The Preemption Act of 1841, also known as the Distributive Preemption Act ( 27 Cong., Ch. 16; ), was a

US federal law The law of the United States comprises many levels of codified and uncodified forms of law, of which the most important is the nation's Constitution, which prescribes the foundation of the federal government of the United States, as well as va ...

approved on September 4, 1841. It was designed to "appropriate the proceeds of the sales of public lands... and to grant '

pre-emption rights A pre-emption right, right of pre-emption, or first option to buy is a contractual right to acquire certain property newly coming into existence before it can be offered to any other person or entity. It comes from the Latin verb ''emo, emere, emi, ...

' to individuals" who were living on federal lands (commonly referred to as " squatters".)

Provisions

The Preemption Act of 1841 permitted "squatters" who were living on federal government-owned land to purchase up to for $1.25 per acre ($3.09 per hectare) before the land would be offered for sale to the general public. To qualify under the law, the "squatter" had to be the following: * a " head of household"; * a single man over 21 or a widow; * a citizen of the United States or an immigrant intending to become naturalized; and * a resident of the claimed land for a minimum of 14 months. The Act further provided that

Ohio Ohio () is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Of the List of states and territories of the United States, fifty U.S. states, it is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 34th-l ...

Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rock ...

Alabama (We dare defend our rights) , anthem = " Alabama" , image_map = Alabama in United States.svg , seat = Montgomery , LargestCity = Huntsville , LargestCounty = Baldwin County , LargestMetro = Greater Birmingham , area_total_km2 = 135,7 ...

Missouri Missouri is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee): Iowa to the north, Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee to the east, Arkansas t ...

Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is bord ...

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the O ...

and

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and t ...

, or any state thereafter admitted to the Union would be paid 10% of the proceeds from the sale of such public land. The Preemption Act allowed individuals to claim federal land as their personal property. To preserve ownership, the claimant had to accomplish specific things to legitimize the claim. One way was to reside on the land. Another was to work consistently to improve the land for at least five years. It was not necessary that the claimant have title to the land; living there and working toward improving the stake were enough. However, if the land remained idle for six months, the government could step in and take the property. Sections 8 and 9 of the Preemption Act granted 500,000 acres of land to each included state and provided that the proceeds from the sales of such lands "shall be faithfully applied to objects of internal improvement ..namely, roads, railways, bridges, canals and improvement of water-courses, and draining of swamps."Leonard B. Dworsky, Division of Water Supply and Pollution Control, United States Public Health Service, ''The Nation and its Water Resources'', (1962).

Results

The Preemption Act of 1841 helped to establish the doctrine of

Manifest Destiny Manifest destiny was a cultural belief in the 19th-century United States that American settlers were destined to expand across North America. There were three basic tenets to the concept: * The special virtues of the American people and th ...

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and th ...

. The

Kansas Kansas () is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its Capital city, capital is Topeka, Kansas, Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita, Kansas, Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebras ...

and Nebraska Territories were largely settled by such claims. In 1891, the Preemption Act was

repeal A repeal (O.F. ''rapel'', modern ''rappel'', from ''rapeler'', ''rappeler'', revoke, ''re'' and ''appeler'', appeal) is the removal or reversal of a law. There are two basic types of repeal; a repeal with a re-enactment is used to replace the law ...

ed by Congress and replaced by the Land Revision Act.THE PREEMPTION ACT OF 1841, 27th Congress, Ch. 16, 5 Stat. 453 (1841), see end of article. Accessed from www.minnesotalegalhistoryproject.org website on September 12, 2011.]

References

External links

The Preemption Act of 1841, 27th Congress, Ch. 16, 5 Stat. 453 (1841)
Text of the law, accessed from www.minnesotalegalhistoryproject.org website on September 12, 2011. {{DEFAULTSORT:Preemption Act Of 1841 1841 in law United States federal public land legislation 27th United States Congress Settlement schemes