For 2301, as we discuss the factors that lead to the initial expansion of participation to non-property owners as they spread westward, a reminder that much of their activity was illegal:
Everyone knows that America was settled by immigrants. But few realize how much of this settlement was done illegally. Shortly after winning independence, Congress enacted legislation that called for newly acquired western lands to be divided into large 640-acre plots and sold for a dollar an acre.
This scheme proved proved impractical. As economist Hernando de Soto has written, few settlers had either $640 or the legal expertise to navigate America’s cumbersome property laws. And so thousands of migrants simply ignored the law and settled illegally on vacant land.
Offended by their disrespect for the law and worried about lost revenue, the federal government responded harshly. The US Army began evicting illegal squatters and destroying their homes. In 1807, Congress increased the penalties for squatting and beefed up the federal government’s enforcement powers.
These crackdowns failed. As migrants continued to pour west, it became obvious that the federal and state governments lacked the resources to evict more than a fraction of the lawbreakers. Around the same time, states began to eliminate property qualifications for voting. Politicians who had viewed squatters merely as common criminals began to see an opportunity to curry favor with these new constituents.
