Beginning of The Dream - Homestead act made law - Extended version

Hello, I’m Park Ranger Tina Miller. Welcome to Homestead National Monument of America. The National Park Service is responsible for the care of the most beautiful places in the United States and its territories. But the National Park Service is also the primary custodian of our nation's most treasured historic and cultural resources. Homestead National Monument of America is a National Park Service site dedicated to preserving the rich history of the United States associated with the passage of the Homestead Act of 1862. This Act helped a young America grow from a small agrarian nation into the largest industrial and agricultural superpower in human history. The Homestead Act of 1862 is listed in the top 100 milestone document according to the National Archives and Records Administration. The list, compiled from thousands of documents that shaped our nation, includes such documents as the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Emancipation Proclamation. Because the Homestead Act of 1862 is one of our nation's most significant pieces of legislation, it is stored in an environmentally controlled facility at the National Archives and Records Administration in Washington, D.C. Come with me as we explore how this Act came to be and where this historic document, signed by President Abraham Lincoln makes its home today. The Homestead Act of 1862 changed our country forever. Understanding the history of homesteading illuminates a more complex history of the United States. In 1800 the United States consisted of an area from New England to Georgia and from the Atlantic to the Mississippi. By 1848 the United States had acquired all the land from the Atlantic to the Pacific and from modern-day Canada to a modern-day Mexico, shaping what would become the lower 48 states. The Louisiana Purchase, the Mexican- American War, the Oregon Treaty and Spain’s secession of Florida rapidly changed the complexion of the United States and brought hundreds of millions of acres of public land under the control of Congress. Administration of public lands may seem like an expected function of our modern Government, but in 1787 a central authority allowed to accumulate seemingly limitless amounts of land required Constitutional affirmation. But why did Congress get to decide what should or should not be done with these Lands? To understand this and the resulting Homestead Act we must look back to the development of this country and the wording of the Constitution Authority was given to the federal government under the Property Clause to dispose of and make all needful rules and regulations respecting the territory or other property belonging to the United States. This, combined with the Supremacy Clause which states this Constitution and the laws of the United States shall be the supreme law of the land withstood every challenge to congressional administration of public Land. The Property Clause and the Supremacy Clause in the Constitution gave Congress the authority to dispose of the land. And even though Congressional leaders on both sides agreed that the land was not being effectively utilized. They could not agree on how the land should be distributed. Thus, homesteading initiatives were debated in the halls of Congress for decades prior to the famous 1862 bill. Federal control of public lands was perceived by early statesman as a means to pay off the national debt. They planned to sell public land and use the profits for this purpose. However, settlers and speculators were pushing further into the frontier taking possession of the land before the government had put it up for sale. Provisions to give the land away would prevent unauthorized occupation of land and alleviate rising social ills like poverty, Unemployment, and overcrowding that was stressing industrialized cities and maximize the resources of the public lands being used, leading to private ownership of the land and increasing government revenue through taxation. The debate over what to do with the land was Strenuous, both in Congress and in the public sphere. The debate, drawn along geographic and economic lines, divided the country. The North wanted to settle the lands, but keep it free from slavery. The South also wanted to settle the land, but wanted slavery. The fierce debates resulted in temporary compromises like the Missouri Compromise of 1820 and the Kansas Nebraska Act of 1854. These efforts were futile, only postponing the issue instead of solving it. The South, after the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860 felt their way of life was being threatened and began to secede from the Union. They formed the Confederate States of America. With this, the Southern states representation in Congress disappeared. The north, capitalizing on this, created legislation previously opposed by the South including the Homestead Act. Four previous Homestead Act’s had been introduced in Congress between the years 1848 and 1860, all failing because of Southern opposition. With that opposition absent in 1862. the northern controlled Congress passed the Homestead Act of 1862. Congressman Galusha Grow from Pennsylvania authored of the Homestead Act of 1862. It was signed into law on May 20, 1862 by President Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln’s goal in approving this important piece of legislation was twofold. First, he wanted to populate and take advantage of commercial and agricultural potential in the west. Secondly, he sought to rapidly establish a western base of population and institutions that were sympathetic to the Union cause. Many presidents since Abraham Lincoln have had a lot to say about him and the passage of the Homestead Act. President Ronald Reagan had this to say: Thomas Jefferson dreamed of a land of small farmers, shop owners, and merchants. Abraham Lincoln signed into law the Homestead Act that ensured that the great western prairies of America would be the realm of independent, Property-owning citizens. A mightier guarantee of freedom is difficult to imagine. The history of the Homestead Act and how It became a law is interesting. But what happened to the document itself? The answers lie at the National Archives in Washington, D.C. where the Homestead Act is kept when it's not on public display. We begin with Dave Rosenbaum. Dave, I'd like to ask you a little bit about the history of the National Archives. Where were the records kept before the National Archives? To be honest with you, all over the place. Prior to the creation of this agency in 1934 the branches of government were responsible for taking care of their own records. They were kept and managed in those facilities in those buildings. So we didn’t have a central warehouse if you will; a central agency to keep, preserve and manage these records. So literally prior to 1934 they were all over the United States. I might also add that a fire actually took place in the Commerce building and pretty much wiped out our 1890 census documents. A tragedy if you will was Instrumental in again the move to build a building and to have a place to have better protection for our prized documents. John Russell Pope was a famed architect In the United States and he worked with with President Hoover who actually helped to initiate the move for the building. The building construction and the cornerstone itself was actually Laid in 1933 and President Hoover was there for that. Two weeks later Franklin Delano Roosevelt became our president. Roosevelt was not only a major figure in our history but truly valued and was a visionary in terms of realizing you know the importance of keeping the documents in helping to tell America’s story in the future. We keep maybe 1 to 3 % something like that of the federal Records that we feel are permanently valuable that we want to keep for future Generations. How are we at Homestead National Monument Of America able to request the Homestead Act of 1862 to be on display? To answer this question we're going to hear from Mr. James Zeender, the registrar at the National Archives. One of my primary duties is to manage our loan program. A program that makes available original Records to qualified museums for exhibit Purposes. On average we make about fifteen loans each year to museums across the country. In recent years we've loaned original letters of George Washington, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson among others and even tools from the Watergate burglars. Most importantly the loan program enables individuals who do not or cannot visit Washington the opportunity to see these gems of our nation's history. What is the meaning of the word provenance? Provenance is a term used to describe the ownership history of an object from its creation to the present. The more well documented an objects provenance, the more valuable it is as an authoritative source. In the case of the Homestead Act, we know that it was prepared by a clerk at the capitol in May Of 1862, then signed by the Clerk of the House and the President Protempe of the Senate and finally President Lincoln. After signature it was stored with the other laws of the United States at the State Department. The Act and other government records were then transferred to the National Archives after the Archives opened for business in the 1930’s. What do you take into consideration when a request is made for documents? Are the holdings in sound condition to withstand the strains associated with Packing, transit, and exhibition? Are the holdings of high historic, Monetary, or legal or intrinsic value? What is the exhibit history of the holdings requested? Light-sensitive or environmentally vulnerable items should not be exhibited for more than one year in a ten-year interval. Shorter exhibit time may be specified for damaged very light-sensitive a previously exhibited material. Can the requesting institution comply with NARA security and environmental Requirements? The National Archives employs thousands of people to take care of the ecords entrusted to them, but we wanted to know more about the document itself. Here is what we found out. Let’s see, as the exhibit liaison I work closely with the exhibits office on their exhibit and loan program. And what's very important about our loan program is that it allows NARA records to reach a broader audience that’s outside of the Washington, D.C. area. In the conservation office my responsibility is to assess the Records that have been selected for exhibit and loan. And I look at their physical condition if necessary coordinate treatment, review any loan requests that are forwarded by the exhibits office and in the review process we talked with the Institution. They send facility reports which provide us with information about security and fire and buildings structures. All the issues that we’re directly concerned with where our Records will be when they're on loan somewhere. Here we have the Homestead Act. This is a very popular item that has been on request. How long something can go on exhibit is really driven by characteristics of the record itself. In the case of the Homestead Act it's not on paper it’s animal skin. It's parchment and when I look at it I’m evaluating it for the condition of the ink which is different from on paper in that it's actually more friable because parchment can be very oily and paper when ink is written on it is absorbed. But on parchment it can often just sit on top so it makes it, the media is susceptible to transport and also to light damage. When you look at all four Of the pages together you see the range of color if it was a paper document they would all look the same and that's one of the clues that that an audience might have that it’s skin. You've seen that there's this an erasure. They erased it by scraping away the surface layer and the ink that they’ve deposited and then wrote over it. In terms of the media the beginning of the document is printed and it's a very standard Format. The printing on the first page these hand-drawn borders and and then the signature page. In general I would say for the date of the document it's in relatively good shape. It's been stored under optimal conditions now for a number of years. In preparation for a loan of a document like this like the Homestead Act, this is one of the rare opportunities where you’ll actually see it out unprotected and under a fair amount of light. When it’s in the lab will be generally try and keep it covered at all times. And because we're concerned about fading of the ink. And this one we've got different colors on the borders and then the iron gall ink. If it was paper there also could be a color change of the paper based on light exposure. For exhibit, because it's parchment, parchment is susceptible to changes in relative humidity and temperature and so what we’ll try and do is mitigate that as much as possible By creating micro environments. Each page will be sandwiched between two sheets of polyester film and sealed and then that sealed package will go into a window mat of an archival quality material and then that package will go into an acrylic UV filter and plexiglas that then gets sealed. We've now created two or three layers of protection. We call it an acrylic sandwich and that's the package that will go on exhibit. It will travel that way but when it travels of course it will get wrapped even more, a few more Layers. of wrapping and our environmental control through packaging. The National Archives is the primary custodian of our country's records, but what other records are available for public display? Marvin Pinkert tells us. A visitor once asked me isn’t that a very big building for just three documents? It made me aware, after I chuckled a little bit, that a lot of people don't know that behind the wall the contains the Declaration, the Constitution and Bill of Rights are the beginning of ten billion records that relate to the lives of every American. We decided that we'd create this interactive exhibit space called the Public Vaults. so that all of our visitors would have a chance to connect to their stories in the records. One of the major uses of the National Archives because we have all these family records, is by genealogist. People come here looking to find out a little bit more about where their family came from. And this unit allows people to sort of take a course in Genealogy 101. My grandfather worked for the federal government for forty years. Is he in the Archives? And as you turn the panel it tells you that it's likely that he is. And here's an example. This is the oath of office for a government official. His name was Eliot Ness. And for those who are fans of the Untouchables You have a chance to get a close-up look. We also point out that not all of our family records are in the archives. We explain that for example birth certificates are typically a matter that you'd find in state archives. What we have on view here is a facsimile of the Emancipation Proclamation. We hold the original Emancipation Proclamation. Now President Lincoln wasn’t exactly thinking about my exhibit needs when he wrote the Emancipation Proclamation. He wrote on both sides of the page. So even when you hear that the original is on display, the truth is that only half of the original is on display at any point in time. There’s a lot of real human life that's captured in these records. and certainly that's true for the Homestead Act. We think of the Act as the important moment and in many ways it is, but the Act only becomes real by people actually applying for homesteads. We have a continuing changing exhibit here of the records of individuals who are making homestead applications. This is one of our favorites because it's a homestead application of Charles Ingalls. You may be familiar with Charles Ingalls from his daughters writings, That would be Laura Ingalls Wilder. The National Archives houses some of the most important documents in our nation's history. As previously mentioned, the Homestead Act as listed in the top 100 milestone documents. Let's discuss the impacts of this important piece of legislation signed by President Abraham Lincoln. The Homestead Act changed the complexion of the United States and the world forever. The offer of free land encouraged millions from all across the globe to collect in the United States. President John F Kennedy called the Homestead Act the single greatest stimulus to national development ever enacted. The Homestead Act defines the American Dream. Under this law more than 270 million acres or 10% of the nation was given away in search of that dream/ The Homestead Act was in effect for 123 years spanning 24 presidential administrations. An estimated 4 million people applied for Homestead's in 30 different States with 1.6 million people proving up on their land. Homesteading had a significant impact on the history of immigration, Industrialization, Agriculture, and transportation, as well as social, environmental, and cultural histories. Today there may be as many as 93 million people who are descendants of homesteaders; they are a testament to the impact that this legislation had on our country. However the nation's American Indian population in the west bore the cost of political undertaking such as the Homestead Act which accelerated the dispossession of American Indians and threatened the security of their lands, property, Culture, and core existence. The Homestead Act of 1862 Spurred an agricultural revolution in the United States. As public land was given away to homesteaders eastern factories quickly began to industrialize to meet the soaring demand for innovative farm Equipment; linking farms to eastern factories, both quickly dependent upon each other. The developing industrial revolution was fueled by Homesteaders demanding more advanced technologies to ease labor and increase yields on the farm. John Potter, Wisconsin Senator, Head of the Committee of Public Lands, 1862 said this “We shall do all in our power to invite immigration and capital to our unoccupied public lands.” The Homestead Act changed the American social structure through its egalitarian Nature, allowing women African-Americans non-citizens, and other disenfranchised individuals a 160 acres of Free land if they were willing to become American citizens. The legacy of the Homestead Act of 1862 is all around us today. The great agricultural fields that grow the world's food, the industrialization that spurred countless technological innovations and the millions of people throughout the world that were afforded the opportunity to obtain free land was made possible by the Homestead Act. It fulfilled the promise of America's forefathers, offering lands to anyone, despite gender, race, or nationality, the chance to pursue happiness, and the opportunity to participate in America's Dream.