New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1862-05-26
t'rom IAc Mpnireai Nera!d


The HOMESTEAD LAW IN THE UsirEp SrArfa.-
While we are oiscussing and Lesiating about our
policy for securing n population--on the hand
sending .gen's solicit Inhabitants, and
other, through petty jealousies preferences, and
fears not unfrequenily placing seoret obstacles in
the way Of settlement by s;rangcrs-while We are
one day declaring that no land shnl be sold cx-
cent 10 Iona fde set,er- and the next selliug vast
blocks TO IN English Land Company, who every body
knows never mean TO settle, but to make profit by
pedding ont what we have sold in block, and who
can afford TO pay / 900 to a member Of Parliament
for bully ing the Government ill they make the
grant terms more profitable than was at tirst in.
tended the American Congress has adopted the most
comprehensive policy for the encouragement of im-
migrntion which has perhaps ever been devised.
Bv the Iloniostead Act, which recently became
law, every man who will settle upon them may
have 100 acres of land for nothing and without
any conditions to drive him back into the
remoter corners or the inferior tracts Of tie pub
lie domain. Partial offers OF such giits have often
been made before but we doubt whether any en-
dowment on so magnificent scale has ever been
conferred on the moucyess of labor, not Of
country, but Of the civilized world. We lately
mentioned the passage through the House of Repre-
sentatves of the Ia which forever prohibits the in
PRODUCTION OF Slavery upon any Territory now in the
possession Of the United States which may at any
future time into their possession We described
this as the chief point in the avowed programme Of
the Republican party which, by the election of Lin
coin, and the secession Of the South, obtained the
control Of the Government last Spring But the
Homestead law is the complement Of the prohiti-
ton of Slavery in the Territories rather perhaps,
one is the complement of the other. The great
scheme Of policy would be MANNED if either Of them
bad failed OF adoption. On the other hand the
Gift OF land would have been poor attraction TO
freemcn who are 10 cultivate their farms with their
own hards if by the side of them there should exist
IN inituion which makes all labor degrading, and
the occupation of an inferior CASTE And, on
the other hand, the most effective way to
shut out Slavery ia to people the new
lands. where at might otherwise seek TO extend
it-elf, with men whore position lac.s them in
Natural an,agonism to the plantation system.
The attention Of the world is naturally turned 10
the exciting scenes which are b.ing enacted aud are
expected to be enacted, by the hosts Of armed men
now confronting each other. But war il in is nature
temporary, and perhaps the few engagements which
urc called decisive battles of tie world would be re-
duccd in numbers IL we could eliminate from them
those which were mere symptoms of the direction OF
moral and physical forces, rather than the impulses
which produce that direction. The civil transactions
Of the las: few months at Washington will make
their impression upon ages 10 come, when the battles
Oh the Potomac and Tennessee will be regarded as
mere accidents in history. They lay the foundation
Of States largy by several times ihanal' Europe aud
they mark oil the dwelling places and the homes of
Il huge population Of free yeomen, who in the pext
half century will probably exceed in numbers all the
people vino now live on tho Northern Continent OF
America, on this side of the Mexican boundary.