Public offerings were to
be made at Cincinnati, Pittsburg, and Philadelphia. But the hostility
of the Indians reduced the number of purchasers. Prior to 1800, only
a million acres had been disposed of in this manner. A law of that
year provided a system of registers and receivers, to be stationed at
land offices scattered through the North-west Territory. A credit
system was also established, whereby so small a portion as a
half-section could be purchased on instalment payments, with interest
at six per cent. This law made the lands very attractive, as credit
propositions always are. Prospective landholders rushed across the
mountains and stood in line before the register's doors. The saying,
"Doing a land-office business," brings the scene to the imagination.
As the embargo and the War of 1812 cut off men from employment on the
sea and along the coast, their attention was directed to the
possibilities of the public lands. Between 1800 and 1820, nearly twenty
million acres were sold, bringing in cash receipts of over forty-five
million dollars. After 1806, the old certificates and other forms of
government paper were no longer received in payment for lands.
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