CONGRESSIONAL GRANTS OF LAND IN AID OF

RAILWAYS.

INTRODUCTION.1

Questions relating to land tenure, and particularly to the management and disposal of lands held by the state, have always occupied a large place in the history of nations. In the case of the United States the public domain has been a most important factor in the national development. Aside from the diplomatic and military struggles involved in the acquisition of the soil, and the relation of the slavery struggle to the public domain, the position of the government as landed proprietor has been profoundly important. Even in colonial days the management of the vacant lands by the crown, the proprietors or the corporations who governed the colonies, had important effects in political, economic, and social development. There, as later, land grants were used for political purposes as well as to promote immigration and industrial development. Colonial history affords precedents for the use of land as bounties for soldiers, for education, and for internal improvements. The question of the devolution of the crown lands after the declaration of independence, became one of the most influential factors in the history of the Revolution and the Confederation, and was only settled by the cessions of the claimant states and by the passage of the Ordinance of 1787. The vast political influence of the land question upon the politics of the Confederation has frequently been pointed out, but it cannot be too strongly urged.2 The acquisition of the public domain

'See Sato, History of the Land Question in the United States, Johns Hopkins University Studies, IV, nos. 7, 8, 9.

"And just here lies the immense significance of this acquisition of the Public Lands. It led to the exercise of National Sovereignty in the sense of eminent domain, a power totally foreign to the Articles of Confederation." Adams, Maryland's Influence upon Land Cessions to the United States, Johns Hopkins Uni versity Studies, III, no. 1, p. 44.

was the first great step toward national unity-the disposal of this domain was to be one of the most important factors in the new national life.

When the Constitutional Convention met it found the public land question settled for the time. Little attention was paid to the power which Congress should have over the lands which the government then owned or which it might afterward acquire. The subject was touched in two provisions of the Constitution, the first that "New States may be admitted by the Congress into this Union," and the second that "The Congress shall have the power to dispose of, and make all needful rules and regulations respecting the territory or other property belonging to the United States."3 The latter of these was not discussed in the convention and the discussion on the former was not such as to throw any light on what property rights the government had in the territory from which these new states were to be formed or on the question whether the acquisition of new territories was contemplated. Madison's discussion in Number 43 of the Federalist is not more satisfactory, the only point touched being the prohibition against the division of states without their consent.

It is unfortunate that as regards both the acquisition and the disposal of territory the Constitution is not more specific, and that a contemporaneous explanation of the powers of Congress does not seem to have been made. But, wherever in the Constitution the right to acquire territory is found, the public domain has grown rapidly. Originally amounting to 258,504,129 acres, by the various purchases and cessions it has been increased to over 1,800,000,000 acres. Of course the actual amount of land 3 Art. IV, Sec. 3.

"State cessions

Louisiana purchase, 1803

Florida purchase, 1819..

Mexican cession, 1848

Acres. 258,504,129 750,686,855

35,264,500

329,623,255

Message and Documents, Abridgment, 1897-98, 589. The figures are only estimates, as much of the territory has not been surveyed.

in the possession of the government at no time amounted to this. Exclusive of Alaska there have been 741,702,365 acres of land appropriated and 132,441,774 acres reserved, leaving 591,343,953 acres vacant at the present time.5

The influence, from the earliest times, of the comparatively small public domain was fundamentally important; the influence of these new and vaster areas which came into the possession of the government, and particularly their influence upon the development of the West, was quite as marked.

Some consideration of the methods by which this land passed out of the hands of the government must first be given. Of these various methods, that of cash sales has disposed of over two hundred million acres. The different grants to states, except those in aid of railroads, have taken more than one hundred and sixty million while grants to railroads and homestead entries are next on the list with a little over one hundred million each. This proportion is, however, only a temporary one, as homestead entries are constantly being made and many of the railroad grants are incomplete, while sales and state grants are steadily decreasing."

During the first part of the present century the object of the administration of the public lands was to obtain as large a revenue from them as possible. In 1796 an act was passed providing for public sale of the lands in the Northwest Territory at prices not less than two dollars an acre. Credit on the purchase price could be given. This system continued with some modification up to 1820, when the credit feature was abolished and the price

Railroad, wagon-road, canal and river improvement grants to states and corporations

State grants, general and special.

Private land grants

Total

Ibid., 592.

3,008,516

560,780 3,006,128

106,584,898

165,476,402

70,000,000

741,702,365

reduced from $2.00 to $1.25 an acre. The size of the tracts which were sold varied from time to time. Before 1800 only quarter townships and sections could be entered. In that year the minimum was reduced to a half-section, in 1804 to a quartersection, and in 1820 to a half quarter-section. A further reduction to a quarter quarter-section has also been made.3

In 1841 the pre-emption act effected a considerable change in the method of sale by giving a preference to actual settlers, and allowing them to enter the land at a minimum or double minimum price. This policy of pre-emption dated in effect from 1830 when an act allowing pre-emption for one year was passed. This was followed by extensions from year to year until the permanent law was enacted.10 While these temporary acts were intended to apply only to those who settled on the lands before the act was passed, yet the practical effect was to encourage squatters who went to the lands in the expectation that similar laws would be passed for their relief.11

Except during limited periods the amount received from the public lands has not been great in comparison with that received from other sources of revenue. From 1816 to 1836 the receipts from customs were $454,317,403 and from the public lands $79,408,379, and in 1836 the land sales reached their highest point, amounting to $24,877,179 as against $23,409,940 from customs.12 As a business investment the public domain has not paid the government.13 Yet the influence of the lands on national finances was much greater than would be indicated by the amount received from their sale. It was always expected that a large increase in this amount would sooner or later appear and plans were discussed for hastening the time when their sale would cause a great reduction in national taxation.

7 Donaldson, Public Domain, Washington, 1884, 200, 202.

Sato, Land Question in the United States, 143.

Ibid., 159.

10 Ibid., 160-162.

11 Ibid., 162.

Reports of the Secretary of the Treasury, IV, 459.

18In 1883 the balance against the government on account of the public lands stood at $126,428,484. Hart, The Disposition of our Public Lands, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Jan. 1887, p. 174.