"The Homestead Act arose from the struggle between the North and the South that culminated in the Civil War (1861-65). During this struggle, the nation followed two competing paths of agricultural development: the industrialized North favored giving public lands to individual settlers, while the South clung to its tradition of slave labor. From the early 1830s, Northern proponents of the free distribution of public land, organized around the Free-Soil party and later in the Republican party, had their ideas blocked by Southern opponents. The secession of Southern states in 1861 cleared the way for passage of the Homestead Act in 1862, against a backdrop of other important legislation that would define national agriculture policy for the next century: the Morrill Land-Grant College Act, the Pacific Railroad Act, and the creation of the Department of Agriculture. The Homestead Act went into effect on January 1, 1863, just as President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation freeing slaves"

http://www.answers.com/topic/homestead-act-of-1862

There wouldn't have been a "Homestead Act of 1862" without the Civil War.

This is the reason why 4'8.5" is the standard across half the planet.

Btw, are you aware that it comes from the width of Roman chariot/cart wheels?

Oh no, I am far too experienced in debating to be offended by that.

__________________
President Josiah Bartlet: Sweden has a 100% literacy rate. 100%! How do they do that?
Leo McGarry: Maybe they don't and they can't add.

I think it makes for a "fun" story, but it is not really accepted as "fact." Here's a pretty good writeup about it.

http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/r/railwidth.htm

Check out the road-construction in Pompei and Heraclium - they support the
4'8.5" track/wheel width.

The Romans paved their city-streets in a particularly unique pattern - using troughs for the wheels of vehicles (and for rainwater & sewage draining) but still allowing pedestrians to cross the street with dry feet.

I've never been more educated by my own shoddy joke. Thanks for the knowledge.

__________________
"Anyone that needs what they want, and doesn’t want what they need
I want nothing to do with
And to do what I want
And to do what I please
Is first on my to-do list"
-Gnarls Barkley, "Going On" lyrics

Well, it isn't often that a civil war buff and train geek gets to go all geekbuff on a topic.

As far as the chariot theory, any correlation between chariot wheel width and track guage is, in my opinion, purely coincidental.

JDD #31,

Of equal importance to the design of said Act ( besides keeping the West in free soilers hands) was the need to alleviate class tensions in the North exacerbated by the waves of new immigrants of Irish and German origins.

And of course, if you are in desperate need of manpower for your army, you certainly don't send potential recruits to farm W. Nebraska or the Dakota Territory.

Two other points:

The 2 guys responsible for the Homestead Act were Horace Greeley and George Henry Evans. While both were anti-slavery (especially Greeley), their main concern as envisioned in the Act was the need to settle the West while simultaneously decreasing social tensions and unemployment in the East.

So, while blunting Southern slavery was an aim of the 1862 legislation, it was more a side-aim than the main one. Although, without the South's secression I agree the Act would have never been possible.

Also, even sans Homestead Act, it's very dubious if slavery could have survived in the West. The plantation system was virtually limited by the 200-day growing season (from S. North Carolina to E. Texas) and showed no robustness outside of that climatic boundary.

I reference E. Tenessee (very pro-Union) and the battle-born state of West Virginia as prime examples of the poor results of slavery being implimented outside of a climate supportive of short-staple cotton.

There were many reasons for the Homestead Act, no doubt. My only point was that it is at best doubtful that the 1862 Act would have passed had it not been for the sesession of the south and the Civil War.

I agree that slavery would not have flourished in the west. Had it not been for the civil war and the end of slavery, I believe that slavery would eventually have become an economic burden to the south.

No argument there.

Repeated cotton plantings zapps soil nutrients like crazy.

Hence, kudzu: USDA's gift to the Piedmont.

Kudzu is some wild stuff. We rented a house in South Carolina for two weeks a couple of years ago. The owner had it in the agreement that he could enter the property at anytime to trim the kudzu. We thought it was kind of weird, until we saw just how fast the stuff grows.

Alton Brown (the Food Network) has a show called "Feasting on Asphalt." A great show, and he did a segment on kudzu. Evidently, it's quite tasty.

A kudzu vine can grow 100yds in 1 year. Entire sewctions of the Upcountry (now masquerading as the 'Upstate') of South Carolina are smothered by the stuff.

Oh yeah, my particular prejudice: I'm from the Lowcountry.

Then you probably wouldn’t like the truth on the holocaust being that they killed the Jews when they no longer could feed them instead of the premeditated version.
Or perhapes the pre-press release of Rosa Parks N.A.AC.P. sponsored event released with a crowd of 300 people and photographers waiting for the bus.
Oh yea, and it was the indians that were killing us

__________________
Only a liberal would know how hard it is to get a nicotine patch to stick to a monkey.

Most historians agree upon two things in the 19th century that made the U.S. what it is today.

First was the California Gold Rush, which really got rolling in 1849. This is what really made the U.S. a "coast-to-coast" nation.

And the second is the aforemention Civil War, for obvious reasons.

__________________


"The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods, or no God. It neither breaks my leg, nor picks my pocket."

Thomas Jefferson

The Louisiana Purchase is certainly one of the more celebrated events in American history. Did anyone catch the Congressional-sponsored (with a $5 million annual appropriation) re-enactment from St. Louis to Ft. Clatsop & back from 2004 until Sept. 2006?

__________________


"The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods, or no God. It neither breaks my leg, nor picks my pocket."

Thomas Jefferson