2l6 AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS 



had here for taking up ' ; that is, building a cabin and raising 

 a crop of grain, however small, of any kind, entitled the occupant 

 to four hundred acres of land, and a preemption right to one 

 thousand acres more adjoining, to be secured by a land office 

 warrant." * 



In 1790 Alexander Hamilton proposed a plan for the dis- 

 position of the public lands which reads as follows : "In the 

 formation of a plan for the disposition of the vacant lands of 

 the United States there appear to be two leading objects of 

 consideration : one, the facility of advantageous sales, accord- 

 ing to the probable course of purchases ; the other the accom- 

 modation of individuals now inhabiting the western country, 

 or who may hereafter emigrate thither. The former, as an 

 operation of finance, claims primary attention ; the latter is 

 important, as it relates to the satisfaction of the inhabitants of 

 the western country. It is desirable, and does not appear im- 

 practicable, to conciliate both. Purchasers may be contem- 

 plated in three classes : moneyed individuals and companies who 

 will buy to sell again ; associations of persons who intend to 

 make settlements themselves ; single persons or families, 

 now resident in the western country or who may emigrate 

 thither hereafter. The two first will be frequently blended, 

 and will always want considerable tracts. The last will generally 

 purchase small quantities. Hence a plan for the sale of the 

 western lands, while it may have due regard for the last, should 

 be calcuated to obtain all the advantages which may be derived 

 from the two first classes." 2 



The government was slow in formulating the plan which 

 finally became most significant in the conversion of the public 

 domain into a nation of farms. The American statesmen of 

 the eighteenth century looked upon the western lands " as 

 an asset to be cashed at once for payment of current expenses 

 of government and extinguishment of the national debt." 3 

 This desire to convert the public domain into cash led to the 



1 The Settlement of the Western Country, by Reverend Joseph Doddridge, in 

 Hart's "American History Told by Contemporaries," Vol. II, p. 387. 



* See "The Public Domain," by Donaldson, p. 198. 3 Ibid., p. ig6. 



