THE FARM LAND 37 



that in 1805 there were 442 farms in Michigan Territory and, 

 of this number, but eight had a clear title to the land. 26 



This was the cause for the continuous agitation from the 

 West for preemption. A preemption law would permit squatters 

 to purchase the land upon which they had settled at terms 

 similar to those given to the people who bought land in the 

 usual way. 



TRIUMPH OF THE WEST 



Whatever may have been the merits of the eastern point of 

 view that government land should be sold for a good price 

 and the population concentrated in the East to supply labor 

 for industry, eastern legislators were unable to prevent the great 

 westward migration. East of the fall line the population was 

 almost stationary for several decades before the Civil War, 

 while the population of the frontier states grew by leaps and 

 bounds. In the thirty years from 1790 to 1820, the seaboard 

 states had sent almost two and one half millions of their citi' 

 sens to the West. 27 



By 1854 a settler could get land by purchasing it from the 

 railroads, which had been given great tracts of federal and 

 state land; from the states, which had been given federal land 

 for internal improvements and schools; from speculators, who 

 had bought land from the state and federal governments; from 

 the federal government, or by preemption The eastern idea of 

 selling western land to raise government revenue had failed. 

 Nothing showed more clearly how much of a failure it was 

 than this fact until 1832 the sale of federal land had brought 

 in but $38,000,000, while the revenue from tariff for the same 

 period was $556,000,000. 28 



The land act of 1854 was a victory for which Senator Ben- 



26 Ibid., p. 141. 



27 Faulkner, op. cit., p. 356. 



28 Hibbard, op. cit., pp. 296-297. 



