Legislation · 1862

Homestead Act

Signed by President Lincoln, the act offered 160 acres of surveyed public land to any citizen or intending citizen who was the head of a family or at least 21 years old and had never borne arms against the United States. Claimants paid a small filing fee and received title after living on and cultivating the land for five years, or could buy it after six months’ residence at $1.25 an acre.

“…any person who is the head of a family, or who has arrived at the age of twenty-one years, and is a citizen of the United States, or who shall have filed his declaration of intention to become such…”

May 20, 1862

Why it matters

Promised in the 1860 Republican platform, the law drew settlers west for generations: by 1934 more than 1.6 million homestead applications had been processed and more than 270 million acres — about 10 percent of U.S. land — had passed into private hands, while also accelerating the loss of Native lands in the West.

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Primary Source

The original record, reproduced or linked from the institution that holds it. Primary sources show what people said and did in their own words.

Subjects

economy land policy westward expansion opportunity

From the library

Related Documents

PM·DOC·1862·025Primary Source

Legislation · July 1, 1862

Pacific Railway Act

Signed by President Lincoln, the act chartered the Union Pacific Railroad and, with the Central Pacific Railroad of California, authorized construction of a railroad and telegraph line from the Missouri River to the Pacific, supported by federal land grants and government loans. The Union Pacific built west from Omaha, while the Central Pacific, whose workforce included more than 10,000 Chinese laborers, built east from Sacramento.

Held by National ArchivesOpen archive

PM·DOC·1862·026Primary Source

Legislation · July 2, 1862

Morrill Act

Sponsored by Representative Justin Smith Morrill of Vermont and signed by President Lincoln after President James Buchanan had vetoed an earlier version in 1859, the act granted each state 30,000 acres of federal land for each of its senators and representatives. States were to use the proceeds to endow colleges teaching agriculture and the mechanic arts, “without excluding other scientific and classical studies, and including military tactics.”

Held by National ArchivesOpen archive

PM·DOC·1861·023Primary Source

Speech · March 4, 1861

First Inaugural Address

Delivered after seven Southern states had declared secession, Lincoln’s address held that “the Union of these States is perpetual” and that no state “upon its own mere motion can lawfully get out of the Union,” while repeating that he had no purpose to interfere with slavery in the states where it existed. He promised to hold federal property and collect duties without using force against the people anywhere, and told the South that “the momentous issue of civil war” lay in its hands, not his.

Held by Library of CongressOpen archive