Page:Evolution of American Agriculture (Woodruff).djvu/37

Rh

Apparently there never was any other idea in the American mind than that the public domain should become private property as rapidly as possible. And, since the colonists were casting off all the major incumbrances of Kingly rule and feudalism, the Ordinance of 1787 is of the greatest importance, for it not only provided for republican government and made provisions against slavery, but determined the form of land tenure in the public domain. Land was to be held in "fee simple" to be freely transferred by bargain and sale, and the estates of persons dying without will were to be divided among their heirs in equal parts. This ordinance not only determined