PUBLIC LANDS. 



743 



marking the distance on one of tiie ascertained 

 iines, in order to get the quantity of such half- 

 quarter-sections as exhibited by his plot of survey. 

 The fractional sections which contain less than one 

 hundred and sixty acres are not subdivided. The 

 fractional sections, which contain one hundred and 

 sixty acres and upwards, are subdivided in such a 

 manner as to preserve the most compact and con- 

 venient forms. A series of contiguous townships, 

 laid oil' from north to south, is called a range. The 

 ranges are numbered north and south from the base 

 or standard line, running due east and west. They 

 are counted from the standard meridian east and 

 west. The superintendence of the surveys is com- 

 mitted to five surveyors-general. One thirty-sixth 

 part of all the lands surveyed, being section number 

 sixteen in each township, is reserved from sale, for 

 the support of schools in the township, and other 

 reservations have been made for colleges and uni- 

 versities. All salt springs and lead mines are also 

 reserved, and are subject to be leased under the 

 direction of the president of the United States. 

 The government has generally found it expedient 

 to authorize the surveying of forty townships of land 

 annually, in each land district, so as to admit of 

 two sales by public auction annually, of twenty 

 townships each. The general land office at Washing- 

 ton is under the superintendence of an officer, called 

 " commissioner of the general land office." It is 

 subordinate to the treasury department. The pub- 

 lic lands are laid off into districts, in each of which 

 there is a land office, under the superintendence of 

 two officers, appointed by the president and senate, 

 called the " register of the land office, and the 

 receiver of public moneys." There are at present 

 forty-two land offices. The register and the receiver 

 each receive a salary of five hundred dollars per 

 annum, and a commission of one per cent, on the 

 moneys paid into their office. Till 1820, a credit 

 was allowed on all purchases of public lands. In 

 consequence of this system, large quantities of land 

 had been purchased on speculation ; and also, in 

 the ordinary course of purchases, a vast amount of 

 land-debt to the government had been contracted. 

 To relieve the embarrassed condition of these debt- 

 ors, an act was passed, authorizing the relinquish- 

 ment of lands purchased, and substituting cash 

 payments for the credit system. The most benefi- 

 cial effects have resulted from this change, apart 

 from the relief of those who were indebted to the 

 government. At the same time the minimum price 

 of the land was reduced from two dollars to one 

 dollar and twenty-five cents an acre. In the first 

 instance, the public lands are offered for sale, 

 under proclamations of the president, by public 

 auction, with the limitation of the minimum rate. 

 Lands not thus sold are afterwards subject to entry, 

 at private sale, and at the minimum price. A very 

 large amount of public land is in the occupation of 

 persons who have settled upon it without title. 

 This is frequently done in consequence of unavoid- 

 able delays in bringing the land into market, and 

 not from any intention, on the part of the settler, 

 to delay payment. Laws have been passed, grant- 

 ing to settlers of this description a pre-emptive right 

 in the acquisition of a title, that is, the preference 

 over all other persons in entering the land at pri- 

 vate sale. These laws afford the actual settler no 

 protection against those who might choose to over- 

 bid him at the public sales ; but it is believed that 

 in most cases, by mutual agreement among pur- 

 chasers, the actual settler is enabled to obtain his 

 land, even at public sale, at the minimum price. 

 it is stated, however, that great injury is done to 

 the settlers, by combinations of land speculators, 



who infest the public sales, purchasing the lands at 

 the minimum price, and compelling bona fide set- 

 tlers to take them at an enhanced valuation. Should 

 the settler refuse such an agreement, the speculat- 

 ors enter into competition with him at the sale. 

 On the whole it would appear, that on an average, 

 the government obtains but the minimum price for 

 its lands, although the quantity actually sold and 

 occupied, being the choice of the whole quantity 

 brought into market, is of course worth much more. 

 Five per cent, on all the sales of public lands within 

 the states severally, is reserved ; three-fifths of which 

 are to be expended by congress, in making roads 

 leadi.ig lo the states ; and two-fifths to be expended 

 by the states in the encouragement of learning. The 

 first part of this reservation has been expended on 

 the Cumberland road ; and the treasury of the 

 United States is greatly in advance to that fund, 

 on account of this public work. It appears that, 

 up to the present time, about 150 millions of acres 

 of the public lands have been surveyed. Of these, 

 thirty millions have not been proclaimed for sale ; 

 twenty millions have been sold, and as much more 

 granted by congress for education, internal im- 

 provement, and other purposes. There are, then, 

 1 10 millions of acres surveyed, but not sold ; eighty 

 millions of which are in the market, ready for entry 

 at the minimum price, and thirty millions subject to 

 be proclaimed for sale whenever there is a demand. 

 In a former article (Agrarian laws, q. v.) we 

 gave some account of the Roman agrarian laws, the 

 name of which has long been familiar to every 

 reader, although their real character has, until the 

 investigations of Mr Niebtihr, been much misunder- 

 stood. We there observed also, that the republic 

 of the United States, like that of Rome, had been 

 much occupied in legislating on the subject of its 

 public lands ; and that, as laws had been made in 

 some of the states of the Union, bearing a consid- 

 erable resemblance to the agrarian laws of Rome, 

 we should make some further remarks upon the 

 subject in the present article. The nature of this 

 work, as we then observed, forbids the full develop- 

 ment of a subject which partakes so much of a legal 

 investigation as this does ; but we think some 

 illustrations derived from our laws, and the peculiar 

 circumstances of our new country, will not be 

 unacceptable. The laws and practice of the state 

 of Massachusetts will afford sufficient materials for 

 our purpose. This state has always owned a large 

 body of public lands, situate in that part of its ori- 

 ginal territory which now constitutes a separate 

 state, called the state of Maine. These lands, 

 both from the necessities of the state government 

 and the usual operations of capitalists, became an 

 object of speculation. They were accordingly sold 

 by the state, from time to time, in large tracts, to 

 capitalists and speculators, who, in general, resided 

 in Massachusetts Proper (as it was called before 

 the separation of Maine), at a great distance from 

 the lands thus purchased by them. Their lands, 

 being thus entirely out of their view and control, 

 were of course continually intruded upon, and pos- 

 session taken, here and there, of parcels of them 

 by emigrants from the more populous towns, who 

 put them under cultivation, and erected houses and 

 other buildings upon them for the common pur- 

 poses of agriculture. These unauthorized settlers 

 have been familiarly called by the cant term squat- 

 ters, a name naturally derived from the art of set- 

 tling upon lands in the manner practised by them. 

 By the lapse of time the mere possession of these 

 settlers, without any '"gal title to the land, ripened 

 into what they considered to be a right, although 

 th> proprietors of the soil were, in general, wholly 



