The total area of the United States from
coast to coast then comprised 3,025,000[29] square miles, of which
over two-thirds were at one time or another public domain. Before the
close of the Civil War the Government had disposed of nearly four
hundred million acres but still retained in its possession an area
three times as great as the whole of the territory which had been won
from Great Britain in the Revolution.
The public domain was at first looked upon as a source of revenue, and
a minimum price was fixed by law at $2 an acre, though this rate was
subsequently (1820) lowered to $1.25 an acre. The West always wanted
liberal land laws, but the South before the Civil War, fearing that
the growth of the West would give the North superior strength, opposed
any such generosity. When the North dominated Congress, the Homestead
Law of 1862 provided that any person, twenty-one years of age, who was
a citizen of the United States or who had declared his intention of
becoming one, could obtain title to 160 acres of land by living upon
it five years, making certain improvements, and paying the entry fee
of ten dollars.
The Government laid out its vast estate in townships six miles square,
which it subdivided into sections of 640 acres and quarter sections of
160 acres. The quarter section was regarded as the public land unit
and was the largest amount permitted for individual preemption and
later for a homestead.
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