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Show 162 HISTORY OF PUBLIC LAND LAW DEVELOPMENT On a number of occasions Congress considered the problems of intrusions on the public lands and combinations to prevent competition at the sales but to no particular result. The Act of March 3, 1807 "to prevent settlements being made on public lands before their sale" had accomplished little, as is evidenced by the continued stream of memorials and petitions asking that settlers be granted preemption rights and by the adoption of 24 special preemption acts before 1820 and 15 between 1820 and 1837, including two of a general character. All these acts were framed to forgive settlers who, in violation of the law including the Act of 1807, had moved upon public lands before they purchased them.52 The Act of March 31, 1830, with its odd combination of extension of further credit to debtors on public lands and severe penalties for persons combining to prevent competition at public sales, accomplished little in preventing organizations of settlers from controlling the sales at public auctions. Existence of Combinations "Rumored Abroad" Twice in 1838 the House of Representatives, at the request of members from Vermont and Virginia, asked the Commissioner of the General Land Office to submit all information available on intruders on the public lands and on efforts to suppress competition and called for a plan to secure the public against loss from illegal entries, frauds, and violations of the land laws.53 It was late for Congress to grapple with evasions of the law that had been so extensively practiced, tolerated by Federal officials in the West, and supported by state and territorial legislation. hi Report of James Whitcomb, Commissioner of the General Land Office, April 4, 1838, in H. Ex. Doc, 25th Cong., 2d sess., Vol. IX, No. 303 (Serial No. 329), p. 2. 53 House Journal, 25th Cong., 2d sess. (Serial No. 320), pp. 643, 689, 1275; H. Ex. Doc, 25th Cong., 2d sess., Vol. IX, No. 303 (Serial No. 329), p. 3. James Whitcomb, Commissioner, must not have been happy with requests, for the most notorious speculators' combinations had existed in Mississippi and Alabama and had involved powerful political leaders, including Robert J. Walker, then in the Senate. They had occurred at land offices crowded with people anxious to purchase land they had already selected; the registers and receivers, whether or not they were participants in or beneficiaries of the combinations, were so overwhelmed with business that they could do little or nothing to prevent the collusion and intimidation. Furthermore, it was well known that district attorneys did not like to take action in such cases where influential men were involved. Whitcomb reported that the existence of combinations "had frequently been rumored abroad, and the public prints have adverted to their existence." However, on October 24, 1838, he instructed all local officers "immediately on the receipt hereof" to send any information within their knowledge as called for in the resolution. Almost without exception the officers denied direct knowledge of efforts to suppress competition, although they admitted they had "heard of" such practices. It should be said the reports were chiefly from offices where the lands had long since been offered at public sale. Busy officers did not reply. But having absolved themselves of all responsibility for evasions of the Act of 1830, the officers gave some information that bears on the problem. The Indianapolis register denied the existence of combinations in his district. He had, however, heard of combinations in the Fort Wayne and LaPorte districts that threatened violence and actually resorted to it, to prevent nonmembers from purchasing large quantities of land and then forfeiting it at the end of the day, repeating the same tactic day after day until the sale was over and the land could be entered at the base price of $1.25 an acre. The only way to prevent such actions, the register stated, was to have an armed force at the auction or to conduct the sale at some larger center, |