Rensselaer Gazette, Volume 3, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 March 1860 — THE HOMESTEAD BILL. [ARTICLE]

THE HOMESTEAD BILL.

We present on our outside to-day an abstract of the provisions of the Homestead Bill as it passed the Horn • a week ago last Monday. With regard to I*3 provisions we have no remarks to make; except that we, with every Republican in the House, every Republican paper in the United States, and, we believe, every Republican also, would be glad to see it become the law of the land, ft is pre-eminently the laboring mail's law—a staff to the poor man, to help him to a home —and, at the same time, a sSield to protect him from the merciless those who might have the power to defraud him of it. How many thousands are there of poor, homeless, hard-working men in our thickly settled States, and our densely populated cities, and even in our own fertile prairie States of the West, who are just eeking out a living,scarce knowing at night Where the next day’s dinner is to come from, deriving ». precarious shelter for their heads from, and subject to the tender mercy of that same rapacious landlord, or land speculator who has deprived them ot a cheap home of their own, and the influence of whose capital has had its effect heretofore in depriving him of a free home! A free home for these and such as then;—a free home for all its citizens who are unable to purchase one, is a measure worthy of our government; and the perfection of a system whereby the indigent can get homes, afid retain them, free from all fear of being defrauded of them by the many sharpers with which our country is infested, is an 'abject worthy of the highest efforts of our best statesmen. Such a law would as indelibly stamp tl-o moral character of the age on the page of history, as would the Pacific Railroad stamp its power of constructing mighty works of art for the benefit of the race. But will we get such a law as this! Yey; but not until labor is elevated to its proper status in society; not while there is a party in power whose every act is controlled by capital instead of labor. True, some Northern Democrats voted for this bill in the Louse; not because they believed i t right, but because they dared not “face the mu sic.” They knew, better than we know,that it could scarce run of the Democratic Senate where its predecessor was so effectual down by Democratic'votes a year ago. HVe do not say that it cannot pass the Senate, nor do we say that it will not; policy may prevent its defeat.. The Democratic party is just • entering upon its second contest with its young and very ’formidable adversary, the Republican party. Whether the result of that contest will be favorable to the Democracy is extremely doubtful, even under the most favorable j circumstances. This bill is ,Lno\\ n to be! very popular in Indiana and Illinois—two o! i the States upon which the contest turns. Uunder thc-e circumstances the Senate may pass this bill knowing that it will never become a law. And why! Because the President pu iicly declared a year ago, when this same matter was under discussion, that, should it pass “he would- veto it.” Having thus declared his w illingness to be sacrificed for the good of the party, the Senate may take the old gentleman at his word; ease the party of the load in the coming campaign, by saddling the responsibiity on to tlie shoulders of the President, whom they will kick into retirement, and go into the contest of 1860 with “homes for the homeless” inscribed on every piece of Democratic “rag” that may be unfurled to the breeze in the—Westtern States. But this kind of subterfuge will not do. When the President, a year ago, declared that he would veto the Homestead Bill, not a Democratic paper said a word; “when a majority of their partisans in the House resisted the bill, they said not a word; when the Dei ocratic members of the Senate killed the bill, they said not a word, nor have they yet opened their mouths upon any of these points; thus silently undersign | what they dare not openly approve. What | mockery, then, for the State Convention of i that pury to resolve that they were in favor jof “homes for the homeless,” when the re- | eonkd ads of the parly gave the lie to { words. Away with all such double dealing; [ serpent-like, -they would charm whsio they ! sting. We have no patience to talk us the infamous party scavangers who will lints lure the poor on to hope by barren, senseless resolves until i hey get ' is vote, and then stab | him in the , or* through his dearest, rights, | by votes and acts tnat are not barren.