Page:American Historical Review vol. 6.djvu/35

 Some Politicixl Aspects of Homestead Legislation 2 5 other matters of public policy, as, favoring an economical administra- tion, he was strongly opposed to a surplus revenue which might be used to further internal improvements.' In this he was in harmonj' with the South and the Democratic party, while the now forming Whig party favored a surplus. The matter was, however, compli- cated by the fact that if the revenue from the public lands should be kept up it would allow the reduction of the tariff, a measure favored by the Democrats and opposed by the Whigs. But the enactment of the compromise tariff of 1S33 removed this issue from politics for some years, so that it appeared that the public land question might be settled on its own merits. Accordingl}', if the West had remained firm in its demand for the public lands it seems likely that it would have secured them either by means of a homestead law or by cessions to the states. The strongest objection to these measures would have come from the New England states, while the support of Jackson and the South could probably have been secured. Adams was of the opinion that an active W^estern and Southern alliance existed and that the public lands were to be given to the states." But the West did not hold firm to the position which it had taken. The action of one of its leaders completely changed its policy and committed the Whig party to a definite line of action in opposition to cessions to the states and homestead grants. In 1832 the request of the Western states for the public lands had been referred to the committee on manufactures, of which Clay was chairman, and he had reported in favor of the distribution of the proceeds from the land-sales among all the states. Without con- sidering in detail the efforts to secure such a distribution, it is evi- dent that this would effectually prevent either a homestead law or the cession of the lands to the states.' But even if the government would not reduce the price of the lands the Western states had devised a way by which they could be obtained cheaply. The large issues of notes of the state banks, which were accepted in payment for lands until the specie circular of July II, 1836, enabled one to purchase lands with comparative ease. Then came the crisis of 1837, and for a time the desire for lands at any price was removed. ^Ibid., S97-59S. ^ " That debate [on Foot's resolution] was one of the earliest results of that coalition between the South and the West to sacrifice the manufacturing and free-labor interests of the North and East to the slave-holding interests of the South, by the plunder of the western lands surrendered by the South to the Western States." Adams, Memoirs. IX. 235 (April 19, 1835). 3 On the distribution of the proceeds of the public lands see Sato, Land Qiiis/ioii in the United States, Johns Hopkins University Studies, IV. 411-417.