With rare exceptions, the land was valueless until settled. To give the land value, the Congress of the Confederation had addressed three questions:
1. How were land holdings and sales to be administered?
2. Should the government exact high prices from the sale of land, or should cheap land be made available to everyone?
3. What was to be the political relationship between newly settled areas and the original states?
Two major land systems had developed during the colonial period. The New England system of “township planning” provided for the laying out of townships, for the
Thomas Jefferson, the nation’s third president, 1801-1809, had an earlier profound influence on the country for many of his leadership acts including his contribution to the momentous land ordinances of 1785 and 1787.
Subdivision of townships into carefully surveyed tracts, and for the auction sale of tracts to settlers. In the eighteenth century, it was usual to establish townships, which often were 6 miles square, in tiers. The opening of new townships proceeded with regularity from settled to unsettled land, gaps of unsettled land appeared infrequently, and no one could own land that had not been previously surveyed. In contrast, the southern system provided for no rectangular surveys. In the South, a settler simply selected what appeared to be a choice plot of unappropriated land and asked the county surveyor to mark it off. Settlers paid no attention to the relationship of their tracts to other pieces of property, and the legal description of a tract was made with reference to more or less permanent natural objects, such as stones, trees, and streams.
World History
