MEANS OF ACQUIRING LAND 



crowded out by the great planters, they found un- 

 occupied lands in North Carolina, and later they 

 followed Boone into the wilderness of Kentucky. 

 In time the occupation of the Mississippi valley 

 was completed, and in more recent years, since the 

 great plains have been made easily accessible by 

 railways, the settlement of new land has gone on 

 at an exceedingly rapid rate. 



That the acquisition of landownership was an 

 easy task for the American farmer of the earlier 

 days is indicated by the following quotation taken 

 from a description of the settlements along the 

 Monongahela in 1772 and 1773 : "Land was the 

 object which invited the greater number of these 

 people to cross the mountains, for as the saying 

 then was, 'It was to be had here for taking up' ; 

 that is, building a cabin and raising a crop of 

 grain, however small, of any kind, entitled the 

 occupant to four hundred acres of land, and a 

 preemption right to one thousand acres more 

 adjoining, to be secured by a land office warrant." 1 



In 1790 Alexander Hamilton proposed a plan 

 for the disposition of the public lands which reads 

 as follows : "In the formation of a plan for the 

 disposition of the vacant lands of the United 

 States there appear to be two leading objects of 

 consideration : one, the facility of advantageous 

 sales, according to the probable course of pur- 



1 The Settlement of the Western Country, by Reverend 

 Joseph Doddridge, In Hart's American History Told by Con- 

 temporaries, Vol. II, p. 387. 



199 



