Daily national Democrat., 1860-05-03
Land for the Landless.

ADMINISTRATION mas declared hS"ihSt wv
Homestead policy and it is consequently
nothing more nor less than Republieanlsm
now to advocate it. Everything that does
not fall into line with the course of the Ad-
ministration is Republicanism, Opposition
to the Lecompton iniquity was Republican,
ism. The President repudiated the doctrine
of the Kansas Nebraska Bill, and the doc
trine of popular sovereignty at once became
Repubhcanism. 1t IS only necessary that
the President should oppose any great public
measure in order to make it, in the twink
ling of an eye, q Republican measure. or
course. then this Homestead Bill is a Repub-
licon measure, and concocted for the sole
purpose Of peopling the Territories with a
free-soil population
Despite the President, however. and his
organ, we declare that tLis Homestead Bill is
Democratic measure, and not Republican
Notwithstanding every member of the House
Of Representatives south Of Mason and Dix
on's line voted against It, it is still Demo-
cratic measure, for we do not recognize the
legitimacy of that kind of Democracy which
is limited to boundary lines. We say that
those Democrats Of the Douglas school who
so unanimously supported the bill in the
House are better and truer Democrats than
those who, Notwithstanding they agree with
the President depart from old time Demo-
cratic principles The Democratic party
was, from the earliest PeIiod, and always in
its better days, in favor of giving land to
the landlcss and donating to the settlers Of
new States and Territories reasonable por-
tons of the public domain. Not until the
President opposed it, has this policy ever
been stigmatized as Republican Tie Home.
stead law as applied to Oregon, (and a nota-
BILE instance it was Of that true liberality
which has ever, until the present Admins
traion, distinguished the action of the Dem
oeratic partly was emphaticolly Democrat
ic measure. As early, too, as fifteen years
ago, a distinguished Southern Democrat,
Andrew johnson, of Tennessee, brought into
the lower branch of the National Legi:la
ture bill very similar in its provisions to
that now before the Senate Mr. johnson is
now a Senator from the same State and, next
to Senators Douglas and Pugh, the warmest
advocate of the Homestead Bill in the Sen
ate of the United States. 1t was a Demo-
cratic measure when he introduced it. and it !
is, in his eye, a Democratic measure still, |
notwithstanding the imperious dictum of the
present occupant of the White House to the
contrary.
For the last twenty or thirty years it has
been the policy of the Democratic party to
reduce the price of the public lands in favor
of those able to buy and to donate them to
those who were not The first part of this
policy the party succeeded in great degree
in carrying OUT but the second part of it
has been but very partially reduced to prac-
tice. No general rule of donation to actual
settlers, as applicable to the whole body of
the public domain, has been adopted. As
opposed to this donating olicy of the Dem,
ocratic party, the policy of the Wing party
was rather to make the public lands a source
OF revenue than to throw them open for pop.
ulation and cultivation. The great idea of
the Democracy has been to build up new
States, by the encouragement of emigration
and to add to the wealth of the Union by
the agricultural growth and improvement of
the country. Land was TO be given to the
poor in order that the number of freeholding
citizens should be increased, inasmuch as it
has ever been conceded that the surest safety |
and prosperity of republic are to be found !
IN general distribution of landed property
among those whose pride and glory it is to
build up homes for themselves and their
children, These are the men to defend their
country in the hour of danger, and to vote
for the common interest, and |
not those mere tenants-at-will upon the es-
tates of wealthy proprietors who monopo.
lize the lands by virtue of their ability to
purchase them, and hire at starvation prices
better and honester men than themselves TO
work them.
We say that it is too late in the day, now,
for the would-be dictators of the Democracy
to pretend that the Homestead policy is not of
Democratic origin and fully mbued with the
Democratic sentiment. Mr.. Buchanan may
oppose it, and aristocrats generally may op-
pose it, but it is policy dear to the masses of
the Democratic party, and it will be carried,
ere long, over the head of all opposition,
whether in or outside of the Democratic par.
ty, as at present organized.