History of public land law development

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176 HISTORY OF PUBLIC LAND LAW DEVELOPMENT appreciably both immigration from abroad and westward migration, and changed the rosy optimism of the boom period to one of questioning pessimism. Undoubtedly, Jackson's issue of the Specie Circular, his recommendation that the public lands be sold to actual settlers only and in small tracts, and his stoppage of public land offerings at auction did much to offset the attacks the Whigs were making upon his administration and contributed to Van Buren's victory in the fall of 1836. But the Whigs refused to let the country forget that the Jackson administration had aided speculation by depositing Federal funds in the pet banks and by pushing surveys and bringing great quantities of lands into market before 1836; that leading Democrats had been organizers of and heavy investors in the largest capitalistic combination yet founded for investing in public lands; that intimates of Jackson and Van Buren had a part in the company; and that many other Democrats had used funds of the pet banks to buy large quantities of public lands. That prominent Whigs were also involved in land speculation was less recognized, and none of them openly called attention to their investments or advertised them as boldly as did the American Land Company. Van Buren smarted under the attacks but went on ordering lands into market, despite a statement in his first annual address to Congress that the government should "discountenance . . . the accumulation of large tracts in the same hands, which must necessarily retard the growth of new States or entail upon them a dependent tenantry and its attendant evils."81 In fact, in the first 3 years of his administration more land was ordered into market-56,686,000 acres-than in any comparable period in American history and more than five times as much was sold during these years. What was worse, these offerings came at a time when money grew increasingly scarce, especially in the West.82 The widespread attacks upon the American Land Company with the continued inference that Van Buren himself or his family benefited, the emphasis upon the Federal deposits in the pet banks and their relationship to land speculation, the insistence of the administration on putting up millions of acres of land for sale in Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin notwithstanding the barrage of petitions pleading for postponement, all carried heavy weight with people on the frontier. In 1840 Van Buren lost four of the nine public land states-Indiana, Michigan, Louisiana, and Mississippi. In all four, large quantities of public land had been ordered to sale between 1837 and 1841. Had he carried all the new states created since 1789 and won an additional 350 votes in Pennsylvania he would have had the election. Van Buren's alleged use of silver spoons and gold plates may have had some influence with people in determining their votes in 1840;, but the greater likelihood is that his vulnerable record on public land matters was a more significant factor in his defeat.83 81 Richardson, Messages and Papers of the Presidents (1904), III, 385. 82 During the 4 years of the Van Buren administration six petitions urging postponement of sales came from Illinois (one being signed by 955 persons), seven came from Wisconsin, two from Michigan, five from Iowa, two from Missouri, one from Louisiana, and one from Indiana. The correspondence and petitions in the Treasury Department Files in the National Archives are too numerous to list here. 83 For the election returns see Edward Stanwood, History of the Presidency (Boston, 1898), pp. 203-204.