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Disposing of the Public Domain 公共土地的分配 几年前，一家商务机构打出“拥有一块美国土地”的宣传口号，鼓动地球人慷慨解囊把自己的生命与美国连在一起。实际上富豪阔佬们以巨资购得的不过是一块巴掌大的美利坚草皮，它远远不同于当初美国政府出售给移民的实实在在的公共土地。在英国于1783年签署的《巴黎和约》承认美国独立并让出加拿大以南，密西西比以东和佛罗里达以北的所有土地之后，美国人便共同拥有了那片被称为西部的宝贵土地。如何更好地体现土地的价值并满足民众的利益就成了独立之初美国领导人面临的问题和挑战。此后颁布的一系列土地法令以公开标卖的方式向移民开放西部公地，人口满额后的西部领地还可以平等的方式加入联邦，从而确定了西部土地逐渐美国化的方向。 What the United States obtained from the British in 1783 is a solid mass of land extending from the Atlantic coast to the Mississippi River and from the Great Lakes to Florida1. But one of the first truly national issues for the new government was the disposition of new lands in the West.2 Two fundamentally different points of view emerged about the terms on which land should be made available. Those who advocated a "conservative" policy were in favor of selling the public lands in large tracts at high prices for cash. The proponents of a "liberal" policy were in favor of putting land within the reach of almost everyone by making it available in small parcels at low prices on credit terms.3 Following a system based on a rectangular survey4 in New England, as proposed by a congressional committee headed by Thomas Jefferson5, the Congress passed the Northwest Land Ordinance of 1785. According to this ordinance, government surveyors were to establish on unsettled land horizontal lines called base lines and vertical lines called principal meridians, and the land is divided into townships, each township being 6 square miles. A square mile (or 640 acres) was called a lot, but in later acts, the term section was used. The Land Ordinance of 1785 reflected the prevalent conservative view that public land should be a major source of federal revenues. Provisions relating to minimum size of tracts, prices, and terms were severe. Alternate townships6 were to be sold as a whole; the other half of the townships were to be sold by sections. All sales at public auction were to be for a minimum price of $640 necessary to buy a section --- an expenditure beyond the means of most pioneers. Moreover, a square mile of land was more than small farmers could normally utilize and work; Only individuals of means and land companies formed by large investors could purchase land under the first law. In 1787, the Congress addressed the problems of establishing the political principles for western settlement. The Ordinance of 1787 provided that the Northwest Territory should be organized as a district to be run by a governor and judges appointed by the Congress. When any one of the established divisions of the territory contained a population of 60,000 inhabitants, it was to be admitted to the Union as a state on a basis of complete equality with the older states. Contained in the ordinance were certain guarantees of civil and religious liberties, together with a prohibition of slavery in the territory. The Land Act of 1796 represented another victory for the conservatives. The minimum purchase allowed by the Act of 1796 was still 640 acres, but the minimum price per acre was raised to $2, the only concession to the cheap-land advocates being a credit provision that permitted half the purchase price to be deferred for a year. Congress changed the minimum acreage to 320 in 1800. A law of 1804 further lowered the minimum purchase to 160 acres. By 1820, the minimum purchase was reduced to 80 acres and the price per acre to $1.25. Twelve years later, the minimum purchase was reduced to 40 acres, so in 1832, a pioneer could purchase a piece of farmland for $50. Settlers who were brave enough to risk their lives in pioneering venture were not usually deterred from action by legal niceties. From the beginning, pioneers tended to settle past the areas that had been surveyed and announced for sale. As the decades passed and the West became "crowded," this tendency to pick a tract in an unopened area increased. Unauthorized settlement, or "squatting," resulted from the attempts of the pioneers to find better soils and the hope that they could settle on choice land and make it going proposition7 before they were billed for it. At first, federal troops tried to drive squatters from unsurveyed land, but successes were only temporary. Gradually, the government came to view this pioneer lawbreaking less and less seriously. In 1841, a general Preemption Act, granted, to anyone settling on land that was surveyed but not yet available for sale, the right to purchase 160 acres at the minimum price. No one could outbid the settler and secure the land, provided the squatter could raise the $200 necessary to buy aquarter section. In 1862, the Homestead Act was passed. Any head of a family or anyone older than 21 could have 160 acres of public land on the payment of small fees. The only stipulation was that the homesteader should either live on the land or cultivate it for five years8. So the Homestead Act ushered in a new era: public land was virtually freely available to the settlers ?nbsp;an ideal embraced by Thomas Jefferson. 1783年，独立后的美国从英国人手中得到了一大片实实在在的土地——东临大西洋，西抵密西西比河；北起大湖区，南至佛罗里达。而新政府面临的国家头等大事之一是西部土地的分配。
根据托马斯·杰斐逊领导的委员会所倡导的新英格兰矩形测量有序系统，国会通过了《1785年西北土地法令》。按照该法令，政府测量员依照东西方向的基准线和南北方向主子午线把无居民的土地划分成镇区，每个镇区为6英里见方。一平方英里。即640英亩被称作一块段，而后来的法令中一块段以section一词表示。 《1785年土地法令》反映了较为盛行的保守主义观点，即公共土地应成为政府的一个主要收入来源，有关最低 购地面积、价格及购买条件的规定很苛刻。交错的镇区（因不宜分隔）整个儿出售，其余的镇区则按块段出售。公开拍卖时，买一块地至少需640美元——这对大多数拓荒者来说都无法承受。此外，一平方英里的土地超出了小农场主使用和耕作的限度。只有那些财大气粗的人和大投资者组成的土地公司才可以依照该法令购买土地。 1787年，国会着手解决西部新殖民土地如何并入现有政治体系的问题。《1787年法令》规定西北部地区应组成一个行政区，由国会任命总督和法官管理。如果该地区人口超过60,000人，就可以升格为州,与其他现有的州平起平坐。该法令还规定了人权自由和宗教自由，并禁止这些地区实行奴隶制。 《1796年土地法令》标志着保守派的又一次胜利。土地出售的最低限制仍为640英亩，但每英亩的最低售价提到2美元。对于低价出售土地要求的惟一让步是贷款支持，允许购地者将全款的一半一年后支付。国会于1800年把最低购地面积减至320英亩，1804年的法令再次将其减半。到了1820年，土地最低出售面积减至80英亩，最低售价则降至每英亩1.25美元。12年后，最低购地面积降至40英亩，这样在1832年，拓居者付50美元便可购得一块农场用地。 那些勇于冒险开拓疆土的先驱者们往往不会因法律条令而却步的。从一开始，拓荒者们就在已测量并要出售的土地之外开垦荒地。几十年过去了，西部变得“拥挤”，人们更急于在未被开辟的地区挑选一块土地。拓居者们希望找到更好的土地并在优选的土地定居，在付款之前就据为己有，于是出现了未经法律认可的拓居地，或称“擅自占用地”。 起初，联邦军队试图把擅自占地者从未测量的土地上赶走，但收效仅是暂时的。渐渐地，国会开始对擅自占用者放松了限制。1841年通过了优先购买权法，允许在已测量但未出售的土地上的定居者以最低价格购买160英亩土地。如果擅自占地者能够筹集到购买1/4块土地的200美元，就可以通过竞标获得这块土地。 1862年，《宅地法》获得通过。任何家庭的户主或任何年满21岁的人交纳少量费用后都可以获得160英亩的公共土地。但惟一的限制是，获得土地的定居者必须在这块土地上生活或耕作满5年。《宅地法》的颁布开创了一个新时代，耕者拥有免费得来的土地，这正是托马斯·杰斐逊的理想。 |