Construction and Reconstruction
improved and accordingly when, in 1860, the Republicans put the first homestead act through Congress President Buchanan vetoed it. But it was presently repassed and went into effect simultaneously with the Emancipation Proclamation, on January 1, 1863. Under this beneficent act any actual settler could acquire absolute title to a quarter section or 160 acres of public land by payment of a registry fee of ten dollars and by then for five years occupying and cultivating the land in question. Within twenty miles of a railroad in a state, or ten miles in a territory, only half that amount could be acquired because of the supposedly greater value of the land within such zones. A supplementary Timber Culture act provided that in regions lacking natural timber growth title to a tract of 160 acres could be acquired by planting ten acres of it in timber and keeping it in good condition for eight years, or a tract of eighty acres by planting and caring for five acres of timber.
It must be remembered that prior to the enactment of these measures public lands had largely been acquired in huge tracts by speculators who then resold to actual settlers at high prices. The Democrats in Congress persistently opposed homestead legislation, because of the attitude of the southern plantation owners. When the first homestead bill was put forward in 1859 every Republican voted for it and every Democrat against it. When it was brought up again in 1860 every Republican voted for it and every Democrat, with the exception of a few from northern states, against it and the Democratic President vetoed it. The Homestead law and its results in the settling and development of the West must be credited, therefore,
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