et potatoes,
barley, buckwheat, wine, butter, cheese, hay, clover, and all the
grasses, hemp, hops, flax and flaxseed, silk, beeswax and honey, and
poultry, in uncounted abundance. If he prefers a stock farm, he can
raise horses, asses, and mules, camels, milch cows, working oxen and
other cattle, goats, sheep, and swine. In many locations, these will
require neither housing nor feeding throughout the year. He can have
orchards, and all the fruits and vegetables of Europe, and many in
addition. He can have an Irish or German, Scotch, English, or Welsh,
French, Swiss, Norwegian, or American neighborhood. He can select the
shores of oceans, lakes, or rivers; live on tide water or higher lands,
valleys or mountains. He can be near a church of his own denomination;
the freedom of conscience is complete; he pays no tithes, nor church
tax, except voluntarily. His sons and daughters, on reaching twenty-one
years of age, or sooner, if the head of a family, or having served in
the army, are each entitled to a homestead of 160 acres; and if he dies,
the title is secured to his widow, children, or heirs. Our flag is his,
and covers him everywhere with its protection. He is our brother, and he
and his children will enjoy with us the same heritage of competence and
freedom. He comes where labor is king, and toil is respected and
rewarded. If before, or instead of receiving his homestead, he chooses
to pursue his profession, or business, to work at his trade, or for
daily wages, he will find them double the European rate, and subsistence
cheaper. From whatever part of Europe he may come, he will meet his
countrymen here, and from them and us receive a cordial welcome. A
government which gives him a farm, the right to vote, and free schools
for his children, must desire his welfare. And well has this been
merited by our immigrants, for, side by side with our native sons, have
they ever upheld our banner with devoted courage.

Of all the epidemic insanities which occasionally afflict nations, none
exceeded in folly the recent frenzy, which, by diminishing immigration,
would have retarded our progress in wealth, power, and population,
Nearly all our railroads and canals have been constructed mainly by
immigrants, thus rapidly improving our whole country, and furnishing
profitable business, employment, and augmented wages in all the pursuits
of industry. Simultaneously with the homestead, Congress has provided
the means for constructing