Ohio History Journal
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Book Reviews THE LAND OFFICE BUSINESS, THE SETTLEMENT AND ADMINISTRA- TION OF AMERICAN PUBLIC LANDS, 1789-1837. By Malcolm Rohr- bough. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1968. xiii??331p.; introduction, illustrations, bibliography, and index. $8.75.) Recognizing that any complete study of American land policy "would be a stag- gering task," Malcolm Rohrbough has wisely focused on a limited aspect of the topic. While interested in describing the evolution of the administrative machinery that Congress and officials of the General Land Office devised to dispose of the pub- lic domain, he is also concerned with the forces which influenced the development of that apparatus. Americans, he concludes, were fascinated by land, and few obstacles were capable of restraining their desire to own land. The interaction between men who wanted land--speculators, planters, yeoman farmers, squatters, and eastern businessmen--and the government admin- istrators who tried to control the distribu- tion of the public domain is the central theme of the book. Several topics discussed by Rohrbough should appeal to readers interested in Ohio history. The first attempts by the govern- ment to provide for an orderly disposition of public lands, for example, were dis- rupted by the purchases of the Ohio Com- |
pany of Associates, the Scioto Company, and John Cleves Symmes. In these pur- chases, the success of speculators in in- fluencing government policies and admin- istration established a precedent which af- fected all future sales of public lands. Rohrbough's analysis of the pressure ex- erted by large-scale speculators is informa- tive and complete. His description of the yeoman farmer as a speculator, however, seems inadequate. He contends that the small farmer was in fact a speculator but presents little convincing evidence to sup- port his case. Granted this is difficult to prove, but perhaps a more detailed discus- sion of increasing land value, particularly in settled areas such as Ohio, and the pro- pensity of small farmers to move frequent- ly would have helped to make his point. Not all Ohio residents were interested in the speculative aspects of the land busi- ness. Such men as Elijah Hayward, Edward Tiffin, and Thomas Worthington were actively involved in the administration of land laws either as surveyors or as the head of the General Land Office. Others, such as William Henry Harrison, were more active in influencing the legislation that dealt with the public domain. One disconcerting weakness of the book, perhaps, is its organization. Chapters deal- ing with the administration of land offices are chronologically arranged. Each at- tempts to analyze and describe develop- |