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Show 182 HISTORY OF PUBLIC LAND LAW DEVELOPMENT created a veritable Donnybrook Fair in the Congress, with frantic efforts being made to swap votes and gain the desired objectives. But lands were being sold or entered with scrip at a frantic rate also and there was grave danger, it was thought, that the best of them would be taken up before the railroad bills got through Congress and the withdrawals could be made. Consequently, at the urging of members of Congress, Pierce in 1853 issued orders withdrawing 31 million acres of public lands from entry, thereby striking hard at settlers who had already settled or made claims on some of these lands and disappointing speculators who had hoped to enter large amounts with scrip. Congress soon was so bogged down in issues over Kansas, however, that the land grant measures were not enacted as hoped. Lacking specific authority to make such withdrawals, or at least being uncertain that he had it, and also entertaining doubts about the wisdom of withdrawing public lands for railroads that might never be constructed, Pierce restored the lands to market in 1854.7 Then in 1856 and 1857, despite the President's lukewarm attitude toward land grants for railroads, Congress pushed through five measures providing land grants to seven states and one territory to aid in building railroads. Withdrawals of all public lands within the exterior boundaries of the grants quickly followed, again upsetting the plans of settlers and other prospective land buyers in the areas affected. Special efforts, not altogether successful, were made by the General Land Office to have the lands selected as speedily as possible and the balance returned to sale.8 As the frontier was pushed westward, settlers and speculators travelled widely over 7 For Pierce's turgid explanation see Richardson, Messages and Papers of the Presidents, V, 281-90. 8 Norman Olaf Forness, "The Origins and Early History of the United States Department of the Interior" (Ph.D. dissertation, Pennsylvania State University, 1964), pp. 142-46. Pierce seems to have changed his mind again, for by 1855 he no longer looked upon land grants with the same favor. the areas open to purchase, selecting what appeared to be the richest and best located land with respect to transportation and markets, availability of water and standing timber. The amount of local and state debt outstanding, tax policies, the flow of immigration, the rate of land sales, and the general image of the region as described by the writers of guidebooks were other factors to be considered. Not all landseekers kept each of these issues in mind. Many were deceived by guidebooks, gazetteers, and advertising pamphlets, whose authors in some instances were promoting the sale and settlement of definite areas to the detriment of others. We know that for long years southeastern Michigan was avoided because of its early unfavorable and largely unjustified reputation. We also know that southern Illinois- called "Egypt"-acquired a reputation as a poor, unhealthy area and was spoken of as the "land of darkness." Graduation of Land Prices Left behind by the vanguard of land buyers was what appeared at that time to be undesirable land-sometimes fractional quarters, hilly, broken, cut by ravines or streams, swampy or low land unpromising for crops. If such land near the prairies had timber this one valuable asset soon disappeared unless there was an occupant on the land to protect it. If the broken land was suitable for pasture or had good grass for hay, nearby owners saw little reason to buy it and pay taxes on it as long as they could graze their livestock on it and make hay of its grass without cost. Everywhere in the West the process of land selection had left behind these neglected tracts, stripped of their timber, overgrazed, contributing no taxes and having no owners to do compulsory road work. We may illustrate the scattered character of these neglected lands, unwanted at $1.25 an acre, by a glance at the remaining holdings of public land in some of the states. In the Winamac district of northern In- |