Cleveland morning leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1854-1865, 1860-03-14
Pas.aEe of ID nemestead Bnl

Passage of the HOmestead Bnl
Mr.. Grows benefcent measure the Home
stead Bill, has passed the House Of Represeniar
tivss by the stTong vote Of ia to 62.
Il provides that any person who Is the
head Of family or who has arrived at the
age of twenty-one years, and Is citizen Of
the United states, or who shall have fled his
intention 10 become such, shall be entitled to
enter, free Of cost, 100 acres Of public land,
upon which such person may have fixed a
pre-emption claim, or which may be, OF the
time application is made, subject to pre-emp-
tion, at dollar and q quarter or less per acre;
or 50 acres at two dollars and half per acre.
No certificate OF patent is 10 be issued until
the expiration Of five years from the date Of
entry, and on payment Of ten dollars, Rights
are secured TO the actual settlers to issue to
heirs and .deyisees the lands acquired, which
are then in no event 70 become liable for the
satisfaction Of any debts contracted prior to
the issue Of the patent s-r,
Important as is this measure of free lands to
the landless, there is but slight hope Of ia
being practicalized until Repub lican Admin
istraiion assumes the roins Of gOvemment.-
Taree times within seven years q Homestead
bill similar in lite provisions 70 the bill just
passed, has gone through The House and been
defeated by the Democratic majority in the
Senate. The Democrats in Congress as 3
PartyIstand Arrsyed in opposition to this benei>
icent policy, while the Republicans are cons
milted to It's suppo It by their votes in Con-
gress, resolves in conventions, and devotion to
the rights and interests Of free labor A brief
reference to the vOte of the last Congress will
illustrate The position Of the two great parties
on tAis important question. Mr.. Grow, in his
late able speech advocating the Homestead
Bill, stated the following conclusive facts:
On the vote on the Homestead Bill in the
House, last Congress, out Of one hundred and
thirty Denocratsr but thirty one voted for il,
and in the Senate, on the test vote between
taking up the Homestead Bill, after it had
passed the House, and only required the vote
Of the Senate to make It a law, SO far as Con-
gress was concerned, or to take up the bill for
the purchase of Cuba, but one Democrat voted
for the homestead, and only six at any time;
while every Republican in the Senate, and
every one IN the House. with a single excep-
ton, wss for the Homestead OF all the Rep
resentstives af the slave States, but thTee-in
the House voted for it; and but two, at any
time, in the Senate.
Mr.. Buchanans seerstary of the Interior
expressed strOng disapproval of a Homestead
law in his inst report, and MI. Buchanan would
no doubt interpOss his veto if the bill shOnld
by chance find favor with the present Demo-
cratic Senate. T@r ftFs-
The public lands belonging to the Govern
ment undispOsed of on the SOth of September,
1879, is officially stated at one thousand and
sixty one million one hundred and forty. one
thousand six hundred and seventy five acres.
And the Government, by its existing land pol
icy, has already caused to be distracted from
the earnings Of its hardy pioneers almost ST.
7O0,OOO,OOO, for the mere privilege OfeDjOy1ng
one Of Gods bOunties to man. A change Of
policy is demanded. and free homes for free
men would be of vast benefit to all classes of
peoples and the general veal of the country,by
bringing the labor which is lying idle in con-
tact and union with the millions and millions of
acres cf ferti but unOecupied lands. 1t would
relax the grasp of land spectators and mOnop-
Olists, and prove a stimulant to labor and en>
terprise of farz4aza zpi,,. riIaIr
the nominal loss of revenue the Federal Cows
eminent would experience.
6 Every laboring man should understand and
remember, that in voting for the National
Democratic ticket he is rObbing himself of
farm of 16O acres, and for the psItry purposes
Of party leaders he renOunees the privilege of
becoming an independent lord Of the soil,
without money and without price.