The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1872-12-20
Saecr and IOiCnsend.

/ Townsend. who represents the Chester dis
trfct, and III which several other members
participated. The subject under discus
sion was a bill relating to land bountieS to
soldiers. We are not familiar with the
merits of the bill, and if we were, it is not
necessary here to discuss them Suffice 1t
say that Mr.. Speer supported the bill, While
; Mr.. Townsend opposed it. The right OF
the latter to urge his objections to the
measure we do not of course dispute, but
when he saw proper to reiterate the radical
slang of the day by asserting that 'the SOL
diers of the war were Republicans, and
; that ''nine-tenths of them were RepubI-
cans, while the remainder Of them may
have been Democrats, > he deliberately ana
knowingly uttered a falsehood, and the
truth Of history demanded that he should
be promptly informed of the fact by MI.
Speer as representative of the party thus
wantonly and falsely assailed. Townsend
impudently sets up the claim that the re-
bellion was overthrown entirely and solely
by soldiers belonging exclusively to the Re
publican party, seemingly fOrgetful of the
fact that members of the radical faith of
much more prominence than himself have
not been afraid to avow that it was the
| negro troops who brought the contest to
successful termination. Both declarations
are false, as every intelligent man knows.
| 1t is a source of peculiar qualification to
! the Democracy of this district to know
/ that they are represented in Congress by
man like Mr.. Spcer who is always prepared
to give reason for his political faith, and
who is ready on all occasions boldly and
eloquently to rerel low and unfounded as
saults upon the party to which he belongs
and of which lie is so able a defender and
so bright an ornament.
Mr.. SPEER. Mr.. Speaker, the general
policy of granting lands to actual settlers
needs no vindication at my hands. Time
and the experience of the country have jus
titled it. But the step proposed by the pres
, ent bill is supposed to he = departure, at least
! to some extent, from the homestead policy,
! and therefore it encounters most serious oI-
| position on this floor. The homestead bill
requires a residence of five years to make
title. Under the law passed at the last ses-
sion of Congress the features of the home
| stead bill were preserved, but when a settle
ment made by an hOnOrably discharged
/ soldier, his widow, or orphan children, the
time which he served in the Army, or in cas- e
| of death, the time of enlistment, was deduct
| ed from the five years required of the citizen
to complete his title. This bill, Mr.. Speaker,
goes step further, and the step is, as con-
ceive, in the right direction. 1t proposes
that not only shall the time the soldier served
in the Army be deducted from the time l. e
, quired to complete the title, but the soldier
: shall have the right to substitute party or
other person TO make that settlement for him
in his own right; III other words, that he
! shall have the right to sell his certificate to
any one who will make an actual settlement
on the land
Now, the Government, it will be observed
- | Mr.. Speaker, loses nothing by this except
what ii already loses under the existing law
| 1t loses from the five years service the time
= the soldier served in the Army, and it can
make no difference to the Government wheth-
| er the settlement on the land be made by the
soldier IN person or by the person who takes
! his place. That is the step made by this bill
But 1t goes still further, and provides that
those soldiers who have become manned and
crippled IN the service of tho Government,
who by reason of their wounds loss ol
limbs are unable to leave their homes and
go to the wilds of the western country and
there settle upon the Government land fOI
5 ! themselves, shall have the right TO make thai
: | settlement by an agent or attorney: and this
provision is extended to the widows and or.
I phan children of those who died of wounds
received or disease contracted in the service
and this, in my Judgment, is most just and
righteous provision. If a wounded soldier
does not wish sell his right under this hi Il
to locate ~ por-s OF land
he can employ an agent to enter upon it for
him.
1t will be observed, Mr.. Speaker, that the
! element of settlement is preserved, the ele-
ment of the homestead law but where the
soldier by reason of the service he has rem
dered to the country, resulting in the loss OF
limbs of bodily health has become unable
to make that personal settlement himself,
) then he shall have the right TO contract wit h
r an agent or attorney, who shall ma Ike that
settlement for him. Now, what does the
Government lose by this provision? This
bill proposes to substitute for the actual set
tlement OF a crippled wounded, or aged sol
: dier the actual settlement perhaps of an able
bodied citizen, who in the YigOr of health
and in the bloom of younger years shal; 60
upon the land and make IL blossom as the
rose. In all this the interests OF the Gov
ernment are protected, and the interests of
the soldier, the wounded, MANNED, and Grip
pied soldier, are protected. regard this as
the most beneficent feature of the bill
, But it is said by the gentleman from Con.
necticut Mr.. HAwLEYl that these certifi-
Gates being assignable, the market will be
overtiowed with them and they will become
, EalueiesS. 1t will be observed that the bill
does not compel the soldier to make the To-
cation within year, bu: it compels him
l within one year after the location is made to
, compete the settlement; so that it may be
one or hVe or ten or twenty years before the
land is actually surveyed and the certificate
issued. But after the survey is made. and
after the certificate is issued, then ONLY one
year can elapse before the settlement ;s
made so that have no doubt under the
present bill, il il should become "A law, many
OF the soldiers of the country will perhans
wait for some time before they claim its
benefits, before they have the one bundraJ
and sixty acres surveyed and set apart for
them. They will wait perhaps until their
children, now little boys around them. shall
have grown 10 manhood, and they will then
assign their certificates to them and let them
60 upon the land and settle upon it and ac-
quire the title, if, Mr. Speaker, there should
be in this age of railroads and monopolies
and land-grabbers any of the Government
domain left At that time. Thus the soldier
and his family will be benefited the Govern
ment land will be settled, and an act of JUS
tice will be done by the nation to the brave
men TO whom it owes its life.
My colleague from Pennsylvania Mr
TowNSENDl had read by the Clerk certain
resolutions purporting TO have been passed
by the Grand Army of the Republic, which
DFOfaSSau a declara hostility Of tho col