The
public domain was more than a source of revenue to the general
government; it was one of the most profoundly influential factors in
shaping American social conditions. The settler who entered the
wilderness with but a small capital, or who became a squatter on the
public lands without legal title, was impatient with the policy
which made revenue the primary consideration of the government.
Benton expressed this view in 1826, [Footnote: Register of Debates,
19 Cong., I Sess., I., 727.] when he said: "I speak to statesmen,
and not to compting clerks; to Senators, and not to Quaestors of
provinces; to an assembly of legislators, and not to a keeper of the
King's forests. I speak to Senators who know this to be a Republic,
not a Monarchy; who know that the public lands belong to the People
and not to the Federal Government." The effect of the credit system
had been, as we have seen, to stimulate speculation and to plunge
the settlers deeply in debt to the general government.
By 1820 these payments for the public lands were over twenty-two
million dollars in arrears.
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