The Homestead Contingency Clause (HCC-1935-07-C) is one of two foundational documents framing the administrative philosophy and operational design of what would later become the Office of Manifest Destiny (OMD). Drafted by Lt. Col. Russell H. Drum, Assistant Director of the Territorial Expansion Branch of the War Department, the directive was originally circulated as a restricted memorandum in mid-1935 and filed under War Department settlement planning archives.

Prepared as a civilian-facing complement to martial governance protocols outlined in the Strategic Reallocation Directive (SRD-1935-09), the HCC outlines detailed procedures for the provisional assignment of land tracts in theoretically acquired northern territories, including eligibility criteria, development benchmarks, and defense oversight. Its provisions draw upon Depression-era land reform models, veterans' reintegration precedents, and interbureau coordination practices between the War Department, the Resettlement Administration, and the Office of Territorial Administration (OTA-1935).

Structured in four primary sections, the HCC emphasizes the necessity of rapid civilian presence, infrastructural occupation, and agricultural normalization following territorial transfer. Key provisions include:

• Priority allotment to veterans of the American Expeditionary Forces

• Development obligations enforceable through military survey units

• Temporary legal authority vested in military tribunals for land disputes

• Strategic zoning along the Ontario–Quebec corridor, the Alberta–Saskatchewan belt, and the Maritimes

Though never implemented, the directive represents an extraordinary window into the prewar bureaucratic imagination—its tone one of cautious inevitability, its structure echoing the procedural ambitions of New Deal planning, yet refracted through a military lens.

This document forms the civilian half of the bifurcated planning architecture upon which the OMD’s jurisdiction is historically grounded. The other half, the SRD, governs civil-military integration, legal reclassification, and provisional economic transition.

In keeping with the Office’s educational and ceremonial mission, a limited series of commemorative land claim certificates, modeled directly on the allotment formatting protocols found in Section III of the HCC, is available for interpretive display, private stewardship, or inheritance through official requisition channels.