Year: 1860

floor.

 Then, there is nothing more left for me than to pass it by, to signify that l had seriously thought this should have been postponed until December, in order that we might all understand 1t fully; but the Senate has declined to do that; and there fore, shall permit it to go. l cannot do so, however, without signifying that Ill the first instance, when we proceeded 10 aet on this measure, it was with an effort to frame bill consistent with the public in- terest. and vet be good for the public lands and afford relief to the settlers; and went into that work with as single heart as any one could carry to service of that or any other description. found the Senator from Tennessee occupying the same posl, ton: and when I found him so, 1t induced me to enter upon it in that spirit myself I never believed before that he and myself could come to any terms whatever in re- gard to the homestead bill. In the pro gress of it that bill was worked out. That bill has now been marred; 1t has been de- stroyed by the exactions that have been made upon this body by the House oi hep- resentatives; and, l believe, against the judgment and opinions of senators on the otLer side. The senators on the other slde gave their support to this bill, believing there was much good to be found in 1t; that great good was done by it. and that they had better take that than run the risk of the event, which is now upon us--a veto' and the loss of the entire measure. But those who had control of the House ot Rep

 IT. lotor,otpaH | DpIIeNe upon my soul, for political purposes, to have the voice of the Executive and the ex- action of his power against those peoples and when they could subserve their inter- ests. they chose to sacrifice them for po- litical purpose. l cannot speak ot It nor think of it but with spirit of indignation, such as 1 think any one who has looked at this transaction from beginning to end ought to feel; and l consider it as unworthy ot the high places they fill. l sat in conference with some of them, (and never saw more .intolerance;) when, if we could have yielded to them what they sought, they must have known it would not have become a law, When they could not but be conscious that they were exacting what one branch oi thls government could not and would not, Ii we believed all prior declarations, ever con sent to, they still insisted upon It; and they would not hear to reason; although they knew that the head of that conference com mittee, the Senator from Tennessee, sym pathized with them, and wanted what they wanted, but could not come up to himself, because of the fact that he believed that It was lost bill so soon as 1t passed both branches of Congress. That was the con dition of this matter. They could not trust the very father of the homestead measure, and accept the good that could have been done to those actual settlers; and these pre- emptors in the States of Minnesota, Iowa, and others, are now left in such condition that their lands are now liable to be sold out or ordered into market in ninety days and put up to be sold, when the bill, as 1t passed the Senate, would actually have given them credit of two years further.

 Not only did the Senate bill do this, but it produced a system among the pubic laws, assigning to their special duties the pre- emption laws, and to the homestead It's special duties also. All those lands that were unoffered, and yet might be sold to

 

 $1 9 an acre, were subjected to the pre- emptiou laws that required Sl p an acre; and all those lands that have been offered at public sale, and were now subject to entry at S1 p an acre, or subject to graduation at less price, the provision of the home stead bill reduced to twenty-five cents an acre, and gave them five years for payment These are among the benefits that were pro- vided for in that bill; and there was in 1t a security against the power which the gov ernment might exercise in regard to these settlers which its necessities might com mand of it. That bill secured those par ties III the new states, Ill the first Pfacv. These were the provisions which commanded the support of the other side of the Senate when that bill was passed; and the House of Representatives, for no other reason that I can see that is consistent with any kind of sense, on account of political object-to coerce the Executive to veto the measure rejected that bill and destroyed 1t by de handing more than they knew would ol could be granted.

 Such Mr. President, is the condition ir which we find this bill, and the pass to which it is now brought. The Senator from Tennessee labored hard to get them to come to bill which we could have some hope would become law. The Senators on the other side appreciated the force oi this, and they passed the Senate bill, 1T conjunction with the democratic party on this side. It went to the House of Repre- sentatives, and, after long counsel and con .. l. et,,,ol- tho ,rhnla of If puf and inserted the original House bill, which they we'll knew, and both sides of this Senate we'll knew, would be dead letter the moment it was adopted by us, because the Executive never would consent to suffer it to become law. They will have to answer for it to those people who now sui fer in those new countries. There was a bill passed by this body which was bene, ficial to them-a good bill, as far as the other people of the United States were con- cerned; for 1t was reasonable and fair and efficient, as regarded the treasuary and the public interests. That bill has been lost 1t must be answered for by those who have done this: and they will have to answer it, not only upon the facts of the case as they are presented in the record generally, with the arguments that are furnished. and with the points that are ill the bill which reach each mans case, but they will have to an swer it also upon the testimony of both sides of this House.

 I tell the senator from Minnesota, Mr. RICE. whose constituents suffer worse than any others, that on the other side of this House they were disposed to grant them relief; but the other branch of this Congress has destroyed that relief, and left them at the power and mercy of the government. That is the condition into which they are now brought by the rejection of this bill, and it has been done by the veriest spirit of intolerance and violence and the very worst spirit of calculation and exaction that l have ever witnessed since l have been a member of the American Congress, and that has now been some years. That Sena- tor, and the Senator from Minnesota on the other side, would have welcomed that bill for their people. It would have given every man upon the public lands there, and in all the northwestern States, that much good. and those Senators and other Scns