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Show WHOSE PUBLIC LANDS? 17 Before the measure was passed by Congress an additional change was made to assure that John Tyler would not veto it. It was amended to provide that distribution would be suspended if customs duties were later to be raised above the 20 percent level of the Tariff Act of March 2, 1833.37 As in the first distribution measure of 1833 and the Deposit Act of 1836, the Original States had triumphed by securing a share in the proceeds from the sale of public lands. However, Jackson's veto of 1833, his Specie Circular of July 11, 1836, which had the effect of ending the surplus and consequently further deposits, and the Tariff of 1842 which was to stop distribution almost as soon as it began, were frustrating experiences to those anxious to secure a share of the proceeds of land sales for all the states. The Distribution Act of 1841, despite the 10 percent bonus, prospective preemption, and the 500,000-acre grants, was not altogether satisfactory to the West. Money spent for land in the West flowed back to the East for distribution to the older states. Actually, land sales in 1841 were down to the lowest point since 1828 and during the short time distribution was in operation, only $691,117 was available for transmission to the states. Of this, $453,512, or an average of $26,677, went to the non-public-land states, whereas $237,605, or an average of $19,800, went to the public land states.38 Even in states where land sales were the heaviest and where the 10 percent bonus would count most, the sums distributed were well below those going to the more populous states like New York and Pennsylvania. The distribution clauses of the Act of 1841, for which Clay and the Whigs had fought so long, were operative for but a short time because the tariff was raised above the 20 percent level. The preemption provisions remained in effect, however, and the half-million-acre grant to each new state on admission was retained. 37 Act of Sept. 4, 1841, 5 Stat. 453. 38 Compiled from statistics in Thomas Donaldson, The Public Domain (Washington, 1884), p. 753. The increasing pressure for higher protection on manufactured goods and the great need to stop the disastrous deficits of 1837-38 and 1840-41 (which continued through 1843) seemed to leave the government no alternative but to raise the customs duties. The only other important source of revenue was land sales. They had fallen sharply since the peak year of 1836 and to increase land prices in the depression would be politically suicidal and would only reduce sales further. President Tyler realized the awkward position of the Whigs with whom he was now in dispute, and recommended suspension of distribution which would relieve the Treasury somewhat. The Wrhigs saw things differently, enacted higher duties on some goods just a week after distribution was adopted, and included in this tariff bill a clause declaring that if the increases raised rates above the 20 percent level, distribution should not be suspended.39 They next tried to repeal the section of the Distribution Act that would automatically suspend payments when duties were raised above the 20 percent level, but Tyler refused to sign it. When, therefore, the full-dress revision upward of the tariff schedules was adopted on August 30, 1842, Tyler had the satisfaction of seeing his policy of suspending distribution fully vindicated: a provision was included specifically declaring for the suspension of the 10 percent bonus feature. This was on the assumption that automatic suspension applied only to the general distribution of the 85 percent of the net proceeds of land sales to all the states and not to the special 10 percent.40 Though 1832-33, 1836, and 1841 seemed to give the old states minor victories in their struggle for a share in the proceeds of the public lands, time was on the side of the western public land states. They were threatening to exceed the older states in population 39 Act of Sept. 11, 1841, 5 Stat. 463; House Journal, 27th Cong., 2d sess. (Serial No. 400), pp. 1035, 1423, 1444. 40 Act of Aug. 30, 1842, 5 Stat. 567. |
