Homestead Act of 1862

• Homestead Act of 1862

The Homestead Act of 1862 was a landmark in the evolution of federal agriculture law. Passed by Congress during the Civil War, it ha...

• West's Encyclopedia of American Law
• Fri–Jam

• U.S. History Still Shaped by 1862 Law

Already deeply engaged in a bloody war, a young, untested president - whose thin resume noted but a handful of undistinguished terms in the Illinois General Assembly and a brief stint in Congress - did not hesitate when Congress delivered legislation that might spark a new beginning for a tiring nation. When Abraham Lincoln signed the Homestead Act of 1862 he sent a clear signal to all Americans that he believed the Union would endure and it would stride toward its greater destiny with a new element of freedom: land.

• The Pantagraph Bloomington, IL
• October 07, 2011

• Homestead Act an American Success Story

Already deeply engaged in a bloody war, a young, untested president - whose thin resume noted but a handful of undistinguished terms in the Illinois General Assembly and a brief stint in Congress - did not hesitate when Congress delivered legislation that might spark a new beginning for a tiring nation. When Abraham Lincoln signed the Homestead Act of 1862 he sent a clear signal to all Americans that he believed the Union would endure and it would stride toward its greater destiny with a new element of freedom, land.

• Telegraph - Herald (Dubuque)
• September 25, 2011

• 43 CFR 3838.1 - What are SRHA lands?

... CLAIMS AND TUNNEL SITES ON STOCKRAISING HOMESTEAD ACT (SRHA) LANDS. Subpart A: General Provisions. ... entered under the Homestead Act of 1862, as amended, and patented under the SRHA after Dec...

• Code of Federal Regulations - Title 43: Public Lands: Interior

• Cass County v. Leech Lake Band of Chippewa Indians, 524 U.S. 103 (1998)

... were sold to non-Indian settlers as homesteads. Mter Congress ended the allotment practice, the B... under the provisions of the Homestead Act of 1862, 12 Stat. 392. In 1934, federal Indian policy shif...

• U.S. Supreme Court

• The Coming of the Frontier Press: How the West Was Really Won

Especially strong are her analyses of the California press; journalistic icons like Otis Chandler, William Randolph Hearst, E.W. Scripps, and Mark Twain; legislation such as the Homestead Act of 1862; and references to Spanish-language, Chinese, African American, religious, medical and scientific, and women's suffrage publications.

• Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly
• Vol. 86 Nbr. 2, July 2009

• Goals for a Maturing America

The "American Dream" is a concept that is constantly maturing and developing. Change is necessary to adjust to different circumstances and keep the nation vibrant. In the mid-19th century the great West was open prairie. The Homestead Act of 1862 offered 160-acre plots to those willing to settle there and farm the land. In 2006, the U.S. population approaches 300 million, and conservation of the environment has become a far greater concern. Progressive taxation is one way to reduce the gap. It makes no economic sense for the government to run substantial deficits simply to provide tax cuts to the wealthy. Greed has now so run amok in America that people seem to be unaware that the "rugged individualism" so necessary 200 years ago must now, in a more populous society, be ameliorated by c...

• Boston Banner, The
• August 10, 2009

• Growing Problem ; Wto Doesn't Cotton to U.S. Farm Subsidies

One of mankind's earliest inventions was agriculture. Growing their food rather than chasing it around or wandering in search of it enabled people to stay in one place. This stability allowed the development of other trappings of civilization: towns, trade, regional culture and government. But agriculture provided the foundation upon which all else was built. As adventurous people moved into and settled new lands, farmers were among the first to arrive. In the United States, the Homestead Act of 1862 encouraged people to settle on the frontier by giving them 160 acres of government land in exchange for their labor to improve the property over five years.

• Gazette, The; Colorado Springs, Colo.
• July 13, 2005

• Stage Trails Black Women West

Don't mess with the women of Nicodemus, Kan. And if you do, steer clear of their apple pie. These are just two of the many insights you come away with in the True Colors Theater Company's strong and sassy production, directed by Andrea Frye, of "Flyin' West," Pearl Cleage's hard-minded play about black pioneer women who left slavery and the South for a new, freer life in places like Nicodemus. The Homestead Act of 1862 offered 160 acres of "free" land - seized from the Indians - to U.S. citizens disposed to living in the vast, wild Western states.

• The Washington Times
• September 19, 2005

• Letters to the Editor

'MANIFEST DESTINY' WAS ENTITLEMENT Regarding the Jan. 3 column, "Perspective is needed for 2010": I'm compelled to challenge Gregg Bemis' "perspective" that citizens, including my grandparents, who sought 160 acres of Western land under the 1862 Homestead Act, did not invoke a sense of "entitlement." Back then it was called "Manifest Destiny," and it was freely invoked by Anglos who gobbled up Native lands -- much more so than by today's citizens on Social Security, into which they pay.

• The Santa Fe New Mexican
• January 13, 2010