SERIES THIRTEEN LECTURES SIXTY-EIGHT TO SEVENTY-FOUR Economic Conditions and Progress, 1789-1865 68. Land System; Real and Personal Property Values; Wealth 69. Industries and Agriculture 70. Foreign Commerce 71. Growth of Our Merchant Marine and Railway Systems 72. Development of Systems of Communication. 73. Banking and Currency 74. Labor and Its Problems 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. T --- 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. 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. Land. 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 Erie was ultimately founded. The first land office in the Northwest Territory was opened in 1800 at Chillicothe, where all the sales were made for several years thereafter. In 1800 the Territory was divided into two separate governments, Indiana and Ohio, and two years after the latter was admitted to statehood. In 1807 land offices were opened in Indiana and in Mississippi; in 1809, one in Alabama; in 1814, one in Illinois, and in 1818, one each in Louisiana and Michigan. During the decades 1790-1800, 18001810, and 1810-1820, the increase of population in the Territory was 276,769, 492,678, and 1,201,248 respectively, or a total of 2,079,563. During the same decades the number of acres of land sold was 1,536,152, 3,008,982 and 8,499,673 respectively - a total of 13,044,807. Prior to 1803 nearly all the Govern 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. Aside from the loss of life in war and the cost of military operations, all this territory cost the United States $88,157,389 in direct cash payments, besides the sums paid in liquidation liquidation of claims of American citizens against the selling governments and in liquidation of Indian titles. From the passage of the Ordinance of 1785 to June 30, 1865, the Government realized from the sale of lands, fees, etc., as follows: 1787 Sold at New York — 79,974 acres 1790 Sold at Pittsburg 143,446 acres 1792 To State of Pennsylvania.. 1792 To John Cleves Symmes 272,540 acres.. 1792 To the Ohio Company 892,900 acres. 1796-1865 $117,108.24 100,427.53 151,640.25 189,693.00 642,856.66 177,328,675.30 $178,530,400.98 In the beginning the disposition of the public lands was considered from two points of view. It was regarded as a source of future revenue to the United States and as a stimulus to the * Estimates of the extent of the Louisiana Purchase vary greatly, depending on the western boundary of the purchase accepted by those who made the estimates. Some give the area as low as 875,000 square miles. |