downward course may so far depart from a perpendicular as to extend outside the vertical side lines of said survey: Provided, That the right of possession hereby granted to such outside parts of said veins, lodes, ledges, or deposits shall be confined to such portions thereof as lie between vertical planes drawn downward through the end lines of said survey at the surface, so continued in their own direction that such vertical planes will intersect such exterior parts of said veins, lodes, ledges, or deposits: And provided further, That nothing in this conveyance shall authorize the grantee herein, his heirs or assigns, to enter upon the surface of a mining claim owned or possessed by another: To have and to hold said mining premises, together with all the rights, privileges, immunities, and appurtenances of whatsoever nature thereunto belonging, unto the said John W. Roe, and to his heirs and assigns forever, subject, nevertheless, to the following conditions and stipulations:

First. That the grant hereby made is restricted to the land hereinbefore described as lot No. 60, with eight hundred (800) linear feet of the Brooklyn vein, lode, ledge, or deposit for the length aforesaid throughout its entire depth as aforesaid, together with all other veins, lodes, ledges, or deposits throughout their entire depths as aforesaid, the tops or apexes of which lie inside the exterior lines of said survey.

Second. That the premises hereby conveyed, with the exception of the surface, may be entered by the proprietor of any other vein, lode, ledge, or deposit, the top or apex of which lies outside the exterior limits of said survey, should the same in its downward course be found to penetrate, intersect, extend into, or underlie the premises hereby granted, for the purpose of extracting and removing the ore from such other vein, lode, ledge, or deposit.

Third. That the premises hereby conveyed shall be held subject to any vested and accrued water rights for mining, agricultural, manufacturing or other purposes, and rights to ditches and reservoirs used in connection with such water rights as may be recognized and acknowledged by the local laws, customs, and decisions of courts. Fourth. That in the absence of necessary legislation by Congress, the legislature of Utah may provide rules for working the mining claim or premises hereby granted, involving easements, drainage, and other necessary means to its complete development.

In testimony whereof, I, Rutherford B. Hayes, President of the United States of America, have caused these letters to be made patent, and the seal of the General Land Office to be hereunto affixed.

Given under my hand, at the city of Washington, the tenth day of December, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and eighty, and of the Independence of the United States the one hundred and fifth.

CHAPTER XXVII.

HOMESTEADS.

ACT OF MAY 20, 1862, AND AMENDMENTS TO JUNE 30, 1880.

The general policy of Congress in the disposition of the public domain after 1783 is traced in the first part of this work down to about the year 1841, concluding with the pre-emption act. The homestead bill, or the granting of free homes from and on the public domain, became a national question in 1852. The Free Soil Democracy, at Pittsburg, Pa., August 11, 1852, in National Convention, nominated John P. Hale, of New Hampshire, and George W. Julian, of Indiana, for President and Vice-President, and adopted the following as the 12th plank or resolution in their platform:

That the public lands of the United States belong to the people, and should not be sold to individuals, nor granted to corporations, but should be held as a sacred trust for the benefit of the people, and should be granted in limited quantities, free of cost, to landless settlers.

Thereafter it became a national question until its passage in 1862, and was in the platforms of political parties. It was petitioned for and against. Public sentiment was aroused. It was a serious innovation and would cause an almost entire change in the settlement laws. Instead of the public lands being sold for cash, for profit, or being taken, first, under the pre-emption system, which eventuated in cash purchases, they were to be given to actual settlers who would occupy, improve, and cultivate them for a term of years, and then receive a patent free of acreage charges, with fees paid by the homesteader sufficient to cover cost of survey and transfer of title.

It was the third and most important step in the history of the public land system. Once adopted, no person could estimate its moral, social, and political effects. The public land system for eighty years prior to 1862 had attracted the attention of the ablest men in the Nation. The chairmen of committees in Congress charged with its care were able and inquiring men. This third change and new system was the result of experience and investigation by some of the profoundest men of the age. Philosophers rung the changes upon it. Political economists had foretold its failure, or had dwelt upon the evil effects of large holdings. Prior to this time, large purchases from the Government or States had usually resulted in the bankruptcy of the holders. (For tables showing the decrease of the area of farms in the land States and Territories, from decade to decade, see "Compendium of eighth and ninth censuses.")

The land system has had the benefit of the marvelous ability of Alexander Hamilton, the experience of Mr. Jefferson, Mr. Madison, Albert Gallatin, the officers of the Treasury Department, the Commissioners of the General Land Office after 1812-who were, in many instances, men of great ability and practical sense-the Secretaries of the Interior after 1849, Congressional committees by reports and investigations, the rulings of Departments and courts, the aid of numerous able land attorneys, and finally the complaints or commendations of settlers relative to existing laws, with their petitions for or against measures-the most potent of all agencies with Congress.

The rich and fertile lands of the Mississippi Valley were fast filling up with settlers. Agricultural lands in the Middle States, which, after the year 1824, were bought for $1.25 per acre, now sold at from $50 to $80 per acre. Former purchasers of these Government lands in the Middle, Western, and Southern States, were selling their early purchases for this great advance, and moving west, to Iowa, Wisconsin,

Minnesota, and Missouri, and there again taking cheap Government lands under the pre-emption laws.

The western emigration caused a rush—a migration of neighborhoods in many localities of the older Western States. Following the sun, their pillar of fire, these State founders moved westward, a resistless army of agents of American civilization, and there was a demand for homes on the public lands, and a strong pressure for the enactment of a law which should confine locators to small tracts, and require actual occupation, improvement, and cultivation.

CONGRESSIONAL ACTION ON THE HOMESTEAD LAW.

A fierce political battle now ensued, beginning in 1854, and continuing until 1862, the year of the passage of the law. The demand of the settlers was incessant and constant. January 20, 1859, in the House of Representatives, a bill relating to preemption was pending. Mr. Galusha A. Grow, of Pennsylvania, moved to amend as follows:

Be it further enacted, That from and after the passage of this act no public land shall be exposed to sale by proclamation of the President, unless the same shall have been surveyed, and the return of such survey duly filed in the Land Office, for ten years or more before such sale.

A motion now followed to refer the bill and amendments to the Committee of the Whole. Defeated. Yeas, 90; nays, 92.

On the motion to incorporate the above clause with the pre-emption act, the yeas were 98 and the nays 81, and it was so ordered.

The bill, as amended, was put upon its passage, and defeated. Yeas, 91; nays, 95. February 1, 1859, the question before the House was House bill No. 72, a bill to secure homesteads to actual settlers, being in the words following:

A BILL to secure homesteads to actual settlers on the public domain.

SEC. 1. 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 intention to become such, as required by the naturalization laws of the United States, shall, from and after the passage of this act, be entitled to enter, free of cost, one quarter-section of vacant and unappropriated public lands which may, at the time the application is made, be subject to private entry, at $1.25 per acre, or a quantity equal thereto, to be located in a body, in conformity with the legal subdivisions of public lands, and after the same shall have been surveyed.

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 that he or she is the head of a family, or is twenty-one years or more of age, and that such application is made for his or her exclusive use and benefit, and those specially mentioned in this act, and not either directly or indirectly for the use or benefit of any other person or persons whomsoever; and upon making the affidavit as above required, and filing the affidavit with the register, he or she shall thereupon be permitted to enter the quantity of land already 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 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 creditable witnesses that he, she, or they, have continued to reside upon and cultivate such land, and still reside upon the same, and have not alienated the same, or any part thereof, then, in such case, he, she, or they, if at that time a citizen of the United States, shall, on payment of ten dollars, be entitled to a patent, as in other cases provided for by law: And provided, further, 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 the fee shall inure to the benefit of said infant 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.

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 a 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 all lands acquired under the provisions of this act shall in no event become liable to the satisfaction of any debt or debts contracted prior to the issuing the patent therefor.

Sec. 5. And be it further enacted, That if, at any time after the filing 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 entry for more than six months at any time, then, and in that event, the land so entered shall revert back to the Govern ment, and be disposed of as other public lands are now by law, subject to an appeal to the General Land Office.

SEC. 6. And be it further enacted, That no individual shall be permitted to make more than one entry 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 so doing, and the other half on the issue of the certificate by the person to whom it may be issued: Provided, That nothing in this act shall be so construed as to impair or interfere in any manner whatever with existing pre-emption rights.

The previous question having been ordered, the House proceeded to vote upon the bill without debate.

A motion to lay on the table was lost; yeas 77, nays 113; and the bill was then passed; yeas 120, nays 76.

Yeas.

Maine.-Abbott, Foster, Gilman, Morse, Washburn.

New Hampshire.-Cragin, Pike, Tappan.

Vermont.-Morrill, Royce, Walton.

Massachusetts.-Buffinton, Burlingame, Chaffee, Comins, Davis, Dawes, Gooch, Hall, Knapp, Thayer.

Rhode Island.-Brayton, Durfee.

Connecticut.-Bishop, Clark, Dean.

New York.-Andrews, Barr, Burroughs, C. B. Cochrane, John Cochrane, Corning, Dodd, Fenton, Goodwin, Granger, Haskin, Hatch, Hoard, Kelsey, Maclay, Matteson, Morgan, Morse, Murray, Olin, Palmer, Parker, Pottle, Russell, Spinner, Taylor, Ward. New Jersey.-Adrian, Clawson, Robbins, Wortendyke.

Pennsylvania.-Covode, Dick, Florence, Grow, Hickman, Keim, Morris, Phillips, Purviance, Reilly, Roberts, Stewart, Kunkel.

Tennessee.-Jones.

Kentucky.-Jewett.

Ohio.-Bingham, Bliss, Burns, Cockerill, Cox, Giddings, Groesbeck, Hall, Harlan, Horton, Lawrence, Leiter, Miller, Pendleton, Sherman, Stanton, Tompkins, Vallandigham, Wade.

Indiana.-Case, Colfax, Davis, Foley, Gregg, Kilgore, Pettit, Wilson.
Illinois.-Farnsworth, Hodges, Kellogg, Lovejoy, Morris, Smith, Washburne.
Michigan.-Howard, Leach, Wallbridge, Waldron.

Wisconsin.-Billinghurst, Potter, Washburn.

Minnesota.-Cavanaugh, Phelps.

Iowa.-Curtis, Davis.

Missouri-Craig.

California.-McKibbin, Scott.-Total, 120.

Nays.

Pennsylvania.-Leidy.

Delaware.-Whiteley.

Maryland.-Bowie, Davis, Harris, Kunkel, Ricaud, Stewart.

Virginia.-Bocock, Caskie, Edmundson, Faulkner, Garnett, Goode, Hopkins, Jenkins, Letcher, Millson, Smith.

North Carolina.-Branch, Craige, Gilmer, Ruffin, Scales, Shaw, Vance, Winslow. South Carolina.-Bonham, Boyce, Keitt, McQueen, Miles.

Georgia.-Crawford, Gartrell, Hill, Jackson, Seward, Stephens, Trippe, Wright. Alabama.-Cobb, Curry, Dowdell, Houston, Moore, Shorter, Stallworth.

Tennessee.-Atkins, Avery, Maynard, Ready, Smith, Watkins, Wright, Zollicoffer. Kentucky.-Burnett, Marshall, Mason, Peyton, Underwood.

Ohio.-Nichols.

Indiana.-English, Hughes, Niblack.

Illinois.-Marshall, Shaw.

Missouri.-Anderson, Clark, Woodson.-Total, 76.

In the Senate, February 17, 1859, Mr. Wade, of Ohio, moved to postpone all prior orders and take up the homestead bill, which had passed the House.

Mr. Wade's motion was adopted.

YEAS.—Messrs. Bright, Broderick, Chandler, Collamer, Dixon, Doolittle, Fessenden, Foot, Foster, Gwin, Hale, Hamlin, Harlan, Johnson of Tennessee, King, Pugh, Rice, Seward, Shields, Simmons, Smith, Stuart, Trumbull, Wade, and Wilson-26.

NAYS.—Messrs. Allen, Bayard, Benjamin, Bigler, Brown, Chestnut, Clay, Clingman, Davis, Fitch, Fitzpatrick, Green, Hammond, Hunter, Iverson, Lane, Mallory, Mason, Pearce, Reid, Slidell, Toombs, and Ward-23.

Mr. Hunter, of Virginia, moved that the homestead bill be laid aside so as to take up the diplomatic and consular appropriation bill.

Pending debate upon Mr. Hunter's motion, the hour of twelve o'clock arrived, and the Vice-President decided that the Cuba bill, having been assigned for that hour, was now before the Senate.

Mr. Wade moved to postpone the twelve o'clock order, and continue the consideration of the homestead bill. It was adopted.

YEAS.-Messrs. Bell, Bright, Broderick, Chandler, Clark, Collamer, Dixon, Doolittle, Douglas, Durkee, Fessenden, Foot, Foster, Hale, Hamlin, Harlan, Johnson of Tennessee, King, Pugh, Rice, Seward, Simmons, Smith, Stuart, Trumbull, Wade, and Wil

son-27.

NAYS.-Messrs. Allen, Bates, Benjamin, Bigler, Brown, Clay, Clingman, Davis, Fitch, Fitzpatrick, Green, Gwin, Hammond, Hunter, Iverson, Johnson of Arkansas, Lane, Mallory, Mason, Pearce, Reid, Sebastian, Slidell, Toombs, Ward, and Yulee-26.

The question, as stated by the Vice-President, was now upon Mr. Hunter's motion to set it aside, and take up the consular and diplomatic appropriation bill. The vote on Mr. Hunter's motion resulted as follows:

YEAS.-Messrs. Allen, Bates, Bayard, Benjamin, Bigler, Brown, Clay, Clingman, Davis, Fitch, Fitzpatrick, Green, Gwin, Hammond, Hunter, Iverson, Johnson of Arkansas, Kennedy, Lane, Mallory, Mason, Pearce, Reid, Sebastian, Slidell, Toombs, Ward, and Yulee-28.

NAYS.-Messrs. Bell, Bright, Broderick, Chandler, Clark, Collamer, Dixon, Doolittle, Douglas, Durkee, Fessenden, Foot, Foster, Hale, Hamlin, Harlan, Houston, Johnson of Tennessee, King, Pugh, Rice, Seward, Simmons, Smith, Stuart, Trumbull, Wade, and Wilson-28.

The vote being a tie, the Vice-President, Mr. Breckinridge, voted in the affirmative, and the homestead bill was laid aside.

February 19 Mr. Wade moved to set aside all prior orders and take up the homestead bill. This motion was negatived by the following vote :

YEAS.-Messrs. Broderick, Chandler, Clark, Collamer, Dixon, Doolittle, Durkee, Fessenden, Foot, Hale, Hamlin, Harlan, Johnson of Tennessee, Jones, King, Pugh, Rice, Seward, Shields, Simmons, Stuart, Trumbull, Wade, and Wilson-24.

NAYS.-Messrs. Allen, Bates, Bayard, Benjamin, Bigler, Bright, Brown, Chestnut, Clay, Clingman, Crittenden, Davis, Fitch, Fitzpatrick, Green, Hammond, Houston, Hunter, Iverson, Kennedy, Mallory, Mason, Pearce, Polk, Reid, Sebastian, Slidell, Smith, Toombs, Ward, and Yulee-31.

February 25, upon the occasion of a motion by Mr. Slidell to postpone all prior orders and take up the bill for the purchase of Cuba, Mr. Doolittle, of Wisconsin, resisted, and called upon the friends of homesteads to vote it down, so that he himself might submit a motion to take up the homestead bill.

The vote was then taken, and the motion to take up the Cuba bill was adopted: YEAS.-Messrs. Allen, Bayard, Bell, Benjamin, Bigler, Brown, Chestnut, Clay, Clingman, Davis, Fitch, Fitzpatrick, Green, Gwin, Hammond, Houston, Hunter, Iverson,