Millions in Tassel 135 



the center of the stage in Washington. Henry Clay, "the mill- 

 boy of the Slashes/' who had cleared land for a corn-title in 

 Kentucky, was the eloquent spokesman of the corn-growers in 

 the river valleys. More clearly than any man of his time he en- 

 visioned the future of the corn belt. 



"Create an American System. . . . Encourage the farmers 

 in the midwest. Encourage settlers to take up land out there. 

 Let them know that the land will make them rich. Let our 

 land create our national wealth and create a body of customers 

 for the manufacturers. What better security can you have for 

 goods on credit than the fertility of the American soil?" 



Congress opened land offices in the new territory which 

 immediately did a "land-office business" selling lots of eighty 

 acres at $1.25 per acre. The old Ohio Land Office in Marietta 

 still stands. The total business transacted within it probably ran 

 into many billions of dollars. 



People had faith in the American soil. That faith amazed 

 some of the Europeans who visited the country. Harriet 

 Martineau marveled at the Americans' appetite for land. "It 

 is the aim of all action, the cure for every social evil," she 

 wrote. 



The value of that land was created by the corn it would 

 grow. Eighty acres meant so many bushels; and so many 

 bushels of corn stood for so many dollars. Land which was no 

 good for corn was no good at all, according to the business 

 man's point of view. Was it not the great corn wealth of Ken- 

 tucky which made Spain cast greedy eyes on that territory 

 and plot with Wilkinson to keep it out of the Federal union? 



Henry Bradshaw Fearon, an Englishman who spent nine 

 months in the Mississippi Valley during 1817 selecting sites 

 for the settlement of English immigrants, divided the pioneers 

 into four classes. First, the squatters, hunters and trappers who 

 held tenaciously to their tomahawk rights. Second, the small 

 farmers who worked from eighty to one hundred and sixty 

 acres. Then the "strong-handed farmers" with acreage from 

 five hundred to one thousand. Lastly "squires" whose tracts 



