THE UNITED STATES CHAPTER I. LAND SYSTEM: REAL AND PERSONAL PROPERTY VALUES: NATIONAL WEALTH. Turning points in our land history - Sale of public lands after the Ordinance of 1787 - Territorial expansion by purchase and annexation — The liberal policy in the disposition of public lands - National land bureau under the Department of the Interior - Record of government sales of land from 1821 to 1865 - The last days of the manorial land system Property in the various States at the close of the Revolution Assessed valuation for 1813 - The first true valuation of 1850 Improved and unimproved farm lands in the States - Remarkable growth in property in the South Conditions preceding the Civil War - Nature of colonial wealth Foundation for its subsequent growth — Estimates for the first decades of the Nineteenth century - Remarkable increase in fifty years - The Bank of the United States as a factor in this expansion - Estimates of National wealth since 1850- Our material status compared with that of European nations - Uninterrupted prosperity since the Civil War - Details and causes. HREE things in particular characterized the land history of the United States in the seventy years preceding the Civil War: the settlement of the Northwest domain, the acquisition of new territory by purchase or by conquest, and the wiping out of the last vestiges of feudal ownership in New York State. Land. After the passage of the Ordinance of 1787 the sale of the public domain proceeded slowly, although the settlement of the country had already reached considerable proportions. The sale of the land was entrusted to the Secretary of the Treasury, and under him the laws were executed by a land office, with a commissioner at its head. In 1797 the first sales took place in New York, where a tract on the shores of Lake Erie was acquired by Pennsylvania for the purpose of a port. It was there that the city of 212 THE LAND SYSTEM. ment land was in the great Valley of the Mississippi. In 1790 the population of that section was about 109,000, but by 1800 it had increased to nearly 400,000. The only outlet for the produce of these people was down the Mississippi River through the French territory of Louisiana. Here lay one of the prime reasons for the purchase of Louisiana in 1803, by which the United States acquired an additional domain of about 1,000,000 square miles. Although Louisiana had been a French and a Spanish province, feudalism had never been established there. Grants of land were all allodial and were made under no other conditions than those of cultivation and improvement within limited periods: in fact, they were held essentially in fee-simple. Thus the tenure of land in the new territory presented no features essentially different from those existing in the older parts of the United States. * The boundary dispute with Spain resulted in the addition of the Florida territory to the land possessions of the United States. By the annexation of Texas in 1845 the United States expanded, but by that transaction nothing was added to the public domain. Subsequent National acquisitions were those of California and New Mexico in 1849, of the Gadsden purchase in 1853, and of Alaska in 1867. The following table shows the growth of the territory of the United * Historical Collections of Louisiana, vol. i, P. 15. THE LAND SYSTEM. formation of new States. During the early years of the Republic this conservative policy was followed. Gradually, however, the lands ceased to be an object of revenue, and more and more were disposed of with a view to settlement and development. Grants were made to States, corporations and individuals without compensation, and in course of time this liberal policy resulted in many flagrant abuses. Large grants were made to States for commendable purposes, such as education, and other grants were made to corporations to encourage the building of railroads. It was in the grants to corporations and individuals for business and speculative purposes that most of the wrong-doing that discredited the land department of the Government in the Nineteenth century developed. Nevertheless, despite all fraud and weakness, the land policy of the country has been the prime source of our National greatness. The following table shows how the country grew in area of settlement and in population in each census decade from 1790 to 1860: Years 213 of the commissioner in charge were greatly enlarged and the office placed under the immediate direction of the President. When the Department of the Interior was created in 1849, the land office was placed in that department. The commissioner has entire charge of the public domain, his duties being to discharge or supervise all executive acts appertaining to the surveying and sale of the lands and to keep the necessary records thereof. The annual reports of the commissioner have been exceedingly valuable, constituting a complete history of the public domain from its beginning, its original acquisition, its growth and the disposition that has been made of it. Beginning with 1821 and ending with 1865, the annual Government sales of acres of land were as follows: Area of settle ment in square miles THE LAND SYSTEM. 1,521,305 1,553,071 1,083,495 7,038,735 1855 15,729,524 9,227,878 3,804,908 3,961,580 4,000,000 9,109,075 To 1870 the total sales of lands, including grants under the homestead laws, were 176,488,736 acres. In addition to the lands sold, the Government donated land as follows: 1,263,730 and development. Most of these were in the central or western part of the colony. Among them were such estates as the Desbrosses (60,000 acres), the Morgan Lewis (20,000 acres), the Verplanck (50,000 acres), the Harper (250,000 acres), acquired in 1678, and the Blenheim (40,000 acres), acquired 4,142,744 in 1769. At the close of the Revolution New York became the owner of the unsold crown lands within its bounds and proceeded to dispose of them, with a generous hand, to individuals and companies. Thus in 1791 came into existence the Macomb purchase of 3,635,000 acres, in 1788 the Phelps and Graham purchase of 2,600,000 acres, in 1792 and 1793 the Holland purchase of some 3,600,000 acres, and others. Some of these lands were sold outright to settlers in parcels of moderate size, but greater areas were rented on long or perpetual leases. Various conditions of rent payment attached to these leases, and 17,645,244 in course of time the tenants began to feel that their rents were a heavy burden and that the inability to become owners in fee-simple of the farms which they had reclaimed from the wilderness was even a more grievous cause for complaint. Acres 69,066,802 6,851,989 44,971 12,403,054 2,240,184 146,860 61,076,922 514,588 13,980,700 47,875,246 27,453,522 8,955,394 1,396,286,164 As an inheritance from the early colonial period, New York had a firmly fixed and extensive manorial system of land ownership. In addition to the In addition to the early grants along the Hudson River The system operated not only to the detriment of the tenant land-holders, but also adversely affected the occupancy and improvement of these parts of the States. Agitation against the system began to manifest itself vigorously before the end of the century. In 1795 inhabitants of Columbia |