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Show CREDIT SALES EXPERIMENT, 1800-1820 135 Acreage Reverted (Not Reported Before 1812)" Year Northwest Territory Southwest Territory West of the Mississippi 1812 94,075 5,529 1813 123,571 1,607 1814 33,648 2,475 1815 42,435 2,615 1816 54,008 95,143 1817 79,287 23,613 1818 46,221 53,787 1819 153,309 137,179 74,532 Total 649,058 339,766 74,532 "American Stale Papers, Public Lands, III, 420. The second relief act, approved March 2, 1809, allowed those who had purchased land before 1804 and whose contracts were in arrears an extension of 2 years for the final payment provided they had kept up their interest payments and their land had not been resold or forfeited.31 In practice this act applied to purchasers who had acquired 320 or 640 acres. On April 30, 1810, there was strong sentiment in Congress for extending the relief provisions of this act to those purchasers of lands who had resided on their claims at least since 1809 and who were now in default, provided the lands had not been resold or forfeited. The 1-year settlement requirement seems to indicate that members of Congress believed that much of the land in default was held by persons residing on it. The House vote was 68 to 25 in favor of granting the 2 additional years in which the payments could be made. The opposition expressed deep concern at the increasing pressure being exerted on Congress for relief, feared that it was sure to become even greater as additional land was sold on credit. They favored ending credit sales and establishing a lower minimum price. Those supporting the relief measure attributed the need for it to the downturn of economic conditions resulting from the measures Congress had taken to strike at English commerce and felt that the 31 2 Stat. 533. purchasers of 1805 were as much in need of relief as those of the previous years.32 By 1812 the distress in the public land area, both north and south, was widespread. The usual petitions poured in on Congress calling for further extension of credit and for the grant of preemption. Two petitions expressed marked disagreement with the revenue feature of public land policy. One petition, numerously signed by people of western Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Illinois Territory, calling themselves the "True American Society," objected to this mode of land disposal. Their petition stated that they were poor and suffering while thousands of acres of public lands were unoccupied, and declared that "every man was entitled by nature to a portion of the soil" and that no man "ought to pdssess more than two hundred acres. ..." Six days later a number of petitions urged that the public lands should be subject to lease by such persons, presumably those who could not raise the capital to buy them.33 No action was taken on these petitions other than to refer them to the Committee on Public Lands. Congress was more responsive to the appeals of delinquents. By an act approved April 23, 1812, it granted every purchaser of government land whose contract had been made prior to April 1, 1808, and did not exceed 640 acres, and whose lands had not been forfeited, 3 years from January 1, 1813, in which to complete payments. This measure was further liberalized by an Act of July 6, 1812, which extended the benefits of the previous measure to assignees of the origi- 32 Act of April 30, 1810, Annals of Congress, 11th Cong., Part II, pp. 1999-2006, 2566-2567, 2 Stat. 591. The Senate vote was not recorded. House discussion on the measure in one of those rare occasions, appears in the Annals. Persons who had bought tracts not in excess of 640 acres which had reverted to the government because of default in payments and which had not been resold were permitted to re-enter those tracts and to have all their payments previously made reinstated on them and were given the same 2 years indulgence. 33 Annals of Congress, 12th Cong., Part 1, pp. 1031, 1042. |
