The War in the Northwest 7 



probably have induced them to act as they did, even 

 had there been no others. But another and most 

 powerful spring of action was the desire to gain 

 land not merely land for settlement, but land for 

 speculative purposes. Wild land was then so abun 

 dant that the quantity literally seemed inexhaustible ; 

 and it was absolutely valueless until settled. Our 

 forefathers may well be pardoned for failing to see 

 that it was of more importance to have it owned 

 in small lots by actual settlers than to have it filled 

 up quickly under a system of huge grants to indi 

 viduals or corporations. Many wise and good men 

 honestly believed that they would benefit the coun 

 try at the same time that they enriched themselves 

 by acquiring vast tracts of virgin wilderness, and 

 then proceeding to people them. There was a rage 

 for land speculation and land companies of every 

 kind. The private correspondence of almost all the 

 public men of the period, from Washington, Madi 

 son, and Gouverneur Morris down, is full of the 

 subject. Innumerable people of position and influ 

 ence dreamed of acquiring untold wealth in this 

 manner. Almost every man of note was actually 

 or potentially a land speculator; and in turn almost 

 every prominent pioneer from Clark and Boone to 

 Shelby and Robertson was either himself one of the 

 speculators or an agent for those who were. Many 

 people did not understand the laws on the subject, or 

 hoped to evade them; and the hope was as strong 



very properly insisting on what earlier historians ignored, 

 the intense desire for land speculation. 



