BANCROFT 
 LIBRARY 
 
 <> 
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
Our Land Policy Ms Evils and their Remedy, 
 
 IB: , 
 
 HON. GEORGE W. JULIAN, 
 
 OF C DIANA, 
 
 fa the House rf Bepresenlatives, March 6, 1868; 
 
 Vl&e ISonse tia-vinsr can<3f <Doni=!t<lratien toill T^o. 37t>, to present <fte fnrtlier ale odt; 
 tl%e public lands of tti United States, except as provided for In the 
 exnption oud Homestead ivrs, and the l.a*vs for iae <U|>oJti 
 of itwn a*tc azul saiinei-stl lands. 
 
 L 
 
 WABHTNOTOIfi 
 
 Printed at the Office f TUB CHEAT RBPCBUC, 499 llth Street. 
 1868. 
 

 Our Land Policy Its Evils and their Remedv. 
 
 \ 
 .2J 
 
 Mr. JULIAN 
 
 Mr. SrEAREn : Perhaps tnere is no ques- 
 tion affecting the civil administration of tho 
 Government which more deeply concerns 
 the people of the United States than that 
 which is submitted in the bill I have hud 
 the honor to report from the Committee on 
 Public Lands. It touches all the springs- 
 of our national life and well-being. It 
 raakes its appeal to every landless citizen 
 of the Republic, and to every foreigner who 
 comes to our shores in search cf a home. 
 It reaches down to the Very foundations of 
 democratic equality, and takes hold on the 
 coming ages of industrial development and 
 Christian civilization in tho rapidly multi- 
 plying States of our Union. Had the pol- 
 icy now proposed beon accepted by the 
 nation a generation ago, before its magnifi- 
 cent patrimony had been so grievously 
 marred and wasted by legislative profligacy 
 and plunder, the gratitude of millions would 
 have attested the blc?scd results, the. failure 
 of which m.liior.s must, deplore. Not a sin- 
 gle hour of further delay should stay the 
 friendly hand of Congress in rescuing the 
 Remaining heritage of a thousand million 
 acres Jfrom the improvident administration 
 of the past. 
 
 THE MEASUBE F.XPLATXRD PRE-EMPTION AND 
 irOJILSTEAD LAWS. 
 
 Before proceeding to the general discus- 
 sion 'of Ihia measure it m;:y be well briefly 
 to re for to its particular provisions, and their 
 effect in modifying the action of its con- 
 trolling principle. It forbids the further 
 Bale of the public lands, except as provided 
 for in the pre-emption and homestead laws. 
 These laws have been improved by repeat- 
 ed amendments, which have been 
 
 by experience, and their machinery is un- 
 derstood by the people. Under the pre- 
 emption laws the settler may select hie 
 home on the surveyed or unsurveyed lauds, 
 and perfect his titleon the easy conditions of 
 settlement and improvement, and the pay- 
 ment of $1 25 per acre. Under tho home- 
 stead laws like conditions of settlement 
 and improvement arc required, but the 
 claimant is restricted tothesurveyedlands ; 
 and. the payment of $1 25 per acre is only 
 required where ho shall decide to perfect' 
 his title at once by the purchase of his 
 homestead, which he may do after 'the re- 
 quired improvement has been made. Tht- 
 purpose of both the pro cmption and home- 
 stead laws is the settlement and tillage of 
 tlie public domaia by those who need 
 h. mcs, and the option is given to every set- 
 tler to determine Bunder which class of 
 laws he can best subserve his interest. 
 
 COLLEGE SCRIP AND COUNTY-LAND WARRANTS 
 TO DE LOCATED. 
 
 The bill reserves to the holders of military 
 bounty-land warrants, agricultural college 
 scrip, and other land scrip, the right to lo- 
 cate the same. This could not be other- 
 wise. However mistaken, .or pernicious 
 the policy of issuing these warrants and 
 this scrip may now be regarded, the faith 
 of the nation is plighted that they may be 
 located according to the terms prescribed 
 by Congress. Lands selected for town 
 sites are likewise expressly cxcepted from 
 the opera: ions of tho bill, because their 
 disposition is already provided for. An 
 act tor the disposal of coal lands and town 
 sites on. the public domain, approved July 
 1, 18G4, and the act amendatory thereto o'f 
 March 3, 18G5, make special provision for 
 
'.he disposition of such lands, and properly 
 withdraw them from the scope of this bill. 
 
 MINERAL LANDS EXCKPTED SOME FACTS 
 
 STATKD. 
 
 Mineral lands are also excepted, and for 
 kindred, though less conclusive reasons. 
 The pot-ali?!! 1 character of these lands calls 
 for peculiar legislation; and the act of 
 Congress of July 2G, 18GG, undertook to 
 deal with them. The act is singularly 
 crude and clumsy, and very few persons 
 thus fur have even attempted to assert title 
 under it. Its history is not less remarkable. 
 It pasr.cd tic Senate near the close of the 
 first session of the Thirty-Ninth Congress, 
 without any previous general discussion by 
 the members of that body.. On reaching 
 the House it was referred to the Committee 
 "on Public Lands, which at once proceeded 
 to consider it, and to reconstruct its !cad- 
 tng'fcaturcs. -This did not suit its friends 
 in the Senate, who caused it to be attached 
 to tJK3 enacting clause of a bill then pend- 
 ing in that body, entitled "An act granting 
 the right of way to ditch and canal owners 
 over the public lands in the. States of Cali- 
 fornia, Oregon, and Nevada." Under this 
 strange title it was re-enacted in the Sen- 
 ate; and on finding its way to the Speak- 
 "cr's table during the closing hours of the 
 session, it was hurried through the House 
 in utter disregard of the rights of the com- 
 mittee having it in charge, without any op- 
 portunity whatever for general discussion, 
 without oven the pretense that its provis- 
 ions were understood, and by parliamentary 
 tactics, which, if generally adopted, would 
 convert the business of legislation into a 
 system of gambling, in which the very ti- 
 tles of our laws would brand them as the 
 progeny of knavery and fraud. The re- 
 markable decline in the product of bullion 
 during the past year is undoubtedly due, 
 to a considerable extent, to the uncertainty 
 of titles in the great mining regions, and 
 the need cf a fixed code of laws ; and since 
 there is a bill now pending here amendatory 
 of the law under notice, and its manifest 
 faults mast lead to ite perfection, thews is 
 
 no occasion to deal with the question in the . 
 measure now before the House. 
 
 GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF THE BILL STATED 
 
 THE GOVERNMENT BOUND TO RKNDER ITS 
 DOMAIN AS PRODUCTIVE AS POSSIBLE. 
 
 With those qualifications, M r. Speaker, 
 the bill I have reported withdraws from 
 further sale the public domain of the Uni- 
 ted States, and dedicates it, in reasonable 
 homesteads, to actual settlement and pro- 
 ductive wealth ; and it is this fundamental 
 and far-reaching principle to which I now 
 invite the attention of this House and of 
 the country. 
 
 Mr. Speaker, I hold it to be a clear prop- 
 osition that the Government, as the servant 
 of the people, is bound to render the terri- 
 tory under its control as productive as pos- 
 sible. Both political economy and the law ' 
 of nature sanction this principle. The Gov- 
 ernment has no right to withhold its vacant 
 lands from tillage, while its own citizens 
 desire them for homesteads, and are willing 
 to make' them contribute to the general 
 wealth. ''Nothing." says Locke, "was 
 made by God for man to spoil or destroy." 
 Valtcl declares that the cultivation of the 
 soil is ' a profession that feeds the human 
 race ;" that it is " the natural employment 
 of man," and "an obligation imposed by 
 nature on mankind;" and that therefore it 
 " deserves the utmost attention of the GOT- 
 eminent" He says, u The sovereign ought 
 to neglect no means of rendering the land 
 under his jurisdiction as well cultivated as 
 possible. He ought not to allo\v either, 
 communities or private persona to acquire 
 large tracts of laxd and leave them uncul- 
 tivated.". He adds, " The whole earth is 
 destined to feed its inhabitants ; but this it 
 wculd be incapable of doing if it were un- 
 cultivated. Every nation is then obliged 
 by the law of nature to cultivate the land 
 that has fallen to its share." ' The earth," 
 says the Westminster Review, "is the great 
 mother which all should regard with filial 
 reverence. To the earth we owe alike our 
 lives and our pleasures, and it there be aa 
 excess of poverty and misery among men U 
 
is because the earth is 'not tilled in soch a 
 manner as to yield the maximum of the 
 necessaries of life." "Nomnn," says Join 
 Stuart Mill, "made the land. It is the 
 original inheritance of the whole species ;" 
 and he declares that "wherever, in any 
 country, the proprietor, generally speak- 
 ing, ceases to be the improver, political 
 economy has nothing to say in defense of 
 landed property, as there established." 
 These authorities, which couid readily be 
 multiplied, are simply the echo of common 
 sense. They are the voice of reason and 
 justice, affirming, in different forms of 
 speech, the scriptural truth that tho earth 
 belongs "to tho children of men." 
 
 PROFITABLENESS OF SMALL OWNERSHIPS OF 
 LAND, WHEN TILLED BY TUEIR PROPRIE- 
 TORS. 
 
 If, then, the Divine command to " sub- 
 due the earth," that is, to improve it, and 
 compel it to yield of its abundance, is bind- 
 ing upon the Government as well as the 
 citizen, we are naturally conducted to the 
 inquiry, what policy ought it to pursue in 
 order to secure the maximum of produc- 
 tiveness ? And my answer is, the policy 
 of resisting, by all practicable methods, the 
 monopoly of .the soil, while systematical-ly 
 aiming at the multiplication of small homo- 
 steads, which shall be tilled by their pro- 
 prietors. On this subject, Mr. Speaker, 
 we aro not left in the dark. I shall not 
 now dwell upon the negative side of the 
 argument. I shall not stop to portray the 
 evils of land monopoly, winch, in the words 
 of a celebrated French writer, u hasknawcd 
 social order from the beginning of the 
 world." Tb.o subject is an inviting one, 
 but I propose here only to consider the 
 profitableness of small landed proprietor- 
 ships, in the light of known facts. I be- 
 lieve political economists are agreed that 
 the true interest of agriculture is to widen 
 the field of its operations as far as practi- 
 cable, and then, by a judicious tillage, to 
 make it yield the very largest resources 
 compatible with the population-of the coun- 
 try. Experience has abundantly shown 
 
 that the system of small proprietorships 
 can best secure these results, while itbrin^ 
 with it great Moral and social advantage? 
 which are unknown in countries that arc 
 cursed by overgrown estates. I regrc't that 
 any argument or elucidation of this point 
 should bo deemed necessary in a Govern- 
 ment which recognizes cqiuil rights and 
 equal laws as the basis of its .policy; but 
 the manifest tendency, in multiplied forms, 
 toward land monopoly in our country, ane! 
 especially in the V/cst and South, must 
 excuse some little particularity f state- 
 ment. 
 
 AUTHORITIES CITED. 
 
 One of the highest authorities on this 
 subject is Mr. Kay's book on "The Social 
 Condition and Education of the People in 
 England and Europe." He speaks from 
 personal observation and travel in many 
 countries in different parts of the conti- 
 nent, and declares that " the peasant farm- 
 ing of Prussia, Saxony, Holland, arid Swit- 
 zerland, is tho most perfect and economical 
 farming I have ever witnessed in any coun- 
 try." He quotes with favor the decided 
 opinion of another writer, that ' not only 
 arc the gross products of any given number 
 of acres held and cultivated by email pro- 
 prietors greater than the gross products of 
 an equal number of acres held by a few 
 great proprietors, and cultivated by tenant 
 farmers, but that the net products of the 
 former, after deducting all the expenses of 
 cultivation, are also greater than the net 
 products of the latter." Mr. Laing, another 
 writer of authority, in his "Notes of a 
 Traveler," says : ' ' We see, and there is no 
 blinking the fact, better crops on the ground 
 in Flanders, East Friesland, Ilolstein, in 
 short, on the wholo line of the arable land 
 of equal quality on the continent, from the 
 Sound to Calais, then we see on the line of 
 British coast opposite to this lino, and in 
 the same latitudes, from the Frith of Forth 
 all round to Dover." And ho adds that 
 '"minute labor on small portions of arable 
 ground, gives evidently, in equal soils and 
 climate, a superior productiveness, whe& 
 
these small portions belong to the farmer." 
 Mr. Kay says that "In Saxony it is a no- 
 torious fact that, during the last thirty 
 years, and since the peasants became the 
 proprietors of the land, there has been a 
 rapid and continual improvement in the 
 aondition of the houses, in the manner of 
 living, in the dress of the peasants, and 
 particularly in the culture of the land.'' 
 He observes that " The peasants endeavor 
 to outstrip one another in the quantity and 
 quality of the produce, in the preparation 
 of the ground, and in the general prepara- 
 tion of their respective portions. All the 
 little proprietors are eager to find out hew 
 to farm so as to produce the greatest re- 
 sults; they diligently seek after improve- 
 ments ; they send their children to the agri- 
 cultural schools ia order to fit them to as- 
 sist their fathers ; and each proprietor 
 soon adopts a new improvement introduced 
 by any of Ms neighbors." 
 
 Sisinondi, in his "Studies in Political 
 Economy," says : ''It is from Switzcr'und 
 we learn that agriculture, practiced b) the 
 very persons who enjoy its fruits, suffices to 
 procure great comfort for a very numerous 
 population ; a great independence of charac- 
 ter, arising from independence of position ; a 
 great commerce of consumption, the result 
 of the easy circumstances of all the inhab 
 Hants, even in a country whose climate is 
 rude, whose soil is but moderately fertile, 
 and where late frosts and inconstancy oi 
 seasons often blight the hopes of the culti- 
 vator.'' Speaking of small land-holders 
 generally, ha sjys : "Wherever we fine 
 peasant proprietors we also find the com 
 fort, security, confidence in the future, am 
 independence, which assure at once luippi 
 ness and virtue. The peasant who, will 
 his children, docs all the work of Lis littl( 
 inheritance, who pays no .cut to any on< 
 above him nor wages to any one below 
 who regulates lua production by his con 
 sumption; who oats his own cJrn, drink; 
 his-ownwiuc, is clothed in his own hemp 
 and woo^ ures little for tho prices of the 
 
 market ; for 'he has little to Fell and little to 
 
 my, and is never mined, by revulsions of 
 
 rade." And he insists that ** the .peasant 
 
 >roprietor is of all cultivators the one v;ho 
 
 gets most from the soil, fur he is the one 
 
 vho thinks most of tho future, and who has 
 
 >ecn most instructed by experience. lie is 
 
 also the ond who employs the human powers 
 
 o the most advantage, because, dividing 
 
 lis occupations among all the members of 
 
 lis family, he reserves some for every day 
 
 f the year, so that nobody is ever out oi 
 
 work." 
 
 Mr. Tlowitt, in his "Rural and Domestic 
 
 ife of Germany," saj'S: u The peasants arc 
 
 not, as wjth us, for the most part, totally 
 
 ut off from property in the soil they culli 
 
 vate, totally dependent 0:1 the labor afford 
 
 d by others they are themselves the pro 
 
 [)rietors. It is, perhaps, from this caus< 
 
 that they arc probably the most inJu-striou 
 
 peasantry in the world. They labor busily 
 
 early and late, -because they feel that thev 
 
 are laboring for themselves. Every ma; 
 
 lius his house, his orchard, Vis road-sid 
 
 trees, commonly so heavy with fruit thath 
 
 is obliged to prop and secure them always: , 
 
 or they would be torn to pieces. lie ha 
 
 his corn-plat, his piat for inongel-wurzc 
 
 Cor hemp, and ao on. lie IB his own mat 
 
 ter ; and ho, and every member of his fan 
 
 ily, have the strongest motives to labor. 
 
 lie contrasts him with the E.iglish pcasan 
 
 who " is so cut off from the idea of proper! 
 
 that he comes habitually to look upon it ; 
 
 a thing from which he is warned by the lav 
 
 of the largo proprietors, n^d becoircs, . 
 
 consequence, spiritless, purposeless. Tl 
 
 German bauer, on the contrary, looks ( 
 
 the country as made for him and his fcllo' 
 
 men. He feels himself a man; he has ;. 
 
 s'.akc in the country as good as that of t' 
 
 bulk of his neighbors; no man can threat 
 
 him with ejection or tho work-house BO lo: 
 
 as he is active and economical. lie wall 
 
 therefore, with a bold f top ; he looks y i 
 
 in the face with the air of u f;*eo man, b t 
 
 of a respectful one." 
 
 Small farming in Franco forms no ex*c * 
 
cion to these strong testimonies. Arthur 
 Young, in his "Travels in France,'* says : 
 'An aolivity has been here that has swe t 
 away all difficulties before it, and has 
 Coined tho very rocks with verdure. It 
 would be a disgrace to common sense to 
 /isk tha cause; the enjoyment of property 
 must have done it?. Give a man the sure 
 possession of a bleak rock, and he will turn 
 ife into a garden ; give him a nine years' 
 lease of a garden, and he will convert it 
 into a clesert." Spealang of the country at 
 the foot of the Yv r estern Pyrenees, he says : 
 "It is all in the hands of little proprietors, 
 without the farms being so small as to oc- 
 nisioii a vicious and miserable population. 
 An air of neatness, warm'Ji, and comfort, 
 breathes over the whole. It is visible in 
 their new-built houses and stables; in their 
 ^ardena; ki their hedges; in the courts be- 
 fore their doors ; even in the coops for their 
 poultry and the sties for their hogs." 
 
 SAD COMMENTARY N THESE PRINCIPLES 
 
 LAND SPECULATION EXPOSED AJ*D REPRO- 
 BATED. 
 
 But T need not further multiply authori- 
 ties in support of my position ; nor shall I 
 'tttompt to demonstrate, what is quite appar- 
 ent from the quotations I have made, that 
 the policy of small homesteads, on which 
 tho' man who holds the plow is the owner 
 of the soil, is favorable to the highest de- 
 grcoof industry and thrift; that it becomes 
 the instrument of popular education, 
 through the self-dependence of the, cultiva- 
 tor, whose mental faculties are thus natu- 
 rally stimulated and developed by the cares 
 and responsibilities brought to his door; 
 and that it favors, also, the moral virtues of 
 prudence, temperance, and self-control. All 
 this is asserted by our ablest political econ- 
 omists. Nckbor shall I dwell here upon 
 tbe fact that it supplies the strongest bond 
 of union between tho citizen and the State, 
 and is absolutely necessary in a well-ordered 
 Qommon wealth. Putting all this aside, and 
 coming back to my two cardinal principles 
 duty of the Government^ in behalf of 
 
 the people, to make its lands as product* ve 
 as possible, and the necessity of accom- 
 plishing this end by small holdings, tilled 
 by their proprietors I proceed to notice 
 the startling commentary upon these prin- 
 ciples which Has been furnished by the(rov- 
 crumcnt of the United States. 
 
 Tho Commissioner of the General Land 
 Office estimates that from the foundation 
 of the Government to the present time 
 more than thirty millions of acres of the* 
 aggregate amount of public lands sold have 
 not been reduced to occupancy as farms. 
 This would have made one hundred and 
 eighty-seven thousand five hundred home- 
 steads, of one hundred and sixty acres each, 
 and should have been disposed of by the 
 Government to actual settlers only, as 
 fast as it was needed, instead of being hand- 
 ed over to speculators and locked up from 
 tillage and productive wealth. Just to tha 
 extent that this has been done the Govern- 
 ment has been the plunderer of the people. 
 It has gone into partnership with the 
 speculator in cheating the pioneer and 
 the producer, while robbing the nation- 
 al Treasury. During the last fiscal yeaar 
 nearly two millions of acres of homestead 
 entries have been made, of which over tw* 
 hundred and sixty-four thousand acres 
 have been entered in the southern land 
 States under the act of June 21, 18613. The 
 total area of the public domain absorbed 
 under the homestead laws up to the 30th of 
 June last exceeds seven millions of acres, 
 represented by over fifty-nine thousand 
 farms. This policy creates national wealth, 
 and gives homes to the laboring poor. It 
 most righteously fosters the pursuit which 
 Vattel declares to be "the natural employ 
 mentof man," and which ''foods the human 
 race.'"' Every new farm that is snatched 
 from the wilderness adds to the wealth of 
 the nation, while the monoply of millions 
 of acres which are withheld from cultiva- 
 tion is a positive public curse, It is com- 
 puted that in tho year 1835 alone about 
 eight millions of acres of tho public domain 
 
parsed into the hands of speculators. The 
 money thus invested was withdrawn from 
 praiseworthy entc* prices and the ordinary 
 3e of commerce, and sunk in the fruits of 
 the West, which were allowed to 3"ield no 
 return. Great, stretches of these wild lands 
 tlwis intervened between settlements which 
 wore afterward formed, since the poor pio- 
 neer could not. puy the price at which they 
 were held, and was forced still further into 
 flic wilderness, where he was compelled, by 
 h's toils and privations, to add to the wealth 
 of these remorseless monopolists. 
 
 This system of legalized landlordism in 
 tiiesc States, <h!s practical inauguration 
 among as f the feudalism of the Old 
 World, is (he very climax -of legislative 
 madness. It cheats the*poor settler, and 
 by dooming vast tracts of fertile lands to 
 barrenness becomes a fatal ' hiodrance to 
 agricultural wealth, and to commerce and 
 manufactures, which draw their life from 
 the soil. Instead of flourishing towns and 
 Tillages, email homesteads, and an indepen- 
 dent yeoiasnry, with the attendant blessings 
 of churches and free schools, it consigns 
 the fertile plains of the West to the tender 
 moroies of the monopolist, whose greed 
 alone is his law. Instead of opening our 
 vacani lands to the stream of emigration 
 which would pour in from the old States, 
 and thus augment our imports and experts 
 through increased production, it leaves the 
 country a wilderneSvS, or inhabited only by 
 a miserable tenantry under the control of 
 absentee landlords. Instead of settling 
 the frontier of our country and extending 
 the march of civilization., it subjects tlie 
 Government to the expenditure of millions 
 of d6llars in sustaining military posts which 
 else might be wholly dispensed with. In- 
 stead of taking the pioneer into the fatherly 
 keepingof th Government, end stimulating 
 the spirit of adveo'.ure by the offer of a 
 free home in the wilderness, it treats him 
 as a virtual cutaast by driving him beyond 
 the poseessionsof the speculator, for whoso 
 interest ho ia compelled to toil. Thia ifl by 
 
 far the worst feature of our present laaci 
 policy. The pioneer subdues the foresd 
 and coins it into wealth. He encounters 
 every form of hardship and danger in openr 
 ing the way for the column of settlers 
 which is to follow, while his life is one of 
 constant privation. The settlers of our 
 frontier are the real heroes of our time. 
 They are the founders of our new Com- 
 monwealths, and are ready to encounter 
 either wild beasts or savages in exploring 
 our distant borders. They build wagon- 
 roads, bridges, towns, and cities, and, by 
 surrounding the reserved lands of the spec- 
 ulator and rendering them desirable, adial 
 greatly to the wealth which be has doae 
 nothing to earn. Surely these person 
 have a better right to be consulted in the 
 disposition of the public domain than the 
 men who buy large tracts, with perhaps no 
 expectation of ever seeing them again, or oJ 
 expending a dollar in their improvement. 
 
 Mr. Speaker, I have referred to the thirty 
 millions of acres heretofore sold by the Gov- 
 
 rnment which yet remain unimproved. 
 This, of course, is only a small fractioa of 
 the grand aggregate which from time to 
 time must have passed under the dominioc 
 of monopolists>and has sinoe been gradually 
 reduced to cultivation by paying their tariff 
 for the privilege. Nothing could be more 
 vicious in principle or more ruinous to the 
 public interest than has been this policy. 
 The Government, since its formation, has- 
 sold more than one hundred and fifty-fora- 
 millions of acres ; and I think I am safe in 
 asserting, after careful consideration, that 
 the nation has derived from these lands less 
 than one half the agricultural wealth which 
 hey would have yielded under the policy 
 for which I now contend, if it had beeii 
 adopted in the beginning. Sir, I ask gen- 
 tlemen to ponder those facts, and say 
 whether the land policy f the United 
 Statee has not been a policy of systematic 
 mprovideoce and spoliation. Every one 
 remembers the saying of Dean Swift, thai, 
 
 whoever could make two eare of eorc or 
 
9 
 
 two blades- of grass to grow upon a spot of 
 ground where only one grew before, would 
 deserve better of mankind, and do more 
 essential service to his country, than the 
 whole race of politicians." Has not cur 
 Government supplied a new and striking 
 commentary on this saying in sporting with 
 one of the grandest opportunities the world 
 has seen for the creation of wealth and the 
 establishment of democratic institutions? 
 One of the charges againa tthe British king- 
 which our fathers preferred in their great 
 Declaration was, that "he has endeavored 
 to prevent the population of these States ; 
 for that purpose obstructing the laws ol 
 naturalization of foreigners, refusing to 
 pass others for their migration hither, and 
 raising the conditions of new appropriations 
 f lands." Is not our Government guilty, 
 substantially, of this same charge ? Has not 
 its policy tended strongly " to prevent the 
 population of these States/' by abridging 
 the inducements of our people to seek homes 
 en the public domain? And, as to foreign- 
 ers, has not its policy of speculation and 
 monopoly amounted to a refusal " to pass 
 laws to encourage their migration hither," 
 while " raising the conditions of new ap- 
 propriations of lands?'' Sir, lot us eman- 
 cipate the public domain yet remaining un- 
 der our care. Lot us dedicate it to honest 
 toil, to American homes, to productive 
 wealth, and thus complete the work so 
 nobly begun in the pre-emption and home- 
 stead laws. Let us remember that in set- 
 ting free the public lands of the Govern- 
 ment, and placing them beyond the power 
 of monopolists, we shall become the crea- 
 tors of wealth and the benefactors of com- 
 ing generations ; and that \he ablest politi- 
 cal economist cf our time declares the ac- 
 quisition of a permanent interest in the 
 eoil by the cultivators of it to be as real, 
 and as great an improvement in production, 
 as the invention of the spinning-jenny or 
 the steam-engine. 
 
 GKANTS OP LAND FOR RAILROADS THEIR 
 FRIGHTFUL CHARACTER AND MAGNITUDE, 
 
 But I pass to a separate, though kindred 
 
 topic, namc'y, the grants made by Gougreas 
 to aid in building railroads. These bave 
 been exceedingly munificent, aiul have be- 
 come a most formidable barrier to tl* set- 
 tlement and cultivation of onr' great do- 
 main. Congress has granted ia all, t 
 various Western and Southern States, over 
 (iffy-seven millions of acres for these pus 
 poses. These grants have been madt?o< 
 such conditions that tlie companies to wliaH 
 the alternate odd-numbered sections url 
 entrusted can hold them back from caf* 
 and settlement till such time, and for such 
 price, as may best subserve their interest. 
 The lands become at once a monopoly, 
 and the rights of settlers are perfectly su- 
 bordinated to its purposes. The company 
 may sell or refuse to sell ; it may seH to 
 individual settlers or to a single purchaser. 
 No restraints are imposed in those particu- 
 lars. The even-numbered sections are like- 
 wise reserved from Bale, except for the 
 price of $2 50 per acre. Unless, therefore, 
 the road is between points and t-hrangh a 
 country rendering its speedy construction 
 very important, both the cdxl and even 
 numbered sections are kept bacJi from set- 
 tlement^ and the further effect of this wUI 
 be to hinder settlements which otherwise 
 would be formed adjacent to the interdicted 
 belt. This policy builds roads, which are 
 highly important ; but it often inflicts great 
 mischief upon the country by its discrimi- 
 nations against our pioneer settlers. 
 
 Besides these grants to the States we 
 have donated, on similar conditions, fop the 
 construction of canals and other improve- 
 ments, over seventeen millions of 
 and we have granted to the d-iffereat 
 of the Pacific railroad the estimated a*gre 
 gate of one hundred and twenty-fair mfl 
 lions of acres. T>ese roads are of tin 
 greatest national importance, and therefore 
 have a very strong plea to make in justifc 
 cation of the grants made by Congress-; 
 but they constitute a fearful monopoly "and 
 may hinder, far more than help, the actual 
 settlement of our groat western territory. 
 The several grants I have named 
 
10 
 
 to Bttfe short of two hundred millions of 
 awes; au if we add to this the even num- 
 bered sectiwis along the lines of the Pa- 
 eific road, which are excluded from settle- 
 ment under a reoent ruling of the Interior 
 Deparfenrent, wo shall have an aggregate of 
 about one-third of the nation's entire pub- 
 lic domain committed to the keeping of 
 railroad corporations. "The quantity of 
 lands conveyed by these grants," says the 
 Commissioner of the General Land Office, 
 "is of empire extent, exceeding in the ag- 
 gregate, by more than five millions of acres, 
 the entiro areas of the sis New England 
 States, added to the surface of New York, 
 New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Dela- 
 ware, Maryland, and Virginia." He eays 
 the grants to thie Pacific railway lines alone 
 "are within about a fourth of being twice 
 the united area of England, Scotland, 
 Wales, Ireland, Guernsey, Jersey, the Isle 
 of Man, and the islands of the British 
 seas, oad less than a tenth of being equal 
 V> tifre Freaofe empire proper." 
 
 HRAOT1GAL MISCHIEFS OP THE SYSTEM JIE- 
 POKMS SUGGESTED. 
 
 These are significant, if not startling, 
 {sicts, al tfeey naturally awaken alarm 
 iniong the multitudes of our people now 
 seeking settlements under the pre-emption 
 and homestead laws throughout the West. 
 I have recent letters from intelligent men 
 in the Topeka land district in Kansas, who 
 say that, owing to the land grants referred 
 to and the Indian reservations as adminis- 
 tered by tire Government, it has become 
 next to impossible to spcure a homestead 
 that is at all desirable in v that portion of 
 the State, and that many settlers who have 
 traveled hundreds of miles to find their 
 homes, on which they have settled in good 
 faith, are being driven out by railroad 
 gents. I believe the time has come to 
 sound the ory of danger, and to demand, in 
 ihe name of our pioneers and producers, a 
 radical reform in the policy of the Govern- 
 ment as to any future grants it may make 
 in aid of these enterprises. AH such grants 
 
 should be rigidly subordinated to the pa a 
 mount purpose of securing homes for t 
 people, the settlement and improvement > 
 the public domain, and the consequent i 
 crease of national wealth. A bill inaugi 
 ating this principle has already been 
 ported to this House from the Commits 
 on Public Lands, and I earnestly hope 
 will become a law. It provides that in 
 future grants to aid in building railroc 
 the odd-numbered sections shall be sr 
 only to actual settlers, in quantities t 
 exceeding one hundred and sixty acres, t 
 a price not exceeding ihe maximum of $2 
 per acre, and that any even sections whi 
 shall remain undisposed of at the expii 
 tion of ten years, shall be subject to t 
 same disposition as all other public lane 
 In addition to this greatly needed chan 
 of policy Congress should provide for t> 
 other reforms. In the first place, the ror 
 asking the grant should be an importa 
 thoroughfare, and especially in the matt 
 of extending settlements and civilizatii 
 more rapidly than otherwise would 
 practicable. Such grants are only speci; 
 ly needed in the case of long lines of roa 
 which connect distant points, and pass ov 
 thinly inhabited sections of country. E 
 perience has shown that roads will not 1 
 built exeept through settlements which w 
 supply a local business, or as connectii 
 links between important centres of tra< 
 and population. The Commissioner of t' 
 General Land Office, in his report for tl 
 year 1865, justly remarks that if upon ai 
 part of the line a road gets less land it 
 because there is larger population, and co 
 sequontly more local business ; and if up< 
 any part of the line more land is obtaine 
 it is because the reverse is true. Yet 
 every instance it will be found that tl 
 road is first constructed, and best compe 
 sating to the stockholders, along that pa 
 of its lino on which litttle or no public lac 
 is obtained. A road passing through 
 region of country which invites setflemen 
 will bo built, if needed, without any gnu 
 
11 
 
 frf lands, because settlements will be form- 
 ed and the wants of the people wifl. necessi- 
 tate it. The actual settlement of a new 
 country is, after all, tho paramount con- 
 eern both of the Government and the peo- 
 ple. With this, capital will gradually 
 <jome in, and such lines of railroad as are 
 found to be needed will be constructed. 
 Without this, railroads would be unprofitable 
 enterprises, c von if it were practicable to 
 build them. 
 
 The second reform to which I refer is that 
 A, fixed lateral limit shall be made to the 
 grant, and that the principle of alternate 
 sections w place shall be rigidly adhered to. 
 The failure to observe these requirements 
 has wrought great mischief to the country, 
 vind to our pioneer settlers. Our land-grant 
 policy, as at first inaugurated, gave every 
 alternate odd-numbered section for six miles 
 :n extent on each side of the road. This 
 limit should never have been enlarged, ex- 
 oept in tho case of a few roads of very great 
 national ntility. By keeping within these 
 limits, and of course granting no alternate 
 sections except, tboso literally correspond- 
 ing and contiguous to the even sections, 
 r,ho value of the latter would be duplicated, 
 wid thus the Government, while securing 
 '.he road and promoting the settlement of 
 Uieeountry, would be financially the gainer 
 also. But by enlarging the lateral limits as 
 we have done, to ten miles, and in several 
 instances to twenty, and even forty miles, 
 aad allowing floats or scrip, beyond this 
 margin, in lieu of lands not found within it, 
 the whole policy of compensation to tho 
 Government is overthrown, and our grants 
 become a practical bounty to railroad cor- 
 porations, at the expense of actual settlers, 
 and to the great injury of tho country. 
 These, floats will, of course, bo located. at 
 onco upon ail the choice lands nearest the 
 line of the road, and to the settled portions 
 of the country. The pre-emptor and the 
 homestead settler will be driven further 
 back by the grant, and in the interest of 
 monopolists who will grow rich by with- 
 their lands from settlement till a 
 
 handsome price can bo had threwgk the im- 
 provement of adjoining lands. Tho pioneer 
 must surrender tbe advantages of roads, 
 mills, schools, churches, and such other 
 blessings as belong to a well-ordered com- 
 munity, for the somewhat imaginary eona- 
 pensation of a railroad forty cr fifty miles 
 distant. Many gentlemen now here may 
 remember a bill which was reported to this 
 House in the Thirty-Ninth Congress, pro- 
 viding for the construction of a road more 
 than four hundred miles in length, and 
 granting the odd-numbered alternate sec- 
 tions to the amount of twenty sections per 
 mile on each side of the road, with the pri- 
 vilege of going ten miles further, if neces- 
 sary, to make up deficiencies occasioned by- 
 the sale or other disposition of any of the 
 alternate sections by the Government prior 
 to the definite location of the road. The 
 passage of this frightful measure was earn- 
 estly urged in the House, but was luckily 
 defeated ; and the ability, now and then, to 
 aid in strangling such legislative monsters 
 before their birth may be set down among 
 the consolations of public life. In some 
 instances we have granted the even num- 
 bered sections, and we have several times 
 made large grants, to be selected in a body, 
 where the principle involved in the policy 
 of alternate sections could have no possible 
 application. Every year bears witness to 
 new aggressions upon the rights of settlers, 
 which seriously threaten to swallow up' the 
 whole of our remaining public domaiu. 
 
 Sir, this policy is utterly indefensible and 
 vicious, and should be abandoned at once. 
 I will not go quite so far as some gentle- 
 men on this floor, and oppose all grants of 
 land in aid of railroads, under whatsoever 
 restrictions. In legislation, as in ether af- 
 fairs, the want of discrimination is the want 
 of common sense. "Good roads," says 
 Mill, in his "Political Economy," "arc 
 equivalent to good tools. It is of no eon- 
 sequence whether the economy of labor 
 takes place in extracting the produce from 
 the soil, or in conveying U to tho place 
 where it is to be consumed. Railways and 
 
12 
 
 canals are virtually a diminution of the 
 cost of production of all things scat to mar- 
 ket by them." 
 
 Those enterprises have done and are still 
 doing a great service to eur country. Lot 
 the Government, by all honorable means, 
 lend them its aid ; but let Congress see to 
 it, henceforward, that tho saving reforms I 
 have suggested shall bo applied. 
 
 AGRICULTURAL CO LEEGE ACT ITS PERNICIOUS 
 CONSEQUCNOES. 
 
 Mr. Speaker, the picture I have drawn 
 of the fearful strides of land monopoly in 
 our country, under the sanction of Con- 
 gress, would be imperfect without referring 
 to some additional and striking facts which 
 fairly belong to this discussion. The act 
 of Congress of 1852, providing for the es- 
 tablishment of agricultural colleges, grants 
 to tho States thirty thousand acres of the 
 public lands for each of their Senators and 
 Representatives in Congress. When the 
 provisions of this act shall be extended to 
 tho States of tho South, as they doubtless 
 will be, the whole amount required will .be 
 pine million six hundred thousand acres. 
 The .States having public lands within 
 their limits wiil receive and have set apart 
 to them their respective shares under ihe 
 act, which, of course, will be so many great 
 monopolies, managed with a view to the 
 largest revenue to aid in tho buiiding of 
 colleges, 'and not in the interest of settlers. 
 The States having no public lands get their 
 respective shares in college scrip represent- 
 ing them, which scrip cannot be located by 
 the States, but must be sold to individuals 
 who may locate it, provided that not more 
 than one million acre's shall be located in 
 any State. 1 do not know the present mar- 
 ket value of this scrip, but ic has been 
 largely dealt in at rates ranging from sixty 
 to seventy cents per acre; and probably 
 this is as much Q.J the States have general- 
 ly received for it, instead of $1 25 per acre, 
 which the land. ought to be worth. 
 
 Mr. DPJGG8. I will state that I knew 
 one instance whoro the entire college scrip 
 f a Slate %vas cfFercd ae low as thirty- 
 
 seven and a half cents an aero. 
 Mr. JULIAN. Asamothod of building 
 colleges, therefore, it is by no means a suc- 
 cess ; while on the other hand, the scrip 
 goes into the hands of speculators, and be- 
 comes the basis of the most pernicious 
 monopolies that have aClicted our country. 
 Bodies of a rniliiorj acres h aveal ready bcefc 
 appropriated in seven;! of our western 
 State's, and set apart by this policy of le 
 gali/.ed .plnndcr, on which, of course, no 
 homestead claimant or pre-cimtor may set 
 bis foot. The country is held bnck from 
 tillage and productive wealth, and the rights 
 of our pioneer settlers postponed or denied, 
 by the duly authorized rapacity of hungry 
 monopolists. A company of speculators, 
 doing business in Cleveland, Oll'.o, and IE 
 Wall dtreet, New York, advertise that thej 
 have bought the college scrip of nine States*, 
 which thc$ me tion, covering two million* 
 four hundred and eighty-two thousand acrcft. 
 They hold it for speeu ation, and, of course, 
 take no thought us to the settlement an4 
 improvement of tho public domain. If H 
 was the duty of the Government to aid ir. 
 building agricultural colleges it would have 
 been far wiser to appropriate money, leav- 
 ing, the lands of the country free to tbost 
 who desired them for homes, and were 
 ready to transmute their labor into national 
 wealth. Kindred observations apply if, 
 our Mexican bounty-land warrants, whicb 
 cover over thirteen millions of acres in all. 
 
 SWAilP LANDS TTIEIK RUINOUS MANAGEMENT 
 
 BY TI1K GOVCRNJ1ENT. 
 
 Another powerful incentive to the spirit 
 of monopoly has been the action of Con 
 gross respecting what are celled, "swamj 
 and overllowed lands." There have beer 
 patented to States, under different acts o' 
 Congress, more than forty-three millions o 
 acres of these lands, and the management 
 of them-, whether in the western or souther* 
 States, has been most unfortunate. This i$ 
 especially true of tho States of Mississippi 
 Louisiana, Arkansas, and Florida, whicl 
 have received nearly twenty-eight millions 
 of acres. Of those lands large portions <u* 
 
13 
 
 dry, and among the very best in tho coun- 
 try, but they were purchased in great bodies 
 by speculators, and to this day continue in 
 &eir clutches. Accord n;' to official tables 
 burnished by the General Land Office there 
 are now in the five land States of the South 
 store than fiF.y-two millions of acres of un- 
 improved landy held by monopolists, wh'le 
 foiirteen-Gfteenths of. their people, outside 
 of their tow; s and cities', in an exclusively 
 agricultural region, are landless. The:c 
 are very sad fact;-, nd the solution of them 
 Constitutes, the real problem of reconstruc- 
 tion. They arc further aggravated by the 
 railroad monopolies of these States, cover- 
 ing several millions of acres, by Spanish 
 grants in some of them, arid by plantation 
 ideas as well i:x plantation manners, which 
 have survived the institu inn of slavery. 
 fiine, patience, and the policv of colonisa- 
 tion from other States, must finally work 
 $ut the redemption of these regions. One 
 good step has already been taken in the 
 .passage of the southern homestead law; 
 &ut no one ean contemplate the situation of 
 their people to-day, and the weary conflicts 
 to which they arc t> be summoned in es- 
 caping jr. m their thraldom, without de- 
 ploring the mistake of the (Joverumont in 
 failing toco-. lisuate the great plantations 
 of the rebels durhig the war, and decimal- 
 ing them in the interests of loyalty and re- 
 publicanisiii. 
 
 INDIAN RESEKVATIONS TREATIES WITH THE 
 DELAWARE, T11K SAC AiND FOX, AMD OSAGE 
 INDIANS. 
 
 The action of the Government in dealing 
 with our Indian lands has been equally sub- 
 gervieut* to the interests of monopolists. 
 Under our treaties with the Delaware In- 
 dians, made in I .SCO and 1801, some two 
 hundred and thirty-four thousand acres of 
 surplus Indian lands were sold to the Leav- 
 en worth, Pawnee, and Western Railroad 
 Company, instead of being oprned to ac- 
 tual bcttlers. Under another treaty, con 
 filude-j in l&C'J, ho residue of liiuso lauds, 
 amounting to over ninety-two thousand 
 ftares, was BO Id to the Missouri lliver Rail- 
 
 road Company in tho latter year, thus cro- 
 t'ng anotbcr monopoly. By virtue of a 
 reaty with the Sac and Fox Indians, con- 
 cluded in the year 1869, the trust lands of 
 hese Indian*^ amounting to two hundred 
 and seventy-eight thousand two hundred 
 acres, have been sold tj thirty-wix different 
 purchasers, thus creating numerous though 
 considerable monopolies. As examples, I 
 may mention that John MuManus bought 
 one hundred and forty-two thousand nine 
 inndred and fifteen acres; William R. Mo- 
 Kean twenty-nine thousand six hundred 
 ind seventy-seven acres; Fuller and Mc- 
 Donald thirty-nine thousand and iifty-cighi 
 acres ; Robert S. Stevens fi;ty-onc thousand 
 six hundred and eighty-nine acres; Hon. 
 Hugh McCulloch seven thousand and four- 
 een acres. By virtue of a treaty concluded 
 wi;h i he Kickapno Indians in lilG2, the 
 Atchis.;nand Pike's Peak P v aulroid Coin- 
 pjiny, in the year 1865, became the pur- 
 ,-lmMT of the lunds of these Indians, 
 ilmounting to one. hundred and twenty- 
 three thousand eight hundred and thirty- 
 two acres. By vir.uc of the first articlo 
 of a, treaty between the United States aixl 
 the Great and little Osugc Indians, con- 
 cluded in the year 18&3, the said Ind ana 
 sold r the United States a tract of cmatry 
 embracing one million tv,- hundred and 
 twenty-five thourand fix hundred and two 
 acres; and under the second ranicle of .the 
 treaty they sold, in trust, the further quan- 
 tity of one million nine hundred and ninety- 
 six thousand eight hundred ares, making the 
 total of three million two hundred and 
 twenty-two thousand four hundred and two 
 acres. 
 
 The treaty, in strange disregard ef the 
 rights of settlers, and of the true interests 
 of the country, provides that this vast 
 area of land shall not be subject to entry 
 under tho homestead or pre-emption laws, 
 but ahall be sold to the highest bidder; 
 and, of course, following the examples 
 already set in other cases* a swarm of 
 greedy monopolists, inoro or less uumeroua, 
 
will get the entire amount. The land is 
 already advertised for sale in May next, 
 and several thousands of settlers who went 
 upon it before the treaty was proclaimed, 
 many of them .having made valuable im- 
 provements in good faith, will be driven 
 out by speculators, with whom their small 
 means will not enable them to compete at 
 the sale. Of course it is not strange that 
 these settlers are now greatly alarmed and 
 distressed by tho situation in which they 
 find themselves; and the joint resolution I 
 reported this morning, which passed this 
 House, was intended as some little relief, 
 and perhaps all that Congress can afford, 
 under the shameful treaty to which I have 
 referred. 
 
 CHEROKEE NEUTRAL LANDS MONSTROUS 
 
 MAL- ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 The Cherokee neutral lands consist of a 
 tract fifty miles long and twenty-five miles 
 wide, embracing eight hundred thousand 
 aorea. By treaty with these Indians, con- 
 cluded in Ihe year I860, the Secretary of 
 the Interior is authorized to sell these lands 
 in a body, for a price not less than rno 
 dollar per acra in oash, except such tracts 
 as were settled upon at the date of the 
 treaty. Accordingly, in October last, a 
 contract was made for a sale of these 
 lands to one James F. Joy, in the inter- 
 est of the Kansas and Ncosho Valley 
 Railroad Company, for the price named, 
 and the directors of the company, at a re- 
 cent meeting, have resolved that such of 
 the lands as are now-occupied by bonaflde 
 settlers shall be valued at from three to 
 ten dollars per acre, and be sold to said 
 settlers at an average of six dollars per 
 acre. 
 
 This outrage upon these people, who 
 h&vc settled upon thc.se lands in good faith. 
 aixl in many cases made valuable improve- 
 ments, is simply monstrous. Even the 
 treaty, which no man can defend, and could 
 Lave had no honest parentage, does not 
 warrant it These settlers, in all conscience, 
 ehould have their lands at $1.25 per acre. 
 
 The treaty could easily have been so matfc 
 as to secure to them this right beyond que&- 
 tion, and the lands themselves, as I am we!) 
 assured, could have been disposed of di- 
 rectly to the United States, and subjected 
 at once to our ordinary policy of sale an! 
 pre-emption. No man can approve the con- 
 duct of the Government in thus joining 
 hands with monopolists in squandering thle 
 public domain and conspiring against the 
 productive industry of the country; and 
 since there yet remain largo quantities of 
 other Indian lands to be disposed of, all of 
 which are threatened by the nek less policy 
 I have exposed, tho voice of the people 
 should be earnestly invoked in their behalf 
 before it shalllje too late. 
 
 A SIGNAL OUTRAGE AGAINST PRTC-KMPTOR3 EX- 
 POSED UNWELCOME FACTS REFERRED TO. 
 
 One remarkable instance of tho espousal 
 by the Government of the claims of mon- 
 opolists against those of our pioneer set- 
 tlers remains to be noticed. It is of re- 
 cenf occurrence. A disputed question 
 involving the title to certain lands in Cali- 
 fornia was properly brought before the 
 General Land Office for decision. The 
 parties en the one side were pre-cmptors, 
 claiming title as such under the laws of 
 the United States. The chief party on the 
 other side was a perfectly unprincipled 
 monopolist, who had succeeded by false 
 representations in procuring the paseageof 
 an act of Congress under which ho and hi* 
 assigns claimed title to on invalid Spanish 
 grant of ninety thousand acres, including 
 the very Kinds of tl:e pre-emptors rufe; r< d .o. 
 After a Cull and careful hearing the Go'm- 
 missioner of the General Lund Office de- 
 cided in favor of tho sctilers. The Cali- 
 fornia monopolists thereupon prevailed 
 upon the Secretary of the Interior to ask 
 the advice of the Attorney General cf the 
 United States upon the points of law iiv 
 vulved, and they procured fn in him a& 
 Opinion, declaring, among other things, that 
 pre-emptors on the public lands acquire n$ 
 right-3 by their preliminary acts of 
 
15 
 
 rant and improvement, and are mere ten 
 ants-at-will, whom the Government may 
 eject at any time before they huve com 
 pleted the conditions of title. The Attor- 
 ney General dtd not controvert the fact that 
 the pre-emptors wereswh, under the laws 
 of Congress, but he denied their right to 
 the land ; and the Secretary of the Interior 
 acquiesced in the decision, although he 
 knew it was not law. and allowed the land 
 department of the Goveinrncnt to be used 
 in dispossessing these settlers, in violation 
 of the plainest principles of justice as well 
 as law, in oppo^iuon to numerous and uni- 
 form decisions cf our Federal courts, and 
 to the whole spirit and policy of the Gov- 
 ernment. This mling, still adhered to by 
 the Secretary of the Interior, strikes at 
 the homestead settler as well as the prc- 
 emptor, and is a mean and wantorv insult 
 to both. Should it be applied in all cases, 
 as it was cruelly done in this, it would 
 kindle a fire throughout the West which it 
 might cost the Government some pains to 
 quench. Sir, in the name of our grand 
 army of pioneers, whether native or f;reign 
 born, I denounce it. As I have said here 
 on another occasion, it mocks justice, sets 
 common sense atdrfiar.ce, and insults judi- 
 cial decency; nmlthe men who procured it, 
 in behalf of soulless speculators and land- 
 sharks, were engaged in a most unworthy 
 service. I must add, as the saddest fact of 
 all, that this foul plot of thieving monopo- 
 lists received the sanction of the House of 
 Representatives of tfie United States, as 
 ihown by its rcccrdcd vote on the 7th day 
 of July, in theyeur 18GG. 
 
 EVILS OF OL'lt LAND POLICY GENERALLY THE 
 FINANCIAL QUESTION. 
 
 Mr. Speaker, the facts I have submitted 
 should alarm every real friend of our coun- 
 try. This wholesale prostitution of the 
 people's heritage, this merciless crusade 
 the ri^hrta of coming generations, 
 * insumtly. It will tax all 
 . our rulers to heal the wounds 
 upoa our country, and 
 
 which have laid hold on its very lift. Whii 
 the power of Government to do good is 
 limited, and negative at best, its capacity 
 for evil is practically infinite. It has bean 
 said truly that the influence of the laws 
 under which we live pervades the national 
 character, is felt in every transaction of ear 
 social existence, and is seen, like the frogs 
 of Pharaoh, "in our houses and in. our 
 beds, in our ovens aad in our koeadkig- 
 troughs." Our land policy will have its 
 enduring monument in the very cinrses 
 which it plants in its footsteps, and writes 
 down upon the soil. It poisons our social 
 life by checking the multiplication of 
 American homes, and the growth of the 
 domestic virtues. It tends to aggregate our 
 people in towns and cities, and render them 
 mere consumers, instead of dispersing them 
 over our territory, and tempting them t 
 become the owners of land and the creator} 
 of wealth. It fosters the tiiste for artificia 
 ife, and the excitements to be foand ii 
 ircat centers of population, instead of hold 
 ^ng up the truth that "God made thx 
 ountry," and intended it to bo peopled 
 and enjoyed. It dries up tke sourees of 
 ^rodtfctive wealth, as I have already shown, 
 
 nd thus fatally abridges the revenues, now 
 so much needed in meeting our national 
 obligations. As a mere scheme of finante, 
 
 believe the passage of the bill now be- 
 bre us would be decidedly the boat of the 
 muny which have been proposed and de- 
 bated. The great want of the country to- 
 day is more producers, and to this end a 
 >olicy which shall draw from the older 
 States and from cur overcrowded cities the 
 millions of unemployed men who arc seek- 
 ng to live by their wits, and to evade the 
 command that "in the sweat of thy face 
 .halt thou cat thy bread." This, sir, is my 
 )olicy of finauco. Tho money whioh ia to 
 pay our debt must be dug from the soil, and 
 rom our mines ; and whatever decision 
 Congress may make as to the taxation ef 
 uur bonds, or the kind of money in which 
 hey shall be paid, or the further contra*- 
 tion or expansion ef the currency, or the 
 
16 
 
 rcadjustroont of our tariff and internal 
 fpvorme system, our national debt, after 
 all, ransC bo paid. That hard duty I* un- 
 avoidably laid upau us, aad there ia no 
 royal road to its performance. In the 
 broadest and best sense of the term, there- 
 fore, this bill is a measure of financial re- 
 lief; and should it become a lu\v, it will 
 stand forth a* a great landtnark in the legis- 
 lation f the country, and as the crowning 
 aotef a policy which has sought to find 
 expression for more than fifty j ears. In the 
 oariy period of the Government settlements 
 the public domain were forbidden by law. 
 In the year 1807 Congress even provided 
 for the removal of persons who should at- 
 tempt settlements wit Lout authority oflaw. 
 this illiberal treatment of our pioneers was 
 )f short duration, but the policy of prc- 
 imptiaa was of slow growth, and was only 
 
 finally perfected in the year 1841. Twenty- 
 one years later the homestead' law was 
 enacted, recognizing still further the jusfc 
 claims of settlers ; but it allowed the Rpec- 
 uUtor to cripple and harass them at every 
 step, and thus seriously to frnslrate the 
 great and beneficent ends which otherwise 
 it would have perfectly accomplished. It 
 way a half-way measure of relief, pointing 
 as naturally to the complete remedy now 
 proposed as did the prc-eir.ption laws point 
 tothofar broader policy of the homestead act. 
 Lei us now apply it, and thus extend the 
 Kordcrs of our civilization, increase our na- 
 tional wealth, curb the ra-vagcs of .monopo- 
 lists, satisfy the earth-hunger of the multi- 
 tudes who arc striving for homes on our 
 soil, and thus practically reassert the righ* 
 of people to life, liberty, and the pursuit of 
 happiness. 
 
 1