Congress nearly granted Mennonites exclusive land blocks to win their settlement

Evidence

In 1874 Congress nearly abandoned its traditional opposition to special privileges for immigrant groups when it appeared that thousands of Mennonites might go to Canada instead of the United States unless a great block of public lands was set aside for them. Some Congressmen objected to offering any group “a separate right to compact themselves as an exclusive community,” whereupon three western states held out the enticement of exemption from militia service. (Most of the Mennonites came.) — John Higham, Strangers in the Land, 104

Categorization

• XREF: Late-19th-century group exemptions from militia service / exclusive land blocks connect to the reader’s work on how external threat and state favorability manufacture in-group solidarity.