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Show CREDIT SALES EXPERIMENT, 1800-1820 141 entirely from the West and South. Edwards then tried to add a preemption section to the bill. When it was defeated his colleague Jesse B. Thomas of Illinois gave notice that he would introduce a separate bill to give settlers on the public lands the right of preemption.47 As finally adopted, the Act of 1820 provided that beginning on July 1 full cash payment should be made on the day of purchase at the reduced rate of $1.25 an acre.48 Naturally sales ceased as soon as the new price was made known in the West. It was not a forward-looking, statesmanlike act, as had been the Act of 1800, which had provided for land offices centered in the midst of the public lands, reduced the size of tracts open to purchase, liberalized credit, and permitted private entry after the auction. In abolishing credit for all future buyers the act hurt the pioneer settler. He needed to buy his land on credit and to retain such capital as he still had on his arrival in the West to buy the necessary tools, seed, and livestock and to carry himself for a year or more until he could begin to draw his living from his land. Had the Act of 1820 included a preemption feature, it would have permitted such a settler to squat upon a tract of public land for a year or two while getting his operations under way and would have given him assurance that his equity in improvements would be protected until he could raise the funds with which to buy. Thus the measure would have met the settler's greatest need. But Congress was only interested in ending what it regarded as a disastrous credit policy, and it grudgingly agreed to permit sales in 80-acre tracts. Efforts to include a relief section which would have allowed debtors to surrender a portion of the lands they had bought and to have all their payments credited to the balance were defeated by some members of 47 Annals of Congress, 16th Cong., 1st sess., Vol. I, pp. 458, 483. 4S Act of April 24, 1820, 3 Stat. 566. Congress who preferred to make the Act of 1820 a new departure in land administration, not cluttered up with provisions to aid debtors. Instead, as has been noted, Congress passed the last of its temporary relief measures, postponing the penalty clauses of the Act of 1800 for an additional year, and thereby putting off until 1821 consideration of a thorough revision of the laws dealing with delinquent land buyers. The End of Credit It was not difficult for Congress to agree upon a constructive relief measure in 1821; the authors hoped it would soon end the credit business in land. There was some opposition mainly related, however, to the method of providing the relief, not to the aid itself. The Act of March 2, 1821, provided that debtors could relinquish a portion of the land they had bought and have all the payments previously made applied to the remaining land. All accrued interest was forgiven. Those who had paid only one-fourth of their obligations were to be allowed to pay their balance in eight annual installments, those who had paid one half were to have 6 years to complete payments, and those who had paid three-fourths were to have 4 additional years for payments. The debts were to bear 6 percent interest but if the payments were made when due the interest would be forgiven. Persons completing payments on their original purchases by September 30, 1822, without the benefit of relinquishment, were to have a reduction of 37 H> percent on the amount due.49 Not all land debtors were anxious to rush to the land offices to relinquish a substantial portion of their purchases in order to take advantage of the generous terms made available to them. In the first place relinquishment was not easy for those who just a few months earlier had optimistically bought their tracts believing that they would succeed, as 49 3 Stat. 612. |
