The production of homes was the ultimate rationale for the economy, for the nation itself, and for the public policies and the activist government embraced by Republicans. Ultimately the Republic rested on homes; the creation of homes blurred the lines between public and private, and production and reproduction, so that they bled into each other. The Homestead Act underlined the connections between creating homes and economic development, but then so too did the tariff, which Republicans promoted as ensuring high wages, which allowed workingmen to establish and maintain homes. Americans
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