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Show CREDIT SALES EXPERIMENT, 1800-1820 127 partment and another in the local land office. When fires or earthquakes (San Francisco) destroyed local records, it was possible to reconstruct them. With such a complete check upon each of the officers in each land district, the Treasury Department ought to have had early knowledge of misuse of funds. Nevertheless, defaulting officers and heavy government losses were common in the Jackson period. From 1800 to 1946 registers and receivers retained their position in offices all the way from Gainesville, Florida, to Seattle, Washington. At times they were rushed to the limit to handle business and at other times there was little for them to do, so few were the inquiries for land. For at least 50 years before 1946, the Commissioners were recommending that one of the positions be abolished but not until President Roosevelt did so by a reorganization order in 1946 was the position of register ended. A third but temporary official-the Superintendent of Public Sales-was provided for in the Act of 1800. Under the Ordinance of 1785 and the Act of 1796 all public lands to be opened to sale and settlement were required first to be put up at public auction, where it was expected there would be competitive bidding at least for the most promising lands. Since the register and the receiver would be busy filling out purchase papers, making entries and receiving money, a superintendent of public sales was to be appointed; his tenure would last only for the duration of the sale that might be 3 weeks or longer. He was to cry the land, ask for bidders, and knock down the parcels to the one offering the highest price, or quickly pass over tracts not drawing bids. After the auction, the unsold land was to be open to "private sale" at the minimum price of $2.00 an acre in 1800 (after 1820, $1.25 an acre). It was classified as "offered" land and could be entered in any amount for cash (or credit), scrip or warrants (when they became available). The distinction between "offered" land and "unoffered" land is of fundamental importance. Surveyed but unoffered land was only to be open to preemption between 1841 and 1862; the newer tracts being surveyed and opened to settlement after 1862 were not offered and could only be homesteaded or preempted in 160-acre units, not bought in large tracts. Creation of General Land Office In 1812 the administrative organization for the public lands was brought to the form it was to keep until the 20th century: the General Land Office was created and the duties previously handled by the Secretary of the Treasury were delegated to a Commissioner who was to be head of the new office. The issue of patents for land previously requiring the attention of the Secretary of State, and of military bounty land warrants to veterans of wars, previously requiring the attention of the Secretary of War, became the responsibility of the Commissioner; the President was still to sign the patents.17 Thus by 1812 there was created the administrative machinery that was to manage close to a billion and a half acres spread over 30 states and to handle the transfer through sale, grants, and gifts of two-thirds of this huge acreage to individuals, companies, states, and railroads. The Commissioner, the Surveyors General (there were 15 in 1889), the registers and receivers (there were 82 of each in 1871, 94 in 1921), superintendents of public sales, an increasing number of clerks, and deputy surveyors were to carry out the spadework. Later, investigating agents were to be extensively used to ferret out illegal entries and timber stealing. Through visits to look over plats, file entries, make payments, contest other entries, file relinquishments, and get patents, the people of the western states were more in touch with Federal land 17 Act of April 25, 1812, 2 Stat. 716. |