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Internal. Improvements and the Public Lands

After the panic of 1837 land sales dropped off considerably. This was the beginning of the period of large land grants to the States for internal improvements. It was a time when the cost of managing the public domain exceeded the revenue from land sales.

What in fact had happened is that lands ceased to be a source of revenue for the Federal Treasury. The small farmer interests had been successful in driving satisfactory preemption laws and lower land prices through Congress; the constitutional objections to grants to the States had been destroyed; and, probably more important, the nation was developing at a rapid rate and the argument for internal improvements such as roads, canals, and railroads through a use of the public lands had become irrestible. 81/ Of course, the idea of outright free grants to individuals and corporations did not come until 1862.

The transformation of the courier du Bois's trail through the forests, to roads, then to canals and turnpikes, and finally to an elaborate system of railroads is unquestionably one of the finest means of illustrating the economic and industrial growth of America. Hand in hand with the dredging of the canals, the building of the turnpikes, and the laying of the railroads was the public land and the General Land Office.

The story of public lands for internal improvements began with the Ordinance of 1785 and reached its peak in 1862 when Congress embarked on a multi-million acre railroad construction program through grants to private corporations.

The theory that the public lands should be a media of assisting the development of transportation facilities was seriously launched in the early part of the 19th Century.

The States began the movement for a system of internal improvements. New York's work in construction of the Erie Canal in 1817 is, perhaps, the best example. 82/ The various States entered into competition to develop the best possible system to direct commerce into their major cities. Pennsylvania and New York, for instance, engaged in a battle to develop the means of channeling the western commerce to their respective States.

Ironically, the rivalry between the States in the field of internal improvements brought the Federal Government into the picture. Various groups in Congress urged the Federal Government to undertake a program of internal improvements which would transcend the jealousies and conflicting interests of the States.

John Calhoun of South Carolina introduced his Bonus Bill designed to assist the States with internal improvements, and was successful in obtaining its passage only to have President Madison veto it on constitutional grounds. 83/

Mr. Madison's constitutional position was upheld and elaborately explained by his successor James Monroe in his first message to Congress. President Monroe, while in favor of a system of internal improvements through Federal assistance, felt that the Constitution did not give the power to the legislative branch to provide land and money to specific States. He recommended that an amendment to the Constitution would solve the problem. 84/

In 1822 Congress passed a toll bill for the maintenance of the Cumberland Road and it again raised the constitutional question.

Monroe quickly vetoed the bill on the grounds that it implied a power to execute a complete system of internal improvements with the Federal right of jurisdiction and sovereignty. In defense of his veto, Monroe issued his message "Views on the Subject of Internal Improvements." 85

This document which discussed the constitutional question of internal improvements stands as one of the great State papers affecting the public lands. Monroe denied to the Federal Government the right of jurisdiction and construction saying that Congress had a discretionary power restricted only by their duty to appropriate it for the purpose of common defense and of a "general, not local, national, not State benefit." 86,

Later Calhoun, then Secretary of War, responding to a Congressional request, outlined a program for a system of internal improvements necessary for the "defense of the United States." 87 The Secretary avoided any reference to the constitutional questions raised by Madison and Monroe. The Congress with Calhoun's assistance

decided to use the opened door at least temporarily, and to grant land and money for internal improvements for the "national defense."

The extended Congressional duel over internal improvements, land distribution, price graduation, and preemption, were closely allied. As we noted in the preceding section, these questions were not resolved until and after 1841.

The huge grant of 500,000 acres of the public domain to several States for internal improvements in the Act of 1841 was the first real breakthrough from the policy established by Madison and Monroe. After 1841, the Constitutional objections to money and land for internal improvements became academic. By that time Congress had completely and openly bowed to national objectives.

The time between Monroe's veto and the passage of the Act of 1841 can best be described as one of the individual grants for specific purposes with overtones of "national defense" as a justification. 88

In 1823, Ohio received a grant of 80,000 acres of public land for a wagon road. 89/ In 1827, a grant was made to Indiana to build a road to connect Lake Michigan with the Ohio River. 90 Likewise, Indiana received a grant for a canal to join the Wabash River and Lake Erie. 91/ Oregon received a substantial grant for military wagon roads as did Wisconsin and Michigan. The grants for canals and river improvements are shown in the following table:

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The distribution of grants for wagon roads is shown in the following table:

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The transcontinental railroad land grants, in particular, pose quite a different picture of land use than those grants for canals and wagon roads, because they passed through States as well as territories and covered great distances. By the time most of the major railroads were chartered the Congress had stopped the formality of justifying grants on the basis of the "national defense.'

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The chartering in 1862 of the transcontinental railroad was a new departure from the previous practice of the Congress concerning railroad construction. Prior to 1862, when Fresident Lincoln signed the Pacific railroad grant, the Federal Government had transferred title of public land to the States for the express purpose of building railroads. Such was the case in 1835 when Congress authorized the State of Florida certain lands for a railroad. 94

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Numerous grants, similar to Florida's, were given to the numerous States, but the lands never did what they were intended to do build a complete connecting system of internal transportation. Too few of the railroads chartered by the States and granted Federal land ever completed construction within the prescribed statutory time and under the conditions spelled out in the grant legislation. Cne major exception was the Illinois Central grant of 1850.

In that year the General Land Office transferred title to

22 million acres of land to the States of Alabama, Mississippi, and Illinois. It became the first State chartered land grant railroad of any appreciable size to comply with its charter.

Between the time of the chartering of the Illinois Central and the passage of the "Pacific" Railroad Act, numerous proposals were offered in Congress to build a transcontinental railroad. One Asa Whitney, in particular, received considerable support for his petition to Congress for 100 million acres to build a railroad. 95/

During the Presidential elections of 1856, each of the candidates pledged, if elected, immediate action on the building of a transcontinental railroad. 96/ The nation, by this time, had become completely "taken" with the concept of internal improvements through the use of public lands.

The period of large grants to the States for railroad construction ended in 1862 with the "Pacific" grants. This phase of the granting of public lands for internal improvements will be covered in the next section dealing with the Homestead Act and the transcontinental railroads.

Grants to the States for Educational Purposes

Grants to the States for education has its roots in the late 18th Century. The Ordinance of 1785 reserved Section 16 for common school purposes and in 1787 two townships were set aside for a university in Ohio. 97/

The Act of 1841 setting aside 500,000 acres for the use of the States in internal improvements was also a stimulus to education. Many of the States chose to use a part of the land for educational purposes.

In 1862, the Congress passed the Agricultural and Mechanic Arts bill granting 30,000 acres of public land to each State for each Representative and Senator in the Congress. 98/ Under the provisions

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