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Show 236 HISTORY OF PUBLIC LAND LAW DEVELOPMENT either tract. A troublesome matter of interpretation was how near the two quarters had to be, for Congress provided no guideline. It was also established that a person leasing a tract to another could preempt that tract.47 Claims Associations By the thirties, combinations of settlers- claim associations-had been formed to assure orderly buying at most public land sales and to prevent speculators from overbidding or claim jumpers from buying the land of settlers. (Sometimes, as we have seen in the chapters on land sales, combinations of speculators had been formed to prevent competitive bidding among the members.) It is doubtful whether any important sales of public lands were held between 1835 and 1860 at which such combinations did not function, and almost invariably they accomplished their objectives. Since associations could prevent speculators from bidding against squatters, why did the West feel it so essential to have preemption laws? The question was actually raised and partly answered by the Burlington Hawk-Eye and Iowa Patriot of February 25, 1841. It declared that the preemption law was unnecessary as people could ensure the same protection to settlers by neighborhood law. "To be sure, it is far better to have the law on many accounts as it legalizes a course which although universally in vogue, was in fact unlawful. ..." The settler stood just as good a chance of securing his land without as with the existence of a preemption law. Later the same paper said the preemption bill under consideration in Congress would give less protection to the actual settler than the conventional or neighborhood laws did. It favored limiting the provisions of preemption to people having less than $1,000 of property for it feared that its principal benefit otherwise would go to men of substantial means.48 It is worth repeating that one of the most important functions of the claim associations, which were commonly organized in advance of the establishment of local government, was to provide a title registration system. According to such a system titles of claims- both before and after the public sale and until county government had been created nearby-could safely be conveyed, accumulated, divided, and even mortgaged, though the government title had not yet been conveyed. Common interests involving land ownership drew people together as nothing else did. It made possible the easy conveying and reconveying of parts of quarter sections when the settlers had created farm boundaries that did not coincide with government surveys that were run later. Prospective Preemption and Distribution In western thought preemption was a symbol of concern for the settler. Though he might not need it as much as in the past, he wanted the right of preemption as an indication both of government approval of him and of its disavowal of the Act. of 1807 and other acts to prevent intrusions on the public lands. Preemption was a repudiation of the view that the government should encourage all elements wishing to acquire land to bid at 47 For useful interpretations of some vexatious issues revolving around the preemption measures, see brief of Joseph H. Bradley, Dec. 6, 1842, and letters of William L. May, Feb. 10, 1836, and R. Chapman, April 18, 1842, to the Secretary of the Treasury, N Series, Letters to the Secretary of the Treasury from Individuals, 1836 and 1842. 48 Burlington Hawk-Eye and Iowa Patriot, Feb. 25 and March 4, 1841. The Preemption Act of 1841 has sometimes been thought of as a frontier triumph, a great agrarian measure but the West, having already achieved control over the land auctions and eliminated the danger of speculators buying settlers' claims by its own devices would not have agreed. By 1841 the West was more interested in securing graduation, restrictions on speculative purchases, postponement of land sales, donation, and shortly thereafter free land. |