Economic reasons, both of eastern and western motive, were
gathered under the banner of its idealism, till finally it came to be an
ensign not only of free soil for the landless but of free soil for the
slaves. The "homestead" movement put an end to slavery, even if within a
half century it has exhausted in its generosity the nation's domain of
arable land. The voice in the wilderness cried for a legalized natural
right that would not disturb vested rights, for an individualism based on
private property given without cost, for equality by a limitation of that
property to one hundred and sixty acres, and finally for the
inalienability from sale or mortgage of that little plot of earth. Thirty
years later the natural right to unoccupied land was recognized,
individualistic society was strengthened by the great increase in the
number of property holders, and inalienability was recognized by the
States; but the failure to reserve the free lands to such actual settlers
alone and to limit the amount of the holding left the way open for
railroad grants, which alone have in two generations exceeded the
homestead entries, and for the amassing of great stretches by a few.
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