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How We Acquired Our How we acquired our läHQGQ 6S tS; IJG« HOW we got our land is the core of our history, beginning with the Thirteen Colonies and continuing with the Louisiana Purchase (4 cents an acre for 529,911,680 acres), Florida, the Northwest Territory, Alaska, Texas, the Pacific Southwest, the Gadsden Purchase, and others—until the national domain extended from sea to shining sea and beyond the seas. By Karl S. Landstrom, lands officer, Bureau of Land Man- agement, Department of the Interior. THE LANDED ESTATE of the American boundaries in the sense that they were people is the resource base on which bounded iDy the claims of other States the American economy functions. How to westward. The other seven—New it was acquired is the core of our York, Virginia, North Carolina, South history. Carolina, Georgia, Massachusetts, and The national domain is ail land, Connecticut—held claims to "wilder- public and private. ness" to the west. The claims extended The public domain is the remaining to the Mississippi River. portion of lands originally acquired The attention of the Government of by our Government. the newly formed Confederation was early drawn to the problem of the THE PUBLIC DOMAIN, at its broadest western land claims of the States. The extent, consisted of three-fourths of the States having no western claims con- continental United States and nearly all tended that the western claims of the of Alaska, a total of 1,807 ïïiiHion acres. other States should be ceded to the The public domain was acquired by Confederation. cessions from the Thirteen Original Maryland contended that the un- States, 1781 to 1802; the Louisiana settled domain to the west had been Purchase, 1803; the Spanish Cession wrested by "common blood and treas- of Florida, 1819; the Oregon Compro- ury" and should be made their com- mise, 1846; the Mexican Cession, mon property. Future unequal repre- 1848; the Texas Purchase, 1850; and sentation was feared as the larger the Gadsden Purchase, 1807. Alaska States would grow with westward mi- was purchased from Russia in 1867. gration. The Articles of Confederation had THE THIRTEEN ORIGINAL STATES made left the sale and disposition of western up the area of the United States at the lands to the exclusive control of the close of the Revolutionary War. The States owning them. Some States had boundaries of the new Republic were opened land ofíices, made private established by treaty with Great Brit- grants, granted land bounties, or other- ain. The western boundaries of the wise disposed of portions of iheir do main. Original States were ill defined. There The Continental Congress in 1779 had been overlapping and rival claims, passed a compromise resolution recom- based on conflicting crown grants. mending that the States withhold fur- Six of the States had clearly defined ther grants of western lands for the 19 20 YEARBOOK OF AGRICULTURE 1958 duration of the War. Eight States Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and voted for the resolution, and three Vermont made no cessions. voted against it. Delaware, Maryland, and New Jer- New York tendered her claims to sey had no western lands to cede. western land to the Congress without These cessions gave the United reservation in 1780 to alleviate dis- States title to 236,825,600 acres of land satisfaction of the smaller States. The and water area, as computed in 1912 Congress adopted a resolution "ear- by a committee representing the Gen- nestly" requesting other States to do eral Land Office, Geological Survey, the same. Bureau of Statistics, and Bureau of the New York had claimed an area of Census. This was the nucleus of the undefined and unsettled lands west of land to be known as the public do- Pennsylvania and north of the Ohio main. The Government of the United River. These lands, ceded in 1781, are States assumed the role of proprietor now in Erie County in Pennsylvania. of these lands and trustee for the people. Virginia's western possessions north By events listed thus far, citizens of of the Ohio River were ceded in 1784. the United States and the Nation by The present State of Kentucky was 1802 had acquired title to lands west ceded directly to that State. Ken- to the Mississippi River. At that time, tucky accordingly is one of the States Florida was claimed by Spain, and that never contained public domain of Louisiana was claimed by France. the United States. Massachusetts succeeded to the own- LOUISIANA, which included the Mis- ership of its vacant lands and became sissippi Valley, was early recognized as proprietor of unoccupied lands in having geographic and economic im- Maine. These lands were disposed of portance on the American continent. under State laws. The Ohio and Mississippi Rivers and To the United States in 1785 were their tributaries afforded an avenue to ceded claims to western lands that the sea, but the mouth of the Missis- overlapped Virginia's claims in what sippi River was under the control of is now Pennsylvania, Illinois, Wiscon- foreign powers. sin, and Michigan. France's claim to territory in the Maine took charge of her own lands Mississippi Valley and along the Gulf and made no cession to the United of Mexico was based on LaSalle's voy- States. age and proclamation of 1682. The South Carolina in 1787 ceded a eastward boundary of Louisiana thus strip of land that now lies in the north- claimed was the '*River Palms." This ern parts of Georgia, Alabama, and is identified as a river in what is now Mississippi. Florida; it empties into Palm Sound, North Carolina ceded her western now called Sarasota Bay. lands forming what is now the State of France's Louisiana Territory was Tennessee, in 1790. ceded to Spain in 1762. The area was . Connecticut's claim to western un- described as ''the whole country occupied lands, except to a tract known under the name of Louisiana, known as the Western Reserve, in together with. New Orleans and the Ohio, was relinquished to the United island on which that city stands." States in 1880. By treaty in 1763, France and Spain Georgia completed the cessions of ceded to Great Britain all of Louisiana the original States in 1802 by ceding east of the Mississippi. Twenty years lands that now are part of Alabama later, in boundary settlements at the and Mississippi. Payment for this close of the P^evolutionary War, the transfer was made by the United United States took over from Great States of 6,200,000 dollars, which Britain all that part of the original was approximately 11 cents an acre. Louisiana ceded to it by France. HOW WE ACQUIRED OUR LANDED ESTATE 21 Spain in 1800 ceded back to France purchase with France. The proclama- the Louisiana Territory less the part tion left the question of ownership for east of the Mississippi and north of lati- future settlement. After a series of inci- tude 31 °, which had been acquired by dents, John Quincy Adams for the the United States in 1783 from Great United States and Don Luis dc Onis Britain. Before that time, the ministers for Spain signed a treaty of cession of of the United States in Europe had Florida to the United States in 1819. been instructed to prevent, if possible, The Florida purchase cost the United the return of Louisiana to Spain. States 6,674,057 dollars for 46,144,640 France was urged to consent to the sale acres of public domain—about 14 cents of the City and Province of New Or- an acre. leans to the United States. The ur- gency of purchase was heightened by THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY was the temporary closure of the port of established as part of the United States New Orleans to the United States in by the treaty with Great Britain in 1846. October 1802. Long before the purchase of Louisi- President Thomas Jefiferson, in De- ana, the interests of the United States cember 1802, obtained the consent of had been directed toAvard the unknown the Congress to negotiate for the pur- interior country west of the Mississippi. chase of New Orleans from France. Several overland journeys were begun, Negotiations were conducted by James but none was l^rought to a conclusion. Monroe and others. France agreed to The northwestern coasts had been the sale for a price of 80 million francs. visited by ships of several countries. It is said that when Napoleon Bona- Captain Robert Gray, an American, parte instructed his minister of treas- discovered the mouth of the Columbia ury regarding the Louisiana sale he River and sailed many miles upstream. ventured the forecast that the country The American claim to "Oregon that would hold the Mississippi Valley Territory" was based upon Captain would eventually become the most Gray's discovery and later expeditions powerful country on earth. by land and water. The boundaries of Louisiana as pur- President Jefferson asked the Con- chased from France were indefinite. gress in 1803 to appropriate 2,500,000 Definite boundaries were established dollars for an overland expedition, later by a treaty with Spain and a which was begun the next year by series of treaties, concluded in 1871, Mcriwether Lewis and William Clark. with Great Britain. Furtherance of the American claim The cost of 529,911,680 acres of land was the prime motive of the expedi- and water surface acquired in the tion. Exploration of the newly pur- Louisiana Purchase was 23,213,568 chased Louisiana Territory was also an dollars, or about 4 cents an acre. objective. The Lewis and Clark expedition be- FLORIDA was claimed by Spain by gan by water from the mouth of Wood discovery and exploration.
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