United States, which passed that body but failed in the
House, I would authorize no sales of these lands except for
settlement and cultivation, reserving not merely a preemption, but
a HOMESTEAD of a quarter section of land in favor of every
_actual settler_, whether coming from other States or _emigrating
from Europe_. Great and populous States would thus be added to the
Confederacy, until we should soon have one unbroken line of States,
from the Atlantic to the Pacific, giving immense additional power
and security to the Union, and facilitating intercourse between all
its parts. This would be alike beneficial to the old and to the new
States. To the _working men_ of the old States, as well as of the
new, it would be of incalculable advantage, not merely by affording
them a home in the West, but by maintaining the _wages of labor_,
by enabling the working classes to emigrate and become cultivators
of the soil, when the rewards of daily toil should sink below a
fair remuneration. Every new State, beside, adds to the customers
of the old States, consuming their manufactures, employing their
merchants, giving business to their vessels and canals, their
railroads and cities, and a powerful impulse to their industry and
prosperity. Indeed, it is the growth of the mighty West which has
added, more than all other causes combined, to the power and
prosperity of the whole country; whilst, at the same time, through
the channels of business and commerce, it has been building up
immense cities in the Eastern Atlantic and Middle States, and
replenishing the Federal treasury with large payments from the
settlers upon the public lands, rendered of real value only by
their labor, and thus, from increased exports, bringing back
augmented imports, and soon largely increasing the revenue of the
Government from that source also.'--_See Doc. Vol. I., No. 8, 1st
Sess. XXXVth Congress._

It will no doubt be remembered how much this address was denounced by
the secession leaders, and with what fury Mr. Walker was assailed by
them for insisting on the rejection of the Lecompton Constitution, by
which, it was attempted, by fraud and forgery, to force slavery upon
Kansas, against the will of the people.

In June, 1860, a Homestead bill was passed by Congress, securing to
actual settlers a quarter sect