HOMESTEAD ACTS. burne, Whaley, Albert S. White, Wilson, Windom, Woodruff, Worcester, and Wright107. NAYS-Messrs. Joseph Bailey, Jacob P. Blair, George H. Brown, Wm. G. Brown, Corning, Crittenden, Dunlap, Grider, Harding, Mallory, Maynard, Menzies, Norton, Shiel, Vibbard, and Wickliffe-16. And so the bill passed. In the Senate, March 25, 1862, Mr. Harlan, of the Committee on Public Lands, to whom was referred bill H. R. No. 125, known as the homestead bill, reported it with amendments. On April 30 Senator Wade moved to take it up, and the motion was agreed to; but Senator Harlan, of Iowa, being absent, Senator Wade suggested that the bill be laid over until Senator Harlan was present. It was so ordered. On the 2d of May Senator Wade again moved the consideration of the homestead bill, and the motion being agreed to, the amendments offered by the committee were then agreed to. Whereupon Senator Carlisle, of Virginia, offered a substitute for the whole bill (see Congressional Globe, Part 2, 2d session, 37th Congress, page 1915). On motion of Senator Pomeroy, the bill was made a special order for the succeeding Monday, and on May 5, the Senate, as in Committee of the Whole, resumed consideration of it, Mr. Pomeroy speaking on the bill until it was set aside by the special order of the day, namely, the confiscation bill. Consideration of the homestead bill was resumed on the following day, and Mr. Carlisle, of Virginia, offered a substitute for the whole bill. The question being taken by yeas and nays resulted—yeas 11, nays 28, as follows: YEAS-Messrs. Carlisle, Davis, Henderson, Kennedy, McDougal, Powell, Saulsbury, Stark, Willey, Wilson of Missouri, and Wright-11. NAYS-Messrs. Anthony, Bayard, Browning, Chandler, Clark, Collamer, Cowan, Dixon, Doolittle, Fessenden, Foot, Foster, Grimes, Hale, Harris, King, Lane of Indiana, Lane of Kansas, Morrill, Pomeroy, Sherman, Simmons, Sumner, Ten Eyck, Trumbull, Wade, Wilkinson, and Wilson-23. So Senator Carlisle's substitute was rejected. The bill was then reported to the Senate as amended, and the amendments of the Mr. Powell called for the yeas and nays, with the folcommittee were concurred in. lowing result-yeas 33, nays 7. YEAS-Messrs. Anthony, Browning, Chandler, Clark, Collamer, Cowan, Dixon, Doolittle, Fessenden, Foot, Foster, Grimes, Hale, Harris, Henderson, Howe, Kennedy, King, Lane of Indiana, Lane of Kansas, McDongal, Morrill, Pomeroy, Sherman, Simmons, Sumner, Ten Eyck, Trumbull, Wade, Wilkinson, Wilson of Massachusetts, Wilson of Missouri, and Wright-33. NAYS-Messrs. Bayard, Carlisle, Davis, Powell, Saulsbury, Stark, and Willey—7. On May 12, a message was received from the House of Representatives disagreeing The Senate insisted on its amendments and apwith the amendments of the Senate. pointed Messrs. Harlan, Clark, and Wright as a Committee of Conference to meet a similar committee from the House of Representatives, consisting of Messrs. John F. Potter, of Wisconsin, Aldrich, of Minnesota, and Edwin H. Webster, of Indiana. On May 15, Senator Harlan, from the committee on the disagreeing votes of the two houses on the homestead bill, reported that the committee had agreed, the House of Representatives having receded from all of its disagreements except one changing the word "entry" to "land" in one of the sections. The following day a message from the House announced that it had agreed to the report of the committee of conference, and on the 19th another message announced that the Speaker had signed the homestead bill; which thereupon received the signature of the President of the Senate pro tempore. Finally, on May 27, a message from the President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, announced that he had, on the 20th of May, 1862, approved and signed "An act (H. R. No. 125) to secure homesteads to actual settlers on the public domain" The act approved is as follows: AN ACT to secure homesteads to actual settlers on the public domain. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That any person who is the head of a family, or who has arrived at the age of twenty-one years, and is a citizen of the United States, or who shall have filed his declaration of intention to become such, as required by the naturalization laws of the United States, and who has never borne arms against the United States Government or given aid and comfort to its enemies, shall, from and after the first January, eighteen hundred and sixty-three, be entitled to enter one quarter-section or a less quantity of unappropriated public lands, upon which said person may have filed a pre-emption claim, or which may, at the time the application is made, be subject to pre-emption at one dollar and twenty-five cents, or less, per acre; or eighty acres or less of such unappropriated lands, at two dollars and fifty cents per acre, to be located in a body, in conformity to the legal subdivisions of the public lands, and after the same shall have been surveyed: Provided, That any person owning or residing on land may, under the provisions of this act, enter other land lying contiguous to his or her said land, which shall not, with the land so already owned and occupied, exceed in the aggregate one hundred and sixty acres. SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That the person applying for the benefit of this act shall, upon application to the register of the land office in which he or she is about to make such entry, make affidavit before the said register or receiver that he or she is the head of a family, or is twenty-one or more years of age, or shall have performed service in the Army or Navy of the United States, and that he has never borne arms against the Government of the United States or given aid and comfort to its enemies, and that such application is made for his or her exclusive use and benefit, and that said entry is made for the purpose of actual settlement and cultivation, and not, either directly or indirectly, for the use or benefit of any other person or persons whomsoever; and upon filing the said affidavit with the register or receiver, and on payment of ten dollars, he or she shall thereupon be permitted to enter the quantity of land specified: Provided, however, That no certificate shall be given or patent issued therefor until the expiration of five years from the date of such entry; and if, at the expiration of such time, or at any time within two years thereafter, the person making such entry-or if he be dead, his widow; or in case of her death, his heirs or devisee; or in case of a widow making such entry, her heirs or devisee, in case of her death-shall prove by two credible witnesses that he, she, or they have resided upon or cultivated the same for the term of five years immediately succeeding the time of filing the affidavit aforesaid, and shall make affidavit that no part of said land has been alienated, and that he has borne true allegiance to the Government of the United States; then, in such case, he, she, or they, if at that time a citizen of the United States, shall be entitled to a patent, as in other cases provided for by law: And provided, further, That in case of the death of both father and mother, leaving an infant child or children under twenty-one years of age, the right and fee shall inure to the benefit of said infaut child or children; and the executor, administrator, or guardian may, at any time within two years after the death of the surviving parent, and in accordance with the laws of the State in which such children for the time being have their domicil, sell said land for the benefit of said infants, but for no other purpose; and the purchaser shall acquire the absolute title by the purchase, and be entitled to a patent from the United States, on payment of the office fees and sum of money herein specified. SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That the register of the land office shall note all such applications on the tract books and plats of his office, and keep a register of all such entries, and make return thereof to the General Land Office, together with the proof upon which they have been founded. SEC. 4. And be it further enacted, That no lands acquired under the provisions of this act shall in any event become liable to the satisfaction of any debt or debts contracted prior to the issuing of the patent therefor. SEC. 5. And be it further enacted, That if, at any time after the filing of the affidavit, as required in the second section of this act, and before the expiration of the five years aforesaid, it shall be proven, after due notice to the settler, to the satisfaction of the register of the land office, that the person having filed such affidavit shall have actually changed his or her residence, or abandoned the said land for more than six months at any time, then and in that event the land so entered shall revert to the Government. SEC. 6. And be it further enacted, That no individual shall be permitted to acquire title to more than one quarter-section under the provisions of this act; and that the Commissioner of the General Land Office is hereby required to prepare and issue such rules and regulations, consistent with this act, as shall be necessary and proper to carry its provisions into effect, and that the registers and receivers of the several land offices shall be entitled to receive the same compensation for any lands entered under the provisions of this act that they are now entitled to receive when the same quantity of land is entered with money, one-half to be paid by the person making the application at the time of so doing, and the other half on the issue of the certificate by the person to whom it may be issued; but this shall not be construed to enlarge the maximum of compensation now prescribed by law for any register or receiver: Provided, HOMESTEAD ACTS. That nothing contained in this act shall be so construed as to impair or interfere in any manner whatever with existing pre-emption rights: And provided, further, That all persons who may have filed their applications for a pre-emption right prior to the passage of this act shall be entitled to all privileges of this act: Provided further, That no person who has served, or may hereafter serve, for a period of not less than fourteen days in the Army or Navy of the United States, either regular or volunteer, under the laws thereof, during the existence of an actual war, domestic or foreign, shall be deprived of the benefits of this act on account of not having attained the age of twenty-one years. SEC. 7. And be it further enacted, That the fifth section of the act entitled "An act in addition to an act more effectually to provide for the punishment of certain crimes against the United States, and for other purposes," approved the third of March, in the year eighteen hundred and fifty-seven, shall extend to all oaths, affirmations, and affidavits required or authorized by this act. SEC. 8. And be it further enacted, That nothing in this act shall be so construed as to prevent any person who has availed him or herself of the benefits of the first section of this act from paying the minimum price, or the price to which the same may have graduated, for the quantity of land so entered at any time before the expiration of the five years, and obtaining a patent therefor from the Government, as in other cases provided by law, on making proof of settlement and cultivation as provided by existing laws granting pre-emption right. PRESIDENT JOHNSON'S OPINION. President Johnson, one of the original promoters of the homestead act, in his annual message for 1865, says of the act, after calling attention to its successful operation : The homestead policy was established only after long and earnest resistance. Experience proves its wisdom. The lands in the hands of industrious settlers, whose labor creates wealth and contributes to the public resources, are worth more to the United States than if they had been reserved as a solitude for future purchasers. HOMESTEAD ACT AND AMENDMENTS. This original homestead act has been amended several times. (See R. S., sections 2289-2317, inclusive, and session laws of Congress since 1878, for additions.) The principal amendments were in the nature of extension of its privileges, and the limit of 80 acres of land of the double minimum class, $2.50 per acre, within certain road limits, has since been done away with by acts of March 3, 1879, July 1, 1879, and June 15, 1880; there now being but one class of agricultural lands, so far as regards the minimum quantity in homestead entries. The act of June 8, 1872, was known as the soldiers' and sailors' homestead act. It gave honorably discharged soldiers and sailors from the Army and Navy of the United States lands under the homestead act in any locality, and deducted from the five years' residence which was required to make title their term of service in the Army and Navy during the war of the Rebellion. One year's residence and cultivation, however, were necessary, and they have six months from the filing of application to make entry and commence settlement and improvement, and actual service in the Army or Navy is an equivalent to residence under certain conditions. The soldiers' additional homestead provision was to give those soldiers who had had the benefit of the homestead act, to the extent of a quantity under 160 acres, an additional amount, so as to make their allowance 160 acres. The act of March 3, 1875, gave homesteads and patents for the same to certain Indians. (See chapter XVI, on "Indian Reservations," as to Indian homesteads.) By act of March 3, 1879, additional rights were given to homestead settlers on the public lands within railroad limits, and an act of the same tenor for the States of Missouri and Arkansas was passed July 1, 1879. Special acts have frequently been passed favoring localities where crops have been destroyed by drought or insects, and the time of settlers has been extended. In making final proof of homestead entry, or in commuting under the eighth section of the homestead act (section 2301, R. S.), upon lands situate in recognized mineral districts, a non-mineral affidavit, showing that there is no known mineral on the tract to be entered, is required of all claimants. THE ESSENCE OF THE HOMESTEAD LAW AND ITS BENEFITS. The essence of the homestead law and the amendments is embodied in the conditions of actual settlement, dwelling on, and cultivation of the soil embraced in an entry. It gives for a nominal fee, equal to $34 on the Pacific coast and $26 in the other States, to a settler-a man or woman over the age of twenty-one years, head of a family, or a single person above the age of twenty-one years, a citizen of the United States or having declared an intention of becoming such-the right to locate upon 160 acres of unoccupied public land in any of the public-land States and Territories subject to entry at a United States land office, to live upon the same for a period of five years, and, upon proof of a compliance with the law, to receive a patent therefor free of cost or charge for the land. Full citizenship is requisite to obtain final title. The present homestead law contains all of the beneficial features of the pre-emption act with the additions suggested by experience and the changed condition of national life. The eighth section of the act contains the substance of the pre-emption act in the matter of purchase. If the locator desires to buy his homestead outright at the end of six months, he can, upon due proof, pay for his land at $1.25 or $2.50 per acre, as the case may be, which is called commutation of a homestead. It contains one feature as broad in its terms and as beneficial in its principle as the domain it covers. It is as follows: No lands acquired under the provisions of this act shall, in any event, become liable to the satisfaction of any debt or debts contracted prior to the issuing of the patent therefor. The homestead act is now the approved and preferred method of acquiring title to the public lands. It has stood the test of eighteen years, and was the outgrowth of a system extending through nearly eighty years, and now, within the circle of a hundred years since the United States acquired the first of her public lands, the homestead act stands as the concentrated wisdom of legislation for settlement of the public lands. It protects the Government, it fills the States with homes, it builds up communities, and lessens the chances of social and civil disorder by giving ownership of the soil, in small tracts, to the occupants thereof. It was copied from no other nation's system. It was originally and distinctively American, and remains a monument to its originators. FINAL ENTRIES AND CASH COMMUTATIONS. The total number of entries under this act from May, 1862, to June 30, 1880, was 469,782; the area embraced therein was 55,667,044.95 acres. The final entries during the same period, for which patents have been issued, were 162,237; the area embraced therein being 19,265,337.06 acres. Under the eighth section of the cash or commutation clause, a homestead settler can at the end of six months, upon proof of settlement and improvements, make cash payments, at the legal rate, but not more than four per cent. of the homestead settlers have made use of this privilege. They prefer to live upon their land the prescribed five years. Commutations of homesteads are reported as part of the "cash" sales of each year's business, and therefore cannot be stated. |