We should not object to his acquiring title to land. Now. what do we have proposed by the amendments which are before the House? It is to debar any one before he has become a naturalized citizen from acquiring a patent to the lands he seeks under this provision of the bill. The proposition will to this extent stop the settlement of the Western Territories. Such provisions of law will retard in a measure the building up of Western homes and the development of mines by the worthy immigrants who land upon our shores and declare their intention to become citizens of the United States. Before such bills become laws I ask you to go to the growing empires of the West and see for yourselves what has already been accomplished by the beneficent policy under which we have heretofore lived. Go and see the great States which have grown up in the West under the existing wise land laws. and I do not believe this House will favor the kind of legislation proposed by the amendment.
Keywords matched
naturalized immigrants