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Show 224 HISTORY OF PUBLIC LAND LAW DEVELOPMENT the western Representatives presented the squatters as loyal people who had exhausted their resources in reaching the West and had defended the frontier against the Indians. They had commenced the arduous business of farm making and now, fearful of losing the value of their improvements to speculators, were petitioning for preemption. There was some truth to both stereotypes. Among the squatters were greedy landlookers spying out tracts they might claim and resell; at the same time there were many more who were struggling to survive and who, without preemption, might lose their claims and have to start anew elsewhere or become tenants of the purchasers of their claims. Preemption was becoming a major sectional issue, with Representatives of the public land states favoring, and those of the non-public-land states opposing it. Acreage of Preemption Entries, 1820-1829* Year Quantity Mississippi Louisiana Arkansas Florida Alabama 1820____ 676 1821. 1,286 98,197 1822 1823 345 1824.. . 8,103 1825 222 1826 43,293 1827 19,466 1828 5,507 1829____ 2,622 676 1,286 80,195 345 6,879 7,159 320 18,022 1,224 222 1,068 326 35,066 19,466 4,227 1,976 1,280 American State Papers, Public Lands, VIII, 701. Data for other states is not available before 1830. Preemption Act of 1830 In 1830 a general preemption measure cleared Congress and was signed by Jackson under circumstances that seem hardly credible. Senator Foote of Connecticut had introduced his famous resolution proposing the suspension of further surveys and the abolition of the office of surveyor general. It was immediately taken by Benton and other western men to indicate the desire of the East to slow down, if not to halt, the movement of population from the East to the West and to stop the rapid growth of the western states. Benton challenged the East for its selfishness, its continued provincialism, and its myopia concerning the real significance for the East of the growth of the West. Then speeches by Webster and Hayne changed the issue from a purely sectional one to a constitutional one. This aspect of the question so absorbed the attention of Congress, the editors of the Debates and local newspapers, that it tended to crowd out all mention of other issues. More important was the fact that Hayne was trying to cement the political ties binding the West with the South. Just at this moment a general preemption measure came before the Senate. If adopted, it would forgive past intrusions on the public lands and permit every squatter not on reserved lands to enter his land for $1.25 an acre. In ordinary times the bill might have aroused the lions of the Senate to prolonged debate and have been defeated in the end, but not so this time. |