Selling the (Re)Public
The Acquisition and Disposition of
Land in the United States
Acquisition of Territory
English Common Law
 “fee simple” title
 William the Conqueror
 Absolute land title limited
by 4 government powers
 Taxation, eminent domain,
police power, escheat
 Can borrow money, sell, and
direct it to heirs
 Allodial title: without
government limits
 Rare, usually owned by the
“Crown”
Early Land Law
 Crown Colonies
 Unappropriated property owned by the
Crown
 Commonwealths
 Unappropriated property owned by the
colony
 Virginia, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts,
Kentucky
 Government should not own any more
land than it needs for specific tasks
Liberty and Property
 John Locke, 1690
 “…life, liberty, and estate”
 Declaration of Independence, 1776
 “…life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”
 Virginia Bill of Rights, June 12, 1776
 “That all men are by nature equally free and
independent, and have certain inherent rights, of
which, when they enter into a state of society, they
cannot, by any compact, deprive or divest their
posterity; namely, the enjoyment of life and liberty,
with the means of acquiring and possessing
property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and
safety.”
Post Revolution Land
Claims
 Several states had claims to land between the
Appalachian Mts. and the Mississippi
 Claiming states could sell land to pay war
debts
 Non-claiming states wanted land claims
renounced
 Claims were renounced for federal
assumption of debts
 Revolutionary War soldiers promised land by
the Continental Congress which had none to
give
 State cessions allowed sale and grants of
lands, but the Federal Government didn’t get it
Northwest Ordinance, 1787
 Freedom of Religion, Judicial
guarantees, Encouragement of
schools, No slavery
 “whenever any of the said States
shall have sixty thousand free
inhabitants therein, such State shall
be admitted, by its delegates, into the
Congress of the United States, on an
equal footing with the original States
in all respects…”
 Unappropriated future land remained
with US for benefit of federal treasury
Pollard v. Hagan, 1845
“Equal Footing”
Land previously covered by high tide
US Government granted the land
Held by previous Spanish Grant
Claimant
 The Constitution did not give maritime
land to the US Government; belonged
to the states
 New states have same rights as
original states
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Connecticut Western
Reserve
 Remnant of Connecticut claim
maintained after cession of land
to Pennsylvania
 Sold the land to investors, 1796,
and reserved 500,000 acres for
residents of several New England
towns destroyed by the British in
the War
Louisiana Purchase, 1803
Florida
Indian Raids into US
Runaway Slaves
Pirates
Andrew Jackson
The Adams-Onís
Treaty, 1819
 Relinquished claims
to East and West
Florida and Oregon
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Missouri Compromise, 1820-21
Land Acts
 Preemption Act, 1841-1891
 160 acres to individual settlers
 Homestead Act, 1862-1976
 160 acres, 5 year residency, house 12 x 14 ft.
 “Public Land State” grants, 1841-1889
 Land given to support transportation,
education
 Morrill Act, 1862
 Land to support an agricultural and
mechanical college
 30,000 acres per senator and representative
Railroad Grants
Texas
 American Settlers
 Slavery & Catholicism
 Texas Independence,
1835-36
 Delayed admission due to
slavery issue
 Texas annexation,
admission 1844-45
 Texas sold 79 million
acres to US Government
 Parts of NM, OK, WY, CO,
KS
1846
Mexican Annexation
 Mexican-American War
 Treaty of Guadalupe
Hidalgo, 1848
 $15 million
 Gadsden Purchase, 1853
 $10 million
 Rights from the Ranchos
 Cumbersome process to get
patent for own land
 Many never did
Public Lands
Nevada
 Admission in 1864
 Enabling Act retained
Federal control of
unappropriated land
 25,000 acre grant for
public buildings and a jail
Alaska
 Seward’s Folly, 1867
 $7.2 million
 365 million acres to public land