It goes on. thus: SEc. 2. Be it further enacted. etc.. That all contracts that shall be made by emigrants to the United States in foreign countries. in conformity to regulations that may be established by the said commissioner. whereby emigrants shall pledge the wages of their labor for a term not exceeding twelve months. to repay the expenses of their emigration. shall be held to be valid in law. and may be enforced in the courts of the United States. or of the several States and Territories. and such advances. if so stipulated in the contract. and the- contract be recorded in the recorders office in the county where the emigrant shall settle. shall operate as a lien upon any land thereafter acquired by the emigrant. whether under the homestead law when the title is consummated. or on property otherwise acquired until liquidated by the emigrant. That. sir. is the only case in the history of legislation in the United States. in the history of homestead legislation especially. where they made anything a first lien upon the homestead of any man who settled upon the acres of the broad West. That law stood for twenty years a menace to labor. a disgrace to American legislation. a black page in American history.
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emigrants emigrant emigration