The Buchanan County guardian. (Independence, Buchanan County, Iowa) 1858-1864, 1860-03-15
The Homestead Dill.

able champion of the Homestead Law,
recently delivered speech in favor o.
the Homestead policy in the House Of
Representatives, in which he gave some
interesting facts relative to our public
domain From the speech we learn that
the Federal government has acquired,
exclusive of water, l,45o, 900, 900 acres
of public land, Of these, there have
been sold, l47.o88, PA acres and there
have been granted aud donated to indi-
viduals, corporations. companies and
States, PAL, 77O,052 acres leaving sur
plus undisposed OF l,o6l, 14l ,674 acres
Oi the quantity sold by the government
no. more than one half, Mr.. Grow thinks,
was bought at government rates by the
actual cultiyators, the other half costing
Tie cutivator at least four dollars over
The government price. The gross amount
which the government has received for
the sales of public lands, up to the 30th
ri Seplember. 1859, is $,l80,6l9, $500,
and Mr.. Grow estimates that the actual
cultivators have paid for their lands 81,
6.3,645, 1890, showing that the specu-
.Iors have received from the cultivators
iiia enormous sum Of 81. sos, O26, sO4.
Tins. Mr.. Grow argues, government,
by its existing land policy, has caused to
bs distracted from the earnings Of its
hardy pioneers about S. 700. 900, 900 for
the mere privilege of enjoying one OF
Gods bounties to man, for which no
equivalent has been given save the priv
,h.ge to occupy wilderness to which not
day nor an hour of mans labor has
been applied to change i. from the con :
.ition in which the God of Nature made
it. Why, he asks. should government
seize upon any of the bounties of God to
man, and make them source Of reye-
nue. 1t would be just as rightful, were
il possible to be done, TO survey the at
,oosphere into quarter sections, and trans
Ter it by parchment titles. This claim,
- monopolize the soil, by legal codes,
alone of all Gods gifts, had its origin in
+ uIai limes-under q system which re-
garded man as an appendage to the soil
that lie TILED, and whose life, liberty and
happiness were but means of increasing
The pleasures, pampering the passions
ana appetite Of his liege lord ; and hav-
.,s once found place in the books, ii
las been retained by the reverence which
nan is wont to pay to the past and to time
IGNORED precedents. 1t is claim, he
49, ues. which is legitimate part Of the
ssctem which proclaims the idea that roy
III blood flows in the veins Of a few borr
a.I nurtured amid the glitter Of courts
and should be swept away as the Other
relics Of teudalisIn have been.
The evils Of land monopoly are graph
irally traced by Mr.. Grow. He pro
nounces it one of the direst, deadlies
curses that ever paralyzed the energies o
:. nation or palsied the arm Of industry
its history in the Old World is writer
IN sishs ana tears. Under its influence
splendid missionaries have grown up side
BY side with en- abject and debased PEG
pie. Vast manors are hemmed in as
sporting grounds for the nobility. while
men are dying Decide the enclosures fol
wan, of land 10 till Under that system
industry is in rags and patience in des'
pair Our system is subject to The same
evils--not so grea. in magnitude. but
similar in hind.
Il Mr.. GRow pays a most eloquent trlb'
ut "a the men who lead the van Of cigi-
1iza'ipn along untrodden paths, and open
the wilderness to usefulness and science.
lIc also spoke Of the influence which a
rural e.eeiIe and an agricultural life