ion of the public lands, at twenty-five
cents per acre, which was vetoed by Mr. Buchanan. The veto message says:
'The Secretary of the Interior estimated the revenue from the public
lands for the nest fiscal year at $4,000,000, on the presumption that
the present land system would remain unchanged. Should this bill become
a law, he does not believe that $1,000,000 will be derived from this
source.' It would thus seem that Jacob Thompson, then Secretary of the
Interior, was permitted to dictate the financial portion of this veto.
He is now in the traitor army; but before leaving the Cabinet, he
communicated to the enemy at Charleston important information he had
received officially and confidentially. Whilst still Secretary, he was
permitted by Mr. Buchanan to accept from Mississippi, _after_ she had
seceded, the post of her ambassador to North Carolina, to induce her to
secede; which public mission he openly fulfilled, still remaining a
member of the Cabinet. Such was the abyss of degradation to which the
late Administration had then fallen. Indeed, Thompson (like Floyd and
Cobb), was never dismissed by Mr. Buchanan, but resigned his office,
receiving then, after all these treasonable and perfidious acts, a most
complimentary letter from the late President.

Mr. Thompson's financial argument against the Homestead bill is most
fallacious. Our national wealth, by the last census, was
$16,159,616,068, and its increase during the last ten years
$8,925,481,011, or 126.45 per cent. Now if, as a consequence of the
Homestead bill, there should be occupied, improved, and cultivated,
during the next ten years, 50,000 additional farms by settlers, or only
5,000 per annum, it would make an aggregate of 8,000,000 acres. If,
including houses, fences, barns, and other improvements, we should value
each of these farms at ten dollars an acre, it would make an aggregate
of $80,000,000. But if we add the products of these farms, allowing only
one half of each (80 acres) to be cultivated, and the average annual
value of the crops, stock included, to be only ten dollars per acre, it
would give $40,000,000 a year, and, in ten years, $400,000,000,
independent of the reinvestment of capital. It is clear that, thus, vast
additional employment would be given to labor, freight to steamers,
railroads, and canals, and markets for manufactures.

The homestead privilege will largely increase immigration. Now, beside
the money brought here by immigra