Speech #500045577

Instead of the laws being administered in the interest of the settler the policy of tbe Government for many years was to prevent entries upon the public lands until after their sale by the Government. I quote the following from an article upon the public lands of the United States in a work recently published: "Meanwhile a new difficulty was to be met. and force was necessary. Gallatin recalls in his correspondence with Jefferson that from 1783 to 1786 immigration into the territory north of the Ohio was encouraged by the peacefulness of the Indians. and that a company was kept going up and down the Ohio fronl the Pennsylvania line to Cincinnati burning every cabin and in some instances laying down or burning the fences. This operation had to be repeated. and lie knew of persons whose cabins were burned and settlements destroyed three times." In 1785 an unsuccessful attempt was made to dispose of public lands through the States. In 1787 power was given to the board of treasury to move about the United States and sell surveyed lands at pleasure.