118 THE GREEN RISING 



actual residence was required to give validity of title 

 to the "homesteader." 



In discussing the merits of the Homestead Act, 

 the Public Land Commission said: "It protects the 

 government, it fills the States with homes, it builds 

 up communities and lessens the chances of social and 

 civil disorder by giving ownership of the soil, in small 

 tracts, to the occupants thereof. It was copied from 

 no other nation's system. It was originally and dis- 

 tinctly American, and remains a monument to its 

 originators." 



The Homestead Act proved very popular. Over 

 sixty-five million acres of the public domain in the 

 middle West were acquired from homesteads during 

 the twenty-year period from 1860-1880. "The popu- 

 lation of the gram States (i.e., the North Central 

 division) increased during the decade 1860-70 by 

 more than 42 per cent., and in the next decade by 

 nearly 34 per cent. ; this represented an addition to 

 the population in twenty years of over 8,000,000 in- 

 habitants. The opening of new land to settlement 

 stimulated immigration to such an extent that 

 2,500,000 persons came to the United States during 

 the decade 1860-70, to be followed in the next ten 

 years by 3,000,000 more, a large proportion of whom 

 settled in the middle West. The greatest growth 

 took place in the newer States of the Northwest, 

 although even in the older States, like Illinois, Iowa, 

 and Missouri, the increase was more rapid than the 

 general rate. In the single decade 1870-1880, over 



