In 1832, six months after Congress passed a law of preemption allowing settlers or squatters to claim the public land they improved and have first rights at purchasing that land for as low as $1.25 per acre, Jackson weighed in. Jackson wanted to "abandon the idea of raising a future revenue out of the public lands". His reason goes far beyond just the impact of preemption and instead focuses on the concerns of new states. Jackson believed this to be in the best interest of securing freedom for the American citizen.
Prior to 1804, public land sales were offered in not less than half-sections or 160 acres. The first sale of public lands was to the Ohio company of 822,00 acres at $1 per acre. In 1785, Congress passed an act forbidding settlement on public domains, and in 1807 the law was strengthened with a penalty of forfeiture to any clam the settler may have. Despite the laws, preventing settlement prior to sale remained difficult and the government gradually abandoned it altogether On April 5th, 1832 Congress passed a preemption Act that allowed US. Citizens who settled on public land and improved the same to purchase that land within 1 year at a minimum price of $1.25 per acre. The contract was not to exceed 160 acres of land. The act also authorized the sale of smaller quarter-quarter sections or fourth acre tracts.
When Andrew Jackson delivered his State of the Union Address in December of 1832, six months after this Act was implemented, he observed that the policy of the United States regarding the sale of public land was no longer for profit. The decision to sell the land to settlers in "limited parcels" and at a very low price raised barely enough revenue to reimburse the United States for the cost of the land. Andrew Jackson now wanted to abandon all future plans to raise revenue from the sale of public lands, but the lack of future value wasn't the main reason. Jackson viewed it as a hindrance to the establishment of new states. Jackson explained that to date, the United States Treasury gained $40 million dollars and distributed only small portion back to the citizens who cultivated the land and increased their value. At one time, states like Virginia and Massachusetts owned the land that was now being sold, yet states like Kentucky were also now reaping the profits. The profits, rather than go to the original owner of the land or the new owner of the land, were being distributed to all states. The land sales was supposed to be to pay off the Revolutionary debt, but now that the debt was paid off and it no longer made sense for the federal government and these other states to continue seeing a profit from the sales and improvement of the land. Jackson suggested that new states like Missouri (admitted 1821) and future states like Arkansas and Michigan would no longer support a system that allowed the proceeds from the sale of their own land be turned over to the federal government. Thus, Jackson suggested that the United States "abandon the idea of raising a future revenue out of the public lands". Doing so, would "afford to every American citizen of enterprise the opportunity of securing an independent freehold".
"It seems to me to be our policy that the public lands shall cease as soon as practicable to be a source of revenue, and that they be sold to settlers in limited parcels at a price barely sufficient to reimburse to the United States the expense of the present system and the cost arising under our Indian compacts. The advantages of accurate surveys and undoubted titles now secured to purchasers seem to forbid the abolition of the present system, because none can be substituted which will more perfectly accomplish these important ends. It is desirable, however, that in convenient time this machinery be withdrawn from the States, and that the right of soil and the future disposition of it be surrendered to the States respectively in which it lies.
The adventurous and hardy population of the West, besides contributing their equal share of taxation under our impost system, have in the progress of our Government, for the lands they occupy, paid into the Treasury a large proportion of $40,000,000, and of the revenue received therefrom but a small part has been expended among them. When to the disadvantage of their situation in this respect we add the consideration that it is their labor alone which gives real value to the lands, and that the proceeds arising from their sale are distributed chiefly among States which had not originally any claim to them, and which have enjoyed the undivided emolument arising from the sale of their own lands, it can not be expected that the new States will remain longer contented with the present policy after the payment of the public debt. To avert the consequences which may be apprehended from this cause, to pub an end for ever to all partial and interested legislation on the subject, and to afford to every American citizen of enterprise the opportunity of securing an independent freehold, it seems to me, therefore, best to abandon the idea of raising a future revenue out of the public lands."
References
Presidency.ucsb.edu. (2019). Fourth Annual Message | The American Presidency Project. [online] Available at: https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/fourth-annual-message-3 [Accessed 18 Nov. 2019].Bien, Morris. “The Public Lands of the United States.” The North American Review, vol. 192, no. 658, 1910, pp. 387–402. JSTOR, Available at: www.jstor.org/stable/25106763.
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