1871 Marin County Congressman Proposes “Land for the Toiling Poor”
by Robert L. Harrison
Homelessness has been and continues to be a serious problem in California and Marin County. Estimates for 2019 were set at more than 150,000 statewide with at least 1,000 people without a home in Marin. The winter 2020/2021 totals are expected to be even greater, perhaps far greater, than the 2019 estimates. Many agencies are working on solutions but the homeless problem endures.
In 1871, 150 years ago, the Congressman representing Marin County proposed a public policy to house the poor. John Maxwell Coghlan, a Republican representing California’s 3rd Congressional district, proposed two constitutional amendments to dispose of “the vast public domain as homes to the toiling poor.” In 1871 Marin County was included in California’s 3rd Congressional District that extended from the Bay Area east to Nevada and north to Oregon.
Coghlan (1835–1879), was born in Louisville, Kentucky, moved in 1850 with his parents to Suisun City where he practiced law. He served in the 42nd Congress (1871–1873), lost his bid for reelection and went on to serve as United States Attorney for the Northern District of California from 1876 to 1878. Later he practiced law in Oakland until his death in 1879.
In December 1871 Coghlan proposed this constitutional amendment:
The public land of the United States shall not be disposed of except to actual settlers thereon, for homestead purposes only, and in quantities limited by general laws.
The proposed amendment was read for a first and second time and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.
The following are extracts from his January 27, 1872 argument before the House of Representatives as reported by the Marin Journal on March 9th:
“I hold the following proposition to be true: that the public lands belong to the people; that they should only be parted with in small quantities as homesteads for the poor, and that this can only be reached by constitutional amendment….”
“All history teaches that the land-holder is a friend to stable government….Save the public domain for the people, and centuries will elapse before this happy land will see that crushing, abject poverty, so common in Europe.…”
“The railroad land-grant system is not the only evil which this amendment would cure. The infamous system of the private entry of the public lands would forever be crashed out; the system by which the capitalist is made richer, the poor of the country poorer, and by which the Government does not gain one cent…. Contrary to those who favor the granting of the public land for internal improvement, I contend that the rule I ask this House to make would give an impetus to the settlement of the great West which would outstrip the fancied rapidity with which railway lines settle up the country.”
Coghlan was well aware that land grants to the railroads had not only stimulated economic expansion but were frequently awarded with undue political influence. California’s railroad land grants totaled 11.5 million acres, about 11% of the state’s total land area. Perhaps even greater than their impact on land and development, railroads had become a substantial power in the affairs of government. Leland Stanford, for example, while Governor and also served on Southern Pacific’s Board of Directors and later as President of the railroad. This led to charges of corruption and scandal enhanced by the rivals of the railroad’s management.
Coghlan’s argument referenced the Civil War:
“….the late gigantic struggle with the South has only too vividly portrayed the tenacity which the large landed proprietor clings to a system without which his large estates are cumbersome and of no value…”
He concluded his presentation before the House: “I ask the Republican members to assist me in placing this, the brightest gem of all, in the crown of the great Republican party. It has much to be proud of…. It has conquered the gigantic rebellion against this Republic and thus saved to the humble and downtrodden of all nations an asylum and a home, where all men are equal before the law…. It passed the homestead law, more beneficent in its purpose than any other law passed by any nation of the earth. Let us add this to the diadem of its brilliant deeds, that it gave all the vast public domain as homes to the toiling poor.”
A vote was held on April 8, 1872 on Coghlan’s amendment to the constitution. His fellow Republicans expressed opposition, voting 55 Noes to 43 Yeas. Interestingly, a small Democratic party majority supported the amendment with 43 Yeas to 33 Noes. Nonetheless, the measure went down on a total vote of 86 in favor, 88 against, and 67 not voting. In the 42nd Congress all of California’s Representatives were Republicans and all three, including Coghlan, supported the measure. Because the proposal was a constitutional amendment, two-thirds of the House was needed to approve.
Coghlan did not give up on his plan to make public lands available only to homesteaders. He introduced a nearly identical constitutional amendment on December 9, 1872. The bill apparently died in the Committee on Public Lands.
In 1872 Coghlan ran for reelection but was defeated by Democrat John K. Luttrell. Marin County voted for the Republican, 573 favoring Coghlan to 262 for Luttrell. Coghlan enjoyed a successful private law practice for much of his life but his effort to provide public land exclusively for the working poor was never fulfilled.
