LANDS 



3308 



LANDS 



(see LorisiA.NA PURCHASE). Sixteen years 

 later, in 1819, 60,000 square miles were secured 

 by the purchase of Florida from Spain. The 

 annexation of Texas in 1845, the Mexican ces- 

 sions in 1848 and the Gadsden Purchase of 

 1853 rounded out the territory of the United 

 States proper to its present boundaries. 



After the territory of states and foreign na- 

 tions was thus acquired there still remained 

 to be settled the rights of those who had the 

 best claim to the land the Indians. As the 

 settlements of the white men spread westward. 

 the Indians were forced to move ahead of 

 them in the same direction. Usually the gov- 

 ernment purchased the Indian lands, and of- 

 fered in exchange lands farther west. Even 

 in the West the Indians have not found a safe 

 retreat, and many of their reservations have 

 one by one been taken over by the government 

 and thrown open to settlement, though the 

 government has given financial compensation. 

 See INDIANS. AMKHK AN. subhead Indian Reser- 

 vations, 



/">/.spo.sr// of Public Lands. The United States 

 has, from time to time, disposed of public lands 

 of a total estimated area approaching one bil- 

 lion (1,000,000,000) acres, or nearly half the 

 total area of the country. The policies which 

 have governed the distribution of these vast 

 tracts have changed frequently, but it is pos- 

 sible to summarize them. The first plan was 

 to make the lands yield a revenue in the 

 words of Alexander Hamilton, "to effect a 

 gradual discharge of the domestic debt, and 

 furnish liberal tributes to the Federal treas- 

 ury." As the country grew richer two other 

 purposes became prominent: to induce settle- 

 ment of the lands and to provide funds for 

 public purposes which would have placed too 

 great a burden on the people if paid by taxa- 

 tion. To encourage settlement, large tracts 

 were first sold to land companies, notably in 

 Ohio and Kentucky, the companies agreeing 

 to secure settlers. Later, land was sold in 

 small lots, occasionally on credit, to individual 

 set tiers. The credit system was abolished in 

 1820, and thereafter land was sold for cash in 

 areas as small as eighty acres, for $1.25 an acre. 

 After 1837, when a panic ended the boom in 

 Western lands, the preemption system was in- 

 troduced, and in 1862 the first of the home- 

 stead laws was passed. (The article on the 

 latter subject tells how preemptions and homc- 

 >/< ml* are obtained.) 



In the early days of the republic, and indeed 

 until a decade after the War of Secession, large 



areas were granted to individuals as a reward 

 for distinguished services to the nation. Nearly 

 10,000,000 acres were given to veterans of the 

 Revolution and the War of 1812, and about 

 60,000,000 acres were set aside for soldiers who 

 had taken part in the Mexican War. Millions 

 of acres were also granted at various times to 

 corporations engaged in building roads, canals 

 and railways. The construction of the Illinois 



LAND GRANTS 



Limits within which land grants were made by 

 the United States government to aid in the con- 

 struction of railroads and highways. The maxi- 

 mum amount of land granted was one-half of the 

 area (usually every other section) within the 

 shaded parts of the above map. The total area 

 granted to railroad companies was 190,000,000 

 acres; for wagon-road construction, 3,300,000 

 acres. 



Central and the Pacific railways was made pos- 

 sible by the grant of more than 200,000,000 

 acres; from the sale of these lands the rail- 

 roads have added greatly to their income, but 

 in the beginning they could not have been 

 built without such assistance. In 1902 Congress 

 passed the Reclamation Act, which set aside 

 all money received from the sale of public land 

 in sixteen of the western arid or semiarid 

 states as a special fund for the construction and 

 operation of irrigation systems (see IRRIGA- 

 TION). 



Perhaps the most important of all land gifts 

 have been those to the states to encourage 

 education. All states admitted to the Union 

 before 1850 received one-thirty-sixth of their 

 area one section in each township as a foun- 

 dation for a school fund. Those admitted since 

 1850 have received two sections in each town- 

 ship. The land thus granted about 75,000,000 

 acres is a small fraction of the total granted 

 in other ways, but it has been the means of 

 providing each new state with revenue to es- 

 tablish its public school system. Each state on 

 its admission has also received a tract of from 

 one to four townships to create a fund for a 

 state university, and by the Merrill Act of 

 1862 it also receives an area proportionate to 



