Objections Raised to Land Grants. 
311 
Protests against the doubling of the price of the reserved 
lands had been made when the Illinois bill had been considered. 
Senator Walker of our own state had objected to this feature of 
the bill and had announced his intention of introducing a bill 
making grants to actual settlers, but it was not until the next 
Congress that such objections became general. 
Opposition between the advocates of the Homestead and Land 
grant bills was very natural. If land could be had for the for¬ 
mality of settling upon and improving it, the sale of the rail¬ 
road lands would suffer; while a grant to a railroad would with¬ 
draw a considerable amount of land from the operation of the 
Homestead law. In the House it was said that the only for¬ 
midable opposition to the Homestead law came from those favor¬ 
ing land grants. 1 It is also noticeable that the Homestead law 
passed the House, the foe of land grants; and failed in the 
Senate, the friend of land grants. 
Another cause for objection to land grants was in the fact 
that the old states having no public lands could receive no bene¬ 
fit from the system. Tennessee and Kentucky had objected to 
being left out of the grants for the road from Chicago to 
Mobile, and had endeaved to secure an amendment whereby a 
part of the grant could be used for a road in those states. 2 But 
this was not in accord with the “ land owner ” theory and so 
was rejected. 
In 1852 Mr. Bennett, of New York, reported a bill from the 
committee on public lands making a general grant of lands to 
the “ land ” states in aid of railroads and to the " non-land ” 
states in aid of education. 3 This passed the House, with little 
1 Globe , 1st Sess., 32nd Cong., App. 574. For an opposite view, see speech 
of Mr. Hendricks, Ibid., App , pp. 482-485. 
2 Globe, 1st Sess., 31st Cong., 867-874, 900. 
3 The amounts were as follows: Missouri 3,000,000 acres; Alabama 
2,500,000; Iowa 3,000,000; Michigan 2,500,000; Wisconsin 2,500,000; 
Louisiana 2,500,000; Mississippi 2,000,000; Florida 2,000,000; Arkansas 
3,000,000; California 3,000,000; Illinois 1,000,000; Indiana 1,000,000 and 
all unappropriated public lands in the state; Ohio 2,000,000 and all un¬ 
appropriated public lands; the other states, except Texas, 150,000 acres 
for each senator and representative in the 32d Congress; each territory 
and the District of Columbia 150,000 acres. Globe , 1st Sess., 32d Cong., 
1536-1538. 
