“The earth is given as a common stock for man to labor and live on. …it is not too soon to provide by every possible means that as few as possible shall be without a little portion of land.”
Albert Gallatin, Treasury SecretaryAlbert Gallatin, President Jefferson’s Treasury Secretary, implemented programs to pay down the national debt and broaden the distribution of wealth through land ownership, selling the public lands of the Northwest and Louisiana Territories to individual citizens rather than speculators. Between 1800 and 1820, nearly 14 million acres of land were sold to private citizens, laying the basis for westward migration to establish family farms in America’s newly acquired territories.
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