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Show PREEMPTION 235 veyor and the proclamation of sale, selecting land as they wished contrary to the intrusion laws, and demanding the right of preemption. As soon as one group of settlers was forgiven for past intrusions, others appeared farther out on the frontier. Respect for law was declining. Graduation of the price was Van Buren's remedy, but he felt that preemption should be granted first, then graduation, and then steps should be taken to guard against future intrusions. Van Buren's somewhat confused and less than frank discussion in his first annual message, with its erroneous statement that lands had been brought into market no faster than good lands had been wanted, "thereby preventing the accumulation of large tracts in a few hands," did, however, support both graduation and preemption. Democrats were in the saddle and by a vote of 30-18 in the Senate and 107-53 in the House they pushed through the Preemption Act of 1838. It was signed by Van Buren on June 22.43 The general Preemption Act of 1838 which had a life of 2 years allowed the right of preemption to every settler who was the head of a family, or who was 21 years old and in possession by personal residence on public lands at the time of the passage of the act; excepted were settlers on the Miami lands of Indiana, on the alternate reserved lands adjacent to canals, and on Indian lands. Complaints of the Land Office officials had thus induced Congress to tighten up on the requirements of the law to prevent persons from hiring others to establish a preemption right for them. However, in so prescribing conditions for preemption Congress was making more difficulties for the administrators who had to interpret these 43 James D. Richardson, Messages and Papers of the Presidents (1904), III, 388-89. Cong. Globe, 25th Cong., 2d sess., Jan. 30, 1838, p. 191; House Journal, 25th Cong., 2d sess., June 14, 1838, p. 1101. Roscoe L. Lokken in Iowa Public Land Disposal, p. 83, makes a point of saying that Congress "again suspended for two years" the Act of 1807. - limitations, knowing that the legislators wanted a liberal interpretation to apply to actual settlers but not to parties attempting to take advantage of the laws to accumulate land. Again there are no complete figures showing the number and acreage of entries under the Preemption Act of 1838, but Senator Clement Clay of Alabama produced statistics to the effect that in the 19 months following the adoption of the measure 752,972 acres were preempted. This was less than one-half the amount of land sold at auction in the same period and less than one-sixth of the amount sold at private entry. However, such an acreage would represent 9,412 preemption claims of 80 acres or one-half as many 160-acre claims.44 Van Buren attempted to analyze the results of the Act of 1838 in his annual message to Congress in 1840 but he offered little more than bland praise for the measure. It "has been attended with the happiest consequences in quieting titles and securing improvements to the industrious, and it has also to a very gratifying extent been exempt from the frauds which were practiced under previous preemption laws." Notwithstanding the fact that income from lands in 1840 was less than half that of 1839, he was convinced that it had "contributed liberally during the present year to the receipts of the Treasury."45 In anticipation of the lapsing of the preemption privilege accorded by the Act of June 22, 1838, the Senate on April 21, 1840, voted 26-9 to extend it for 2 additional years, and the House on May 26 approved the extension by 121-64.46 The new measure further liberalized the preemption privileges by allowing settlers residing on one quarter section and cultivating another to acquire 44 Tatter, "Preferential Treatment," p. 333. 45 Richardson, Messages and Papers of the Presidents, III, 537. 48 Senate Journal, 26th Cong., 1st sess. (Serial No. 353), p. 329; House Journal 26th Cong., 1st sess. (Serial No. 362), p. 1031; 5 Stat. 456. |
