36 OUR USE OF THE LAND 



pay/' Cutler pointed out to legislators that the government was 

 weak witness Shays' rebellion, which may have been merely 

 a threat of what was to come from the rabble. And then every 

 one knew that the government was hard-pressed for money. 

 There was the war to be paid for and the states refused to 

 make their payments. Cutler promised that if he were given 

 enough land at his price, he would be able to return to the 

 government a good $4,000,000. 22 Actually the Ohio Company 

 paid to the government only $500,000, but it got the land. 23 



Another problem the government had to face was what to 

 do with squatters. Squatters were men who believed that west 

 ern land belonged to the people of the United States. The idea 

 that it should be paid for seemed utterly ridiculous. After all, 

 they asked, why did we fight the Revolutionary War? What 

 were Clark's men doing at Vincennes, Kaskaskia, and Kahokia 

 fighting for the privilege to buy land? 



Squatters usually had no other title to the land than their 

 "tomahawk claims." These were tomahawk biases on the trees 

 that marked their boundaries. 24 As one government agent com 

 plained of the squatters, their number was "immense." 23 



The result of this was that purchasers of government land 

 frequently found it already settled. It was no easy task to re 

 move these settlers, who felt that they had as good a right as 

 anyone to the land. If you went up to a squatter who had 

 waded through icy water up to his neck at Vincennes with 

 Clark, and said, "I'm sorry, I've just bought this land from 

 Congress you'll have to move," he would probably reply, 

 "Well, if Congress sold it to you, Congress'll have to come 

 out here and put me off if they want to close the deal." Just 

 how acute this problem was can easily be seen from the fact 



22 Ibid., p. 47. 



23 Ibid., p. 50. 



24 McMaster, op. cit., Vol. Ill, p. 108. 

 28 Ibid., p. 107, note. 



