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Show Chapter VIII Cash Sales, 1820-1840 Until the 20th century, when income from mineral and grazing leases and fees assumed large proportions, the major part of the revenue from the public lands was obtained from cash sales of those lands. The previous chapter showed how the heavy debts inherited from the Revolution and the anxiety of Gallatin, Hamilton, and Jefferson to repay these obligations as soon as possible shaped early fiscal policy, led to the establishment of a high price for public lands and killed off any support for the 'more liberal policies of the colonial period. Credit had been granted purchasers by the Acts of 1796 and 1800 not so much to aid the pioneer settlers as to attract capitalists with enough resources so they could buy at least 640 acres (320 after 1800) and pay $1,280 or $640 in 1 to 4 years. As the size of the smallest units of entry was reduced to 160 and 80 acres, the credit policy did provide aid to the man with little capital but it seems to have persuaded him as well as the larger investor to purchase beyond hope of paying in the stipulated period. Credit in purchases of land from the government was ended by the Act of April 24, 1820. In its place the cash sales system was substituted, requiring full payment for the land on the day of purchase at all future sales of public lands. The public auction was retained; if land remained unsold after it had been offered at auction, it was open to private entry in unlimited amounts at the new price of $1.25 an acre. Lands which had reverted to the government through failure of the buyer to complete payments, and tracts which had been bid off at the auction and had not been paid for on the day of sale were to be put up at auction again and would not be open to private entry unless they had failed to find a buyer at the second offering. Also, lands open to private entry for which there were two applicants were to be sold to the highest bidder.1 Settlers Plead for Postponement of Sales Pioneer settlers detested the public auction where government officials hoped the competition for land would be sufficient to produce prices higher than the minimum of $1.25 an acre. They wanted preferential treatment in the purchase of land which would, in effect, free them from competition and allow them their land at the minimum price. In the end they were to obtain this objective through a series of special preemption acts and finally by the prospective Preemption Act of 1841, as will be seen in the chapter on preemption. In the meantime they resorted to other means to protect themselves. They petitioned the President or the Commissioner of the General Land Office to postpone land sales, declaring that economic conditions were bad, prices low, money scarce, and that few settlers could raise the funds with which to purchase the land on which they had made their improvements. Pitiful details of poverty were usually included in these petitions and the fear that speculators at the auction would acquire the settlers' improved land was strongly emphasized. 1 3 Stat. 566. 145 |