Homestead Laws.An act of Congress "to appropriate the proceeds
of the sales of the public lands, and to grant preëmption
rights" (approved Sept. 4, 1841), may be considered as the basis
of all subsequent legislation in regard to the matter of
disposing of the public domain to actual settlers. It provided
that anyone settling in person on the public lands to which the
Indian title had been extinguished, and who improved the same
and erected a dwelling thereon, should be authorized to enter
any number of acres not exceeding 160, to include the residence
of such claimant, upon paying to the United States the minimum
price of such land. But this act contained many limitations and
exceptions, and notwithstanding subsequent amendments seemed to
be wholly unsatisfactory to those who earnestly desired to see
Kansas developed and her population increased. At the Democratic
territorial convention, held at Leavenworth, Nov. 25, 1858, the
following resolution was passed: "That in view of the many
hardships to which settl