Some Political Aspects of Homestead Legislation 3 1 Congress in the form of the Kansas-Nebraska bill, came up to vex it. Some fears were expressed that free negroes might take advan- tage of the homestead act, but on this the opinion was quite gener- ally expressed that the limitation as to citizens was sufficient, as negroes could not possibly be included under that designation. But to make the matter perfectly sure the word white was inserted in the bill ; not, however, so that it would read " white citizens," a redun- dant expression in the ears of the Southerners, but " white persons.'" But that the restriction to whites did not reconcile the slave states is shown clearly in the vote in the House, where the members from the free states were 74 to 31 for the bill and the members from the slave states 41 to 33 against it, and of these 33 votes 21 came from the border states of Tennessee, Kentucky and Missouri." One of the opponents of the bill from the slave states saw clearly why it was for the interest of his section to take the position which it took. Johnson, of Arkansas, stated in the Senate that he had formerly favored the bill, but that he could not support it because "just at this time it is tinctured, to a degree, from its inevitable effects, and under the peculiar circumstances, so strongly with aboli- tionism." The style is involved but the meaning is clear, and he went on to explain that the lands north of the Missouri Compro- mise line where only northern men could go were being opened up for settlement, while those south of the line were still closed, and so the bill was being pushed at this time in order that the territorial question might be settled in favor of the North.^ But this objec- tion was being removed at this very time, for the Kansas-Nebraska bill had passed the Senate and was under discussion in the House with every prospect of its early passage. What Johnson did not say but what he must have realized was, that it was the Northern farmer, rather than the Southern slaveholder, who would be induced to go into the territories by such a law. During the debates on this bill it was declared to be the true Democratic doctrine, that the lands should be sold and the proceeds placed in the treasury, the revenue thus derived permitting a lower tariff.^ The Democrats, however, favored the bill, voting for it, 72 to 52, and the Whigs took a similiar position by a vote of 35 to 19. The only Free-Soiler in the House voted against it.'^ The House had, for some years, annually passed the homestead bill, and the Senate had as regularly defeated it. But in 1854, the ' Globe, 33d Cong., first session, 503-504. ^ House Journal, 33d Cong., first session, 45 S. 3 Globe, 33d Cong., first session, II25.
- Ibid., 45g.
' House Journal, 33d Cong., first session, 45S.
