeds of said lands. But any
State accepting the provisions Of this and the
preceding section shall take the lands at the
price fixed for each particular class, and no
lands shall be sold by them for twenty-five
cents an acre until they shall have been prcvi-
ously subject to entry through period of two
years at the price of fifty ccnts per acre, to be
paid to the United States.
The third section provides that whenever
State shall charter railroad or canal to run
through the lands Of The United States, ana
such State shall accept the benefit of the pro-
visions hereinafter prescribed by an act to be
passed at general session of its Legislature
upon due notice being given of the fact to the
Secretary of the Interior, it shall he his duty to
set apart, of the public lands, seven thousand