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Show 66 HISTORY OF PUBLIC LAND LAW DEVELOPMENT reservation for religion to which New Eng-landers were accustomed was omitted. Actually, in one draft of the ordinance a provision was included reserving a section in every township for religion; indeed, five states voted for it, to the disgust of Madison who thought it unjust, "hurtful to the sale of the public land, and smelling so strongly of antiquated Bigotry. . . "13 Also, there were no limitations included on the amount of land individuals or companies could purchase, nor was there any requirement for improvement or settlement on the land. This seems a step backward, for both the Crown and the colonial governments had adopted and tried to enforce restrictions on large transfers of land and to require "seating," though without much success. In later years, when the land limitation movement got under way, it proved very difficult to induce Congress to restrict the amount of land that speculators could acquire, though limitations were written into some measures such as preemption, graduation, and homestead. Preemption-the right of the squatter to be protected against the speculator and to gain title to his land without competing for it at auction-was not included. In group-conscious New England, preemption was not needed and thus was nonexistent. But in Pennsylvania, Virginia, and North Carolina settlers had spread far and wide in their westward advance. Preemption was their guarantee of protection against speculators gaining ownership of their tracts after they had made improvements. Squatting and squatters were not regarded altogether favorably by the more conservative people of the time nor by representatives of the great landowners like the Penns and the Fairfax family. Squatters were a rough and sometimes unruly lot. They were contemptuous of the rights of large owners, contributed no taxes to the support of government, and caused conflicts for colonial administrations by their intrusions into areas claimed by the Indians. James Logan, agent for the Penn holdings, described the Scotch-Irish-the most restless and least law-abiding of the hordes of immigrants coming into Pennsylvania-as "bold and indigent strangers" who, when challenged for their titles, replied that the Penns "had solicited for colonists and they had come accordingly." They took up land in "an audacious manner," alleging that "it was against the laws of God and nature that so much land should be idle while so many Christians wanted it to labor on to raise their bread."14 The granting of preferential rights to squatters, which came with the opening of the American Revolution, is a reflection of the agrarian character of that movement. In 1776 Virginia enacted a measure declaring that all settlers on unappropriated and otherwise unclaimed land should have a preemption right to as much as 400 acres west of the mountains. North Carolina began its preferential treatment of squatters as against the holders of military bounty warrants in 1777, allowing as much as 640 acres to each settler. In its Act of Cession of 1789, North Carolina declared "that all and every right of occupancy and preemption, and every other right reserved by any act or acts to persons settled on, and occupying lands within the limit of the lands hereby intended to be ceded . . . shall continue to be in full force, in the same manner as if the cession had not been made. . . ."15 In 1784, both Pennsylvania and Massachusetts adopted preemption measures.16 The Quaker Legislature had experimented with preemption in a limited way before 1776 but preferential rights to actual settlers became a regular part of its land 13 Burnett, Letters, VIII. p. viii. 14 Charles A. Hanna, The Scotch-Irish or the Scot in North Britain, North Ireland, and North America (2 vols., New York, 1902), II, 62-63. 15 Thomas Donaldson, The Public Domain, p. 77. 16 Henry Tatter, "The Preferential Treatment of the Actual Settler in the Primary Disposition of the Vacant Lands of the United States" (Ph.D. dissertation. Northwestern University, 1932), pp. 66 ff. |