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Show 134 HISTORY OF PUBLIC LAND LAW DEVELOPMENT Relief Measurements for Delinquents The Ohio Enabling Act of March 3, 1803, was a notable victory for the state.29 From the surplus lands of the United States Military District the state was to be granted an amount of land equal to one thirty-sixth of the District and one thirty-sixth of the Western Reserve. Since the United States owned no land in this last district, Ohio actually received as a result of this little bonus 106,666 acres more than the one thirty-sixth of its public lands. This was not all. Out of the surplus lands within the Virginia Military Tract, Ohio was to be given 116,777 acres, one thirty-sixth of the entire tract, for common schools. This tract was subject to entry only by holders of Virginia military warrants and from those entries there was no income to the Federal government. In this instance, therefore, the argument that by giving lands for schools the government was increasing the value and therefore the income from the neighboring land was without foundation. As Secretary of the Treasury, Gallatin understandably was anxious to obtain funds from the public lands for the retirement of the debt. He was therefore troubled about the increasing numbers of delinquents. Yet, the statistics of land sales, cash paid, outstanding obligations and arrearages as of 1806 do not appear at all alarming today. Acres sold, 1801-1806 Sale price Collections Amount owing Arrearages 2,400,814 $4,922,404 $2,582,321 $2,535,188 $243,933 Collections slightly exceeded the remaining obligations and the arrearages were less than one-tenth of the amount due and one-twentieth of the amount for which the lands sold. During this period the experience of the government was probably fully as satisfactory as that of the contemporary Holland Land Company, which had the greatest difficulty in collecting from its delinquent buyers and was forced to take payments in produce and livestock, on which it lost money. Also, we know that the later land grant railroads went through much the same experience, and were disinclined to press their delinquent debtors too severely for fear of political repercussions. The Act of 1800 required that the land of delinquents revert to the United States together with all payments made thereon and should be put up at auction and sold to any buyer willing to give the amount owing. If three of the four annual payments had been made, amounting to $1.50 an acre, and if improvements had been made on the land, all would thus be lost to the purchaser unless at the end of the fifth year he made his final payment. Congress was responsive to the plea for the relief of delinquents who had bought land in 1800 or 1801; in 1806 it suspended for a time the resale or forfeiture vsection of the Act of 1800 for persons who weiSe adfeal settlers on the land at the adoption of this measure. This was the first of a long line of relief measures it was to pass.3" Accumulative Amounts Due on Land Sales and the Arrearages" Due From Individuals Year 1803 1804 1805 1806 1807 1808 1809 1810 1811 1812 Southwest Territory North of the Ohio Arrearages $111,913 138,752 273,482 390,195 474,541 653,068 $1,092,390 1,434,212 2,094,305 2,245,557 2,153,306 2,040,673 1.912,703 1,646,642 1,496,371 1,599,106 $40,218 176,778 384,799 243,933 315.312 586,817 886,841 702.557 656,603 American State Papers, Public Lands, III, 420. 2 Stat. 173. Act of April 15, 1806, 2 Stat. 378. |