Louisiana and Aaron Burr 279 



settlers. Congress granted great tracts of lands to 

 companies and to individuals, selling to the highest 

 bidder, whether or not he intended personally to 

 occupy the country. Public sales were thus con- 

 ducted by competition, and Congress even declined 

 to grant to the men in actual possession the right 

 of pre-emption at the average rate of sale, refusing 

 the request of settlers in both Mississippi and In- 

 diana that they should be given the first choice to 

 the lands which they had already partially cleared. 45 

 It was not until many years later that we adopted 

 the wise policy of selling the National domain in 

 small lots to actual occupants. 



The pioneer in his constant struggle with poverty 

 was prone to look with puzzled anger at those who 

 made more money than he did, and whose lives were 

 easier. The backwoods farmer or planter of that 

 day looked upon the merchant with much the same 

 suspicion and hostility now felt by his successor for 

 the banker or the railroad magnate. He did not 

 quite understand how it was that the merchant, who 

 seemed to work less hard than he did, should make 

 more money; and being ignorant and suspicious, 

 he usually followed some hopelessly wrong-headed 

 course when he tried to remedy his wrongs. Some- 

 times these efforts to obtain relief took the form 

 of resolutions not to purchase from merchants or 

 traders such articles as woolens, linens, cottons, hats, 

 or shoes, unless the same could be paid for in 



44 American State Papers, Public Lands, 1, 261 ; also pp. 71, 

 74, 99, etc. 



