Page:Memoir upon the negotiations between Spain and the United States of America which led to the treaty of 1819.djvu/105

 95

��ntories of the Union, which are at the disposal of the federal government. By a calculation made iu 1808, by the Secretary of the Treasury, in his expose on the resources of the country, it appeared that, without including Louisiana, the federal go- vernment at that time had one hundred millions of acres (the acre contains 43,560 square feet) capa- ble of cultivation, north of the river Ohio, and fifty millions south of the State of Tennessee. In Lou- isiana, whose extent is nearly equal to all the rest of the United States, the government holds an im- mense quantity of lands, and east and west of the Mississippi, there are not less than one hundred millions of acres at its disposal. The Floridas, and all the territories claimed from Spain as be- longing to Louisiana, will give a very considerable addition to this immense fund of publick lands. The government has charge of the whole, and may dispose of them according to the exigencies of the Republick; it has authority to sell them to the na- tives of the country, and to foreigners who settle in it with the intention of acquiring the right of citi- zenship: it has sold some, and is by little and lit- tle disposing of them as it finds it expedient and proper. The object in selling them only in small parcels, is to stimulate purchasers and obtain a bet- ter price. If we take the average of what the sales have hitherto produced, we may estimate the actual value of these lands at the rate of two dollars per

�� �