This was Congress, notably in the Act of May 18, 1796. the first land ordinance which the new Congress passed since its organization in 1789. There was nothing especially original in it, for it was a modification of the Ordinance of 1785, with the embodiment of some of Hamilton's suggestions. The leading features of the old ordinance—i. e., the system of surveys, and the method of dividing land into townships, and of subdividing the townships into sections; the procedure of sale; the reservation of certain sections in each township for specific purposes-were all retained in this act. The creation of the office of a Surveyor-General, the formal inauguration of a credit system, and the payment of certain fees for certificates and patents, were things recommended by Hamilton, and they were now made law by this act. The price of land, instead of being reduced, as recommended by Hamilton, was doubled, being now fixed at $2 per acre. The next important change in the land system was introduced by the Act of May 10, 1800. This act created the office of Register and Receiver, whose duty was to take charge of a land office. The act created in all four land offices one at Cincinnati, one at Chillicothe, one at Marietta, and one at Steubenville. They were the first land offices established by Congress. The present method of disposing of public lands through district land offices began at this time. Hitherto land had been sold in quarter townships and sections. The above act ordered the Surveyor-General to make further subdivisions of land-that is, into half sections. In 1804, provision was made for the division of land into quarter sections, and in 1820 the minimum quantity was reduced to half-quarter sections; still later to quarter-quarter sections-i. e., 40 acres-which is the present minimum body of land for sale. Another important provision of the above act related to the so-called "offered lands." Such lands as remained unsold 1 Laws of the United States, II. 533. 2 Statutes-at-Large, II. 73. at the public vendue were subject to private sale at the then minimum price of $2 per acre. Some change was made in the mode of paying the purchase-money. Credit was allowed for four years. Payment could be made in four instalments, one fourth part of the purchase-money being paid each year. This method reduced considerably the revenue from public lands, the amount received in 1800 being only $443.75.1 But, on the whole, this plan was an improvement upon the Act of 1796, and it was the first serious attempt toward the establishment of a general land system. There intervened several decades between this time and the institution of a general pre-emption act. During this interval there were several important agrarian measures of both a general and a special character. During the first half of this period the purchase of Louisiana and Florida was effected. In 1805, a standing committee on public lands was appointed in the House of Representatives. In 1812, the General Land Office was organized. The public lands were now being rapidly settled, and several new States arose. Nothing is so remarkable as the rapid increase of population in the public-land States. In 1800, the entire Northwest contained only 50,000 inhabitants, the ratio of population being about one tenth to every square mile; while in 1840 the population had increased to 2,920,000, the ratio therefore increasing to about seven per square mile. In Ohio alone, from 1800 to 1810, the increase was nearly 409 per cent. THE CREDIT FEATURE IN THE LAND SYSTEM. The first forty years of the present century can be called the formative period of the general land system. The bitterest political controversy was connected with this period. As the struggle of the landed States in the old Congress had been to prevent the institution of the public lands, so now the struggle of the new landed States was to break up and 1 Public Domain, 17. * See Tenth Census of the United States-Population, Part I. 4. appropriate the public lands within their own jurisdiction. To this period belongs one of the measures which instituted the so-called "American System" for internal improvement, and led the way to gigantic land grants which subsequently became sources of corruption and abuse. Again the country reached its most prosperous period, and the public debt was almost extinguished. As the surplus revenue is an economic problem in the United States to-day, so was it in this period of national history. Especially was it the case with the proceeds of public-land sales. Hence arose the question of distribution of proceeds, which for a time was carried by its friends. During the early part of the present century, the land system presented one most discouraging feature. This was speculation in public lands. Speculation was an outcome of the credit feature in the land system. The Act' of 1800 provided: First, that every purchaser of public lands should pay toward surveying expenses six dollars for every section of land, and three dollars for every half section. Secondly, that the purchaser should deposit one-twentieth part of the purchase-money at the time of purchase, and one-quarter of the entire purchase-money, including the deposit, within forty days. A second quarter had to be paid within two years, a third quarter within three years, and the last quarter within four years after the day of purchase. Thirdly, that the purchaser should pay to the Register of the Land Office, when application was made, a fee of three dollars for every section and two dollars for every half section. Fourthly, that a fee of five dollars for patenting a section, and a fee of four dollars for patenting a half section, should also be required from every purchaser. MOVEMENT OF POPULATION WESTWARD. The terms of purchase provided by the Act of 1800 were very liberal, and offered sufficient inducement for enterpris 1 Statutes-at-Large, II. 73. ing men to emigrate westward. At this time, several States of the Union were making primary disposition of lands within their own boundaries. Massachusetts was selling her lands in Maine; Connecticut, her "Western Reserve" in Ohio; Pennsylvania, her chartered lands through the State Land Office; while Virginia put into the market her lands in Kentucky; North Carolina, her lands in Tennessee; and Georgia, her lands in Alabama and Mississippi.' The States offered their lands at a reduced price, so that Federal and State public lands came into open competition in the market. The nineteenth century opened in America with the westward movement of population. European nations were at that time involved in the Napoleonic wars; consequently, emigration from the Old World was small. Prior to 1820, it has been estimated that the number of immigrants averaged about 8,000 persons per annum. It was not, therefore, emigrants from Europe that moved to the West at this particular period of American history, but rather emigrants from the eastern part of the United States. Land could be obtained for an insignificant sum of money. The terms were so liberal that settlers could pay the price of land with the first produce of their newly-broken farms. Let us observe with how little money a settler could take up a section of 640 acres. A cash payment of $331 was all that the settler needed in order to acquire this vast estate. The charges were distributed as follows: 1. Register's fee for application, 2. Expense for surveying, 3. One-twentieth of $1280, the price of a section at $2 per acre, to be deposited, 4. One-fourth of $1280, including deposit, paid within forty days after purchase, 5. Other small fees, 1 Public Domain, 202. $3.00 6.00 64.00 256 00 2.00 $331 00 The American Almanac, 1884, 27. Total charges, As we have already seen, the other three-fourths ($960) of the purchase-money could be paid in three instalments, one each year, after the second year following the purchase, so that it required in all four years for the Government to realize the entire purchase-money. Any enterprising and industrious settler would be able to realize something from his newly-acquired land within two years of settlement, and thus find means for the payment of another fourth part of his indebtedness. At any rate, the agrarian inducements were so attractive to eastern farmers that a great exodus began to the Western Territory. Speaking of the movement of settlers in the western part of New York, John Bach McMaster says: "They formed companies and bought millions of acres. They went singly, and purchased whole townships as fast as the surveyors could locate, buying on trust and selling for wheat, for lumber, for whatever the land could yield or the settler give." In another place he says: "In 1800, the high-peaked wagons, with their white canvas covers, the little herd, the company of sturdy men and women, were to be seen travelling westward on all the highways from New England to Albany, and from Albany toward the Lakes. They were the true settlers, cleared the forests, bridged the streams, built up towns, cultivated the land and sent back to Albany and Troy the yield of their farms." What was thus true of the western frontier of New York, was also true of the Ohio Valley. Restless immigrants kept constantly moving westward. Not all, however, were bona-fide settlers: some were land speculators, who bought real estate on credit with the hope of a future rise in value. The credit system resulted in financial distress to many of the settlers. They became encumbered with debts to the Government, and the Government became the creditor of the distressed pioneers. On the 1st of October, 1808, the amount 'McMaster's History of the People of the United States, II. 573. 2 lbid. 574. |