Abstract

The Public Domain

The article discusses the U.S. administrative law of public domain. The law had its beginnings with the cession to the U.S. by the original States of their unsettled Western lands after the American Revolutionary War. There was no federal land in Texas, for upon the entry of that State into the Union it was stipulated that public lands should remain in possession of the State. The first public-land law was passed in 1785. It provided for a survey of public properties and established a procedure for their sale. There has followed a long series of acts of the U.S. Congress for the disposal of federal lands, as changing conditions have called for new legislation. The history of the public domain is intimately related to the industrial history of the country.