HOMESTEAD LAWS. Homestead laws are of two classes: those enacted by Congress and those enacted by State Legislatures. The primary object of the first class is to enable citizen, with out capital to acquire homes. The main object of the second class is to secure homes. once ac quired, against the claims of creditors. Legisla tion of the first class has done much to stimulate the settlement and improvement of wild. unoc cupied land. That of the second class has saved countless families from pauperism.
The Federal homestead laws begin with the Act of 1862, now a part of the United States Revised Statutes (S$2289-2317). Their policy is to give portions of the pnbBc lands to those who will settle, cultivate. and make permanent homes upon them. Any person who is the head of a family, or who is twenty-one years of age and is a citizen of the United States. or who has filed his declara tion of intention to become such, may acquire a tract of unappropriated public land. not ex ceeding one hundred and sixty acres. on condition of settlement, cultivation, and continuous occu pancy as a home by him for the period of five years, and of the payment of certain moderate fees. it is expressly declared that no lands ac quired under this statute shall in any event be come liable to the satisfaction of any debt con tracted prior to the issuing of the patent therefor by the Government to the settler. This provision was inserted for the purpose of protecting debtors and of inducing them to settle upon the public domain. Its constitutionality was questioned. lint was sustained by the courts. It would be dif ficult to point to any enactment of Congress more wise in conception. net in policy, and beneficial in its results than this homestead statute and its amendments. Under their provisions. more than 85,000.000 acres of unoccupied public lands have been transferred by the United States to home stead settlers. During the fiscal year ending June 30. 1901, the Commissioner of the General Land Office reports that "the original homestead entries, final homestead entries. and commuted homestead entries aggregated 111.390. and em braced 15.455.057.46 acres for actual bona fide homes to American settlers." The term 'original entry' refers to the proceed ing by which a person enters a tract of land as his homestead. Its important features are the filing of an affidavit. prescribed by statute, with the register of the land office in which he is shout to make the entry, and the payment of a fee of five dollars if his entry is for not more than eighty acres. or of ten dollars it' it is for more than that amount. The 'final entry' refers to the proceedings connected with the issue of a cer tificate of title or patent by the United States to the person making the original entry. or to his widow. heirs, or devisees. Ordinarily the patent does not issue until the expiration of five years from the date of the original entry, and then only upon furnishing the evidence required by statute of the actual occupancy ut the land and its cultivation by the claimant during that period. Provision is made, lmever, for shorten ing this term by 'commuting.' that is. paving the mimosa Government price for the land.
Upon such payment, the homesteader may obtain a patent at any time. It is also provided that the term which a homestead settler served in the United States Army. Navy, or Marine Corps, "during the lIebellion." or in "the Spanish %Val'," or "in suppressing the insurrection in the Philip pines" may be deducted (rum t he live years re quired to perfect his title and to receive a patent for his original entry.
Passing now to State homestead we shall Lind, as we have a•eady that their ob je•t and tenor are quite different from those of the [Wend 1:oremment. Their aim, it has been judicially declared, "is to provide a place for the family and its surviving members. where they may reside and enjoy the coniforts of a home. freed from any anxiety that it may be taken from them against their will, either by reason 'of their own necessity or improvidence, or from the importunity of their creditors." mi., policy of protecting citizens and their families from the miseries and demoralizing influences of destitution. of fostering the disposition to improve and to take pride in a permanent home stead, has commended itself to both legislators and judges. The former have enacted laws pro iding for large exemptions to the homesteader, while the hitter have, IN it I few exceptions, eon -.trued such laws very liberally in his favor. In most of the States, the benefits of this legislation are confined to families, although in a few com monwealths they are extended to any resident. whether he has a family dependent upon him not.
State legislation provides three distinct ways in which a homestead may be secured to the family against the debts of its owner. The first method is by a prescribed form of public notice properly executed and recorded. It must contain a statement of the facts showing that the person making it is the head of a family: a statement that such person resides on the land and claims it as a homestead: a description of the land. and an estimate of its actual cash value. The second method is by actual oceupancy and use. The third method is by a proceeding in a court of justice. Its principal eharaeteristies are an application to a designated court, a notice to ereditors. and a judicial decree setting apart certain property as a homestead.
It is not to he understood that homestead prop erty is exempted from every sort of claim against its owner, As a rule it is subject to debts contracted before the homestead was duly recorded or set apart as such; to the liens of mortgages and judgments which were on the property when it was set apart; to claims for unpaid purchase money for the property, as well as for such improvements to the property as en title the creditor to a mechanic's lien (q.v.) thereon; and to taxes and assessments for public improvements.
The amount of land which may he exempted under homestead laws varies in the different States. In some the limits are those of acreage, in others those of east value. The former range ordinarily from •10 to 160 acres; the latter from to $5000. t'onsult: Thompson, (one ste•aels elm! Exe (San ; \\ Iluttastcettls etmt Exe mpt ions (chieago, 1s0:2).