1. Selling the (Re)Public The Acquisition and Disposition of Land in the United States

2. Acquisition of Territory

3. 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”

4. 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

5. 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.”

6. 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

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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

11. Louisiana Purchase, 1803

12. Florida  Indian Raids into US  Runaway Slaves  Pirates  Andrew Jackson  The Adams-Onís Treaty, 1819  Relinquished claims to East and West Florida and Oregon

13. Missouri Compromise, 1820-21

14. 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

15. Railroad Grants

16. 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

17. 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

18. Public Lands

19. Nevada  Admission in 1864  Enabling Act retained Federal control of unappropriated land  25,000 acre grant for public buildings and a jail

20. Alaska  Seward’s Folly, 1867  $7.2 million  365 million acres to public land