Harmon’s Histories: Homestead Act proved difficult for political parties, governance

By Jim Harmon

Reactions continue to come in, following the sweeping GOP win across the country.

Let’s sample some:

“I look upon the result of the election as a forerunner of Republican success in the future. I regard it as an endorsement by the people both of the declared policy of the Republican Party and in its ability to do some thing in the line of its policy when in power."

“The victory is too sweeping in character to be merely a temporary wave of popular passion, and it indicates a settled conviction on the part of the people that of the two parties they prefer the Republican and its policy.”

“So far as the Democratic Party is concerned, I do not see how, unless the conditions are materially changed, it is going to recover from its present defeat.”

"This defeat will have the effect of bringing about a complete reorganization of the Democratic Party upon the democratic principles.”

“In one day, the people have wiped out a national party as a schoolboy would sponge his slate.”

Ouch! That’s harsh.

OK, truth be told: The quotes are from the Ravalli Republican newspaper in Stevensville on November 21, 1894. That’s right - 1894!

It exemplifies that a crushing defeat in one election cycle does not necessarily predict the outcome of future elections.

But those who win an election must then face the reality of governing. Sometimes, that doesn’t go so smoothly.

Let’s set the time machine for 1862. President Lincoln signs the Homestead Act, granting Americans “160-acre plots of public land for the price a small filing fee.”

It was a chance for all Americans (women, immigrants and former slaves) to be landowners, if they were willing to go west and develop the land.

Free land? Who wouldn’t want that?

Of course, there was a catch. You had to live on that 160 acres. Depending on the quality of the soil, you might easily make it as a farmer.

On the other hand, it might be so hard to develop crops on borderline-fertile soil that the new landowner might have a side job to survive while working the farm.

Now, let’s re-set the time machine to the year 1911 to find an example of how the well-intentioned government homestead program might have missed the mark.

The editor of the Roundup (MT) Tribune was livid, opining that “handsome rewards will be given out by the United States government to any one of its spies who succeed in beating a homesteader out of his place.”

“Thousands of dollars have been expended by the government detectives in their efforts to catch some homesteader driving a delivery wagon or working in a ditch or something to enable them to oust him from his farm.”

The editor was just warming up.

“When the last heel of bacon is gone, and the last spoonful of beans is eaten, the homesteader has the delicious knowledge that if a special agent catches him working for another grubstake he will be contested forthwith; and also will have to pay one-half of the cost of (the) hearing.”

The Roundup Tribune editor made clear he was “not in any sense preaching lawlessness. The homestead laws intend fairly enough to compel the occupation and development of the country by those who are getting the land, but the residence requirements are too strict when they prevent a man from working to get money to improve his place.”

With a closing roundhouse blow, he castigated “those miserable agents (as) sap-headed college graduates, appointed to good salaries through the favoritism of some old judge or other in the east. If they were farmers, or men of some sort of business experience, they would not do any harm.”

He concluded, “As it is, it seems a shame they should be paid good money that would buy so much bacon and beans.”

Today, with the 2024 election in the rear-view mirror, we all wait to see how those who’ve been elected will actually govern.

Jim Harmon is a longtime Missoula news broadcaster, now retired, who writes a weekly history column for Missoula Current. You can contact Jim at fuzzyfossil187@gmail.com. His best-selling book, “The Sneakin’est Man That Ever Was,” a collection of 46 vignettes of Western Montana history, is available at harmonshistories.com.