This collection contains congressional publications from 1789 to the present, including debates, bills, laws, and journals from the 37th Congress (1861-63).

The House of Representatives passed the Homestead Act by a vote of 107 to 16.

The Senate passed the Homestead Act by a vote of 33 to 7.

The Homestead Act can be found the United States Statutes at Large, volume 12, page 392 (12 Stat. 392).

Designed for elementary and middle school students, America's Library provides information on the Homestead Act.

Speech by M. S. Wilkinson of Minnesota in the U.S. Senate on April 3, 1860.

Search the digital collections using the subject heading "homesteading" to find images such as prints, photographs, and political cartoons.

In the nineteenth century, the United States expanded its territory westward at a dramatic pace, leading to conflict, national growth, and ongoing cultural exchange within a transformed continent.

President Abraham Lincoln signed the Homestead Act on May 20, 1862. The act provided settlers with 160 acres of surveyed public land after payment of a filing fee and five years of continuous residence. Designed to spur Western migration, the Homestead Act culminated a twenty-year battle to distribute public lands to citizens willing to farm. Concerned that free land would lower property values and reduce the cheap labor supply, Northern businessmen opposed the act. Unlikely allies, Southerners feared homesteaders would add their voices to the call for abolition of slavery. With Southerners out of the picture in 1862, the legislation finally passed.