Holmes County farmer. [volume] (Millersburg, Ohio) 1857-1926, 1860-09-13


lows:
/ "Mr. Dougas-I shall move, to amend the bill
by striking out the words "subjeet to private entry
aud putting in the words subject to pre- emption,
so that 1t will then apply 10 all lands subiect 10
pre-. emphon, whether they be 80 subject hereafter
or have been heretofore, so that Il shall he cen
eral principle, permanent policy looking to the
future"
"Mr Coomer--lf it is arranged in that man.
ner, what will become of those who have gone on
the lands in Minnesota for instance1 Will the
Senator's amendment reach those people. and en-.
able them to take tie land at quarter of A dollar
as well as those who may 60 hereafter7
Mr.. Douglns-Precisoly. What desire is that
every man now on the public lands that have been
surveyed and that nre libabe to the provisions of
this bill, and also that have gone on TO land not
surveyed may take II under this bill Ms soon as 1t
becomes surveyed; and. also, that all persons who
shall hereafter go on the land may take it under
this bill MS soon as it shall be surveyed. That is
what desire to see in the BILL"
Mr.. Davis, Of Mississippi, raised some
objection to the proposed amendment
and MIR. Pugh thought the amendment
might give the SPECTATOR undne advan-
tage over the settler, to which Mr.. Doug
las replied:
"1he effect Of this amendment is, that there
shall be one dollar an acre difference between the
specuator and the settler; that the actual settler
may take land at twenty five cents, and that the
specuator shallpa 81 ,25. But the Senator from
Ohio says the specu'ator will send in advance bis
agents to 90 and get claim under the homestead,
Sir, do you think that, in order to reduce tract
OF land from 81 25 an acre to twenty-five cents, the
speculator will send his agent there to hold land
FIVE years, and pay five years salary, in order to
save one hundred dollars1 No sir. You protect
al II -
five years residence under the bill, and cultivation
upon the land."
Mr.. Douglas admitted that the effect Of
the bill would be to red uce the revenue
from the sales of public lands; but he did
not think the country would suffer by
Withdrawing that source of revenue He
showed that, according to the reports of
the sales for the thirty years previous,
q whenever money was plenty and surplus
in the revenue the land sales ran up to
:. from ten to twenty-four million dollars a
year. The moment revulsion came,
y down went the land sales. In deed the
E system ofland sales was one of the causes
! of revulsion, and the country, in every
! branch would be benefited by cutting it
off. Senator Douglas wanted the actual
: settler to pay only about the cost of the
administration of the Of the land system
y twenty cents an acre.
r "Mr. Mason. wish to ask the Senator from
Illinois whether the effect of this amendment will
not he to enable the pre- emptioners who now are
such to take their pre- emption lands at quarter
5 OF a dollar an acre?"
b "Mc Douglas. Unquestionably.
fIbn amendment Waa lost h,
vote of 20 yeas to 81 nays. A vote
was then taken on substituting the House
II bill for the Senate bill, but it was rejected
by the following vote:
a Yeas. Messrs: Anthony, Bingham
d Cameron, Chandler, Clark, Collamer
N Dixon, Dooittle, DorGLAs, Durkee, Fos
/. ter, Grimes, Hale, Hamlin, Harlan, King
., Rice, Seward. Simmons, Sumner, Ten
. Eyck, Toombs, Trumbull, Wade, Viii.
= kinson, and Wison-26.
is Nays Messrs: Bayard, Bigler, Bragg,
n Bright, Brown, Chestnut, Clay, Cling
" man, Davis, Fitch, Fitzpatrick, Green,
i Gwin, Hammond, Hemphill, Hunter,
t. Iverson, Johnson of Arkansas, johnson
> of Tennessee, Lane, Latham, Mason,
!. Nicholson, Polk, Powell, Pugh, Sebas,
y tian, Slidell, Wigfall, and Yulee-3l.
It 1t will be seen bv this that Mr.. Doug
), las preferred the House bill to the Senate
$ BILL and voted accordingly. But this
n was defeated, and the Senate bill coming
=. to vote the same day-10th of Maybe
IS voted for it. Being consistent friend
,, y of the homestead measure he was willing
r. to accept of any bill that would be bene.
Il fetal in its operations, no matter whether
Z it was his first choice or not. In urging
,, the passage of the Senate bill, after the
i. other had been defeated, he said:
ii "No man can deny but what there are provs
e ions in this bill which of vast importance t.
Id the settlers 1t may not accomplish all the OBJ
lie iects that we have in view. 1t does not accom-
W plish near all the objects had in view. 1t is no
y, what desire. / had entertained the fond hop
| that we could have done better. But sir, we hav
It, done so much now that we cannot stand justihe
MS if we refuse to take what is now generously ex
ed tended to us, merely because we cannot get al
a we want. Sir there is one feature in this bill O
ly itself of vast Importance 1t gives to these SET
tiers, two years, at least to save their homes
Id they do not get any better provision at the end
n that time they have, at least that two years time
II The bill was passed by vote of 4
er ycaS W o nays 1uOoe NOtlHS III tho HoS "
tive were:
Nays. Messrs: Bragg, Clingman
10 HAMrIN, Hunter, Mason, Pearse, Powell
and Toombs,
ic The bill came up for final action o.
J. the Goth of May, after it had been vetoe
by the President, and an attempt wa
e. made to PASS it over his veto. MI
e. Douglas was not present at the time, a
- it is well known he was not present in tn
,e Senate during the latter part of the ses
r sion owing to illness and severe domes
A, tic atllction.
n, This is not by any means all of MI
rs Douglas record on the homestead. |
ct is but a small part, but this is sufticien
a, to determine what his views are, as the
At are in this case consistent with his actio
rs ever since he has been in Congress-
ID Here we see that, while Mr.. Douglas vote
le for the Senate bill, Mr.. Hamlin, true t
A. his enmity to all such measures, vote
II against it, alone of all the black republi
er cans. What Mr.. Lincoln's precise view
N may be relative to the law is not known
but may be easily inferred from the fac
ic that when in Congress he voted agains