1 40 On Land Surveys in the United States. 



The necessity for the establishment of a more perfect and well 

 regulated system is indeed greater in this country than in almost any 

 other. In Europe and particularly in England the right of soil is 

 generally possessed in extensive tracts by the Crown and Nobility, 

 or by the more wealthy of the population. And as the subdivisions 

 are leased, perfect accuracy in the surveys is not as requisite as in 

 this country, where the fee simple of each farm or plantation is gen- 

 erally vested in distinct and independant occupants or proprietors, 

 thus rendering it an object of importance to be able correctly to define 

 the precise extent of ground embraced in each title or conveyance. 



It is to be hoped that the public generally and those who have an 

 influence in the management of their affairs will realize the impor- 

 tance of this subject, and that they will take it seriously into consid- 

 eration with a view of bringing about such a change as cannot but re- 

 dound greatly to the general good. 



It has hitherto been too much the case that our Legislators instead 

 of proposing and adopting those measures by which many of the 

 disputes and difficulties which affect and vex society, might be avoid- 

 ed, have contented themselves with merely prescribing the means of 

 equitably settling such disputes when they do occur. Certainly the 

 first object is of equal importance with the second and in most cases 

 the advantages on the side of the prevention of an evil are decided- 

 ly superior to those of the best remedy which can be proposed. 



It is one of the leading and justly admired features of our civil 

 institutions, that property as well as life and liberty is secured and 

 equally so to all, and the individual who conforms to the just requisi- 

 tions of the law, exercises in every other respect as uncontrolled a 

 sway over the possessions which his skill and industry have ac- 

 quired to him, as the most unrestricted monarch over his regal do- 

 mains. That this invaluable right may be exercised in every in- 

 stance without danger of interference or collision, the artificial lines 

 by which the right of property in land is distinguished, should be 

 distinctly and correctly drawn. 



In the sacred volume it is written, " Cursed is he that removeth 

 his neighbor's land mark, and all the people shall say amen." Sure- 

 ly if a malicious attempt to remove or to obscure the monuments 

 which designate the limits of a possession is deserving of so severe 

 a malediction, it must be an object of no inconsiderable impor- 

 tance to be able to establish those monuments with precision, and 

 with a proper regard to the rights of all concerned, and likewise to 



