Year: 1859

and ordered to be printed.


Mr.. GROW. | move to reconsider the vote
by which the bill was referred to the Commit
tee of the Whole on the state of the Union
Early in the last session l introduced Ibis bill
which provides for granting homesteadS on the
public domain and also introduced bill to
provide that hereafter the sales of the public
lands shall be confined to actual settlers for
ten years after they have been surveyed. Those
bills were both referred to the appropriate com
mittees. Twice, during my term of service in
Congress, bill similar in all its provisions to
this one, has passed the House of Representa-
tves, and twice it has failed in the Senate As
the propriety Of granting homeSteadS to actual
settlers on the public domain is aquestiOn that
has been very fully discussed in the House for
the last eight years and in which have taken
not a little part III do not propose, therefore,
to trespaSs now upon its attention longer than
70 enable me to make a single remark in expla-
nation of the reason of my motion; as Twas
engaged when the m tion to refer was put and
did not know that the report was made.


In my Judgment, the land policy of this coun-
try should be brought back to the.principles of
sound legislation on this subject, as laid down
by General Jackson, in his message in 1912,
that you should cease to look to the public
lands as source of Frevenue, and that thev
should be set apart and secured, in limited guam
titles, as homes for actual settlers. Believing
that that should have been the policy in the
first disposition of the public lands, / trust that
this Congress will restore the Government to
that policy, and that the public lands will here
after be secured in limited quantities to actual
settlers, instead of being left, as they now are,
to be absorbed by the capital of the country
in a vast system of land,monopoy


1t is unnecessary, | trust, to argue with any
gentleman on this floor that the deadest, dlreSt
curse that can be inflicted onsthe new States or
upon any country is a system of land monopoly
1t palsies the arm of industry and paralyzeS the
energies of nation. 1t has been tried in the
Old World and its fruits are written in the
SighS and tears of its crushed millions 1t has
been tried there sufficiently long to satisfy the
most Skeptical that the condition of the new
States will be greatly improved if you will Sc
cure and guard the settlers forever against a
system Of land monopoly in the public domain
BY securing the land to the actual settler, you
will not only confer blessing upon the new
States, but will add in the most substantial
manner to the greatness and glory Of the Re-
public. BY the Constitution, Congress is made
a trustee of these lands, to administer them ina
way that will best promote the general welfare
How can this be done in any better way than
by placing upon them actual settlers, who, by
the cultivation of the soil, will develope is re-
sources and convert the hauntS of savage life
into a home for civilized man, and make the
wilderness bloom and blossom as the rose?" BY
the present land system the settler is obliged
to go far ntothe wilderness or to pay to the spec
ulator, who has purchased from the Govern
ment the more desirable locations, four or five
dollars per acre in advance upon the Govern
ment price of the land. What is the injury
thus inflicted upon the aborS of the country and
the developements of its greatinterests? Under
and by authority of your existing laws you per-
nit to be extracted from its hard earnings four
five, six, or eight dollars per acre, to be paid
into the pocket of the SpecuIator and nonresi
dent landhoIder, to be Squandered too often in
reckless and prodigal extravaganza.


Under the existing system, the actual settler
gets his land in comparatively few cases at Gov
erment price but that is not the greatest evil
he has encounter. BY these lands being held
by non-reSdentS, the actual settlers are of ne
cessity thrown further apart, thus making it
more difficult to have schools and churches, and
to surround their homes with all the adjuncts
of a nobler and better civilization. Let the
land system be so fixed that the actual settlers
can take from the Government these lands as
a homestead, by paying the expenses of the
land Office, or at the Government price, as pre-
emptorS, and they are secured thereby in the
means of making compact settlements, opening
aud constructing public roads, and building
schOol-houSes and churches, and even railroads,
and in supplying all the wants of thriving
people and growing civilization and you will
require no grants of alternate sections to open
the wilderness. -Four or five dollars per acre
would amount to the sum of eighty or hun
dred thousand dollars in each township that
You take from the settler, under the operation
of existing laws, and pay over to the specuIa-
tor And this legislation you call just. 1t is
of such legislation that the settler complains
Why not leave this large amount of earnings


in his own hands, with which he may open the
avenues of trade, surround his home with COM
fort, and rear his children honored and respec-
ted members of society? -


In addition to the justice of securing to the
actual settler homestead in order thus most
effectualy to develope the material interests OF
the country, it is required by every dictate of
humanity. If you would elevate the race, make


it wiser and better the first and most impor-
taat step in its advancement is to surround the
freside with comfort. 1t is in vain you at
tempt to becken on the weary prigrim of this
world to higher existence, and arouse in his
bosom the nobler elements of his nature, unless
you place within his reach the means for satisfy
ing his present physical wants. / would not,
however have the Government converted into
an almshouse to relieve all the distresses of
men. 1t cannot, grant, alleviate the mani
fold woes of the race but so far as it is with


in its constitutional power, would have it so
administered that it should add as much as posi-
BILE to the comfort, happiness, and welfare of