The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1855-02-14
THE BILL.

ShiS OhA sSo1o
Jealousy Of the emigrant-the miser.
able prejudice of an hour-has probably
defeated this wholesome Measure
Pledged as the Democratic party is, moi
to obstruct the right Of any man who
has deliberately abandoned Europe for
a home in America, from becoming "the
owner of soil among us 1.-THE reiterated
declaration of Democratic National
Conventions since 1836-they could not
consent to exclude that class from the
operation of the Homestead Bill, as the
prosecuting spirit of Nativism demand
ed. Hence it is, that the first fruits OF
the Fusion victories of last autumn, is
the postponement, perhaps finally, of a
measure which the Freesoil organization
in Ohio has always avowsd as a cardi-
nal portion of their political creed.
In this State, the only opposition to
the Homestead has proceeded from the
Clay wing of the Wing party. Upon
one occasion, the Ohio delegation, with
the exception of BARRERE, TAYLOR and
a few other adherents of the so-called
American system, presented q remarka-
BILE unity in their votes for the measure.
The Democratic party, at their recent
Convention, re-afhrmed the old JACKSON
doctrine, that the Government should
cease to regard the public lands as a
source of revenue, but freely grant them
in limited quantities to actual settlers,
at a cost not exceeding the expense of
their acquisition and survey declara-
ton exactly in accordance with the bill
introduced by Gen. DAWSON, of Pennsyl-
early in the present session of
Congress. He modified his original
proposition of a grant coupled with no
other condition than settlement and oc-
cupation for five years, adding to these
conditions the payment of fourteen cents
per acre, or a rate estimated to be the
precise expense of acquisition and sur
vey. In this shape, the bill was sure of
Executive approval; but it founders in
the House-the same body which per-
emptorily passed a more radical measure
less than a year since. The members
yield so far to Know Nothing proscrip-
tion, as to deny homes to the landless in
these times of hardship, because, for
sooth, some poor foreigner may chance
to receive the boon of a home in the
prairies of the West.
Party spirit may be blind, but the
spirit of bigotry is binder. Think of
the folly Of this Know Nothing HOSTILE
ty to the Homestead Bill Would it
not be moro reasonable to encourage the
dispersion of the foreign element from
the towns where often the supply of la
Dor exceeds the demand, to the frontiers
of the country? If this proscriptive
amendment should prevail, debarring
the foreigner from the privilege of such
a law, how evident that the tendency
will be still more to concentrate that
ia towns and populous dis
The very statement of the point
is sufficient, aud yet SO shortsighted, so
inconsistent are the leaders of this mush-
room organization, as to insist upon a
discrimination which only tends to con-
centrate still further in cities and towns
the foreign amigration. OF course, this
is not our argument, but it is passing
strange hat Know Nothingism should
have overlooked so parpable a result
from the adoption of Gen. DAwsoN's
original proposition.
We still hope that G late movement o
the working men of New York city
may not be without effect upon Congress
as the period of action has be-
come. In a memorial recently present
ed in the Senate, they represent the
stagnation of business, the depression of
FEages, the hight prices of food and 9th
er necessaries, but ask no relief from
Congress except to pass the Homestead
Bill. Such an appeal should touch the
heart of the legislator, as it certainly
the sympathy of the public. If
It fails, the reason Of the failure is pal
pable to the country, and the fact will
90 far to unmask the il1iberal and inhu-
man spirit of Nativism."
I