Du Buque visitor. [volume] (Dubuque, Lead Mines, Wisconsin Territory) 1836-1837, 1836-08-17


The price Cor the whole being Sl5,sll,-
IA 9s. Taking, then, the sales oflast
year as the criterion, and the total es-
innate of the entire loss from this pre-
emption system, multiplying, 49,, $50
by two cents, would be S47,753, and
deducting from this the additional ex-
;f;;sssssss Of land sales boy ondathe expen-
ses Of sales at private entry, and the
loss TO the government cannot exceed
FIVE hundred dollars per annum. But,
in fact, there is no loss from the sys-
tenn, for the occupancy of the land dis
trict by settlers preceding a land sale,
gives additional value to the unoccupi-
ed land, and causes it to bring better
price. Thus, by document No. 376,
before referred to, the total number Of
acres covered by prc-emption claims in
1882 was but 49,97l.l7 acres, and in
1884, 637. 597. 50 acres, and IL 1893
574.o36.s5 acres; yet, in each of these
two last years, the average price OBJ
tanned for public lands, as shown by
the land Office returns, is greater than
in 1888, when less than one-tenth the
number Of acres were covered by pre-
emption claims. Nothing, then, inpoint
of fact, is gained by the Government
by the present system Of public sales,
whilst it introduces fraud and oppres-
sion, and sacrifice Of the industrious
settler to the baleful spirit of specula-
ton.
No nation but this speculates upon
her citizens in the sale Of the public
domain. Great Britain, France, Spain,
Mexico, gave their lands to their citi-
zens upon the condition Of settlement
only. The various States Of this Union
having public landsof their own to sell,
| sell them at nominal prices to settlers,
gand not to spectators. From various
State laws, Of similar character, we
will quote from the laws ofthe State of
Maine only. By the first section of
her act Of 1924, she declares that her
lands, in limited quantities, "shall be
sold to such persons only as may wish
to become actual Settlers" and the
price fixed is ssthirty cents per acre."
and, by the eighth section of the same
act, there is secured to every actual set
tier, upon any tract, Ga prior right of
purchase" Here are the settlement
and presumption principle both i,pbo-
died in the laws Of Maine; and your
committeeAbelieve that the same prin-
.ciples, substantially, will be found in
the laws of all the States having public
lands Of their own within the limits:
nor are the checks and guards against
frauds in the laws of those States by a.
ny means so numerous andrigid as those
proposed in this bill. Frauds may have
occurred under the State laws which
could not take place under the provi-
sions of this bill. But because frauds
may have been perpetrated in some ca
ses upon lands in the old States, did
those States consent, or would they
ever have consented, to throw open all
their lands forentry by specializing mo.
nopolists, and turn their citizens round
to buy Of them at exorbitant pricesi
Why should the old States coniine the
sales of their own lands to actual set
tiers, and refuse TO act upon the same
principlesas regards the sale ofthc lands
in the new States? Why sellto settlers
only in their own States, and to specu-
lators mainly il, the new States? Il
40. - ri. uss@