Department of Interior

On March 3, 1849, Abraham Lincoln on the last day of his one and only term as a U. S. Congressman voted with the majority to create the Department of Interior. A little over thirteen years later on May 20, 1862 President Abraham Lincoln signed the Homestead Act of 1862. The General Land Office which had been selling public land since 1812 was transferred from the Department of Treasury to the Department of Interior when the latter was created in 1849. The General Land Office would continue to sell public land, but was also set up to transfer land to homesteaders beginning the first day the Homestead Act went into effect. Daniel Freeman was one of the first to file for a homestead on that first day, January 1, 1863.

On March 19, 1936 President Franklin Roosevelt signed Public Law No. 480 which created Homestead National Monument of America on Daniel Freeman’s homestead. Homestead National Monument is administered by the National Park Service an agency in the Department of the Interior.

The Department of Interior has often been called the “department of everything-else.” The Department of the Interior (DOI) is the nation's principal conservation agency. It’s mission is to protect America's treasures for future generations, provide access to the nation's natural and cultural heritage, offer recreation opportunities, honor trust responsibilities to American Indians, Alaska Natives, and island communities, conduct scientific research, provide wise stewardship of energy and mineral resources, foster sound use of land and water resources, and conserve and protect fish and wildlife. The work that DOI does affects the lives of millions of people; from the family taking a vacation in national parks to the children studying in Indian schools.

The Department of Interior has over 67,000 employees and 280,000 volunteers located at approximately 2,400 operating locations across the United States, Puerto Rico, U.S. territories, and freely associated states. DOI has a $16.8 billion total annual budget. DOI raises more than $18.2 billion in revenues collected from energy, mineral, grazing, timber, recreation, land sales, and other revenue producing activities.

DOI manages 500 million acres of surface land, or about one-fifth of the land in the United States, including:

-256 million acres managed by the Bureau of Land Management

-96.2 million acres managed by the Fish and Wildlife Service
-84.6 million acres managed by the National Park Service
-8.7 million acres managed by the Bureau of Reclamation associated with reclamation projects
-66 million acres managed by the Bureau of Indian Affairs
-Over 200,000 acres of abandoned coal mine sites have been reclaimed through the Office of Surface Mining's Abandoned Mine Land Program
-Other agencies in the Department of Interior are the Minerals Management Service and the U. S. Geological Survey.

Why the Homestead Act?

Why did the 37th United States Congress pass the Homestead Act which was signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln on May 20, 1862?

Was it because of Manifest Destiny? Manifest Destiny was a 19th century concept concerning U. S. territorial expansion that promoted the idea that it was the destiny of the United States to control North America from Coast to Coast. It was the belief it was the destiny of the United States to spread democracy, “America” culture, and the American economy over all of North America. Some believed that expansion into "uncivilized" regions would spread progress and democracy. It was convenient for all to think that they had the divine right to acquire and dominate because they had the proper economic system and the most developed culture and belonged to the most advanced race. To some people in the 19th century it was more than “destiny,” it was a “pre-ordained by Providence” for America to expand Coast to Coast.

Was the Homestead Act passed to promote big business and aid American industrial expansion? As a result of the Mexican War [1846-1848] what is now California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, and Texas, and a good portion of what is now Colorado became United States territory. To tie the existing States together with this new western territory is was deemed essential to build a transcontinental railroad. But this would mean building a railroad across the Great Plains which had been designated “Permanent Indian Territory” by the Indian Removal Act of 1830. To remedy this the Kansas-Nebraska Act was created in 1854 opening up most of the Great Plains for settlement and leaving just Oklahoma as “Permanent Indian Territory” [see the Homestead Congress blog from March 22, 2008]. The Act creating the Transcontinental Railroad was signed into law on July 1, 1862, just a few weeks after the Homestead Act was signed by President Lincoln. A railroad across the Great Plains needed customers. Was the Homestead Act created to speed up settlement of the Great Plains so the railroad would have customers? The newly expanding industries of America needed to produce and sell more. Settlement on the Great Plains would create new markets for American Industry. Was the Homestead Act created to aid American industrial expansion? Are Manifest Destiny and Industrial Expansion linked?

Was the Homestead Act designed to meet the Jeffersonian ideal of a nation of yeoman farmers? Thomas Jefferson believed the yeoman farmer best exemplified virtue and independence from corrupting city influences. He opposed industrialization. Jefferson specifically believed "Those who labor in the earth... are the chosen people of God, if ever he had a chosen people." He believed government policy should be for the benefit of the farmer. He wanted a nation of yeoman farmers.

Was the Homestead Act passed for a higher ideal—an ideal expressed in the Declaration of Independence, that all men had the right to pursue happiness? It was long presumed Jefferson's phrase meant just as it was described by U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Stephen Johnson Field in 1884: “Among these inalienable rights, as proclaimed in that great document, is the right of men to pursue their happiness, by which is meant the right to pursue any lawful business or vocation, in any manner not inconsistent with the equal rights of others, which may increase their prosperity or develop their faculties, so as to give to them their highest enjoyment.”

These Presidents of the United States believe the Homestead Act was created to facilitate this higher ideal.

Harry S. Truman, June 4, 1948: “The newcomers quickly learned their way about and soon felt at home. The Homestead Act of 1862 provided them, as well as many other pioneers, with an opportunity ….”

Lyndon B. Johnson, August 26, 1965: “Like the lawmakers in our past who created the Homestead Act….we say that it is right and that it is just, and that it is a function of government, and that we are going to carry out that responsibility to help our people get back on their feet and share once again in the blessings of America life.”

Ronald Reagan, August 1, 1983: “This promise was made real, thanks to the hard work, the dedication, and commitment….of the America people….to law’s that created opportunity; for example, historic legislation like the Homestead Act….”

George H. W. Bush, November 28, 1990: “Abraham Lincoln's Homestead Act empowered people; it freed people from the burden of poverty. It freed them to control their own destinies, to create their own opportunities, and to live the vision of the American Dream.”

George W. Bush, January 20, 2005: “In America's ideal of freedom, citizens find the dignity and security of economic independence instead of laboring on the edge of subsistence. This is the broader definition of liberty that motivated the Homestead Act, the Social Security Act, and the GI Bill of Rights.”

Abraham Lincoln, July 4, 1861: “This is essentially a People's contest. On the side of the Union, it is a struggle for maintaining in the world, that form, and substance of government, whose leading object is, to elevate the condition of men---to lift artificial weights from all shoulders---to clear the paths of laudable pursuit for all---to afford all, an unfettered start, and a fair chance, in the race of life. Yielding to partial, and temporary departures, from necessity, this is the leading object of the government for whose existence we contend.”

What do you think?

Jumping-Off Places

In grade school we all learned that the Oregon Trail began at Independence, Missouri. However, that is an incomplete explanation.

The Independence/Westport, Missouri area is where the Santa Fe Trail began so it was quite natural when the first immigrants decided to go to Oregon that they would start from the Independence/Westport area.

This especially became true after John C. Freemont’s report was published in 1842. Fremont’s route west through “South Pass” began at Independence/Westport. But soon businessmen in Weston, Missouri [which was across the Missouri River from Fort Leavenworth] and Joseph Robidoux of Saint Joseph, Missouri were competing to be “outfitting locations” or as they were often called, “Jumping-off Places.”

North of St. Joseph were Oregon Crossing and Harney’s Landing; they to were used by some immigrants and freighters as “Jumping-off Places.” After the President Franklin Pierce signed the “Nebraska Bill” [Kansas-Nebraska Act] on May 30, 1854; Atchison and Leavenworth, Kansas as well as St. Deroin, Brownsville, Nebraska City, Plattsmouth, and Omaha City, Nebraska promoted themselves as the best “Jumping-off Places.”

Some of these places became significant “Jumping-off Places” for immigrants and freighters. Others were primarily starting points for independent freighters. Brownsville and St. Deroin, Nebraska fall into the latter category. The trails from Brownsville and St. Deroin joined together near present-day Beatrice, Nebraska and joined the main trunk of the Oregon Trail a little north of present-day Fairbury, Nebraska.

These “feeder” and freight trails often moved locations as shorter routes or better stream crossings were established. Possibly the routes changed as land was settled and farmers refused to allow the immigrant and freight wagons to go through their land.

On the other hand, some settlers liked being near the trails. The trails offered companionship from passersby and a market for farm products. One of the first to file under the regulations of the Homestead Act of 1862 was Daniel Freeman. He said he choose his location west of Beatrice, Nebraska partly because a freight trail went through the property [the St. Deroin/Brownsville Trail at one time went through what is currently Homestead National Monument of America].

Sources:

Houk, Rose. Homestead National Monument of America. Fort Washington, PA: Eastern National.

Lass, William E. From the Missouri to the Great Salt Lake: An Accounting of Overland Freighting. Lincoln: The Nebraska State Historical Society.

Lavender, David Sievert. The Overland Migrations: Settlers to Oregon, California, and Utah. Washington D. C: National Park Service.

Mattes, Merrill J. The Great Platte River Road. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.

Utley, Robert M. Frontiersmen in Blue: The United States Army and the Indian, 1848-1865. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, Inc.

Nebraska Bill

Nebraska Bill, who was he? No, this is not about some old grizzled veteran of the Plains or some legendary Nebraska political figure. This is not a story about a “he.” This is a story about a “what.”

This is about one of the most important Congressional Acts in the history of United States; the “Nebraska Bill.” As those of you who attended National Park Service Historian Todd Arrington’s presentation at Homestead National Monument of America’s Heritage Center on Sunday, February 17, 2008 on “Lincoln, the early Republicans, and the West” learned; one consequence of this Bill among many consequences was the eventual passage of the Homestead Act of 1862.

The history of the “Nebraska Bill” began in 1844 when Illinois Congressman Stephen Douglas introduced a bill in the House of Representatives “to establish the territory of Nebraska,” which was read twice and referred to the committee on territories from which it was not reported. The boundaries of the territory were very similar to the current states of Kansas and Nebraska combined into one territory and extending to the Continental Divide.

Between 1844 and 1854 a bill “to establish the territory of Nebraska” was introduced five more times. The size of the “Nebraska Territory” to be created by these “Nebraska Bills” varied. The last would have created a “Nebraska Territory” with a southern border near the current southern border of Kansas and a northern border that is the current border with Canada. This “Nebraska Territory” would have reached from the Missouri River on the east to the Continental Divide on the west. This “Nebraska Bill” was introduced on January 4, 1854 by Stephen Douglas, by then a U. S. Senator from Illinois. As stated above, the first “Nebraska Bill” died in committee, but generally the “Nebraska Bills” introduced between Douglas’ first in 1844 and his 1854 “Nebraska Bill” passed in the House of Representatives, but were defeated in the Senate.



This is where the story gets interesting. The bills failed in the Senate because of the Missouri Compromise. Because of the regulations of the Missouri Compromise this “Nebraska Territory” and any states carved out of it would be free, free from slavery. Therefore, Senators from the slave holding states voted against and defeated all these “Nebraska Bills.” Already greatly out numbered in the House of Representatives, the creation of new “Free States” would make the representatives of the slave holding states greatly out numbered in the Senate as well.


Back to the last “Nebraska Bill” introduced by Senator Douglas in 1854, it was hotly debated, but never went to an actual vote. Douglas replaced it on January 23, 1854 with a bill that would create the “Territories of Kansas and Nebraska.”



This new Bill introduced after a meeting among President Franklin Pierce, four Senators from slave holding states, and Douglas would over throw the Missouri Compromise and allow “Popular Sovereignty” to decide the issue of slavery in any resulting states that were created from the two territories.



It was very difficult, but with the support of President Pierce and the four senators from slave holding states, Douglas got this Bill passed by both Houses of Congress. Today, history books call this “Nebraska Bill” “the Kansas-Nebraska Act,” but back then, even though it created two territories, it was still called the “Nebraska Bill.”


The passage of this final “Nebraska Bill” led to a rush of settlers to Kansas who wanted to either “vote slavery up” or “vote slavery down.” This of course, led to open violence in Kansas. The “Nebraska Bill” was the main issue of the Lincoln-Douglas Debates held when Abraham Lincoln tried to take Douglas’ Senate seat away from him in 1858. And this “Nebraska Bill” as it was then called eventually led to Secession and the Civil War.


And as stated by National Park Service Historian Todd Arrington’s in his presentation on “Lincoln, the early Republicans, and the West” it not only led to the passage of the Homestead Act in 1862, but with the slave holding Senators and Representatives no longer voting in the U S. Congress it also led to the Morrill or Land Grant College Act which created public supported state universities and to the Pacific Railroad Act that created the Transcontinental Railroad. The Homestead Act, Land Grant College Act, and Pacific Railroad Act, like the “Nebraska Bill” had been defeated in the 1850’s by Senators and Representatives from the slave holding states because these acts would have expanded “the free labor system” and as Abraham Lincoln said, “give everyone a fair chance in the race of life.”

Sources:

Johannsen, Robert J. 1973. Stephen A. Douglas. New York: Oxford University Press.

Morton, Sterling J. and Watkins, Albert. 1918. History of Nebraska. Lincoln, Nebraska: Western Publishing and Engraving Company. [Revised Edition: Augustus O. Thomas, James A. Beattie, and Arthur C. Wakeley Editors]

What was the reasoning behind the Homestead Act?

On July 4, 1861 in speaking to a special session of Congress Abraham Lincoln tried to explain what their side was fighting for in the Civil War:

"This is essentially a People's contest. On the side of the Union, it is a struggle for maintaining in the world, that form, and substance of government, whose leading object is, to elevate the condition of men---to lift artificial weights from all shoulders---to clear the paths of laudable pursuit for all---to afford all, an unfettered start, and a fair chance, in the race of life. Yielding to partial, and temporary departures, from necessity, this is the leading object of the government for whose existence we contend."

It can be argued that the passage of the Homestead Act by Congress in the spring of 1862 was an attempt to meet Lincoln’s definition of the “leading object” of our government; that is, in giving away free land through the Homestead Act Congress hoped “to elevate the condition of men---to lift artificial weights from all shoulders---to clear the paths of laudable pursuit for all---to afford all, an unfettered start, and a fair chance, in the race of life.”

Other Presidents have agreed on the purpose of the Homestead Act:

• Lyndon B. Johnson, August 26, 1965: Like the lawmakers in our past who created the Homestead Act….we say that it is right and that it is just, and that it is a function of government, and that we are going to carry out that responsibility to help our people get back on their feet and share once again in the blessings of American life.

• George H.W. Bush, November 28, 1990: Abraham Lincoln's Homestead Act empowered people; it freed people from the burden of poverty. It freed them to control their own destinies, to create their own opportunities, and to live the vision of the American dream.

• George W. Bush, January 20, 2005: In America's ideal of freedom, citizens find the dignity and security of economic independence instead of laboring on the edge of subsistence. This is the broader definition of liberty that motivated the Homestead Act, the Social Security Act, and the GI Bill of Rights.
  
  

However, others would argue the motivation behind the Homestead Act was “Manifest Destiny.”

Manifest Destiny was the belief that the people of the United States were destined to extend the "boundaries of freedom," democratic institutions, and American ideals from the Atlantic seaboard to the Pacific Ocean.

Still others would argue the motivation behind the Homestead Act was greed; that Eastern capitalists wanted to see the West settled so there would be an expanding market for the products of industrialization.

What do you feel was the reasoning behind the Homestead Act?