The
credit system had been adopted to allow poor men to purchase farms and
pay for them from the products of the land. But it tempted many to
purchase more land than they could pay for. In order to relieve these
creditors, Congress passed no less than fourteen acts. One of these
reduced the price for future purchasers to $1.25 an acre and made it
possible to purchase so small a quantity as eighty acres. This clemency
brought further demands and paved the way for the later pre-emption
acts.
The Ordinance of 1787 had declared that schools and the means of
education should be for ever encouraged, while the Land Ordinance of
1785 provided funds by setting aside a section of land in every township
of the public domain. Endowments had also been made for religious
purposes from the Ohio Company lands and from the Symmes purchase; but
the practice was discontinued thereafter, probably owing to the
difficulty of administering the land without recognising some sect.
After much discussion, Congress decided not to retain the management
of the school lands, but to hand them over to the inhabitants of the
township, the State acting as trustee.
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