isa-normaladvance-1913-00250

Description:	250THE NORMAL ADVANCEthis act, that it was the most important pieceof land legislation since the congress of theconfederation laid down the principles of theAmerican land system in 1785. By it, creditAvas abolished, and the minimum price Avas reduced from $2.00 to $1.25 per acre. The minimum tract was reduced from 160 acres to 80acres, as had been done for certain sections ineach township in 1817.55RECUPERATION.The west could not expect to return to itsnormal condition at once. As David BroAvn,the neAv president of the bank at Vincennes,Avrote to the secretary of the treasury, April 5,1821, It must be a gradual Avork, and a steadyperseverance will accomplish it.50 The newland system helped in this, for it required thatprospectiAe land purchasers bring their moneyAvith them. The General Land Office helped,too, by arranging to deposit the surplus moneyfrom the sale of public lands in various stateand private banks throughout the west, so thatit might enlarge the amount of much neededsound money.57 The mania for selling toAvnlots subsided, and men gave up their dreams ofimmediate wealth, for more sober considerations.58 The Avest Avas beginning to recoverfrom its awful delirium.One hundred years ago Indiana Avas engagedin a five year period of frontier hostilities,Avhich lasted till the middle of 1814 on theeastern border, and till the end of 1815 on theWabash. During this period the continualmigration consolidated the territory in theolder regions, and the increased migration in1814 and 1815 enabled the territory to becomea state in 1816. As hostilities began to cease, aperiod of excessive speculation and recklessbanking began to affect the economic situation.These causes were stimulated in 1816 when Indiana became a state, and the middle Wabashbegan to fill up with settlers. The climax tothese operations came in the form of the financial depression of 1819. No neAv territory hadbeen secured for settlement from 1809 to 1818,but in the latter year about all the land as farnorth as the Wabash Avas secured from theIndians. For some years the people had beenlooking over the Indian boundary line withlonging eyes to the fertile lands beyond, andsome had already squatted on Indian territory.With this purchase of 1818, the boundary wastaken away, and the Avhites began to move to-Avard the interior. In 1820 Indianapolis waslocated,69 and five years later the legislaturefirst met at the new capital. A neAv common-Avealth wTas growing up where only a feAV yearsbefore there was nothing but Avilderness.Just at the beginning of the growth in theNorthwest, Philip Phreneau, in 1784, pennedthese stanzas, from his poem, Peopling theWestern Country. They Avere prophetic ofAvhat was to be.To Avestern Avoods and lonely plains,Palamon from the crowd departsWhere Natures wildest genius reigns,To tame the soil and plant the arts—What wonders there shall Freedom show,What mighty states successive groAV!9 6 ft $ What charming scenes attract the eyeOn wild Ohios savage stream !Q\| fc Sj» ,» }* »pFrom these fair plains, these rural seats,So long concealed, so lately known,The unsocial Indian far retreats,To make some other clime his own,Where other streams, less pleasing, flow,And darker forests round him groAV.KTreat. National Land System.mState Papers, Cong. 17, Sess. 1, Doc. 66, P. 54.•Ibid, Doc. 66.^Thwaites, Early Western Travels, IX, P. 217.MSee Tiptons Journal, on locating the capital, in Ind.Mag. of Hist., I, P. 9-15, and P. 74-79.*The sources used have been listed in the foot notes.No historian has yet written a first-rate history of Indiana since 1816.
Source:	http://indstate.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/isuarchive/id/34695
Collection:	Indiana State University Archives

Further information on this record can be found at its source.