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Show 136 HISTORY OF PUBLIC LAND LAW DEVELOPMENT Land Sales and Collections" Balance Year Acres Dollars Collections Unpaid North of the Ohio River 1813 239,980 $560,540 $643,055 $1,483,861 1814 823,864 1,702,016 1,050,887 2,134,939 1815 1 ,092,979 2,285,680 1,256,733 3,163,936 1816 1 ,131,956 2,464,792 1,294,081 4,334,648 1817 1 ,414,952 3,090,868 1,797,719 5,627,797 1818 1 ,705,996 3,494,244 2,009,736 7,290,489 1819 2 ,064,177 4,939,658 2,387,187 9,868,295 Mississippi and Alabama 1813 30,260 60,658 83,452 630,274 1814 41,272 82,544 123,810 589,008 1815 27,254 54,508 111,784 531,732 1816 490,873 1,102,480 364,116 1,270,097 1817 617,090 . 1,677,903 546,492 2,401,507 1818 823,178 3,969,461 1,223,572 5,170,988 1819 2 ,278,045 9,705,889 2,773,722 12,132,362 West of the Mississippi (Missouri) 1819 1 ,133,424 3,036,246 833,541 2,219,871 American State Papers, Public Lands, III, 420-21. nal purchasers and to some who had purchased more than 640 acres. Original purchasers, or their assignees, who had lost their lands through forfeiture were allowed to re-enter them and to have the benefit of all previous payments together with the 3-year extension.34 The same 3-year extension of credit was allowed purchasers who had bought their tracts before April 1, 1809, 1810 and 1811; in 1816 the same provision was extended to Mississippi purchasers only who had bought between 1811 and 1812.35 In summary, all purchasers of government land holding 640 acres or less that had been bought before April 1, 1811, were given either 2 or 3 years' additional time beyond the original 4 years in which to complete their payments. It is surprising that Congress 34 2 Stat. 712, 782. 35 2 Stat. 811; 3 Stat. 97, 201, 300. should have continued the credit policy for so long in the face of the growing delinquencies and obvious need for relief legislation and, indeed, despite the repeated recommendations of officials that credit sales should be ended and the land system placed on a cash basis. Perhaps the explanation lies in the fact that although the West was experiencing some financial difficulties during the War of 1812, land sales continued to grow and increased rapidly after 1815; members of Congress therefore preferred to make no fundamental change but to rely on simple relief measures to help the distressed. Ohio Grows Through Troublesome Times Disputes with Spain over the right of deposit at New Orleans, the embargo on trade, the approaching conflict with Great Britain, the depression, and credit problems did not |