Stand Up!: The Story of Minnesota’s Protest Tradition

1. “The Acres and the Hands”

5 minnesota politics began when the territory was or­ ganized. The year was 1849. The United States had just invaded Mexico and taken the northern third of the country, including California. The gold rush there was in full swing. But the real gold of the great West was, and always had been, its land. The forests and prairies and mountains were sacred to Indian people, but in a very different way they were also sacred to the hoards of squatters and sodbusters who were ready to take them and turn them into ranches and farms and towns. The convictions of those eager immigrants were captured in a set of verses printed in one of St. Paul’s first newspapers: Sunlight and music, and gladsome flower, Are over the earth spread wide; And the good God gave those gifts to men— To men who on earth abide. Yet thousands are toiling in poisonous gloom, And shackled with iron bands, 1. “THE ACRES AND THE HANDS” 6 STAND UP! Yet millions of hands want acres, And millions of acres want hands. ’Tis writ that “ye shall not muzzle the ox, That treadeth out the corn. ” Yet behold ye shackle the poor man’s hand That have all earth’s burdens borne; The land is the gift of bounteous God, And to labor his word commands; Yet millions of hands want acres, And millions of acres want hands. Who hath ordained that few should hoard Their millions of useless gold, And rob the earth of its fruits and flowers, While profitless soil they hold? Who hath ordained that the parchment scroll Should fence round miles of land, While millions of hands want acres, And millions of acres want hands? By 1849 the direction of U.S. policy toward the vast stretches of land taken from Native Americans had already been threshed out. Conservative investors in the eastern states, mainly represented by the Whig Party, argued that western land should be sold at the highest price it would bring. The money would be used to pay the national debt and run the government, and any left over could be divided among the states. This raised a storm of protest from immigrants, workers , and western farmers, who were united behind the Democratic Party and their champion, President Andrew Jackson. The land was there to be used, they said. The more it was settled and cultivated, the faster America would grow. Give it away to the people, and let them build the country! “The Acres and the Hands” 7 An even stronger argument was the impossibility of preventing people from taking the land. Whether it belonged to Indian tribes or to the government, whether it was surveyed or not, the squatter moved in, cleared a field, and built his shanty. Then he and his neighbors united to fight anyone who tried to move them out, whether by force or by law. And no politician wanted to be in the nasty position of ordering American settlers driven from their homes. So Indians were ruthlessly forced or tricked into signing treaties that gave up their land to the government, and most were deported, or “removed” westward beyond the line of white settlement. As years passed, the price of public land was lowered, smaller pieces were offered for sale, land offices were opened in places where settlers could reach them easily, land was sold on credit, and finally in 1841 a general preemption act was passed to take the place of temporary laws enacted earlier. Under the 1841 law settlers could register a claim on any piece of surveyed government land, live on it, improve it, and have first chance to “prove up” or pay for it before the government declared the area open for sale at auction. Even this did not satisfy the people of frontiers like Minnesota. Not many settlers had the cash to pay for their claims, and they lived in fear that their small homesteads would be bought by speculators with large pockets. So they put pressure on their representatives to have the government delay land sales and allow settlers to continue farming freely on public land. In the background was always the hope that Congress would someday pass a homestead act and give the land to anyone willing to live on it. As a last resort, settlers in an area faced with a land sale would form a “claim association” to prevent...