The Statute Assumes That The Purposes Of A City Or Town Have
Preference Over Those Of Trade, And Still More Over Those Of
Agriculture.
Yet individuals may take for either of the latter
objects:
A fortiori they may take for a city or town.
Why should it be assumed that individual action in this respect is
prohibited for towns any more than for trade or agriculture? It does
not concern the Government whether two persons preempt one hundred and
sixty acres each for the purposes of agriculture, or for the purpose
of a town, except that the latter object will, incidentally, be more
beneficial to the Government. Nor is there any other consideration of
public policy to induce the Government to endeavor to discourage the
formation of towns. Why, then, object to individuals taking up a given
quantity of land in one case rather than in the other?
Finally, the act of 1844 definitively construes the act of 1841, and
proves that the "selection" for town sites there spoken of may be
either by public authority or by individuals: that the word is for
that reason designedly general, and without qualification, but must be
fixed by occupation. That act supposes public land to be "settled upon
and occupied as a town site," and "therefore" not subject to entry
under the existing preemption laws. This description identifies it
with the land "selected for the site of a city or town," in the
previous act. It limits the quantity so to be selected, that is,
settled or occupied, to three hundred and twenty acres, and otherwise
regulates the selection as hereinafter explained.
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