From Barbed Wire to Red Tape

Abstract

If the nineteenth century was an era of acquisition and privatization of the public domain, the twentieth century was one of massive public reservation. During the first half of the nineteenth century, the federal estate expanded rapidly as states ceded their claims west of the Appalachians and vast tracts were added through purchase or conquest.¹ With the Ordinance of 1785 and the Ordinance of 1787, the original colonies ceded their western lands to the federal government, and the Louisiana Purchase of 1803 enlarged the federal estate by well over 750 million acres—twice the area of Alaska. Because there was no support for leaving the land in the public domain, the government was faced with how to dispose of it. During its early stages, this movement pitted Alexander Hamilton, who favored selling the public lands to enhance the U.S. Treasury and pay off debts incurred during the Revolutionary War, against Thomas Jefferson, who wanted to promote an agrarian ethic by giving the land to those who were willing to settle and cultivate the western frontier. Neither side in the debate questioned the wisdom of privatization. As a result, the first privatization movement, from 1790 to 1920, put more than a billion acres of public land into private ownership.