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Show PRIVATE LAND CLAIMS 113 before 1846 in a table showing the number and acreage of approved claims.85 Confirmed Private Land Claims of States East of Missouri River State Number Acreage Alabama 448 251,602 Arkansas 95 295,212 Florida 869 2,711,290 Illinois 936 185,774 Indiana 862 188,303 Iowa 1 5,760 Louisiana 9,302 4,347,891 Michigan 942 280,762 Mississippi 1,154 773,087 Missouri 3,748 1,130,051 Ohio 111 51,161 Wisconsin 175 32,778 Total 18,643 10,253,671 New Territories, Old Problems What had members of Congress, officials of the General Land Office, judges of the District and Supreme Courts of the states and Federal government, the lawyers, and the interested public in those states where private land claims were located learned from the long, involved, and expensive adjudication of private land claims?86 When new territory was acquired from Mexico and when the treaty with Great Britain ended the joint occupation of the Oregon country, a fresh flood of claims descended. Was the experience of the past sufficient to enable the government to simplify procedures, make sure 85 Report of the Public Lands Commission, 1904. 86 Myra Clark Gaines is said to have spent $34,000 on one hearing alone in the eighties, and $250,000 for costs of suits and $600,000 in lawyers' fees but she was only incidentally concerned with private land claims and her case hung on for nearly 60 years. The costs are, however, an indication of what might be involved in prosecuting claims for such a long period. Nolan B. Harmon, Jr., The Famous Case of Myra Clark Gaines (Baton Rouge, 1946), p. 453. that justice would be done, and fraudulent claims be eliminated? Would it be possible to avoid the re-examination of claims by two and three commissions, numerous appeals to the courts or to the Senate and House Committees on Private Land Claims, to say nothing of the lobbying conducted with public officials and members of Congress? In the past, one difficulty had been that lawyers employed in defending land claims received high fees but the salaries of government officials passing on the claims were small. For example, in 1816, Frederick Bates, recorder of land titles and member of the Board of Land Commissioners, received $500 for his duties in that capacity and, fortunately for him, also held the office of Secretary of the Territory of Missouri for which he received $1,000. The territorial judges received $1,200, the district attorney who was required to defend the government title had to depend on fees, though in Louisiana he received $600. In 1820 the registers and receivers of the land offices who first tried the claims received $500 salaries and 1 percent additional on the money passing through their hands up to $2,500, but there were few fees when the claims were being considered.87 Benton's biographers have provided no information concerning the fees he took from the claim owners for representing them before the land commissioners and in the courts, but judging from what is known of the income of men like Webster, Wirt, Johnson, and other lawyers employed on land claims they would have been substantial. Able men were not inclined to stay in poorly paid government posts when much more could be made on the other side. The result was that the government's cases were as a rule poorly presented at the lower level, and even before the Supreme Court the ablest attorneys were generally on the side of the claimant. The legal machinery for determining the 87 Register of Officers and Agents . . . of the United States, 1816 and 1820. |